The Providence Journal did a good nature deficit piece yesterday, A few new barriers were thrown into the mix, this time regarding backcountry travel and the lack of bathrooms.
At the summer camp at the W. Alton Jones Campus in West Greenwich, the adventure backpacking trips into northern New England have been curtailed for lack of interest. "It's hard work and they don't want to go to the bathroom in the woods," says camp manager John Jacques. "A lot of these kids have their own bathrooms at home."
I worked in the Northern Presidentials throughout the eightees, and dealt with many camp groups. These trips are what got many kids interested in backpacking, including myself. I still remember our White Mountain trip in 1973 (Franconia Ridge), as a participant in the Simsbury HS Survival Course, and the fact that black flies go in about 8 o'clock. Outhouses, or worse, were standard then. Now kids don't want to crap in the woods. We got big challenges don't we?
