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ackpacking
threaten wi
By Joe Hudson
The overabundance of
"drugstore backpackers" may
mean closing entire sections of
American wilderness, according
to a University of
Nebraska-Lincoln backpacking
instructor.
"Drugstore backpackers,"
said Doug McCallum, "are
those who backpack just
because everyone else is doing
it. They leave trash, tear up thu
trail markers, f nd ars just plain
careless."
"They've ruined it for a low
of people," he said, noting that
permit; ace now required for
backpackers in ths Grand
Canyon and in certain parts of
Colorado's Rocky Mountain
National Forest.
McCallum, 27, organized
UN-L's backpacking course and
just finished teaching its first
semester. True to the nationa!
trend, 120 registered for the
class designed for 20 students.
Two more sections were added,
making room for 40 more
students.
Teach them to enjoy it"
His teaching goal is not to
fuel the rising popularity of
backpacking, but to "teach
those people who go out to go
out with the skill vo enjoy it
and not ruin it for others," he
Si-id.
"All the easily accessible
trails are now overcrowded.
Where you used to g seven
miles, you have to go 30 miles
to get away," he said.
Sometimes even 30 mile?
isn't enough A group of his
once hiked that far into the
Wind Rivpr Range in central
Wyoming only to stumble
upon two cases of empty
whisky bottlej.
"It took us two days to dig
a big enough hole to bury them
in and covet it up again" so
that it looked natural again, he
said.
Prohibit wood burning
Most areas, McCallum said,
now prohibit the gathering and
burning of wood simply
because there isn't any left.
"People have burned up all
the wood and started cutting
Member f.d.i.c.
Keep your checking
limbs off trees. And o course
there's the danger of forest
fires." Portable camp stoves
have replaced most wood fires.
McCallum said he doesn't
"like to have to go through the
hassle of all the regulations,
but it's probably the only
way to keep from totally
ruining cur wilderness areas."
"It may come to the po'nt
where they may totally restrict
some areas and let them
recuperate from man."
The trouble with waiting
lists and other regulations, he
said, h that they often fail to
discriminate between the
careful and careless campers.
"But there's got to be some
kind of control," he said.
Enough wilderness
"I think there is enough
wilderness for everyone if
people would pack in and pack
out everything," he said.
"There are still areas you can
go where there's hardly a soul,
and that makes it all worth
while."
Even if he has to walk a few
more miles than in past years
to "get away," the
brown -haired mustachioed
McCallum still looks forward
to at least one major
backpacking trip each summer.
He got his first taste of
backpacking in 1963, his
sophomore year ip high school,
when "the local druggist took
another kid and me to the
Rockies."
"I've gone every summer"
"I've gone every summer
since then," he said, including
trips in Wyoming, Washington,
Colorado, South Dakota,
Arizona, and Nebraska.
"The Rockies are probably
my favorite, but Wyoming is
fun, too. And it's not as
populated as the Rockies."
Nebraska plains hardest
Despite the steep slopes in
Colorado and the Grand
Canyon in Arizona, McCallum
said "the hardest walking I've
ever done" was across
Nebraska's plains two years ago
along the Oregon Trail route.
"We had to cross four to six
fences between each mile road
(
summer witn a minimum
Nebraska Union
14th and R
Lincoln.
legions
and the alfalfa was over knee
high," he said. "And it was
hot-about 98 degrees. uoyoies
howled all night, and we didn't
get much sleep."
His ' dog suffered a heat
stroke . early in the trip,
shattering their "visions of
making it to the middle of
Nebraska, around Minden or
Holdrege." He called it quits
after three days and thirty
miles.
"I doubt if I'd ever go again,
but it did give me a perspective
of what the pioneers had to
face. Just you and the prairie
and the wide open sky."
Backpacking offers solitude
The solitude barfkpacking
offers is one of its major assets,
McCallum said.
"You're not competing with
another team or individual for
honors. It's all within
yourself."
McCallum said the pressures
and demanding timetables of
coaching three sports in
Valentine, Neb., drove him to
Lincoln in 1972. He received
his masters degree in physical
education in 1973, and the
same year submitted an outline
for a backpacking course to the
department chairman.
Class offered in spring
After "two years of red
tape," the class was finally
offered in the spring of this
year.
Despite the large demand
for the class and the burden of
teaching all three sections (he
is the only one" qualified to
teach the course), he finds the
atmosphere more to his liking
than his days as high school
coach.
"You don't have to be the
world's best at it," he said.
"Everyone gets cold at night
and everyone huffs and puffs
up the hills."
"It's not a thing you pursue
just on a Saturday night as in
football, but for a whole
lifetime. That's what I'd like to
pass on to people.
Unless the "drugstore
backpackers" get in his way,
McCallum counts on hiking the
trails for years to come.
THTE
CAMPUS
JisAMK
Widely acclaimed fmale pianist Ctaudetta Sore! will give a free
performance at Kimball Recital Hall, Thursday, Jura 12 at 8 p.m.
i
Sore! piano recital
featured in series
A performance by Claudette
Sorel, "one of the most famous
female pian:sts on the planet"
will climax a series of piano
recitals on the UN-L campus
this week, according, to
Thomas Fritz.
Fritz, professor of piano at
the UN-L School of Music
organized the series of recitals
to a ccompany the
Comprehensive Workshop in
the Teaching of Piano. The
workshop begins today and
will end on Friday, June 13.
Sorel will present an all
Rachmaninoff program cn
Thursday evening. Fritz said
that such a program has not
probably been played in this
area for a decade.
"Rachmaninoff treats the
piano better than most other
composers because he was a
great pianist himself. The
music is very 'large'," Fritz
said, noting the distinctive
Romantically lush style of the
composer.
Sorel was a child prodigy
who is now the only woman to
hold the position of
Distinguished Univerrity
Professor in the . State
University of New York
acct. open
Open 8:30-6
Monday thru Friday.
Saturday 8:30-noon
Z
v '
System (SUNY). Fritz said that
Sorel is a clinician in great
demand between her frequent
recording sessions and heavy
concert schedule.
The first recital in the series,
to be presented tonight, will
feature a program of American
piano music from colonial
times to the present day.
Jack Winerock, professor of
Piano at the University of
Kansas, another clinican in the
workshop, will be the piano
soloist.
On Tuesday evening Fritz
and Cary Lewis, a professor of
music at Nebraska Wesleyan,
will present e duet concert on
two keyboards. The program
will include a Brahrns piece and
several Schubert dances.
Pieces which are often
assigned by piano teachers for
their students will be presented
in the Wednesday recital by
David Kraehenbuehl, presently
a composer for the National
Keyboard Arts Associates. He
will also play some of his own
compositions.
"Those pieces should be a
treat for thn teachers whose
ears have been unkindly
(Continued on pg 11)
bal.
another plus from Gateway Bank
P2S3 6
summer nebraskan