I joke that I "straddle the fence." I am a techno geek, (my job in heavly in the Virtual Server IT world) but I still can light a fire with two sticks and a bit of twine. I use technology, but I don't trust it.. Bateries die, chips fry and well if you don't have the skills, you die. (humm coinable frase there)

SAR is often used as the "easy out" Having done SAR in Alaska and had to go after my fair share of Goat hunters that scrambled down a clif or a ledge and not thought, "how do I get out of this" does get anoying.


IN ressponce to Am_Fear's posting, I would say that the old days of going out to the wilderness for a day hike with a ham sandwich went away as the average persons time in the woods on a regular basis went away.

When I was a kid we would go into the back 100 acers and have a snack play paint ball or whatever.. but we also spent tons of time in the woods, hiking, camping, getting lost,, finding road you never knew were there, and hiking home. More than once did I have what I called "discovery trips." Now-a-days people don't go into the woods, they look at them online, through there car windows, or in post cards (do people send them anymore?) But they don't go in, get there shoes dirty and walk around in the woods.

Some how the woods went from inviting fun place to be, to the dark scarry place.

Me personaly, I will stick with traveling both sides of the fence, learning and honing my outdoor skills, and still working the ways of the digital age. I carry GPS, analog watch and compass, with the knowledge to use all three.