Wilderness Voice
I few weeks ago we visited my brother-in-law and his partner. We always enjoy these visits and as they live near the Peak District and are keen hikers we inevitably hike some area of the Peak. This visit was no exception and they suggested Kinder Scout. The half dozen or so of regular readers will recall I wrote an essay on wilderness and perception of wilderness between the UK and the USA. Part of that essay recalled the history of access to private land in the UK and Kinder Scout figures prominently in that history. Naturally I was excited to actually go there.
We started the walk in Hayfield and walked a route alongside the Kinder reservoir, up to the ridge top, along the ridge and descended after reaching Kinder Scout. My brother-in-law has a passion for language and explained that scout is believed to derive from 'Kyndwr Scut' Anglo Saxon for water over the edge. There is a waterfall on the walk which it is supposed is where the name is derived from. It was a perfect day for a strenuous walk.
Being such a nice day there were a lot of people on the same trails. Families and groups of friends and I was reminded how different hiking is here compared to where I grew up in Arizona and the American Southwest. I would sum it up as one's ‘wilderness voice’. I was raised to think of the wilderness as something to minimize ones impact on. Both in terms of any impact on the land itself or the environment and others you might be sharing it with.
This occurred to me as we rested before the final uphill section to the ridge-top. There was a family of four 100 yards or so away and I could hear every word of their conversation. They weren't angry or yelling just having a normal conversation but still it was very loud. It made me more aware of them than the environment and the people I was with. I always try to modulate my voice so I could speak to those around me but not to make it propagate any further. My brother-in-law’s voice too was louder and I understood this to be perhaps an aspect of the culture of the outdoors here in the UK. Indeed walking here seems to serve a strong social function whereas I see the social aspect to be a component of the experience but being outdoors in nature was the primary experience for me and my family. Long periods of silence during exertion or as contemplation.
I am not trying to be judgmental or sound superior but reflecting instead on a difference of experience or purpose. At some level of course I think my approach is more correct being part of my upbringing. I also see how it is rooted in an American concept of wilderness which is a romantic view of a wild land untouched by humans. This is a long tradition in the US and contrasts markedly with a UK or European view where wildness coexists with people and the varied overlapping patterns of land use. I explored some of this in the previous essay on wilderness I link to at the beginning of this essay.
How extreme can these ideas of wilderness be that I was raised on? The gold standard was to not meet anyone for a day or more in the wild. Where I lived in Northern Arizona in the 1970s and 1980s this was entirely possible. The San Francisco Peaks, Chevelon Canyon, West Clear Creek are but some examples. Anything less was a disappointment. While living in Tucson I took some friends on a backpacking trip in Galiuro Canyon. I expected to see nobody else as this was an obscure remote wilderness area. I was surprised how depressed I felt when we encountered a couple backpacking out on the same trail. That made me understand the problem I had, my expectations were such that it could ruin my enjoyment. This I worked on correcting.
Yet it remains a disappointment at times how difficult it can be to get a measure of isolation in the wild. Many people are more comfortable in a group, perhaps by reason of nature (a sense of safety?) or just being social animals. One time my son and I were staying in a campground at Mount Rainier. Now being a National Park campground one only expects a certain amount of the wilderness experience if any. We were in luck though as we were the first to camp there. As we were setting up, a car came into the campground and they chose the camping spot right next to ours. Perhaps 30 other places scattered about the place were empty and yet they chose one adjacent to us. Aggravating certainly but also gave me pause to consider human nature and my upbringing. My parents would always choose the more isolated camping spot if there was an option. After all we were in this place like this to get away from it all and presumably so wa everyone else. This idea of impact and voice in the wilderness was as much about enhancing other's experience as much as ones own and respecting their presence.
Recently I was at a dinner and made a new acquaintance who, while living in South Wales, grew up further north near Manchester. He is a keen walker (as they say in the UK) and had hiked (as Americans would say) all around Wales, the Peak District, and Scotland. I had the chance to explain my theory of wilderness voice with him and the experience of wilderness from his perspective. He confirmed to a large extent his experience (and his wife confirmed this) as similar to my supposition. Indeed, he said he got tremendous enjoyment out of meeting people on the trail and having discussions about where they came from both in terms of the day and the area of the country or world they came from. This seemed to be an important aspect of being out-of-doors for him.
The four of us (my wife included) discussed the differing views of wilderness and national parks. That in America wilderness had long been associated with the romantic ideal of the untrammelled land and that historically it had even gone so far (from a European/Western viewpoint) to suppose a land where even Native Americans were not present. Some state pre-human. In the UK however national parks are full of economic activity mostly farming and tourism. By and large economic activity is severely restricted in national parks in America. Wilderness Areas are designated roadless tracts, National Forest and BLM land is s=designated as multiple use. The vast amount of land left vacant after the (shameful and tragic) removal of Native Americans was part of what has created this legacy.
