The concept of Wilderness can have different meanings to different people. What does "Wilderness" mean to you?
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The concept of Wilderness can have different meanings to different people. What does "Wilderness" mean to you?
My idea of wilderness is probably different because where I live to a lot of people is wilderness. Anywhere in the Appalachians is like home but you get me in the desert or North woods I am a lost ball in tall weeds. When I was a kid I went into the woods North of Caribou Maine on Grandpa's farm. I didn't get lost, just badly confused for a few hours. I wandered around and everything looked the same and swampy. Darn near lost all my blood to mosquitoes and black flies. When I lucked out I was only a few hundred feet in the woods, that's wilderness to me.
Many days it's the far reaches of my mind.
"Lost ball in tall weeds". I gotta start writing this stuff down.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Rick
lol. Yeah, I rolled when I read that.
Those Cootisms are priceless, Coot you come to WE's this year and I'm gonna follow you around with a pen and paper in my hands taking this stuff down.
If wilderness is defined as an environment where one feels out of place or experiences a sense of threat or animosity from the local/area beings then I'd have to say wilderness to me is large cities, business conferences, crowds of people. Wilderness in reference to the outdoors, though, the reason why we're mostly here, I feel that part of why I'm here is to discuss what a good time can be had and how survival doesn't always have to be particularly difficult.
Wilderness is the terrifying stuff we don't understand......... like Women......:)
Especially really hairy women named "Suzie".Quote:
Originally Posted by hopeak
I understand my wife perfectly...Can't live with her, and can't club her like a baby seal. :)Quote:
Originally Posted by hopeak
I'm TOTALLY kidding. You can't club baby seals. :D :eek:
Wilderness to me is a large ecosystem that is still healthy, unroaded and free from industrial activities, without crowds of people.
Wilderness to me is making jokes about women of any name. I don't want to go through the rest of life looking over my other shoulder, too.
My thinking is like when white missionaries first asked Indians why they let their children play freely in the "wilds" and weren't they afraid for them. The Indians responded that it wasn't "wilds" before the Europeans got there and there was nothing to be afraid of. I'm with the Indians on that one.:)Quote:
Originally Posted by wildWoman
Wilderness to me means I can go out on my deck buck naked in the middle of the day, and take a pee through the rails without anyone ever knowing.......
You REALLY didn't have to go there.:eek:Quote:
Originally Posted by BraggSurvivor
Well Bragg, except that we all know now. Having said that I agree with you totally.
TMI Bragg, TMI.:eek:Quote:
Originally Posted by BraggSurvivor
I was in Tampa once. At a new community development that had a lake. In the lake were four boys about 8 years old, swimming. Having a great time. I almost swallowed my tongue. "Oh my God. What are they doing?" I asked.
"Swimming you moron," (that last part is pretty common for people that know me).
"What about alligators?" I asked.
"The kids won't hurt 'em."
I was shocked. I couldn't believe it. About 30 minutes after they climbed out a seven foot gator went swimming by completely unperturbed.
That, my friend, is wilderness to me.
Was the same thing where I'm from in La. We never thought about it. We use to swim around them all the time and they would keep their distance. In all the dealings I had with gators, I only saw one person get hurt and that was when a 6 footer came out of the marsh into the church yard. Some kids were poking it with a stick and one got too close and the gator whacked him good with his tail making him fall and hit his head.Quote:
Originally Posted by Rick
I'm not saying a gator won't get you, but other than when a female is guarding a nest of eggs or you corner one, they usually leave you alone.
Now... get me around bears and I'll soil myself.
I may have told this before. If so, forgive me. It's old age. What? I said, it's old age. Oh.
We were at a golf resort north of Tampa. My little cabana had a porch facing a large pond. We were getting ready to go to dinner one evening and I stepped out on the porch for a moment. There was a good 7 or 8 foot alligator swimming directly toward me. He disappeared below the water about 30 feet out from shore. In just a few moments those eyeballs broke the surface right at the bank.
"Was that Sally that just ran by screaming and wringing her hands?"
"No. That was just Rick."
If I'm on the menu, I'm in the wilderness. Inside the city limits or out.
I used to do alot of windsurfing. A few years back we were sailing at a resevoir in one of the state parks. One guy would always trail a fishing line behind the board. I never saw him catch anything, but he swore that he had. It was a light wind day, so not too much sailing. My friend was out doing his fishing thing while the rest of us were grilling on the shore. Somebody said "Hey what's that following Hector?" Grabbed a pair of binoculars and took a look. Yep - being stalked by a gator. We yelled to him that lunch was ready (truer than he could imagine). He made his way to shore, we pointed out the gator (about 6-8 ft.) We didn't want him to panic and fall, figured burgers would do the trick.
