5 Days Backpacking the Irish Wilderness

[OakAshandThorn]

This was a nice adventure near the Arkansas/Missouri border. I'd love to go back in the autumn with cooler weather :camping:
The article is a bit long to post here, so here's the link: https://newenglandbushcraft.wordpress.com/2016/07/06/5-days-backpacking-the-irish-wilderness/

[Silkhi]

Excellent post - thanks for sharing :)

[OakAshandThorn]

Thanks :D.

And here's an add-on; I found it yesterday at the ranger station, a letter from Aldo Leopold to Bob Marshall:

http://i1379.photobucket.com/albums/ah141/DuirOnnCrataegus/USFS-MTNF/USFSIrishAldoLeopoldLetter1_zpsds61jytk.jpg

It's a little hard to read due to the typewritten words, so here's the text -


'Dear Bob:
When I visited the "Irish Wilderness" of Missouri in 1929 there was nearly a county of woods substantially roadless. I have recently seen a map of recently constructed and projected state and federal highways in this area. The largest remaining fragment is 14,000 acres. This is officially labelled as a wilderness area and turkey refuge. I hear it is being fenced. I need hardly point out to you that aside from the Superior and the Porcupine - whose history I need not recount - this was the only large wild spot in the Upper Mississippi Basin. There must, of course, be pros and cons in this question which I am unfamiliar with, and cannot easily find out about. Except as a private citizen, it is also none of my business. On the surface, though, it looks like another case of chopping up a wild area and then labelling one of the chips as wilderness. I don't want to burden you, or Lyle Watts, with a report on the question I have raised. I don't even expect a letter. I would, however, like to make sure that somebody with a sympathetic view of all the conflicting interests has has given these plans a "once-over" to make sure that the road engineers have not been running wild. I have a special affection for this area, and to an old Service man it is disquieting to feel that conversation into a National Forest or Park always means the esthetic death of a piece of wild country.
Yours sincerely, Aldo Leopold'

[Pootle]

"Chopping up a wild area then labelling one of the chips as wilderness". Brilliant.