There is a bumper sticker around here, "Ski The East," based on the long-common saying, and now an outdoor clothing company, I hear. There is a reverse snobbery to it, as even local skiers speak with wonder about how much space, and length, and just plain snow you can get by going out to Steamboat Springs or Aspen. The Eastern mountains are considered icy, unpredictable, and cramped by comparison. But such things lead to chips on the shoulders, and people here will talk about Okemo or Cannon or Sunday River as being "real skiing," while those in the Rockies are a sort of Disney Skiing Experience. Yeah, the weather and conditions are unpredictable here, which makes it harder. That's the point, dude.
Today I saw a sticker reading "Hunt the East," which I had never seen before. I'm not sure what the locals put forward as a superiority, but I'm betting that at least some of it is similar: cramped, icy, variable. I doubt that our moose are wilier or grouse better camouflaged. It reminds me that places have their own charm beloved by those who have to put up them, and these are not purely based on familiarity and defensiveness of attitude. In this case a divide between hunting the North and the South might be as dramatic as the longitudinal comparisons.
For those who have hunted variously, what else is different about hunting the East?
You mean, aside from Lyme disease, right?
ReplyDeleteYeah, I got Lyme as a secondary to my babesiosis this summer. Birdwatching and nature trails, though, not hunting. Good point.
ReplyDeleteA different culture, for one thing. My take is that hunting in the East is substantially more dangerous, simply due to population density, but that might be over-simplifying. Hunting in the East Texas national forests, for example, is probably similar given its proximity to the Houston metroplex. I don't hunt any more, but when I did, I stayed away from places where I thought it was reasonably likely that there might be other people within range, people that I wasn't aware of in terms of character and skill level. Instead, I went further west and south and hunted with people that I knew, on private ranches.
ReplyDeleteRelated note, when I was a kid in New England I gave up downhill skiing, not because I wasn't enjoying it, but because the dad-gum lift lines were too long. I took up snowshoeing and winter camping instead. You won't find that problem out west, in addition to the runs being longer, the snow better, and the scenery also better.
Well to begin with, the prized big game target, Two-horned Massachusetts Citizens, are much more plentiful here in the East!
ReplyDeleteI'm in Utah, and I really wish more people would start skiing the East. There are a few canyons I won't even attempt to visit on the weekends. I've been wanting to ski Vermont for some time now, so maybe those bumper stickers will have backfired when I show up out there.
ReplyDeleteI'm not a hunter, though, so can't say anything about East vs. West hunting. I am thinking of giving hunting a go this year, so maybe I'll want to hunt Vermont in a few years, too.