The Canadian Rockies are some of the most beautiful mountains on Earth. The clever Canadians have set huge portions of these mountains aside as national parks. No place in North America can compete when it comes to combining hiking paths leading deep into isolated wilderness with stunning scenery offered as the reward for your labors.
But why get all tired and dirty hiking, why "labor," when all you want is the scenery as your pay-off? And want it now, price no object? This appears to be the question today's tourists now ask. A writer for the New York Times gushes over the joys of a new experience called "heli-hiking." I don't need to explain it to you. The name says it all. You helicopter into an area of great pristine solitude and beauty, spend a few easy hours sucking the marrow out of the experience, and then helicopter your way back to the warmth and luxury of your lodge for drinks, good eats and another night's sleep in a comfy bed.
Even though the actual hiking appears to have been minimal, and the writer soothed himself listening to an iPod while hiking, he still welcomed a massage upon return to "camp."
Massages were available every afternoon, usually after we’d had a drink and some hors d’oeuvres. I guess you could call that part of the day après hike. We would sit around the bar or the couches, pick out our bottle of wine for dinner, and sit and talk with our new hiking friends.
Voilá! Hiking for the rich and lazy! No smoky campfire. No heavy (or light) backpack. No sleeping bag. No cramped tent. It's life at the Ritz, with a little walking during the day to work up an appetite. If any real hikers struggle up the trail, burdened with packs, try to stand aside. They probably are all sweaty and undoubtedly smell bad.
I'm nauseated. I weep for our society. Why not just stay at a very expensive hotel, see the Rockies on a big screen TV in your room, and order up room service?
(The heli-hiking experience is a mere $4,500 for six nights, if you're still interested.)
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