Shake my fucking head...(SMFH)
One of my mobile "spies" has been observing a particular area of Colorado his entire lifetime. He is now 40 and has bore witness to the deterioration of a once pristine landscape that hardly had the appearance of mankind's cancerous footprint for most of his life and the lifetimes of his fore fathers.
No need to hide the identity of this place anymore, as humans have already taken a squat over it and unleashed 2 generations of maggots all over it. I am talking about the Taylor Park Reservoir area. Perhaps building the reservoir was the first mistake, but even decades of having one didn't ruin it right away. My spy had several conversations with locals and regular tourists to the area. Tracy Nairn, resident of Kansas and visitor to the Taylor area since 1969, had this to say about the direction this once primitive get-away was heading....
"When I was a young man in the 70's, there was only one paved road that went into the area from Gunnison and it was a single lane paved highway that was dilapidated as all hell. Any other roads coming into the area were difficult dirt roads, often only accessible by Jeep or Dirt Bike. Back then, there were hardly any people in the Taylor Park area. The few who came camped in tents with little impact on the land. The fishing used to be good. Back in the day, you could catch your limit without even trying within an hour or two. These days, because of the god damned over-fishing and Northern Pike taking over the place, you are lucky to catch a single fish in a week. It is all because of this god damned modernization of the park! Having a smooth, fully paved road from Gunnison is bad enough, but now you got that god-damned Cottonwood Pass all smoothed out and now they are paving the god damned thing! Every person with a fucking Mansion on Wheels has been coming here and paving this road will only make it worse. It used to be a place where you could get away from it all, now everything follows you here."
For a decade or so, the park has been hit pretty hard by the over-sized campers and motor-homes. It wasn't a real issue until the presence of these needlessly large, "homes on wheels" started to have an impact on the environment. The residents of Tincup, Colorado closed their famous "Ball Park" free camping area (outside of town) because a triple axle camper was backed into a narrow place which knocked over several trees. On the other side of town, two campers too big for the trail met each other on a corner, one of them fell over into the creek bed which caused a great inconvenience to the townspeople. They finally got tired of all of the motor homes cluttering up their land, destroying it, leaving behind garbage, and kicking up the dirt that they voted to not allow any camping outside of their city limits. The choices for free camping are becoming slimmer by the day. There are only two areas with free camping to my current knowledge when it used to be free to camp anywhere in the Taylor Park area. The average site these days is $14 a day? I guess the poor are going to have to find a new type of vacation to take from now on?
This is all because it is so much easier for your "average joe" to get into the area and camp for a week or two. People who have no idea what it truly means to camp, or "rough it" now flock in droves bringing all modern conveniences with them. I often wonder why these people even bother? They go out into the woods with their TV's and DVD players along for the ride. Instead of taking a hike and becoming "in tune" with Nature, they climb inside of their private little world, sip first class beer and cheer for the Broncos, or whatever steroid fueled team tickles their brain. They drive into town and eat Taco Bell instead of attempt to cook a meal on a campfire. They bring their fancy $24k toys, mostly Razors, so they can enjoy the path of least resistance when off-roading, which ultimately defeats the purpose of off-roading. It isn't fun if it is too easy. From the looks of these machines, your grandma could be Eevil Kneivel tomorrow. Want to see the fat, fast-food fed all-American Jamboree? Go to the woods where it is supposed to be natural and peaceful. You will be in for a shock.
Another reason I support the Venus Project. It is stupid for us to be so wasteful as to think we are all entitled to own a home on wheels and a bunch of toys to pull behind it, all of which burn fossil fuels, by the way. This is not a sustainable practice. In a monetary system, mobile living should either be your lifestyle, or something you rent once a year to "get away from it all." Trust me, there is no more "getting away from it all" anymore. Those days are long gone and won't be back until we all give up our ego. First step? Go into the woods with very little or nothing and try to survive. Meditate often. Come to the realization that you are nothing, just like the rest of us. When you realize that you are nothing, you will be willing to give up your materialistic "identity".
Much love to you all.
Lucy Sage Dreamtree
"We Got this Shit!"!
Image courtesy of Brandon Truster. Use the link below to donate to our cause.
https://mosphit37.wixsite.com/brandontrusterart/about
An article about mobile living soon to come!