INTO THE WILD ©
by Dave Cowper
How to tell the Tourist from the Druid in the forest.
The Druid:
When the Druid first enters the forest she stops for a few reverent moments to let her spirit’s energy expand into the forest. What will the spirits in the forest reveal to her today? She takes several gentle deep even breaths from the belly to quiet her mind. With a long loving look around she greets her many forest friends to fill her soul. Consciously she focuses on her hearing and softens her step. She believes to truly see Mother Nature you need to make less noise than she does.
Into the Wild
She loves and respects all things in the forest even the tourists. She has used the gear in her day pack to help others more times than it has been needed for herself. She doesn't mind carrying dehydrated emergency food, whistle, cell phone, lighter, GPS, LED head lamp, spare batteries, map, compass and a multitool as they all weigh less nowadays than just the flashlight she used to carry.
Her water bottle has several feet of duct tape wrapped around it for gear repairs and first aid. She knows in an emergency blisters on your heel can be covered in duct tape to lessen further friction and reduce pain.
Look Here If Overdue
She is wearing old well-loved hiking boots. She could draw you a map free hand of the area that is more detailed than the map in her pack. Like the bear she hears the tourists coming long before she sees them. Like the deer she remains still and sees the tourist long before they see her. Like the cougar she quietly decides whether or not to reveal her presence. Like the wolf she can track a tourist by the garbage they drop and the damage they do as they move through her forest. Like the wise old Eagle she knows north by the sun and the stars.
Ever Get the Feeling
You Are Being Watched
The Tourist:
She starts the hike fashionably dressed and in clean running shoes. She never truly knows when or where she started the hike and neither does anyone else. She hikes above the show line into an ice fog, then asks the druid “where is the lookout for pictures”. She wears enough scents, shampoos and deodorants to give a skunk a heart attack. She started her four hour hike four hours before sunset, but only three hours before darkness creeps under the canopy of the forest. She will use a cell phone as a light to try and walk out of the forest after dark, as she has no signal to make a rescue call.
Trippy, pokey, scary night thingy
- or a Western Red Cedar
She grabs a handful of poison ivy for toilet paper, karma for the last time she left toilet paper behind in the forest. She sounds more like a motor home is driving up the trail than just one talkative human. She thinks that an avalanche warning is something on a menu with ice cream and fudge. Even if she had brought a first-aid kit she wouldn’t know how to use it. She believes that the Silva Ranger is the love child of two Power Rangers.
The Silva Ranger
She doesn't know that a couple of the extra-large, orange, garden garbage bags could save her life. [*]
But the main way to tell the tourist from the druid in the woods is – I'll be with the druid.
Dave Cowper is an OMS/RDG Druid. He is aircraft maintenance engineeer and outdoorsman, worshiper of Mother Nature, perpetual student, and member of The Reformed Druids of Gaia.
Into the Wild copyright © 2009 by Dave Cowper, all rights reserved. Used with permission. Top of Page
Use orange garden bags as:
- A rain jacket – cut a slit for your head.
- Pants – remove shoes put one leg inside a bag wrap around to gather in excess put your shoes back on tie the top of each bag to your belt.
- A sleeping bag – both legs in one and head hole in the other.
- Shelter, wind break, water proof liner for lean to, ground sheet.
- First Aid Pressure dressing or splint – think triangular bandage.
- Distress signal.
Earthsongs: International Journal of the Society of Celtic Shamans copyright © 2009 by Elder Grove Press and content providers. All rights reserved. International copyright laws prohibit reproduction of or distribution of this page by any means whatsoever, electronic or otherwise, without first obtaining the written permissions of the copyright holders. We retain legal counsel to protect our copyrights.