No one goes out in the woods! I'm 34, everyone around my age are [beep](auto censor needed some help for my creative words I guess), theyre all paying off college debt and toys, working 40-60 hrs a week and the one weekend a year they do get to get out to the woods they're like bumbling children. As far as I know my buddies are the only ones that consider hunting more than a one weekend rifle opener trip. Even the people that do want to get into it are broke, they're in debt, they're too busy paying for a truck and insurance on multiple items to buy the expensive good hiking boots, wool clothing or tent. Honestly I'm to the point I'm getting back ups for my good stuff so I can borrow it to friends, multiple rain jackets, bivy bags and wool sweaters.
I've just been spending the last 6 or 8 months trying to plan a shooting trip with a friend I havent seen since high school. This guy got a hold of me and sent pictures of his guns and a suppresor, it was his plan, but he is too busy working. A plan for a 3 hour shooting trip needs to be scheduled 6 weeks in advance and it falls apart a couple days before hand.
Just this previous Wednesday morning I headed 4hrs north to meet a buddy. He drove his 2020 chevy with his brand new ice castle up there. We were going to snowshoe through the woods calling for fox, coyote and maybe a bobcat. My buddy already spent all his money and only wanted to buy some small cheap snowshoes off the shelf because the big traditional ones like mine are $150. He spent a couple hours sinking through the snow up to his nuts, we werent hiking or hunting anywhere... so I set up targets so I could shoot my gun... he complains about ammo prices so he only had 10 rounds of ammo for his gun so he took one shot that didnt even hit the target. So we head back defeated, making plans about how he can make this work better, the whole time him explaining he doesnt want to spend much, but of course on the way back to the ice castle we had to stop for liquor, he ends up buying a bottle brandy for the price of a box of ammo, I drove 4hrs home that night. Our third buddy for that trip had to cancel for work.
Between work, kids, child support and alcohol, I dont know many people that would take time out of their day for a walk through a city park much less a backpacking camping trip in undesignated camp sites or overnight hunting trip in zero degrees.