the animal's journal

[tommytebco]

How can you know you love a meal until you taste it?
There's no shame is deciding you don't love it.

[riparian]

Hey, I'm glad you turned around. The wilderness here takes a little skill and a lot of experience - both of which you can totally get if you want.

What's your next adventure?

[TheFrugalFox]

I am sure most of us on this forum has had idea similar to yours that has failed,so don't beat yourself up about it. For me is was a cycling trip around Europe - 2 couples. My at the time girlfriend pulled out, after months of planning, in the last week. I did about 450km of the trip on a hugely overweight bike in the poring rain before conceding defeat. But I did learn and a few years later enjoyed 2 weeks cycling around the north of Wales travelling from hostel to hostel on a much lighter bike and in summer.

[theanimal]

@S10y, Tommytebco, FrugalFox- Thanks for your comments. As they say in the entrepreneurial world, fail early and often. The lessons I learned won't be leaving me any time soon.

@ Riparian- I'm not entirely sure what my next move is, I've been trying to figure that out these past few days. I may have a shorter trip happening in the next couple weeks but nothing is definite yet. I think the general idea will be to do a few short trips to gain more experience, until I pick up seasonal work for winter. I also plan on completing Wilderness First Responder training/certification sometime in the next couple months.

[theanimal]

I quickly formed new plans after my return from AK. I've been in Colorado for the past week. I decided to join my family on their trip out here. After they leave I'll remain here until mid-August, spending a few weeks hiking some of the Continental Divide Trail, climbing a couple 14ers with a friend from NOLS, obtaining my Wilderness First Responder certification and finally thru hiking the Colorado Trail. Certainly not my initial plan for the summer but I think it'll work out just fine.

[theanimal]

Transitions and Mind Games

My mind likes to twist my ideas. As some of you may have noticed in my journal, I've jumped from one idea or potential job to another over the past year or so. For a while now I have been very happy/satisfied with my plan to work in outdoor education part of the year and go on my own adventures or do whatever I want the rest. But there are days like today where I really question this and feel somewhat lost. I've considered all types of jobs ranging from the military to programmer to various outdoor jobs.

My hypothesis for why this has been occurring is because it's finally set in that I'm done with school and I'm not used to this (potential) freedom. Maybe I'm just scared? I'm not really sure. I do believe that outdoor education is the right path for me.

Anyways I went on a long hike today and thought much of this over. Just wanted to get it down in writing.
-------------------------------------

In other news I've had to back off my plan to hike part of the Continental Divide Trail due to the ridiculous amount of snow that is still on the ground. Hopefully things continue to melt out in time for the Colorado Trail in a few weeks!

[Chad]

Transitions and Mind Games

But there are days like today where I really question this and feel somewhat lost. I've considered all types of jobs ranging from the military to programmer to various outdoor jobs.

My hypothesis for why this has been occurring is because it's finally set in that I'm done with school and I'm not used to this (potential) freedom. Maybe I'm just scared? I'm not really sure.

This is not uncommon at all. I still feel this way a lot and I'm 41. Though, I think why I feel this way now is not because of the potential freedom, but it probably was the reason I felt this way when I was just out of college. I would suggest embracing the feeling and not pushing it away (I'm not suggesting you are doing either). It's not like failure or realization that your current plan isn't the correct one really has any significant consequences, and success means you found the your current path. The risk/reward ratio is strongly tilted toward the reward side for you.

[theanimal]

Thanks, Chad, that's some sound advice. I'll just have to grow to embrace it. Realizing that I really don't have anything to lose.

[Chad]

Your welcome. I like thinking about it like the Baz Luhrmann "Wear Sunscreen" song/rap suggests:

"Don’t feel guilty if you don’t know what you want to do with your
life…the most interesting people I know didn’t know at 22 what they
wanted to do with their lives, some of the most interesting 40 year
olds I know still don’t."

