The Fourth Idiot You’ll Meet in the Backwoods This Spring
Just about a year ago, as it became clearer that the initial “two weeks to flatten the curve” COVID-19 lockdown was going to transform into “indefinite lockdown until there’s a vaccine,” we ran an article about the three idiots you Popular Outdoorsmen readers were going to encounter in the wilderness. I stand by those words, but it’s pretty obvious that I missed a fourth category of idiot. I’ve encountered hundreds over the last year, and I’ve no doubt that you have, too. This spring may be your last opportunity to see one “in the wild”…I hope.
It’s only natural and to be expected that 300 million Americans got sick and tired of their own four walls and went out for some safe, socially-distant exercise in the wilderness. It’s also only natural that after all the dire warnings about COVID-19, that many of those Americans were very frightened that this outdoor recreation might not be as safe as they hoped. This led to something rather unnatural and very strange: hikers in the wilderness wearing masks. Why?
At first, it seemed that the outdoor mask-wearing was simply an overabundance of caution–the reaction of a populace that didn’t have much solid information on the virus and how contagious it really is. There’s also the simple question of habit: If I’m conditioning myself to wear the mask every time I go out in public, then I may forget to remove my mask even when I don’t really need to wear it. (Like those people who like to drive around in their cars, by themselves, wearing their masks.)
However, there’s clearly a lot more to it than that. A few days ago, I went hiking on a very popular national trail near my home. It was a beautiful day, so naturally there were a lot of people out enjoying the weather. Many of them were obviously newly vaccinated “Category 1A” people–it’s been a long time since I’ve seen so many gray heads out on the trail, and it was so wonderful to see them. They all had masks hanging around their necks, but otherwise the most vulnerable part of our population–the people who really could die if they contracted the ‘Rona–seemed very happy indeed to show the world their faces again.
The youngsters, on the other hand? They weren’t wearing HAZMAT suits, but it was pretty clear that was only because they couldn’t find one. I saw VOG masks, rebreather masks, multiple masks worn on top of each other…and not one of the people wearing them was over the age of 25. There were college students walking around with Silkwood showers on their heads; kids barely out of puberty kitted up like medieval plague doctors. Why?
As an outdoor writer, I barely even qualify as a writer, let alone an investigative journalist. That said, I did ask a few of them why they were still wearing their masks when they were not just outside, but in the wilderness. The answer was, universally, a huffy “Because I CARE!”
Well, sure, of course they do. However, that response would seem to indicate that wearing the mask is every bit as much about signaling their virtue as it is about safeguarding their health. It would seem to indicate that the importance of the mask is symbolic, not pragmatic. Finally, it would seem to indicate that they believe that anyone who doesn’t mask up while outside doesn’t care.
Naturally, if you refuse to mask up while you’re in the backwoods (as I do), you know that the mask is meaningless in that situation. All you’re doing while masked up in the wilderness is giving yourself extra opportunities to sample the richness of your own morning breath. It has nothing to do with whether or not you care about the human tragedy of COVID-19.
Whether the outdoor mask-wearers are motivated by fear or virtue signaling, the ostensible reason for wearing the masks is about to expire. Over the next few weeks, we’ll find out whether the Fourth Idiot of the Backwoods is a permanent addition to the pantheon of idiots, or a temporary phenomenon. Whatever we learn, I hope to see your faces out in the wilderness this spring…all of them.
In America we lose over 2.8 million people a year to Natural Causes. Those being Heat Disease, Cancer, Influenza and Pneumonia. At the appearance of Covid-19 those numbers dropped to almost nothing and covid-19 reached 600k. If covid-19 was a pandemic we would have both our 2.8 million plus the 600k. That is not the case, all together we have less deaths than the national average. This means no one has died that wasn’t going to die anyway.
Also, covid-19 is a mutated form of Sars. Which appeared over a decade ago in China. Under community rule they were and still are required to wear a mask. If masks worked it would never have been able to mutate into covid-19. Nor would it have been able to spread to any other areas.
Wearing masks is the illusion of safety for those that cannot face their own mortality. We are all going to die eventually. Accept that and start living.
Communist rule not community. Damn auto correct.
You are a fucking moron if you believe the shit you just spewed. Prior to Covid-19, masks weren’t required in China, so where in the hell did you regurgitate that crap from? Mask most certainly do help slow the spread and does prevent people from spreading most airborne viruses. Just ask any of the 10’s of thousands of physician, here in the USA.
