One of my local walks

[Peter S]

A recent newspaper article described the over-population by tourists of many US national parks, apparently exacerbated by the Instagram/selfie craze - people queue up for hours just to take a picture of themselves with the view in the background, then clear off leaving a pile of coffee cups behind. I guess the current government shutdown isn’t helping

[Greenbare Woods]

Tourists are a plague in every country.

[BlueTrain]

There are tourists and then there are travelers. Many people depend on both.

[Georgew1959]

Tourists are a plague in every country.

Some tourists can be problematic of course, but I find intolerance to be a much bigger problem 

[Davie]

Many places are being spoilt by too many tourists, Venice perhaps being a good example. Many tourists are of course encouraged to visit by the locals who want and in many cases need the income and the jobs. Dunoon likes naturists during the Gathering. Tthe "buff pound" is always wrlcome

Whilst I don't really enjoy tourist hotspots zI have been  a tourist on many occasions and will continue to be one. It's enriching to see an experience other cultures. If I'm in a poor country I feel it good to contribute to the local economy. I bought a lovely hand embroidered table cloth in Madagascar after some expected haggling. We were both winners and the visit made me appreciate how fortunate we are in the first world, even with our problems.

Davie 

[BlueTrain]

It's all one world; there is no "first." Be that as it may be, one has to do a lot of travelling before one actually experiences another culture and sometimes not so much. There is also the question of whether or not a tourist even experiences another culture. Perhaps tourism is a culture in itself. We are blind to much that surrounds us in our everyday lives, probably intentionally. You can probably see something different if you just go over to the other side of town, or the other side of the tracks, as they used to say.

[Davie]

22 miles across the English Channel and you see a different culture! (or up the road to Scotland)

The  terms first second and third world countries are well known and third world relates to developing countries. I certainly agree we are "one world" I'm just back from Madagascar. What a difference! Different standard of living, different language and culture, different standard of freedoms. Still part of our "one world" a term I embrace. I've had friends in both India and Nigeria and welcome diversity but they are different.

Davie 

[BlueTrain]

Twenty-two miles where I live and you're still not on the other side of town. But I take your point.

Mostly, however, I think it might be a question of attitude and point of view. One of my favorite words to illustrate that point is "wilderness." In the United States, for instance, is there really any wilderness east of the Mississippi? Or in the U.K. anywhere? Do you suppose the Indians (native Americans/first nations) ever had a concept of wilderness? To the European settler, that's where they, the Indians, lived. Besides, Robert Service felt safer out there with the bobcat than in town.

[Davie]

Its a good point. I suppose "wilderness" depends on your perception and upbringing. The great western open spaces of the US certainly seem like wilderness to a me, who lives in a crowded little island. If I take a walk in some hills I do get an impression of wideness but you may think of it as being your back garden, despite some countryside being open and exposed to wind and wild Atlantic weather. I've read somewhere that more people die on UK mountains than ones in continental Europe, which is bigger of course but may not have the extremes of weather .. and culture.

I have a friend in Germany who loves the mountains but if the weather if dubious he won't go and many mountain paths are marked with painted symbols, not so in the UK with no way-marking in serious country. Bill Bryson sums up the British when he writes about people going out in foul weather, rain and heavy mist who trudge up some mountain, get to the top, eat their (soggy) sandwiches, trudge back down and say what a wonderful day out they've had.

I think you may be safer in the wilderness than in many crowded cities and time. But whatever your personal definition being out in my defined wilderness naked is a step closer to heaven. (but perhaps not on a rainy day with cold wind blowing)

Davie 

[BlueTrain]

The term 'wilderness' is used in the Bible but I've never been quite certain of what it suggested. In the French, it suggests a savage region. The German is almost the same as English, as are many words. Typical definitions are wild, uncultivated, uncivilized and so on. It is, in other words, the natural state of the land. Yet nowhere is it suggested that humans are not part of the natural environment. So for most of us, I think, 'wilderness' is merely unfamiliar territory more than anything.

Normal weather is rarely perfect outside of San Diego. We all like nice, warm weather in the summer but I am soaking wet with perspiration after mowing the lawn in the summer.  Yet I'll never wish it were cool instead. A cold day with a little snow on the ground and the mud all frozen solid makes for a good day for an outing this time of the year but I don't want it like that all the time. I couldn't be hiking nude if it were, could I?

This is for those who like the mountains:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iubxyM-mM8U

None of this stuff about wilderness is to say anything about the dangers. It goes without saying that there are dangers to be avoided when you're out and about but if you have a little common horse sense, you'll have no troubles. I'm not sure of how common horse sense is, though. Wild animal attacks are not unheard of but some people go the extra distance and fall off cliffs taking pictures. There is a whole industry devoted to all the gear you're supposed to need in the wilderness. But there are those who manage quite well, thank you, without a tactical spork and when conditions are right, even without our clothes--and lived to tell about it.

Your last paragraph reminded me of something we want more things to be:  heavenly.

