Expedition Journals

The Remote Spotters set out to the remotest location in New Hampshire down a hiking trail system within the Pemigewasset Wilderness of the White Mountains National Forest.

The New Jersey Remote Spot, being within a federal conservation land, would apparently have better than average prospects for the conservation of its remoteness, were it not for rapid urbanization outside the Forsythe Refuge.

The New Mexico Remote Spot resides in an elevated region of the Gila Wilderness called McKenna Park. A magnificent Ponderosa pine forest towers over fire-maintained grassland.

Excitement builds as we reach that point in the Northville-Placid trail along the north side of Cold River where we must set out on a bushwhack northward to “Go Remote,” as we call it…It turns out that our bushwhack is extrememly short, and after winding around a bit dealing with a sluggish GPS unit, we land onto the NY Remote Spot.

This is the first time during Project Remote that we found 2 state Remote Spots located in a single National Park (Tennessee and North Carolina Remote Spots are within Great Smoky Mountains National Park).

This Remote Spot is located within the Mandan Hidasta Artikara Indian Nation and is 2.6 miles from a road. Impacts from the Bakken oil boom are visible throughout the area.

Located within state-owned Egypt Valley Wildlife Area, the Ohio Remote Spot is 1.2 miles from a road.

Our handheld GPS beeps and notifies us that we have arrived at the exact coordinates of the Pennsylvania Remote Spot. It is a feeling of both satisfaction and anticlimax. After all, there is a hiking trail just a tenth of a mile below.

The Rhode Island Remote Spot trip was a quick, coastal out-and-back day jaunt. We were hardly awe-struck by its remoteness. Humans and their noises and structures were never so far away as to be undetectable.