And by the way, I had several friends die from Covid-19 that had NO pre-existing conditions (no heart disease, no diabetes, not over-weight). So in closing, I hope someone you care for crocks from the virus, you fucking piece of shit!
Of course they CARE. They care so much that they would shame/coerce everyone (including babies under two) to mask all the time, everywhere for their own good (because the rest of us are so stupid and uncaring). They are also the ones who would require us to have “vaccine passports” because they CARE about the spread of a disease that is only a danger to older, less healthy people. If you encounter her, tell Karen where to go.
The same people who “care” are the same type who “care” about the environment by driving hybrid cars that cause more harm in the manufacturing process than the usage of regular vehicles.
Here’s one reason for wearing a mask………….Maybe it helps the ugly people increase their chances of hooking up with someone………………….
Unlikely, given the distance and remote nature of the site. Regardless, spending 90 minutes each way in an enclosed car to get to that lookout certainly didn’t do them any favors, if they were sooo afraid of the “coof.”
Great article. It points out the hapless among humans.. Eventually they may catch on, but I wouldn’t hold my breath waiting for it to happen any time soon.
That the world’s supposedly most powerful country handled the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic, in a manner that is much worse than was done in countries that it calls shiteholes, says a lot. Which is the real shitehole country now? Will the world’s most shitehole country please stand. up.
A lot of the shithole countries were already using HCQ for malaria so naturally they have a much lower infection rate. Furthermore the folks in those countries that weren’t taking HCQ and caught the covid would in some cases be able to find medical attention and would receive the HCQ then and they’d recover within 24 hrs thus the lower death rates in those countries
A lot of people were scammed by this flu some still believe the lie. Was in a store and a guy removed his mask and released a huge sneeze into the air and wiped his snot with his hand then wiped it on his pants then put mask back on!!!
Masks. The best reason to wear one is it sounds good. The best reason ‘not’ to wear one…is they don’t work.
For you virtual signalers, so nice you care! And if someone is concerned about safety and wearing a mask, then it should protect you from my aerosols if I’m not wearing a mask, right? If you truly believe that masks work, then what’s the need for virtual signaling, right? You don’t have to tell me that you “care”, right? So go ahead and wear your mask if it gives you security.
The CDC says the biggest killer of Americans every year is Heart Disease which kills 600,000 a year. HD is caused by obesity and /or smoking. A mask would prevent either of those.
Only in the same way that it would stop you from eating.
Still waiting to see the peer reviewed double blind studies proving that the normal mask worn by normal people actually stops the Wuhan Flu. By the way, in case you haven’t noticed Biden does exactly what the CDC says not to do when wearing a mask. He is constantly touching it.
Biden touches a lot of things he shouldn’t.
So True and So Sad.
Oh, those studies are out there if you search for them! They are even on the CDC website. They universally state that the masks don’t work to prevent the transmission of viruses such as COVID! Look it up, you’ll see it’s true. People are ONLY wearing the masks because our government told them to and they’re afraid to disobey. 😐🤨😡
Before the Covid panic, many fast food joints came out with the in lobby Kiosks for pre-ordering.
A Health Dept. survey of screen swipes in New York showed those screens had fecal matter on them.
Many Americans are just plain filthy little pigs, and I have seen men use the bathroom and NOT wash their hands, so this pandemic should come as no surprise.
The mask is worthless if the very hands you put it on with are filthy.
I have seen women use the bathroom and not wash their hands, too. They are actually worse than men in that regard.
Having had jobs in the past where one of my responsibilities was to clean the restrooms, I found the men’s lavatories to be clean in comparison to the women’s pig sties. I will not go into a full description of what I found in a vast majority of cases. Suffice it to say, they were horrific.
One of my jobs going through college was cleaning the Student Center, and you are absolutely right that the Women’s rooms were always worse than the Men’s rooms.
If you are so afraid of dieing that you refuse to live I truly feel sorry for you. If you think these masks people wear work you have been had. Do you know what a biological warfare mask looks like? I’m 70 had this COVID flu a year ago and out every day without a mask. I’ll take my chances and live my life.
I’am with you. I’am 72 years old and I won’t be vaccinated. They say even if you get vaccined, you still have to wear the mask and keep 6 feet apart from everybody else. So does the vaccine work or not?
If you want to wear it wear it. I don’t. I am 57 smoked for 30+ years (not anymore). Had the virus. Still not wearing it.
