Martin Konkel - I like the wilderness

First off, in all honestly I'm not sure I am going about posting this right, but I need to start posting some of these blogs soon. So, please bear with me if this shows up in the wrong place or some other mishap.


I have always liked the wilderness. Unfortunately I've been born and raised in this awful city of Newport News. I hate the development, the congestion, all the people, etc. However, half of my family lives in West Virginia and I have always considered that to be a second home. We own a good lot of land up there too and I always look forward to getting up there when we can. Besides the fact that small town people and life are just more friendly and relaxing, there is certain quietness once you leave civilization. Our family land is off a one-lane dirt road and runs along the Greenbrier River. As a kid I always loved playing in the local swimming hole and hiking through the nearby woods. As I have grown up I have come to a new appreciation for that place. First off, being out in nowhere, you can pretty much do almost anything you want. Every time me and my friend would journey up there we would load up our firearms and take them out to our load. There we shoot for hours, and sometimes when my uncle is home we'll sit on his back porch and he'll bring out his collection of various antique firearms; some dating back to the 1800's. One that I will always remember was a replica civil war rifle that was over 5ft long and shot a solid lead shot of about .68 caliber or so. The round destroyed about everything we could hit with it, and the boom the rifle made echoed off the surrounding mountains like that of an old civil war cannon.

Even though I am stuck in this city for now, I still try to make the best of it. I have spent many hours on the Noland trail and it is perhaps my favorite spot to just sit down and study for an upcoming test. I also love taking my Jeep CJ7 into the "wilderness", be it a stretch of beach or some trail that runs through the woods. No real roads, just me and my machine taking me where I desire to go. I like to get out and away; I appreciate the wilderness, nature, and all that goes with it.



I am not a city slicker that prefers to sit inside wasting away all day. Yet, I am still finding our readings to be somewhat of a hassle, and honestly, downright pointless. I appreciate nature, I love the wilderness, but it doesn't talk back to me nor do I find it sacred, religious, or magical. It is trees, a running river, some rocks, and all of the little critters that lurk around. When I read Lanes book I think of him as some kind of kook. I can tell he is passionate, but there is being passionate then there is craziness. Someone who is passionate about the environment might volunteer to help clean up a local strip of beach. But then there are these idiots that run around with signs screaming how the evil Bush corporation machine is destroying the world and somehow all these smelly hippies waving signs in the air think they are going to solve the world's problems by doing this. That’s a kook, a crazy, a absolute idiot. I can relate to cleaning up a beach; I love the beach and hate litter. But the latter example, will, that just makes me want to slap some sense into someone.


Perhaps if what I was reading didn't seem to be taken to such a extreme I could understand it, relate, and maybe even find it enjoyable. However, since every paragraph Lane seems to try to prove his literary genius and fills it with gushing nonsense I.... well, I just don't like it nor get it.... sorry.