[Paddlewise] What Changed?

Why does it always seem so different when a paddler revisits a coastline a
year or years later? Sure, there's a different rocky berm at previous
landings possibly, or different patterns of beach dispersal and weather,
etc, but the second time back always seems less mysterious, smaller, less
hazardous and less invigorating.

The first time I went to north Brooks, it was so intimidating and
otherworldly. Now I just kick my feet up, read a book, mentally go over the
hazards in a orderly fashion, and yawn.

The first time I circumnavigated Sidney Island off Victoria, it was like
this long trek, wild winds wickedly beating me up off the south end, and
scary crossings in the chop. Now I do laps around it without a second
thought.

The first time I paddled out of Bamfield, the Deer Group was so forlorn and
foreboding. Now it seems like an natural extension of the peninsula,
separated by a itty bitty bit of water.

I guess the answer is somewhat obvious, but I was wondering if other
paddlers have suffered the same change in perception so acutely the next
time they went paddling in the same area again.

Doug Lloyd
Victoria BC

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"Whatever can be said at all can be said clearly and whatever cannot be said
clearly should not be said at all."
Ludwig Wittgenstein
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