Ok, so I’m old! It seems to me that wearing a mask was a sure sign that you intended to do harm to someone else, rob them, kidnap them, carjack them,,or do some other nefarious crime against them. Now our own government has convinced a whole bunch of ttheir citizens that they should enter a bank, a supermarket , a department store, or a sports event wearing a mask to “safeguard others”. How does that square up with sensibility? And to think… we are living in the most educated society in the world !
True story. We were 4WD in southeast Utah—12-mile highway to 8-mile dirt track to 12-mile gravel road, then a final 5-mile technical track with ledges and granite balds to our destination. A half-mile before the overlook we passed a jeep coming the other way—both driver and passenger wearing N95 masks. … Delusional.
Maybe, they didn’t know each other. Just saying.
mask i wear it when there r other people around me lets face it that mask avoid getting infecte it or passing the infection to others it is air born any sneeze of cough will creat an spray of saliva around that person for 4 or 5 feet arond so any body in that range will inhale it thats the razon why mask is neccesary around people but if im in the woods by my self of course i aint wering it the smell of the grass the fresh air the flowers is delightfull so what i ment is ware ur mask when nessesary and we all have a good day without worries couse lets face it covid kills thats for sure and nobody is amune to it lets take care of our self n others the rigth way,use mask when needed, not all the time, in your house,car in the woods is not needed as long you r by ur self or close family and friends.thats what i do please be safe and take care of ur self nad others.
Yes, it kills. But, look at the numbers, if you take the number of people that have died from it and compare that to the number of people in the United States, you would see that the percentage is less then 1/4 of a percent.
If you get it and die, then your percentage is 100%.
Had it, didn’t die. Im 57 and a 35yr former smoker. 2.5 days of a slight fever and really tired for about a week. I’m not saying it isn’t fatal to some as in the <.25% I look at it this way if you are afraid to catch it stay home and wear a mask when you leave the house, I don't mind. If I don't have a mask on stay away from me it will not hurt my feelings, as a matter of fact I would prefer it anyway (not a covid issue).
That is the longest sentence I’ve ever read. Everyone who read is now dumber for having done so. I have 6 words for you ma’am…. Spell check & 8th grade English One
You were a liberal arts major eh? Not so much time in the maths
People don’t understand.The Virus is Point125 microns the cloth masks are point350 microns,the n95 {black}mask are point250 microns That means the virus goes right through the masks. MASKS DON’T STOP THE VIRUS . ONLY SNEEZE OR COUGH. Look it up
The moisture particles that contain the virus are larger than the pores of the mask.
Ok, so I’m old! It seems to me that wearing a mask was a sure sign that you intended to do harm to someone else, rob them, kidnap them, carjack them,,or do some other nefarious crime against them. Now our own government has convinced a whole bunch of ttheir citizens that they should enter a bank, a supermarket , a department store, or a sports event wearing a mask to “safeguard others”. How does that square up with sensibility? And to think… we are living in the most educated society in the world !
It’s certainly your right to wear a mask but as a pulmonologist for 40 years, I can tell you that it won’t keep you from transmitting a virus or being infected with one! In the hospital, we wear N95s with a face shield or closed-system breathing units, both with gown and gloves . We are in a single patient’s room and dispose of the equipment before we leave the room. Outside the room, we scrub our hands and proceed on. This is how you reduce viral airborne transmissions.
Walking around people with just a mask (even an N95) on leaves your eyes and hands exposed as key methods of disease transmission. Good thing this virus has such a low mortality rate! Otherwise, we’d all be dead….cause we’re not doing a damn thing, in reality, to stop the spread of COVID! 😂
The idiots are on here, too, And, for those who claim “science”, all but the very best masks make no difference; especially not your cloth sleeve pulled over your mouths. While I’m bashing these idiots – these are the same people who were never taught to use a cat hole, damage trees, and leave garbage; I guess because they care.
I’ve been social distancing my entire life. Nobody else but me is responsible for my safety. The world is grotesquely overpopulated. COVID would have needed to kill 1,000 times as many people for our species is to have any chance whatsoever. Man is a bad animal. Bring out the nukes and do what COVID should have done.
Someone once said, “You can’t cure stupid.” I’m fairly certain that they were right.
The entire population of the world today could be housed in the state of Texas if each were given a quarter acre of land. Or so I’ve been told. I’m not saying that we should invite them in, but I am sure that there are more than enough quarter acre lots in California to supply the bulk of those crossing our southern border and if not there we could give those remaining tickets to Minnesota, Washington State, and our nations Capitol I hear that Mr. Biden invited them to come, and maybe Mz. Harris would find time to see to them then. 😜🤣
Up to our elbows in idiots; that’s a bit higher than our ass.
