Traveling to the middle of nowhere

[impartialobserver]

I think that some on here should take a day or two and be in the middle of nowhere and then see how petty all these grievances you whine about are. Spent the weekend in Vya, NV... Few places in the lower 48 are as remote as this. 215 miles of very empty alkaline desert from Reno and 216 to Medford, OR. Any other places in the US or Canada that folks go to that are very remote? 10 miles from a major city is not the middle of nowhere.

[herbie]

"Big City" here is 80,000 ppl. 100 miles away/ If you drive East from there you'll go for hours seeing only trees and the odd property. No towns, no businesses, not even a gas station.
If you go west you'll see a small town every hour or so til youhit the ocean.
North or South, you're going hunting, fishing or your job is in the bush.

Your Sirius/XM satellite radio will cut out from trees, mountains and valleys more often than your cassette deck ever did driving down a dirt road.

[Greg]

Here are a few from my old stomping grounds:

Onefour - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Onefour,_Alberta

My father run Onefour substation for years, its remote as one can get in SE AB.

Special Areas - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special_Area_No._2

As a child l lived reasonably close to Special Areas, and outside of northern Alberta you're not going to find a place more empty. I've actually driven between Onefour and the northern part of Special Areas multiple times, and it's basically lonely gravel and crown lease land for as far as the eye can see.

Gargantuan and Cleft caves in the Crowsnest Range - Google Map

We used to hike up, camp and then go spelunking in the various caves in the region.  It's about a 8 hour hike in, and it's moderately hard, so there isn't many people up there and it's definitely isolate.  Don't get hurt up there, it'd be expensive to extract you! 

 

 

 

[impartialobserver]

There is value to traveling and spending time in very remote settings. Without the constant stimulus of lights, sounds, traffic, other people, etc... one really is able to focus. Also, it illuminates just how dependent one is on technology living in the modern city. So many aspects of your existence are tied into internet connections and such. 

[herbie]

There's a lot of value. My friends and I would pack Thursday night so we could head out camping as soon as work ended on Friday. You didn't have to go far to escape Vancouver in those days. Still don't need to go too far now.

[impartialobserver]

What is both sad and comical is how conditioned folks are to having conveniences and amenities available. Their version of roughing it.. is to find a campsite a few miles from Lake Tahoe. No matter what goes wrong or unplanned.. get in your car and you are back in civilization in 10 minutes and have your supplies/items in 20. Supposed tough guys crumble when you take them to the remote and isolated. Cell service goes to nothing, there is no gas station coming up, and they start looking around. You can see the uneasiness.. Not going to lie and say I was not that way at first. Turn onto that empty dirt road and I would think, "hope that we have a full tank of gas". Now, it is just a matter of planning and being healthy. 

[exPS]

On 10/17/2023 at 7:22 PM, impartialobserver said:

Any other places in the US or Canada that folks go to that are very remote? 10 miles from a major city is not the middle of nowhere.

Not as remote as driving through parts of Asia, but I have done the complete Trans Labrador highway when it was all gravel on my motorcycle. That also included the road from Blanc Sablon to Red Bay to Cartwright with the overnighter ferry to Happy Valley-Goose Bay. Gas stations and towns were 285 kms apart with plain old solitude between them.

[Michael Hardner]

Just now, exPS said:

 I have done the complete Trans Labrador highway when it was all gravel on my motorcycle. 

Ambiguous modifier.  The Trans Labrador highway was never all gravel on your motorcycle.

[exPS]

Just now, Michael Hardner said:

Ambiguous modifier.  The Trans Labrador highway was never all gravel on your motorcycle.

I guess you have not driven it when I drove it over two decades ago.

There is 1 km of pavement on each side of Churchill Fall and of course Labrador City.

I heard it is all paved now for the poseurs.

 

[Michael Hardner]

1 hour ago, exPS said:

I guess you have not driven it when I drove it over two decades ago.

You lack the whimsy of language arts.  The misplaced modifier means that the road is physically on your motorcycle.  Never mind.

[impartialobserver]

6 hours ago, exPS said:

Not as remote as driving through parts of Asia, but I have done the complete Trans Labrador highway when it was all gravel on my motorcycle. That also included the road from Blanc Sablon to Red Bay to Cartwright with the overnighter ferry to Happy Valley-Goose Bay. Gas stations and towns were 285 kms apart with plain old solitude between them.

I am quite jealous. Have been to Canada twice; Cranbrook and Victoria BC. One of my daydreams is to experience Labrador, Eastern Quebec, and Newfoundland much like you did. 

[herbie]

Three experienced hikers are lost not far from Vancouver in GArabaldi park. For over a week, with everyone searching for them.
You only need to walk out of your favourite night club or restaurant and walk over the top of the nearest North Shore mountain and you're in the middle of nowhere.

Fly over north or central BC at night and you'll see the odd light of a mining or lumber camp here and there in the darkness.

[herbie]

So a hunter near Summerland got attacked by a bear so he shot it. When he went to check it, it got up and attacked him again. He wasn't hurt bad, the bear was located later, dead.
Better odds of being stabbed in the city or shot by gang bangers riding in the back of Mom's car.....

(fingers crossed) no bears in the yard so far this year. MOF planning to fix the spots they broke the fenceposts over the last few summers.