Quote:
Originally Posted by widgeon13
I live in the Adirondack Park of upstate NY, have flown over the park as a private pilot for many years. It's 6 million acres, mostly wooded and I was always very aware of my landing options when over most of the terrain. It's very rugged and most unforgiving. If you go down in some areas, you may as well be in Alaska. I have been on search and rescue missions in the woods looking for hunters and hikers and in some places you can't see a person 3 feet away from you. I know that's hard to believe but it's the truth.
People come up here from NJ and NYC thinking "it's walk in the park", dead wrong and it costs them their lives and most times they are within a few miles of civilization but they get disoriented and go in circles or get hurt and can't walk or just sit down and give up, which in some cases might be the best thing to do.
It's unforgiving terrain, easy to get lost if unprepared and happens all too frequently. Throw in a few cold spring or fall nights w/o cover and black flys in May and you might wish you were dead.
There are a good number of stories up here where people disappear and are never found and there isn't any Bigfoot up here. It's not a "walk in the park"!
|
I always marvel at how tough the pioneers were. At some point some trapper or hunter went walking deep into those very woods. Of course many had hostile Indians not fond of an illegal alien hunting and trapping their game animals.
I think of the early surveyors that left out of camp with all the supplies they needed and with the surveying equipment, and drug a rod and chain every 33 feet. They were gone for weeks and months at a time.