One of the paradoxes of urban America is that millions of people speak reverently about wilderness but are much less eager to venture into it and risk real bites from actual mosquitoes.
I’ve been musing about this while backpacking with family on the Pacific Northwest Trail, sometimes known as “America’s wildest trail,” on the Canada-U.S. border in Washington State.
It’s stunning, mountainous country, right at timberline in the Pasayten Wilderness — yet we have it pretty much to ourselves (along with the bears, lynxes and mountain goats).
Yet there’s something still spectacularly right about the United States: our wild spaces.
Some 40 percent of America is public land — a credit to our forebears — and we haven’t screwed that up yet (although climate-change-related fires endanger it).
Persons:
I’ve
Organizations:
Canada
Locations:
America, U.S, Washington State, timberline, United States