Re: [Paddlewise] Wilderness: Isolation or Adventure?

From: MSN/RiDem <RiDem_at_email.msn.com>
Date: Wed, 19 Apr 2000 18:40:07 -0400
Things ( excuses) which I once believed:

"Self-reliance".... while heavily armored and equiped with the synthetic
wherewithal of the petrochemical industries back home.(My plastic canoe,
Goretex parka, maps created by satellites, deposited in the "wilderness" by
a floatplane which will be back in 6 weeks, if I don't activate my EPIRB
beacon )

"The unknown"...to my chagrin I have found that some of those "blank-spots
on the maps"which I have hungered to see since childhood, look a lot like
places I have already seen (the central Barrens look suspiciously like
western Nebraska after a wet spring).

"Solitude"... well we did get 20 days to ourselves in Northern Saskatchewan.
It made me wish for 200 days, though I was beginning to dream of a cold
micro-brewed beer toward the end.

"Becoming 'disconnected' from the daily prattle of modern life....well, it's
not much comfort knowing that it will all still  be there when you
return"...like a 36 hour pass from prison.

Excuses that I still use:

Beats work. Rather spend my summers in northern Canada now. My retirement
can be spent sitting in a urologists office, wearing diapers, while
discussing treatment options for a malevolent prostate.

Excuses that I use with co-workers:

"Hell, you have to admit that I am less "grim" in the weeks AFTER Canada,
than the weeks BEFORE."
:)

Rich Dempsey














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Received on Wed Apr 19 2000 - 15:37:44 PDT

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