[Paddlewise] Wilderness: Isolation or Adventure?

Dave Kruger asked:
 
<Majordomo Snipola> >>>So, how does wilderness travel affect YOU?  I'm
curious.>>>

Good question Dave. Contemplating navels lately? Not that _I_ do that much!
 :-)

Wilderness travel always has affected me in a positive manner, even local
wilderness. Traveling along coastal corridors or simply navigating through
a plethora of rocks interspersed through some little archipelago has a
potentiality unlike any other venue, at least for me. Admittedly the vistas
afforded by climbing high cannot be denied, and while mountain climbing or
just plain high country rambling has merit and engages many senses, as does
river and lake paddling, the sea holds particular fascination for me - and
a more lasting effect. 

I just love the ocean. Not in an oceanographic way, nor that of a what a
blue water sailor enjoys (the vastness). No, simply the sea/land interface
forever beckons me back, time and time again, rewarding me with a healthy
lifestyle of mental and physical wholesomeness, where the ocean waters have
a healing quality - a balm for mind and body. Where the sea does meet land,
beaches are washed clean by the perpetual cleansing of tide, time, and
swell. Contaminants are cleansed by the routine action of breaking waves,
the bits and pieces pulled back into the ocean depths. So it is with my
soul during my brief soujourns - I am continually cleansed and made
sparkling new, like the glimmering, polished stones one sees behind a
receding wave.

As an avowed antisocial deviate during my 20's, sea kayaking provided the
luxuriant delight of solitude - a quietude away from the rat race and bar
scene. I quickly developed a true love for the near-shore ocean
environment, where ocean waves spoke with greater familiarity than many
human ones. I went on to find a certain Nirvana like quality in heavy ocean
hydraulics that engaged my mind, body and reflexes, but this was secondary
to a simple love of the sea and need to retreat to mental safety. Even the
simple sounds of gentle, languorous surge lapping over drying reefs would
ease my mind to the hurts of young love turned sour or just a stressful day
at the office. One day I might play off the tip of somewhere like Trial
Island in ten foot standing waves against the unforgiving blast of a 40
knot gale, only to be forced back in during sustained gusts as my kayak
surfed down huge seas - pushed far past her nominal hull speeds. On another
day, indeed even the very next day, the nautical capriciousness of my
island home allowed me to paddle along in a state of blissful
self-abandonment under a hot, dreamy sun with not a hint of wind, allowing
magical thoughts to fill my mind until, loosing visual reference on a
shimmering sea, I would suddenly almost capsize in my hypnotic trance-like
state. I've always come back changed, with a better perspective on life,
even after a two hour paddle. And all this, simply from day-tripping.
Multi-day/week trips in true wilderness prove even more exponential in
their effects. 

BC'in Ya
Doug Lloyd 

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