From a Modern Day Backpacker

 

All you who gather, please lend me your ear.

I must pay homage to the pioneer

When I consider that he was here

Before this was marked for conservation.

Before we all hiked for recreation,

They came here for a new vocation,

Not a well-planned out vacation.

They charted their course by stars at nights,

Not global positioning satellites.

They had no polypropylene tights,

No Gortex rain gear or battery charged lights,

No lightweight nylon tents or clothes.

They had no Thinsulite, so they froze

If it snowed; they got frostbit toes.

Reflective Space Blankets? Not one of those.

Without high tech gear, we might think them fools

To face the wilderness without Sieber tools,

But they were brave and smart enough to use mules. 

© 1998 Connie S. Tettenborn