[jbeegoode]

I prefer JMF photos.
Jbee

[nuduke]

Two things:
1) Blue Train's video Mountains song - couldn't contain my laughter at a pretty girl blowing on a giant horn. But that's just my sense of humour perhaps.  That was one of the twee-est things I've experienced in many a year!! 


2) I went for a local walk yesterday afternoon about 14.30, in the crisp winter air and unaccustomed sunshine of a rare bright winter's day here n the UK.  About 30' walk from home I espied a small patch of woodland from about 1/2 a mile off.  Aha!  Possible  FRN mini-paradise?  I made my way along a field footpath which my guess was is quite well walked by locals - I passed a lady walker once and one guy twice as we both walked a roughly rectangular route in opposite directions. 
On reaching the edge of the wood I was extremely irritated to find that it was surrounded by a huge field drain (a channel dug in the earth about 8-10 feet wide and 6-8 feet deep with a sludgy mess of water and mud at the bottom which drains the water from the surrounding landscape and conveys rainwater runoff from surrounding villages.  Dang!  No way over that.  But if I could find a way in that would probably be somewhere few of any people go. 
I walked the edge of the field drain for another few hundred yards and lo! there was an earth bridge across that would allow me to track back to the woodland and see if there was any crossing point.  Sadly not - the drain was wetter and deeper than before around the wood and the edge of the field approach was very wet, slippery and sludgy with mud making the going hard.  I was disappointed.
On my way back I found and crossed a little wooden bridge into the next field and just where a second field drain joined at right angles to the first and to my surprise I discovered a little bit of solid ground by which you could enter the wood.   My pleasure at finding this was quickly dented as the small entrance through trees was quite well trodden so others obviously used it.  There were also a few pieces of litter that were unlikely to have blown in spontaneously so probably kids find their way into the copse to play there.  However, I was alone and started in to find the centre of the trees.  No dice.  Optimism once again dented as I found the field drain divided the main body of the wood from the small area I was standing on.  But looking at the field drain, here it was less well maintained, shallower and somewhat narrower so that in the spring and summer it may dry up at the bottom and allow an intrepid secret, free-range naturist to clamber across.  Yesterday was not a clambering day, my walking boots were already caked with clots of the thick clay soil we have in these parts and the bottom of the also quite wide drain had water and mud  of indeterminate depth and despite the sun, which was just about setting, the frost was still on the sward and the temperature not far above freezing. 
But I now have hopes that when the weather improves maybe the drain will dry out and I will be able to get into this small but dense copse (it is only maybe 100-200yards on a side) and have a little FRN refuge to get naked in.  It certainly seemed like natural woodland, untended and natural, most probably due to the impenetrable barrier of the surrounding drains.
With the muddy, wet conditions and wearing warm clothing i.e. a fair bit of it, whilst I wanted to get naked for a while in the little patch it really wasn't practical.  However, in homage to naturist tendencies...I dropped my trousers and opened my shirt to expose some of my body to the chilly air for a minute or two.  I took the opportunity to 'mark the territory' and restored my state of dress to stride out of the wood and back onto the trail home.
I look forward to posting you guys my own local patch for FRN in the spring or summer if I can find a way over the drain barrier!
John

[BlueTrain]

It is very nice to have your own private and secret places to go, even though few are so private that nobody else knows about them. When I was in college, there were many such places not far from where I lived, all within an easy ten-mile drive more or less. Yet, as I have posted on another forum, I failed to take full advantage of them for outdoor nudity. One reason was that it was only practical when the weather was cooperating and another was that we only have so much time to do anything, opportunities notwithstanding.  Besides, at the time, I was driving a 4x4 and was usually devoting my spare time to what Americans call 'four-wheeling.' And no respectable four-wheeler would ever dream of hiking. But sometimes I did anyway. Most of those good places to go, although close by, were still not easy to get to and my 4x4 made all the difference. 

Time passed and I eventually graduated and left for the big city to find a job. No longer were good places for outdoor nudity close by and handy and, anyway, I found other things to do that filled up my spare time and exhausted my money supply. It was only years later, when those diversions were abandoned,  did I return to hiking (and when possible, nude). But the good places to go were nearly a hundred miles away, depending on which exact spot I might be going to. The places near the university were still there and in fact, I even made one trip back with my wife and did a little nude hiking and skinny-dipping. The places were just as difficult to  get to then as they were before. 

The places outside my backdoor tend to be wet and I invariable wade the creek, more so now since the beaver dam has backed up the water and covered the stepping stones where the path crosses the creek. Last year was exceptionally wet, too. There are lots of parks around here with paved path, all in low-lying areas, that are really good for long walks but of course, one can't be nude.

[jbeegoode]

Encouraging Nuduke! 600 feet on a side is a patch, but most adults tend to stay on the trails to walk and kids are at school a lot of the time. I suspect that you have a spot when the weather cooperates.
Jbee

[nuduke]

Yes, Jbee, I have to say I was encouraged!
John