BWCA Tourist or Explorer? Boundary Waters Listening Point - General Discussion
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04/15/2020 10:42AM  
I’m off work today and homeschooling my 3rd grader. Two of his vocabulary words were tourist and explorer. As an extra assignment I asked him what the difference was between the two, which lead to a pretty interesting philosophical discussion.

My question is when we are on a canoe trip, which are we? Thoughts?
 
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04/15/2020 10:53AM  
Great question to ponder, Wables! Seems like a first trip anywhere, you feel like an explorer. Returning to the same spot (no map) you are more tourist. Lots of range between the two. If you over-research while trip planning so there are no surprises you move the dial from explorer to tourist some, IMO.
 
04/15/2020 11:01AM  
The research part and established campsites were my wife’s points. I think bushwhacking into an unnamed lake or a PMA trip bring it back to explorer.
 
04/15/2020 11:20AM  
Well what is a third graders perspective?
 
andym
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04/15/2020 11:23AM  
I disagree that returning to a spot turns you into a tourist. I feel it is exploring in the fourth dimension: time.

I also don’t feel like either in the BW. I feel like I’m home.
 
inspector13
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04/15/2020 11:32AM  

Perhaps the same difference as between a day tripping base camper and one who moves every day then?

 
04/15/2020 12:13PM  
I'm with Wables. I think in the bwca you are a tourist. Explorer would be someone who bushwhacks into a lake... I don't think a PMA counts. True bushwhacking only.
 
04/15/2020 12:21PM  
in the bwca definitely a tourist. i once paddled down spring creek, just west of angleworm, with no idea if it was navigable, ended up spending a night sleeping in a marsh. that was kind of exploring. did a trip in wabakimi in 1976. used the queens 1;250000 scale maps that were fine but no portage info, a section of that 24 day trip involved petawanga creek. we had no idea if it would be passable. the only people we saw that trip were a first nations family that came into our camp on the albany river. the adults didn't speak english, the kids did. they were familiar with the river but only used it in the winter for their trap line. that was exploring.
 
04/15/2020 04:24PM  
Mocha: "Well what is a third graders perspective?"

A little bit of both, but mostly explorer.
 
04/15/2020 05:53PM  
After 40 some trips over 45 years I don't feel like I am a tourist anymore. Guess it depends on the definitions. i spend money in the local economies so in that respect I am a tourist perhaps, but I see that as a good thing. Once in the BWCA I kind of resent the tourist badge, I think i have earned my time there to be an explorer.
 
04/15/2020 06:01PM  
lindylair: "After 40 some trips over 45 years I don't feel like I am a tourist anymore. Guess it depends on the definitions. i spend money in the local economies so in that respect I am a tourist perhaps, but I see that as a good thing. Once in the BWCA I kind of resent the tourist badge, I think i have earned my time there to be an explorer. "


I feel ya there. I have gone a few times a year since I have been born. Kind of feels like home.
 
04/15/2020 06:14PM  
A Tourist is someone who goes to a place that's already been explored
 
OCDave
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04/15/2020 07:06PM  
Wables: " I’m off work today and homeschooling my 3rd grader. Two of his vocabulary words were tourist and explorer. As an extra assignment I asked him what the difference was between the two, which lead to a pretty interesting philosophical discussion.

My question is when we are on a canoe trip, which are we? Thoughts?"



It depends solely on the mindset of the traveler. If he approached the trip with the mindset of an explorer, that trip will be an exploration. Exploration implies that one will be actively seeking their adventure. Exploration implies a level uncertainty; looking for the unknown.

A tourist, expects their adventure to passively arrive. The tourist approaches the trip with a fairly solid idea of what to expect. Tourism is comforting and reliable.

You can paddle the same lake for the 10th time in 10 years and still be an explorer. You can paddle waters you've never previously seen and just be a tourist.
 
saltdog
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04/16/2020 07:02AM  
So . . . Lewis and Clark were tourists because the area had already been explored by Native Americans
 
04/16/2020 07:05AM  
saltdog: "So . . . Lewis and Clark were tourists because the area had already been explored by Native Americans"


good one! And Sacagawea was their tour guide.
 
04/16/2020 10:47AM  
I feel like there is room in the middle for us. A tourist is going to skim across the surface just to have "been there and done that". An explorer is going to venture into the unknown. I don't think that most of us are doing either. I feel more like a traveler, possibly even a vacationer. I want to experience the boundary waters and know it more than what a map can tell you. I want to learn from the experience and have a little adventure.

The first time we go, I'd say we are tourists, but after that we trying to fully appreciate what the boundary waters has to offer. Would you call yourself a tourist when you go to your cabin? Not an explorer though either. So if you usually return to the same spot I would call you a vacationer, and if you typically go somewhere new I'd say you are a traveler.
 
04/17/2020 06:49PM  
In the Bwca a tourist is someone who is just there to recreate. An explorer is one who is seeking places even gone before for new beauty, checking out places rarely visited. It’s in my opinion an adventure vs just a trip. Even a fisherman is seeking where they are biting and that lost fishing hole or lake. Tourists are mostly those who go into the first lake they can reach with a campsite an squat. To me, most who go are explorers, seeking solitude and that magical trip. It’s kind of why I was going to Woodland Caribou... to me when you could go places few people went it was magical. I was like a kid again out there. Seeing wildlife and very beautiful landscapes. Paddling up little rivers and creeks to lakes rarely fished. Kind of like Miss Molly and her adventures, out of the ordinary stuff in places few people think of going. Martin, Hobbydog and others are paddling the places I couldn’t get to. I can no longer paddle like I did. Very great fuel for the adventures I got to take before my body shut down. Go! Get out there, be that explorer that checks out every nook and cranny of places as far away as you can go. Dream big! Don’t hold back. My only regret is not taking more pictures.
 
04/17/2020 09:25PM  
This is not one verses the other. Personal perception and experiences will place me on the between list.
 
KarlBAndersen1
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04/18/2020 05:57AM  
Blatz: "A Tourist is someone who goes to a place that's already been explored"


But if it's your first time there you are exploring.
ex·plor·er
/ik?splôr?r/
noun
a person who explores an unfamiliar area; an adventurer.
 
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