😉
HaHaHaHaHa Made my day.
Amen Brother
I wear a mask outdoors because I cannot control the behavior of others. To borrow your term, there are well-meaning idiots out there who either refuse to wear masks, or don’t know enough to wear them properly, who will walk right up to you and ask you why you’re wearing a mask when you’re outdoors. The answer is clear: I’m wearing a mask outdoors because you refuse to.
You are wearing a mask outdoors because you are not a logical person. The term Sheeple comes to mind.
Name-calling is the last resort of someone who knows their argument has failed.
During the Spanish Flu epidemic (1917-19) public health measures in the USA included: washing your hands a lot; social distancing (they called it shutting down the dime-a-dance halls for lonely World War I soldiers, along with the bars); and wearing masks. None of it was effective. We had a population of 106 million people (1920 Census) and lost between 100-150,ooo dead from the Spanish Flu.
Today, we have had the same public health responses: wash your hands/use hand sanitizer. Socially distance (including lockdowns that have crashed a large part of the economy, and ruined gazillions of small-to-mid sized businesses). And wearing masks.
How has this stuff worked? We have a population of slightly over 330 million people (2020 Census) and well over 500,000 dead, creeping towards 600,000 dead.
You figure it out — but isn’t it obvious? These measures may slow down a serious pandemic/epidemic, but they do little to stop it. As for the individual who wears a mask even when (s)he is outside, in the fresh air, it’s an act of terrorized desperation, not a rational response. It’s like carrying a pistol for protection while walking through a major pitched battle riot — only an idiot thinks (s)he’s much better off by taking one along. The only safe thing to do is to avoid the riot… trouble is, we can scarcely avoid the pandemic UNLESS we are outside and not breathing in other people’s faces, or having them do that to us.
So, the author is correct. Those who are so terrorized that they wear masks out in the woods are worthy only of pity, not respect.
very well put and spot on.. in addition to that if your really that terrified of this its simple.. STAY HOME
No Sir Dead Frog is spot on….
You sir are an incredible nincompoop
Joe is just, “Following the herd” It brings comfort to some.
It would seem “the herd” on here would have me behave otherwise.
I read articles and I base my decisions and behavior off of personal experience.
Figure it out… We’ve had virus’ and diseases for thousands of years, this is nothing new and if you paid half as much attention to the last actual flu pandemic you’d know that open sunshine and fresh air (without a mask) is better for you than anything the supposed vaccines have provided just like a regular influenza outbreak. Your mom opened the windows just like doctors did in theater during WWII because it works,
You’re right, science has shown that sunlight, particularly UV rays, do an amazing job of killing the coronavirus. In fact I believe it’s even weaker to sunlight than the flu virus. That having been said, I’m still not going to take the chance of having someone breathe in my unmasked face just because I’m out in the sun. Additionally, I’m not going to rely on being in the full sun the entire time I’m outside. I’m going to control as much as I can while I’m out in an uncontrollable environment.
except that your mask does not protect you. It protects others from you so when you wear the mask outside you are protecting the person not wearing a mask from you. People wearing a sn95 mask are protecting themself’s (maybe) but those masks are vented straight to outside air so if you have influenza which ever one of the alpha bits they are calling covid then you are a spreader
If you were a mask you are a coward. I hope you get this stupid virus and die. Faggot
Then, again, there are those who ridicule you if you are outside and are not wearing a mask, even from across a parking lot . It runs both ways. “Stupid is as stupid does.” Thank you Forest Gump!
Please, let’s not allow our emotions rule us. All of this vitriol achieves nothing except to divide us. Your life is yours to live in the manner in which you choose, and mine is mine to live as I see fit. Give me room and I’ll give you the same.🙃 😷. 🤪
‘Half the folks you meet on any given day are below average’. J. Viturbo fits in the bottom half of that equation.
It’s the god damn flu. And corporations have made billions while others have suffered. The same idiots that care, don’t care enough to work or even know how to change a tire. We live in a world of idiots while corporations run the country and bieed is dry.
Wearing a mask when around others is not just about one’s own protection. It is about the protection of others because of the possibility of having the disease while being asymptomatic, therefore increasing the possibility of spreading the disease to others who are more vulnerable. That is one reason why the response of “I care” is appropriate.
The “experts” have given so many conflicting stories, which do we believe? There is no science backing any of the supposition.
Not if it is just virtual signaling. And when people are separated *outdoors* by several tens of feet, doing activities away from each other, with the plentiful outdoor ventilation, the chances of contracting covid from another person is ZERO.
