The exquisite sight, sound, and smell of wilderness is many times more powerful if it is earned through physical achievement, if it comes at the end of a long and fatiguing trip for which vigorous good health is necessary. Practically speaking, this means that no one should be able to enter a wilderness by mechanical means.

Hardin argues that wilderness value is not only scenic but experiential and moral: it is intensified when reached through effort, discomfort, and self-reliance. By tying “exquisite” perception to “earned” access, he frames wilderness as a kind of scarce good whose meaning is diluted by convenience. His rejection of “mechanical means” (cars, motorboats, aircraft, possibly even mechanized lifts) reflects a preservationist impulse to keep wild places from becoming extensions of mass recreation and consumer ease. The claim also implies an exclusionary dimension—linking legitimate access to “vigorous good health”—raising questions about equity, disability, and who gets to claim wilderness experiences.