Car troubles and lost cell signals. Both are modern signs of a severed connection from society and both are readily available in the Picayune Strand. For the average American, a flat tire or 3G service is typically accompanied by a brief, or extended moment of panic, but put them together and you have a recipe for a “first world” nightmare. The classic “bum bum bummmmmm” sounds off in our heads and the realization that we now must depend on our own brain and two feet for survival reluctantly settles in. Wild places offer this nightmare to us not to dissuade us from entering, but as a chance to know ourselves as individuals, apart from our gadgets and separate from society.

Tieback levee in the Picayune Strand

“People cannot live apart from nature… And yet, people cannot live in nature without changing it. But this is true of all creatures; they depend upon nature, and they change it. What we call nature is, in a sense, the sum of the changes made by all the various creatures and natural forces in their intricate actions and influences upon each other and upon their places…. The making of these differences is the making of the world.” — Wendell Berry

But what happens when our changes go too far?