The not-so-rugged outdoors
This past Saturday, two friends and I rode our bicycles from Macon to Athens. The draw was the Twilight Criterium, a nocturnal celebration of lurid lycra and crash-and-bash cycling. As one of my friends calls it, it's like NASCAR on two wheels.
On the way up, we stopped at a convenience store to pick up a few essentials. (Ahh, who am I kidding? We stopped there to get a couple of beers.) The store was an active way station for many people engaged in their weekend pastimes. Aside from cyclists, there were motorcyclists, football fans getting supplies for the NFL draft (that would be beer also), joyriders and one well-heeled fishing party. Out in the middle of the parking lot, there was a Hummer pulling a bass boat that looked like it was more suited to a drag race than a fishing excursion. It had a sleek, lethal look that doubtless made bass despair when its shadow appeared above. It also looked expensive as hell, and seeing as how it was being pulled by a Hummer, I was guessing there was at least one person at the convenience store who could afford about $100,000 of recreational gear. I then began to wonder whether this guy had so much money he could pay the fish to jump in the boat.
This was a far cry from the aluminum fishing boat my dad and I used to fish in. As outdoorsmen, have we strayed so far from an ideal that we can't find our way back? Have we become so addicted to creature comforts and conspicuous displays of wealth that we have become soft in our quest for prey?
Take some hunting cabins, for instance. Instead of just the bare essentials of water, stove and shelter, some have satellite TV, air conditioning and WiFi. The hunting ground is seeded with carrots and other food deer can't resist, and the tree stands are comfortably appointed. One almost expects a few deers to be chained to trees for the benefit of the more inept hunters. Not that I mind seeing any harm come to deer; they're nuisance animals and the fewer we have of them the better (screw you, Bambi!). But I think that something is lost when the playing field for hunting is tilted so firmly in the favor of humans. And seeing as how, more hunters are bringing the comforts of home into the forest, will it be long before some hunter from Atlanta -- home of some of the best adult entertainment clubs in the U.S. -- is getting a private dance in his deer stand?
Anyway, just wondering.
This past Saturday, two friends and I rode our bicycles from Macon to Athens. The draw was the Twilight Criterium, a nocturnal celebration of lurid lycra and crash-and-bash cycling. As one of my friends calls it, it's like NASCAR on two wheels.
On the way up, we stopped at a convenience store to pick up a few essentials. (Ahh, who am I kidding? We stopped there to get a couple of beers.) The store was an active way station for many people engaged in their weekend pastimes. Aside from cyclists, there were motorcyclists, football fans getting supplies for the NFL draft (that would be beer also), joyriders and one well-heeled fishing party. Out in the middle of the parking lot, there was a Hummer pulling a bass boat that looked like it was more suited to a drag race than a fishing excursion. It had a sleek, lethal look that doubtless made bass despair when its shadow appeared above. It also looked expensive as hell, and seeing as how it was being pulled by a Hummer, I was guessing there was at least one person at the convenience store who could afford about $100,000 of recreational gear. I then began to wonder whether this guy had so much money he could pay the fish to jump in the boat.
This was a far cry from the aluminum fishing boat my dad and I used to fish in. As outdoorsmen, have we strayed so far from an ideal that we can't find our way back? Have we become so addicted to creature comforts and conspicuous displays of wealth that we have become soft in our quest for prey?
Take some hunting cabins, for instance. Instead of just the bare essentials of water, stove and shelter, some have satellite TV, air conditioning and WiFi. The hunting ground is seeded with carrots and other food deer can't resist, and the tree stands are comfortably appointed. One almost expects a few deers to be chained to trees for the benefit of the more inept hunters. Not that I mind seeing any harm come to deer; they're nuisance animals and the fewer we have of them the better (screw you, Bambi!). But I think that something is lost when the playing field for hunting is tilted so firmly in the favor of humans. And seeing as how, more hunters are bringing the comforts of home into the forest, will it be long before some hunter from Atlanta -- home of some of the best adult entertainment clubs in the U.S. -- is getting a private dance in his deer stand?
Anyway, just wondering.
posted by John Parnell at 12:08 PM
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