Two women riding horses in wilderness. Photo by Holly Werran, Courtesy of REI.

Aldo Leopold, co-founder of The Wilderness Society and a preeminent voice in the conservation world defined wilderness as “a continuous stretch of country preserved in its natural state, open to lawful hunting and fishing, big enough to absorb a two week’s [horse] pack trip.” In his most famous book, A Sand County Almanac, he provided two examples of “primitive skills in pioneering travel…”one of these is canoe travel, and the other is travel by packtrain.” Read more