Bushwacker? Is that what you are?

[miehoff]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bushwhacker

 

[DougPaul]

See also: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bushwhackers_(disambiguation)

Doug

 

[miehoff]

Nice. A very important "H" indeed!

 

[peakbagger]

A prior girlfriend insisted on the term "off trail" hiking. Bushwhacker to her had the connotation that we were planning to hack our way through the woods with brush tools like in the tropics.

I do hack and slash off trail hiking on occasion when chasing AT boundary lines but my normal approach is the leave nothing but footprints.

 

[iagreewithjamie]

A prior girlfriend insisted on the term "off trail" hiking. Bushwhacker to her had the connotation that we were planning to hack our way through the woods with brush tools like in the tropics.

I've encountered that twice when bringing new hikers out on a hike. When I explain that some of the hike involves bushwhacking, I always get "Awesome! I'll bring my machete". I think the show Survivorman has altered our society's perception of what really goes on in the backcountry.

 

[jniehof]

I think the show Survivorman has altered our society's perception of what really goes on in the backcountry.

I don't think I've ever seen Les whip out a machete. Sure you're not thinking of Bear Grylls?

 

[TCD]

I don't think it's TV that has given that impression. Not that long ago it was routine to hack a path when travelling in the "wilderness." LNT is a relatively recent approach. The vaunted Marshall brothers talk in their writings how glad they were that Herb Clark had his machete to hack a path from Algonquin to Iroquois on their ascent in the 1920s. So I think the non-hikers impression is simply "pre-LNT."

 

[JCarter]

See also: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bushwhackers_(disambiguation)

Doug

Thank the deities (all of them) that Wikipedia's disambiguation doesn't link to Urban Dictionary.

 

[Ed'n Lauky]

Here's a photo that I took recently while hiking the Benton Mackaye trail up on the Tennessee--North Carolina border. The site is located just off the Cherohala Skyway. The location was no doubt just off the original path over the mountain. The Kirkland Bushwhackers (http://www.tailofthedragon.com/cherohala_history_kirklandbushwackers.html) were former confederate soldiers who controlled that area of the mountain.

 

[Dave Bourque]

I recently saw a Survivorman episode that took place in the jungle where Les did use a machete. He even mentions how to keep it sharp.

Dave