In April of 2023, I got to return to Caney Creek Wilderness in Arkansas for my third backpacking trip up there. Such a good time there! I got to thinking about wilderness around the campfire and how it leads to such unique experiences. Take a listen to my experience. If you want to find one in your neighborhood check this link here: https://wilderness.net/
For more about this one: https://www.fs.usda.gov/recarea/ouachita/recarea/?recid=10792
As always thanks for listening! Check my links out here to all my other content on the interwebs! See ya out there on the trail!
Hello and welcome to The Natural Medic Adventures. This is Craig speaking and I am coming to you from the Caney Creek Wilderness in Arkansas. It's my third time to come up here. I was going to go to Eagle Rock Loop this week. I had swapped with a person at work. I'm working in EMS again if you didn't know that. Swap with a person at work so I could have some extra days off because I'm usually on 24, I'm off 48. I'm out here at Caney Creek Wilderness doing an overnight backpacking trip. And today is Saturday the 15th. You can probably hear the wind whistling through the trees. It's a lovely night out here. I've just been thinking today about wilderness. And I think I've maybe talked about wilderness before on a podcast. But I was just thinking about, when people think about wilderness, they're probably thinking about someplace out west. But a lot of the central and eastern states Congress came back. Original legislation was done. In 1964 for the Wilderness Act, and what that did is it set aside lots of undisturbed areas or, semi undisturbed areas, usually very large tracks out in the western U. S., so everything west of the Great Plains, where there's large national forests, you have the Rocky Mountains, which impeded a lot of development, so a lot of those tracks were there because They could not be accessed. And that's why a lot of national parks exist, because there was nothing else that could be done with those lands. They're pretty much starting from the east coast of North America. Settlement moved west. You had the English colonies, going back, in the 1600s. The Spanish colonies in the 1500s. And settlement, just gradually moved from the east coast to the west coast. And as they were going, there were, there were people that were involved in the timber industry. Nothing wrong with that. My degree, my bachelor's degree is in forestry. In the recreation side, but I'm still in forestry, so I understand, the concept and the need for resources. Most of these people came from Europe. They didn't have the resources like we did. And, they looked at the North America. As a land of plenty. But I think, and not too late, I think, better late than never, 1964 was when they decided to, take some of these areas that were not touched, or were, moderately touched, and made them into wilderness areas. And wilderness areas, exist for two main reasons. One of those is to preserve that natural environment that they occur in. Like right now, this area, which came along later after the 1964 legislation, it came along in the Eastern Wilderness Act, which I believe came out in 1975. Which is the year of my birth, so that's why I remember that. But, the wilderness Areas throughout the U. S. What, no matter what they what legislation they fall under, whatever size they are, they're designed to preserve that unique environment and to also offer, primitive types of recreation. So I come out here backpacking and. There's no way I could see what I've seen today by any other means. You can't get out here by. An ATV a motor, a like a car or a truck, a railroad, nothing, nothing like that. You can only get out here by foot and, carrying your supplies on your back. And you get to see, the beautiful Katy Falls here at Caney Creek. It's not a huge waterfall, but it's a beautiful little waterfall. That's on Katy Creek down towards the junction of the Buckeye Trail and the Caney Creek Trail. Camped out just a little bit to the west of that. Most of the other areas. It was a popular spot for this weekend. There's a lot of people out here. There are people from SMU in the Dallas area that were part of the Outdoor Recreation Program. There was several other people parked at the East Caney Creek Trailhead and a couple people up at the top, including the SMU people I just mentioned. And, they're out here for the same thing. They're out here to get that primitive wilderness feel. It's... I'm not knocking state parks. I worked for state parks for a while. And there's nothing wrong with state parks. But state parks, the experience, is not the same as I have experienced today. I didn't see very many people. I had to, get to the area by carrying stuff on my back. Including my food and my water. And, that's pretty, that's a pretty amazing way to travel. In my opinion. And so I was just thinking about that and how maybe more people could experience that. I'm going to put links to this area in the show notes so you'll see those. And so you can research that for yourself and I'll put some, links to the legislation that led to the wilderness areas being established. They're not only in National Forests, they're of course in National Parks, they're in the Bureau of Land Management Fish and Wildlife Service also has some wilderness areas. All those other areas are pretty special because like I said, they're preserving that old type of environment. So the, the most pristine untouched by man type environment that we can, muster at the time. And they only allow primative forms of recreation. So no motorized vehicles, no mechanized use of the wilderness at all, which is pretty, pretty amazing because every other place that you go to. Oh, that's an owl. Every other place that you go to, I don't know if you heard that on the podcast, but I just heard an owl call out, right by the campfire here. Pretty cool. Every other place that you go to, is... Overloved. So you go to a regular Campground in a state park or even a national park or even the forest service like recreation area you're going to Be around a lot of other people which is fine But at the same time if you want a different type of experience, which is what I seek Then you'll get out here in the wilderness and there's probably one near you I'll put a link in the show notes as well about how to look up different wilderness areas Regardless, I believe there's a page that's maintained by the University of Montana called wilderness. net, I believe. And they have a listing of wilderness in every state, and it tells us what, what jurisdiction it is, what the characteristics of it are, and where it's located and things like that. Pretty cool. But anyway, I just wanted to share those thoughts with you while I was out here, enjoying the primitive experience, back to work on Monday. But I think all of us need that outdoor experience and maybe we need something, maybe a little bit different, something different than being in a, in a state park, something different than being in a, developed area, if that's something you're into, I'll definitely put some resources for you to check that out. But until next time, I just wanted to share my thoughts that I was thinking while I'm sitting in front of the campfire here. And anyway, I hope you're having a good day or evening or whatever, wherever you are. Thanks for listening as always. I'll see you out on the trail.