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sTJ7AzBIJoI

[Dragline]

I view your experience as a victory. You have escaped the "foolish consistency" I often babble about.

But of course, I like the Chris Rock version of that speech more than Baz Luhrmann's: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j9yBPcn8IqU&feature=kp

[theanimal]

More Lessons from the Field

Well I've learned yet another tough lesson this week as I travelled on the Colorado Trail. I made it 5 days and 116 of the 486 miles before realizing I don't enjoy staying by myself at night in bear country. I barely managed to get any sleep as my mind ran rampant throughout the night. It certainly didn't help that one night a bear ambled right past my tent! This lesson probably could have been learned from my short stint in the Brooks Range but it really became apparent here.

I consider myself pretty well educated about bears and I know the risk is low but I guess it is just something I am not comfortable with at this point in my life. So for that reason I am unfortunately backing off once again.

Needless to say, I think finding more friends that enjoy these kinds of trips is important. But I don't think that should be too big of an issue with time.

Now to figure out what's next...

[Chad]

The bear "threat" bothers the shit out of me too when I'm camping. It also frustrates me too, because it's mostly irrational.

[Gilberto de Piento]

I barely managed to get any sleep as my mind ran rampant throughout the night.

Ha! I've freaked myself out while camping alone too. Five days is a long time to be out. Don't be too tough on yourself.

You'll have to weigh the pros and cons of this for yourself but I used to have trouble sleeping while camping sometimes so I would bring advil pm. It worked well for me and is supposedly not addictive.

[UrbanHermit]

Have you considered Europe? Lots of great rambling to be had in the scotish highlands, the alps, the urals, etc. All the large predators were killed off centuries ago so no bear/cougar/wolf issues, and camping solo is quite safe. And if the weather turns sour, or you just need a break it's rarely more than a half-days walk out of the bush to the nearest village pub a hot dinner and a warm bed.

[theanimal]

@Chad- Yes, that's what pisses me off, they aren't something you need to worry about the vast majority of the time.

@Gilberto- I'm not one for taking any drugs or medicine but thanks for the tip.

@UrbanHermit- Yes, that's actually what I've been thinking about the past couple days. Iceland, Scottish highlands, and the Nordic countries are all very appealing to me.

Right now it's mainly disappointing because I have a lot of trip ideas (that are in bear country) and if I can't find anyone to do them with, I can't do them. At least at this point in my life.

[Gilberto de Piento]

Ironic that you have a bear for your avatar. Have you considered carrying bear spray? Or a gun?

[theanimal]

I thought the same thing myself.

I carried bear spray in Alaska but not in Colorado. I wouldn't take a gun. But overall the perceived threat is much larger than any actual threat. Especially concerning only black bears (grizzlies are a different story.) I think it'll be fine after continued experience and exposure, coupled with a refusal to give in..

[henrik]

There are lots of bears and wolves in the Nordic countries (probably not in Scotland and Iceland though (?))

[mxlr650]

Well I've learned yet another tough lesson this week as I travelled on the Colorado Trail. I made it 5 days and 116 of the 486 miles before realizing I don't enjoy staying by myself at night in bear country.

Colorado is all black bear correct? i am weary of Grizzlies, but Black bears are something you can largely ignore. Black bear attacks are uncommon AFAIK, so unless you are engaging in tug-of-war with a black bear over your backpack/food, things would be fine. I have camped quite a bit in bear country (Sierra Nevada ranges) and I have not had problems with black bear. Some rules i follow are

• always carrying bear canister
  cooking/eating dinner and walking for an hour before camping
  avoiding popular campsites

If i ever go camping in a grizzly country, i would pack heat. Our ancestors worked hard to put us on top of the food chain, and I would be ashamed to let them down by letting some dumbass animal attack me or think i am its combo meal.

I would suggest NZ for camping - south island is amazing! So is Australia!

[jennypenny]

Fatbiking Iceland sounds like a euphemism.