Mugs, I'm not going to flame you because I understand how you feel. But please consider this: Going light is nothing new, it is just new to you. The only things that have changed are the various technologies involved. Serious backpackers have always carried light packs. I have on my bookshelf a book published by the Sierra Club titled "Going Light With Backpack and Burro". It covers a lot of the same basic lightweight ideas that are presently in vogue yet the book was published in 1953. So, clearly, the lightweight concept was alive then but the technology was much more primitive. As an example, I hiked the JMT in 1954 with a base weight pack of about 15 pounds; I didn't think of it as light or heavy, I just took what I felt I needed after careful consideration and left the rest behind. I would carry about the same weight today but would be much more comfortable due to improved technology.

Over the years since then, I have seen the same thing you are seeing; a lot of your favorite places being visited by more and more people. In fact, your so called "mainstream" backpackers really didn't start appearing until the mid-60's when the baby boomers discovered the outdoors and according to some pundits "invented" backpacking. Suddenly backpacking became a consumer sport rather than a cult activity and the gear provided to meet the demand increased exponentially; so did the competetive consumerism involved in its purchase.

But on an optimistic note, I have read that overall, back country use is declining somewhat as obesity, motor sports and computer games have their effect on the population of backpacking-aged people. I have read somewhere that the average backpacker is now an approximately 50-year-old male; comparatively few backpackers are in their 20's and 30's. This may be one reason that lightweight backpacking appears to be making a comeback.

However, I am afraid that sharing your favorite spots with the arivisté and their new "storebought" lightweight backpacking gear and book learning is something you will have to learn to live with. You'll do this the same way I had to reluctantly learn to share with the people who started after I did: including people like you <img src="/forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif" alt="" />.