I'd echo much of what's already been said. I'd add these FWIW. 1. Failure to adapt. Maps lie, gear breaks, companion's attitudes waver, energy rises and falls, weather happens. Focus on gear and technique often places a thicker distance between us and the environments we encounter. I've known people to nearly wander off cliffs their maps said couldn't exist, seen people at trailheads calling Garmin Customer Service on their cell phone to explain to them why their GPS didn't match up with the posted markers, observed people heading out into very cold water and iffy conditions w/o being dressed for immersion because their double-wide kayaks "never tip". Darwin is right....those who don't have the skills to adapt are most likely the first to exit the gene pool. 2. Learn to recognize pleasure. Start small. The bigger pleasures are usually an aggregate. Enjoy the physical cadence of making your way through a small part of the world, relish the mental and emotional challenge of negotiating time and space. This sounds far too metaphysical....but the truth is that most of what I gather and retain from my ventures is a collection of smaller experiences that lead me to feel better, more often, over longer and longer periods of time. This doesn't require the purchase of any particular gear. 3. Take conscious time to pay attention to the task at hand. Lists help you to remember. Methods help break the larger tasks into smaller, more readily accomplished and repeatable sequences/steps. If you find yourself worried about a crossing, or the weather, and you are trying to pack up camp at the same time, you're not giving either the full measure of your focus. Once I was caught in a high camp as a furious lightening storm approached. Rather than finding refuge in the thicker woods a few hundred feet below, I hurriedly tried to break camp to hike out...my bear-bag line was snagged in the one tall tree near by, and as the gunshot was going off around me, I yanked by 'biner weighted line with all my might. It sproinged loose, whizzing straight for my scalp and opened a lovely, gushing head wound than had to be treated before we could make a safe zone out of the storm. Small casualty resulting from not paying attention to bad decision making that might have caused a much more tragic result than my bruised ego. I could swear I heard the whistle telling me to get out of the gene pool. If weather and conditions concern you, make the time to deal with those concerns in a rational, reasonable manner. Give everyone ample time to work through their own process and voice their concerns or decision. If a beginner is worried about facing rough conditions, and everyone else is hurriedly packing camp to 'get underway', the momentum is on going, and you've just upped the chances that a chain of events might unfold off your group's weakest link. Bad idea. -will *************************************************************************** PaddleWise Paddling Mailing List - All postings copyright the author and not to be reproduced/forwarded outside PaddleWise without author's permission Submissions: PaddleWise_at_PaddleWise.net Subscriptions: PaddleWise-request_at_PaddleWise.net Website: http://www.paddlewise.net/ ***************************************************************************
Will Jennings wrote: > 1. Failure to adapt. snippage > Darwin is right....those who don't have the skills > to adapt are most likely the first to exit the gene pool. > I had an instructor who has a term for this as it applies to outdoor pursuits. "Recreational Darwinism." More snippage. > Small casualty resulting from not paying attention to bad decision making > that might > have caused a much more tragic result than my bruised ego. I could swear I > heard the whistle telling me to get out of the gene pool. I like it! Great visual, too! Mike -- Paddling along through fog so thick that only one's thoughts are visible, your reverie is abruptly shattered by the ancient cry of a great blue heron as she lifts uncertainly from the brilliant blue of a mussel-shell beach witnessed only by the brooding, wet spruce....your passage home seems as much back through time as it does through space. Mark H Hunt *************************************************************************** PaddleWise Paddling Mailing List - All postings copyright the author and not to be reproduced/forwarded outside PaddleWise without author's permission Submissions: PaddleWise_at_PaddleWise.net Subscriptions: PaddleWise-request_at_PaddleWise.net Website: http://www.paddlewise.net/ ***************************************************************************
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