But I DON’T care. Put that in your pipe and smoke it.
I was out walking and got castigated for not wearing a mask…by a guy who was openly violating an explicit park rule by not having his dog on a leash,🙄
To all your mask wearers, have you received your shot yet? Do you still find the need to wear your mask outside afterwards? If yes and still do when do you think it’s safe to stop wearing one? When we all get the shot, which I am obviously not going to do so now you have a dilemma are you gonna wear it for the next 50 years to come? Is this your new normal?
We have all been lied too, watch the idiots change their mind time and time again. Wake up people. This is all about money and power, you have fallen victim to it.
Maybe I secretly like wearing a mask.
Maybe I’ve been wishing that mask wearing were more common in the US ever since returning from a trip to SE Asia.
Maybe I have compromised immune system and I find that mask wearing offers beneficial defense against pollution and disease transmission in addition to the coronavirus.
First if you want to wear 10 masks please do so but…I am sorry but wearing a mask does NOT safe guard your health. Do you have any idea how small the covid virus is. Oh I know it stops droplets, except when you get a droplet on you mask and you breath, much less cough, that droplet just adhears to your mask like glue. How funny. Oh and not to mention fit. Have you ever been fitted for a respirator? See if it doesn’t fit then the respirator is usless too.
Now covid death rate is way way, greatly inflated. Many Drs even say that. The tests for covid, well again they are not even validated so how good are they? lets look at the vaccine. Me I am in the high risk category. I am older on imune suppresent drugs and you couldn’t pay me to take that untested experimental, shot in the dark vaccine. There have already been some reports of “side effects”. Now lets look at that statement and the some reports part. If only some are reported how many are really there. AS we know the media is, well, all lies so how many does some, in reality translate into?
I will give you I see one person in a car wearing a mask. These are the people that are afraid of thier own shadow. Hell, I am suprised these chicken sh.ts even go out.
I do, kinda wear a mask when I have to but only when I have too. Oh and bad news even though some idiot drs even say you don’t rebreath your air with masks, well like i said previous idiot.
To pawns commit you are dead on sir about the death rates being inflated .
I’m 45 I live in the greatest state Alabama one of my good friends I went
K through 12 with had a massive heart attack . He was dead before he hit the floor. His death certificate read CAUSE OF DEATH COVID. His wife had to get a fleet of attorneys to get this changed. She by god was not gonna let that hospital profit from my friend/ her husbands death. After she got her lawyer and filed the death certificate magically was revised to read heart attack.
These covid death tolls are bogus. get killed in car accident. COVID .
Get bit by a rattle snake an die. COVID. Hit by train . Covid. It’s all bulls::t
I’m a Biomedical technician which means I repair all the equipment in hospitals dr offices dentist offices . so I’m on the road a lot. I see nuts driving in town windows up with 2 masks on alonein there car. I cannot imagine the fear these people have.. this because I care it BS there scared s:::less . But they would never admit it. So that’s where because I care is from. I’ve been in hospitals from
Northwest Tennessee to Orlando . An I wear a mask as less as I can get away with. Usually I wear it just to get in the front door. Then I take it off I have not been vaccinated nor will I be. I hope my dose goes to an older person black/ white or green or a child at saint Jude’s that has a problem with there immune system that’s my hope for my vaccine dose.. Look folks if your gonna get COVID
Your gonna get it a crappy sliver of cotton is not gonna stop it. But don’t worry
97 percent or people that’s fairly healthy will not die,,,that little bit of info was from one of the best drs at UAB hospital in Birmingham he’s a 22 year immunization specialist trust me this guy is the grand admiral of diseases.
So there’s no use in being scared out of your mind. Live your life free of things you cannot control.
There is so much truth in this short comment!
Who ARE these experts? The CDC failed to formulate a one-size-fits-all test at the outset of the pandemic, delaying our national response by, what, about a month? Then they had to fight it out with the FDA, which was trying to BREAK IN to the locked CDC lab over the weekend [get this… CDC was so concerned they went home!] to figure out if the proposed mask was safe…
Then we heard all sorts of lies about masks being useless for the general public [CDC again], to oh… you gotta get one…. but only the super bells and whistles model will do any good… er, well, other masks may not be AS GOOD, but they should be fine… Yeah, let’s all get a stylish mask…
Like Mike above, you have every right to be sceptical about anything these morons say. Because, don’t you worry, Sweet Cheeks, stay tuned another week, and the Never Ending Story will have changed half a dozen times at least.