Just about all of the nation’s health bandwidth is now consumed by issues related to covid-19. One could understand the need to retreat into the backcountry to escape it all!
While there has been a lot of discussion regarding the appropriate safety procedures for exercise and sports during the pandemic, there is actually very little written about the backcountry. In particular, one of the most important protective measures, social distancing, can actually conflict with conventional teaching about wilderness ethics. I have discussed this conundrum in my current Adirondoc column.