I, too, agree with KyPaddler's "take" on going into the boonies.  I can't really appreciate how the voyageurs and natives lived, but I can appreciate that I have luxuries they couldn't have dreamed of.  Where to start - Gore-Tex? Velcro? Freeze-drying? Air mattresses?  About the only thing I do that they did is eat jerky (used to be pemmican) and paddle.  OK, portage, too, but I'm a wuss by comparison.

Also, I find it's only after several days in the bush that I start to consider how earlier people lived.  It takes that long to figure out where I am.