insight pared

KNOWLEDGE SHARED

outdoor bold

To access Roland's weblog and column archives

 

 

Tip o' the Day

During all the years I guided hundreds of other folks to adventure amid some of the wildest lands in all the Northern Rockies, we drank freely of the water flowing from the slopes of those mountains. I still remember one gentleman, an orthodontist from the California Bay Area, who smiled politely at my offers of cocktails in the evening, orange juice in the morning, or a beer at high noon. We were on a week's flyfishing trip, drift fishing down a river that rises and flows through one of greatest Wilderness areas in America. Our guest declined coffee and tea, also, and I finally figured out that his religion forebade many of the liquids we offered. Instead, Kent drank the water, dipping cup after cup from the cold, clear river. And he laughed at my offers of anything else.

"Roland," he finally said, "we can't get water like this where I live. Why would anyone want to drink anything else?"

Later, Kent told me confidentially, "This water is no good."

"Huh?"

"It has no body to it -- a man can drink it and drink it and never get enough!" Then I saw he was smiling.

During those two decades guiding to adventure, of all those people, only three contacted giardiasis, the intestinal disorder causing chronic intermittent diarrhea. Oddly, one of those three was a doctor, and another a doctor's wife. In all cases, thrice daily doses of the drug Flagyl affected a cure.

We always dipped coffee water from the river, added grounds, then brought the water to a boil over an open campfire. I've since been told water must be boiled 20 minutes in order to purify it. Ours might have boiled 30 seconds.

There are other little squigglies occasionally found in drinking water. Historically, some have been far more dangerous than giardia. That's why the U.S. Government issued Halazone tablets to its military personnel. Two drops of iodine or chlorine is supposed to make a quart of water safe for usage.

So, of course, is the aforementioned boiling for twenty minutes. But boiled water, even when cooled overnight, tastes "flat." So here's the secret about how to put taste back into boiled water: pour it back and forth between containers to aerate it.

Here's another tip on making water usable: Once, Jane and I were backpacking with friends in the Canyonlands of Utah. There'd been a big rain and all the streams were too muddy to successfully filter. We learned, though, to boil the water in the evening to settle the mud. Then the following morning, if we were careful not to stir the bottom mud, we could filter clear water from the container's top.

No, Roland Cheek hasn't been in a gunfight at the O.K. Corral or punched dogies down the streets of Abilene. But he has straddled rawboned ponies over 35 thousand miles of the toughest trails in all the Northern Rockies and spent six decades wamdering the West's wild country. Now, after crafting six prior nonfiction books, hundreds of magazine articles, and thousands of newspaper columns and radio scripts about his adventures, the guy has at last turned his talent to Western novels, tales from the heart, dripping with realism, and based in part on a plethora of his own experiences.

Valediction For Revenge

SUFFERING FORESTS

There must be something spirit-breaking about presiding over a downward spiraling program; all the more so when one has dedicated a life to it. Studebaker wagons comes to mind, or the government of Azerbaijan.

Or the U.S. Forest Service.

There must have been a lot of dynamism in the outfit when the agency, with a mandate to protect America's forests from natural disasters (like wildfires) and un-natural disasters (such as robber barons) first began. That dynamism surely continued through the Civilian Conservation Corps, with the building of vast trail networks and the world's best fire suppression policy.

The outfit was still dynamic as it geared up to turn the country's forests into tree farms, too. Universities across the land cranked out trained foresters with college degrees by the gross. And every kid with any kind of leaning toward the outdoors trooped into the hallowed halls with a dream of following the career paths of Bob Marshall and Aldo Leopold--and they were trained how to denud broad forest swaths of public domain every bit as effectively as railroad barons, Harriman or Hill. Out on the ground, though, savvy woodsmen with axes and crosscut saws still maintained trails and roads and bridges. All the while, timber flowed and cattle grazed and miners mined.

Something went wrong; instead of making money, the outfit lost it. Instead of protecting the nation's forests, managers maintaining those forest were charged with its destruction. Water quality declined. Mountainsides slid into private homes and roadways fell into rivers. A backlash set in. Once proud foresters became the butt of criticism. Dissension within the agency festered. huge timber staffs were pared from a department in turmoil.

Lack of direction soon became apparent. Trails that would cost billions to construct in today's world deteriorated; half were abandoned. Who cares about trails anyway? Those few manageers still on the career path didn't get there because of a commitment to conserve, but as supply specialists trained to produce goods, not services.

Still, a few woodsmen-holdovers who understand trail maintenance are left. They're hamstrung, however, by declining budgets and lack of enough willing hands struggling to maintain what is left. And oddly, a few committed youngsters still trickle to the agency--young men and women declining career paths for a true commitment to outdoor lifestyles.

Those are the ones with whom I most sympathize today. They've never lost either zeal or focus. But God! are they underpaid and under-utilized. They're still a cadre, however. They lack money and staff, true. But most of all they lack commitment from above.

America will never again see a time when logging trucks roar down forst roads constructed for timber removal alone. America WILL see a time, though, when the public cherish their National Forests as a place to seek revitalization and recreation. When they do, it'll be a pity that they'll have to begin anew to reconstruct trails for access. Until then, our trail system will continue to decline. God forbid, but it's the truth!

Yes, the money to maintain forest trails is not there. But more importantly the commitment to do so isn't there from on high. Until the agency's career path changes to reflect a new order, both the public and the nation's forest will continue to suffer.

 

 

Roland Cheek wrote a syndicated outdoors column (Wild Trails and Tall Tales) for 21 years. The column was carried in 17 daily and weekly newspapers in two states. In addition, he scripted and broadcast a daily radio show (Trails to Outdoor Adventure) that aired on 75 stations from the Atlantic seaboard to the Pacific Ocean. He's also written upwards of 200 magazine articles and 12 fiction and nonfiction books. For more on Roland, visit:

www.rolandcheek.com

Comments

To see the books, read reviews, even read their first chapters

Click Here

 

Click Here

for detailed info about each of Roland's books

Read Reviews

Read their first chapters

to send this weblog to a friend

to tell Roland what you think of his Campfire Culture weblog

Click Here

1st in series

2nd in series

3rd in series

4th in series

5th in series

6th in series

Award-winning Western writer Richard Wheeler says of Roland's novels:

Like Louis L'Amour, Roland Cheek knows how to start a story at a gallop and hold the reader to the last page. He writes richly and authentically about the Old West, drawing from an encyclopedic knowledge of his subject