The Mountains We Love: a different perspective!

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I definitely do not care for the idea of private planes buzzing a hundred feet overhead in wilderness of any sort. What relationship this might have to paragliders, mountain bikes, or jets flying past at 35,000 feet I do not know. And how my opinions about any of the above might qualify me as a "purist kook" or a "wilderness nazi" remains a mystery, but if I found myself in the position of advocating in favor of changes to wilderness designations or approved uses I'd probably not be using that sort of terminology.

The contents of this post worth precisely what you paid for them, but in any case no more than US$0.02.

Mark

...  Some wilderness Nazis might complain about this, but then again, these are the people who also complain about jet liner noise from an aircraft flying 25,000 feet above them too......

Let's see, someone who complains about an unmuffled internal combustion engine roaring through the wilderness specifically set aside to exclude motorized noises, at would be about 1/3 the height of an old-growth tree, or a slope considered to short to ski, why that person is a Nazi!

So what would you call the person who decides to buzz the wilderness?  Un, I know, a liberated free-soul libertarian libertine freedom-lovin' Amurrican!

Now, I confess to be mildly irritated by low-flying airplanes after I've hiked or skied a couple of hours to get away from that noise, just like I'm irritated by the Park Service helicopter operating in the wilderness, and the Park Service heavy equipment operating down at Paradise (OF COURSE I AM NOT IRRITATED by SNOW PLOW noise :-0 ), and  by higher flying jets that are audible, especially the military jets buzzing Mt. R.

Now some of my irritation stems from living in a narrow slice of rural America in the midst of 3 Wildernesses (MRNP, Tatoosh, Glacier) and being subject to ever increasing air traffic 24 hours a day, especially extremely loud military aircraft on their way to Yakima, flying low over the hills and circling and buzzing commercial sight-seeing airplanes and helicopters, constant gun fire 24 hours a day from my patriot neighbors, and the buzzing of snow machines in the ditches along Skate Creek Road, not to mention the dirt bikes in the summer time that the kids all poke holes in the mufflers thereof.  Makes the diesel PUs rumbling by seem musical.

Too bad we don't have some specially designated areas to which we can go to get some peace and quiet;  Why I even began white-water rafting taking week long trips to get away and found jet-boats and grass aircraft landing strips all grand-fathered in.

So I used to got Canada to get helicoptered in to backcountry lodges to get peace and quiet while I was skiing--that worked really well (the helicopter only coming and going on the arrival/departure day, once per week, except at one lodge where the next concessionaire over used old military helicopters loud enough to vibrate the ribs in your chest from 7 miles away.

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As I seem to recall from a past life as a pilot, unless in controlled or restricted airspace (neither of which applies to MRNP) any height above ground limitations was defined by a certain distance from any person or man made object (such as a building, bridge, etc.).

I seem to have touched a raw nerve judging by the reaction. I was not pointing any fingers ...are Nazis and kooks in my opinion and I will stand by that.

I find it ironic that a slight difference of opinion regarding aircraft use in a wilderness area, provokes the opinion that I am some red necked, uneducated, Sarah Palin loving, inbred Tea Partier. How liberal and progessive an attitude is that? The real irony here is that politically I am a Socialist on most issues. I do find however that in the PNW, many people tend to get Liberalism wrong and it looks more like Fascism all too often.

Sorry but the language seem more like Glenn Beck's than Bernie Sanders.  And conflating wilderness extremism with reasonable objections to low flying aircraft doesn't speak to tolerance and understanding but is more like Rush Limbaugh than Dennis Kucinich

Now, OT, personally I do not like how Wildernesses are being viewed by many wilderness advociates now.  I began my career working in the Bob Marshal Wilderness in 1967 (3 years after the Wilderness Act and the designation of the BMW) and it is my belief that Bob and others were trying to avoid the large commercial development of the National Parks, many of which were built to make railroads more profitable and were being set up with massive lodges, cabins, etc. and attracting lots of automobile traffic--Park Director Mather was a prime mover in the development of NPs and I think he did a good job.  Wildernesses were such that " no roads or structures were to be built, vehicles and other mechanical equipment were not to be used" but access by trails, horseback, and pack mules for camping, hunting, and fishing.  But with the development of the philosophy of Conservation Biology both Parks and Wildernesses are being promoted and pushed to be "biodiversity preserves" where humans must be separated from their natural environments to satisfy the general dissatisfaction with life and ennuis experienced by so many armchair urban "conservationists."  It is becoming difficult to even put footpaths into Wilderness and the armchair types in the agencies and the public sit back wishing for natural catastrophes so they can sit back and admire the "awesome power of nature" and feel justified in their personal passivity and professional inability to solve problems.

That is why on other threads in this forum, I promoted National Recreation Areas in which uses can be limited but the value of people being, at least for short periods of time, "one with nature" with all its spiritual benefits are preserved.

NOW, how's that for a rant!