Having lived in the UK for almost 14 years I am accustomed to this difference and accept it for what it is. The arrangement that people have made for themselves. There are great numbers of enthusiastic outdoors people here of all ages and it is heartening to see people enjoying the out-of-doors which I consider so essential. Never-the-less I still yearn for my kind of American Wildeness experience.
We started the walk in Hayfield and walked a route alongside the Kinder reservoir, up to the ridge top, along the ridge and descended after reaching Kinder Scout. My brother-in-law has a passion for language and explained that scout is believed to derive from 'Kyndwr Scut' Anglo Saxon for water over the edge. There is a waterfall on the walk which it is supposed is where the name is derived from. It was a perfect day for a strenuous walk.
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| View from the ridge on the way to Kinder Scout |
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| View back to Kinder Reservoir |
Being such a nice day there were a lot of people on the same trails. Families and groups of friends and I was reminded how different hiking is here compared to where I grew up in Arizona and the American Southwest. I would sum it up as one's ‘wilderness voice’. I was raised to think of the wilderness as something to minimize ones impact on. Both in terms of any impact on the land itself or the environment and others you might be sharing it with.
This occurred to me as we rested before the final uphill section to the ridge-top. There was a family of four 100 yards or so away and I could hear every word of their conversation. They weren't angry or yelling just having a normal conversation but still it was very loud. It made me more aware of them than the environment and the people I was with. I always try to modulate my voice so I could speak to those around me but not to make it propagate any further. My brother-in-law’s voice too was louder and I understood this to be perhaps an aspect of the culture of the outdoors here in the UK. Indeed walking here seems to serve a strong social function whereas I see the social aspect to be a component of the experience but being outdoors in nature was the primary experience for me and my family. Long periods of silence during exertion or as contemplation.
I am not trying to be judgmental or sound superior but reflecting instead on a difference of experience or purpose. At some level of course I think my approach is more correct being part of my upbringing. I also see how it is rooted in an American concept of wilderness which is a romantic view of a wild land untouched by humans. This is a long tradition in the US and contrasts markedly with a UK or European view where wildness coexists with people and the varied overlapping patterns of land use. I explored some of this in the previous essay on wilderness I link to at the beginning of this essay.
How extreme can these ideas of wilderness be that I was raised on? The gold standard was to not meet anyone for a day or more in the wild. Where I lived in Northern Arizona in the 1970s and 1980s this was entirely possible. The San Francisco Peaks, Chevelon Canyon, West Clear Creek are but some examples. Anything less was a disappointment. While living in Tucson I took some friends on a backpacking trip in Galiuro Canyon. I expected to see nobody else as this was an obscure remote wilderness area. I was surprised how depressed I felt when we encountered a couple backpacking out on the same trail. That made me understand the problem I had, my expectations were such that it could ruin my enjoyment. This I worked on correcting.
Yet it remains a disappointment at times how difficult it can be to get a measure of isolation in the wild. Many people are more comfortable in a group, perhaps by reason of nature (a sense of safety?) or just being social animals. One time my son and I were staying in a campground at Mount Rainier. Now being a National Park campground one only expects a certain amount of the wilderness experience if any. We were in luck though as we were the first to camp there. As we were setting up, a car came into the campground and they chose the camping spot right next to ours. Perhaps 30 other places scattered about the place were empty and yet they chose one adjacent to us. Aggravating certainly but also gave me pause to consider human nature and my upbringing. My parents would always choose the more isolated camping spot if there was an option. After all we were in this place like this to get away from it all and presumably so wa everyone else. This idea of impact and voice in the wilderness was as much about enhancing other's experience as much as ones own and respecting their presence.
Recently I was at a dinner and made a new acquaintance who, while living in South Wales, grew up further north near Manchester. He is a keen walker (as they say in the UK) and had hiked (as Americans would say) all around Wales, the Peak District, and Scotland. I had the chance to explain my theory of wilderness voice with him and the experience of wilderness from his perspective. He confirmed to a large extent his experience (and his wife confirmed this) as similar to my supposition. Indeed, he said he got tremendous enjoyment out of meeting people on the trail and having discussions about where they came from both in terms of the day and the area of the country or world they came from. This seemed to be an important aspect of being out-of-doors for him.
The four of us (my wife included) discussed the differing views of wilderness and national parks. That in America wilderness had long been associated with the romantic ideal of the untrammelled land and that historically it had even gone so far (from a European/Western viewpoint) to suppose a land where even Native Americans were not present. Some state pre-human. In the UK however national parks are full of economic activity mostly farming and tourism. By and large economic activity is severely restricted in national parks in America. Wilderness Areas are designated roadless tracts, National Forest and BLM land is s=designated as multiple use. The vast amount of land left vacant after the (shameful and tragic) removal of Native Americans was part of what has created this legacy.
Having lived in the UK for almost 14 years I am accustomed to this difference and accept it for what it is. The arrangement that people have made for themselves. There are great numbers of enthusiastic outdoors people here of all ages and it is heartening to see people enjoying the out-of-doors which I consider so essential. Never-the-less I still yearn for my kind of American Wildeness experience.
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