Technology in the wilderness

Camping out in the wild just got hitech in the United States.

At a campground in the quiet of the Catoctin Mountains, 11-year-old Michaela Downing rode bikes with her friends and sat with her grandmother under a canopy of tall trees, with a 78-foot waterfall and glistening lake just a short walk away.

But after dinner, instead of telling ghost stories around the campfire or working on crafts as she did when she was younger, Michaela was hoping for screen time with Shrek, Polly Pocket and SpongeBob SquarePants.

"I might play here more than I play at home," said the little girl, clad in a SpongeBob T-shirt and pajama pants, of the Game Boy she didn't want to leave home without.

Accommodating the media

The wilderness might seem like the last place you'd find video games, computers and DVDs, but today's young people are used to having electronic media virtually everywhere they go.

And campground operators, eager to stop their pool of visitors from shrinking, are struggling with how and whether to accommodate them.

To attract visitors, state parks in California, Texas and Michigan are offering wireless internet access, and Colonel Rick Barton, superintendent of Maryland's 49 state parks, says he's exploring the idea.

"My first reaction was: Never," Barton said. "These places are meant to be a getaway."

"But then it's, ‘Come on, Rick, people have cell phones. People have gadgets'," he said. "People have motor homes. They have TV."

"Car camping" outings — pitching a tent or pop-up with a vehicle nearby — fell nearly 28 per cent between 1998 and 2004, from 338 million to 245 million, according to a recent study by the Outdoor Industry Foundation, which represents retailers and nonprofit groups. B

ackpacking declined 33 per cent, from 98 million outings to 66 million. The National Park Service recently reported drops in visitation as well.

Kids aren't the only ones who want the comforts of home on camping trips.

They're often travelling with Internet-savvy parents and grandparents — Baby Boomers who often prefer to "camp" in recreational vehicles loaded with amenities.

If people can easily reach the web while roughing it, Barton says, maybe they'll be more willing to camp and to stay an extra day or two. "Maybe they'll telecommute from their campsite," he said.

Netting them in

Yogi Bear's Jellystone Camp Resort, a private campground in Williamsport that has already gone wireless, is looking for ways to use that access to let kids use more game systems in cabins, said resort owner Ron Vitkun.

Michael Lee, a spokesman for the Outdoor Industry Foundation, said his group is exploring ways to use technology to hook kids on camping.

One example is geocaching, a kind of high-tech treasure hunting that uses hand-held global positioning system devices. "Kids who are used to interfacing with a screen can be doing that in the woods," he said.

At Cunningham Falls' Houck Area campground, where the conditions are still rustic, Geoff and Valerie Price brought a TV with built-in VCR.

They didn't think daughter Haylee, 2 1/2, could survive in the woods without Barney.

"I was in Boy Scouts for many years, and we didn't have the TVs," her father said. "But the little ones, they like it."

For the rainy day

A few campsites away, Alex Ashton, 12, had brought a portable PlayStation and several movies on his camping trip with family friends.

The Rosedale boy promised the game player was for "just in case it rains, and I'm stuck in a tent or that sort of thing".

Michaela Downing said she rarely gets to play her video games during the school year. So during the summer — high camping season — she wants to take advantage of the relaxed rules.

And sometimes, after all that outdoor activity, Michaela needs a break. Bicycling, for example, is "really tiring," she said.

Some parents find it easier to tell the kids to leave their gadgets home.

"For two days, they can live without it," said Rene Lyons of Linthicum, as her husband started dinner at their campsite in the Catoctins. "They have to find stuff to do."

Her 8-year-old daughter, Alex, had brought paper dolls to amuse herself. With her 5-year-old brother, Josh, she played board games like Scrabble, and made S'mores.

Even without electronic entertainment, the kids were having enough fun on their first camping trip to stay up until midnight, Lyons said.

— Los Angeles Times-Washington Post