"John B." wrote in message
...
[...]

And how do I know? Well I have actually, unlike you, spent some time
in places [West Papua?] where no man may have ever walked before.
[...]

Allow me to disabuse you of that notion. There is no place on earth where
man has not trod, except areas of Antarctica. Every other place has been
thoroughly explored and perhaps settled at one time or another by mankind.

When the Europeans came to the New World, every square inch of the New World
was already inhabited by man, even the forbidding Amazon rain forest. The
natives had to be gotten rid of in order to have European settlement. This
was mostly accomplished by disease, but it was still amazing that Cortez
could overcome the Aztecs with such a minimal number of soldiers.

Your fabled isle of New Guinea was similarly totally inhabited by man. The
island was full of various tribes and languages from time immemorial and I
assure you there was no part of that island that was not trod by man. By far
the most difficult area of the earth to settle was the high Arctic, yet the
Eskimos did it. And the Bedouins conquered the Sahara. New Guinea was a
paradise compared to those areas.

The US was settled in just a few generations when the country moved west –
and it was thoroughly settled. Not a square inch of land was unaccounted for
by 1900. Even Russian Siberia has been thoroughly explored and settled by
native peoples. The Russians, not being Americans, have not settled vast
areas of Siberia, but that does not mean it is empty and untrod by man.

Only Antarctica is empty except for a few scientific stations. To go to a
place “where no man may have ever walked before,” think various planets and
‘other worlds’. Mars would be a good choice.

Mountain bikes have wheels. Wheels are for roads.

Trails are for walking. What’s the matter? Can’t walk?

Ed Dolan the Great – Minnesota