WHAT IS RECREATION'S NEXT STEP? 



BY ARTHUR H. CARHART 



AMERICA is recreation hungry. The appetite of 

 the public seems so whetted for outdoor play 

 that to satiate it has become a Herculean task. 

 Ten years ago going on a pack trip in the mountains was 

 a hardship braved only by bolder spirits, but the taste 

 for the outdoors has so developed among all peoples 

 that girls and women, clad in sensible khaki outfits, are 

 almost as generally present in the vacation camp of a 

 pack outfit as are men. Auto trips of a thousand miles 

 a decade past were material for feature stories in the 

 newspapers. Today Bill Smith packs his wife, children 

 three, tent, dog, skillet, fishing tackle and safety razor 

 in the family gasoline chariot and goes, not one, but 

 several thousand miles, visiting many cities, camps and 

 playgrounds on the way. And the present time is not 



the end of this chasing of the rainbow of recreation. 

 Unlike the spectrum colored bow with its never-found 

 pot of gold at the end the recreation lure leads one to true 

 treasure. Health, happiness, knowledge, appreciation of 

 God's outdoors, and a love of our own native land are 

 but a few of the rewards for the man or woman who goes 

 into the field of outdoor play to there be re-created. 



Each year the numbers thus getting from under roof 

 and outside of brick walls are greater. It is easily ex- 

 plained. Everyone who has once tried the life never quite 

 gets away from its appeal and as a missionary converts 

 others to try it just once. So every season sees the older 

 gypsies on the road with an added number of coaverts. 



Where is this leading us to? As a people, what will 

 be the result? There is little need of speculation. No 



THE MORE SPECTACULAR TIMBER-LINE LAKES OFTEN SERVE ADMIRABLY AS CLIMAX POINTS ON PACK TRIPS, AS WELL AS 

 OFFERING EXCELLENT OPPORTUNITIES FOR THE ANGLER. THIS IS A BEAUTIFUL SPOT ON SNOWMASS LAKE IN THE 

 HOLY CROSS NATIONAL FOREST IN COLORADO 



(93 