For those that can't imagine, here's what a 14 footer really looks like:
http://images.google.com/imgres?imgu...icial%26sa%3DN
See.....see that????? We missed it in the multiple use thread. Yet but another use for 100 mph tape.
Is it legal to use "duck" tape on a gator?
Common practice is to use electrical tape to tape their mouth closed. All the power is in closing their jaws, not in opening.
That gator looks like a blind date I once had.
Was trying to find a better picture of this, but this is the best I could do for now. Back in the 80s I use to go back down where I'm from for trapping season for alligators. In 87 we caught one that was 12'11". I brought the head back and nailed it to a board and put it on my little shed. Look over my shoulder in this picture and you'll see him out of his element covered in snow.
http://i106.photobucket.com/albums/m...s/P1060109.jpg
You trap gators? I guess that begs the question.....Why? I don't like a sport where I only get to make 1 mistake. I want to be able to yell KINGS!!! as many times as I want. DO OVER will work just fine, too. I picture this gator looking through a menu.
"I'll have the chubby old guy without the jeans. Oh, and the small dog on the side."
I don't anymore, but growing up we trapped alligators, nutria, muskrat and otter (otters were far and few between). In the Cajun culture it wasn't exactly a sport. Regular trapping season (fur bearing animals), Dec. 1 - March 1, we could make a fair amount of money and my family's economic situation back then was, let's just say difficult. Then when I moved up here to Illinois I was trying to at least maintain some of my culture and would make it down for a week or less of alligator season. We were issued only so many tags and it usually didn't take but a couple days to limit out.Quote:
Originally Posted by Rick
To me its somewhere where there is little to no trace of human presence, such as powerlines and things
How do you "trap" a gator? Is it with a noose and stick contraption from a boat (like you see on TV)? Or some method of passive trapping, where you don't need to be present to catch the critter?Quote:
Originally Posted by Tahyo
We used snares. Tie a dead chicken (or other kind of bait) to the bottom of it, alligator grabs the dead chicken and the snare tightens around it's snout. The other end is staked. Then when you run your lines, you try to take your time and shoot it in it's tiny little brain. You didn't need to be present to trap them but you had to run your traps every day. I've seen people snare them off the low bridges along the highway going to Cameron. That was back in the days before they legalized it.Quote:
Originally Posted by Aurelius95
I did a search in hopes of finding something that showed the setup we used and found this. These are the marshes from where I'm from. McNeese University, who apparently did these clips, is the University in Lake Charles, La., which is the major town north of where I'm from.
These folks were using hand snares and I'm not sure they were "trapping" per say.
http://www.faculty.mcneese.edu/mmerchan/catches.html
Some more info, but still not showing how we did it. There's some fairly good information here the subject in general.
http://www.biggamehunt.net/sections/...-08110704.html
Thanks Tahyo! Interesting information. I've never been to LA and the only gators I've seen have been on golf courses in SC.
I was suprised to read how quickly the alligator bounced back from the endangered status.
Where does the concept "Wilderness" live? In our head, or on the "other" side of our eyes?
Quote:
Originally Posted by remy
Now ..... can one illusion be more Relative than another Illusion? Where does that I, that I call myself, exist in the relativeness. Am I the center, or am I the beginning, from which all "Other" illusions (or realities) manifest?
"We are the wilderness" both inside and outside. The wilderness comes from us. And also do We come from Wilderness.
agreed. wilderness = untouched by humans.Quote:
Originally Posted by owl_girl
I don't think so. I have been in the middle of some of the largest designated "Wilderness Areas" in Alaska, Montana, Idaho and South America and it is not surprising to find things left behind by humans. Almost daily while traveling through these places you can find signs of humans. Sometimes prehistoric stuff in the arctic tundra and jungles. Sometimes just old mining stuff from the 1800 and 1900's. But, still they are Wild *** places.Quote:
Originally Posted by remy
Wilderness to me is just a human-made label trying to define an area that we haven't completly subdued or altered. A human construct to define something that essentially just is. But, I guess that pretty much sums up everything.
Lots and lots of places, Remy. They may have been touched by people but not by humans. I've seen a lot of folks that there was nothing human about them. Oh, wait. That's humane. Sorry.
Well if you include under the oceans, we know more about the moon than our own oceans. So if you wanna take up scuba diving, that would be pretty untouched.
I'd say deep in the rain forest is your best bet for untouched. Or some nice cliffs or mountains in the north. A place no one (besides us) wants to be in mainly.