Post date: Dec 19, 2014 7:30:41 PM
First, a big shout out to the men and women who have been fighting the fires we mentioned on our naughty list. Thank you. And please stay safe.
And also to those wonderful people who work in our national parks and forests, and make it possible for us to enjoy them. Thank you for listening to a thousand points of view and trying to come up with management plans that really do capture a sense what is fair and reasonable in our wonderful resources. We just wish there were more of you, so that you could support those regulations in the back country.
We’d also like to extend those thanks to the volunteers who work in the parks and national forests as well. And this includes some of the members of the SAR teams who go out and find the lost sheep of our community. They make more things possible. How cool is that?
Those who take someone backpacking for the first time. Yeah, it can be a bit of an adventure. But the rewards are truly worth it. This year we took a friend from Italy into the Emigrant Wilderness, and enjoyed every minute of her enthusiastic delight in every foot of the trail. We try to do this each year…and we should probably do more of it.
And you people right here: the many members of the backpacking community on the internet. What a wonderful resource for anyone who is interested in this activity! Trip reports, equipment reviews, suggestions for new techniques or tactics, or just plain sharing the joys (and frustrations?) of backpacking. Somehow, the backpacking and forums and message boards are always more reasonable than most internet forums—probably because we all know that there are more important things than getting in flame wars on the internet. Like getting into the woods.
And finally, Mother Nature, with a series of storms this November and December that look like they will put an end to the drought. Whatever we did to offend you, we’re sorry. Please keep those rains and snows coming!