PHOTO CREDIT: HAP WILSON
The truth about adventure It
BY ALLEN MACARTNEY
was the most miserable canoe trip ever. It poured almost every day during last fall’s seven-day solo canoe trip into Algonquin Park. Right from the start,
dark clouds hung low and heavy over the hills. Big fat rain drops splattered and bounced on my tarpaulin stretched over the canoe, and ran in rivulets into the lake. After a first happy “rush,” my mood settled into the depths. But three days into the trip I learned a secret about adventure that transformed unexpected misery into excitement with real-life application.
For the rest of the trip, despite the
rain, I couldn’t stop grinning and it all started with an adventure gone wrong. So just what is “adventure”
anyway? It’s often uncomfortable, wet,
lonely, cold, sleepless, and brimming with uncertainty. It isn’t fun and certainly not easy. Adventurers often ask themselves, “Why am I doing this? This is crazy!” Hobbits have a better understanding of adventure than humans. “It’s a dangerous business going out your door,” Bilbo told his nephew Frodo. “There’s no knowing where you might be swept off to.” Adventure looks better from a comfortable distance.
www.ottawaoutdoors.ca Most times when reading
adventure stories we’re viewing events through rose-coloured glasses. We’re reliving the trek in front of a warm fireplace, maybe with a nice drink. We know how the adventure turned out. We know the hero survived the rapids, lived for days in the forest without food, struggled against the odds and stumbled back to civilization a hero. But the person living the
adventure didn’t know how it was
going to turn out. Adventure doesn’t look so appealing when a shark bumps your sailboat at night in mid-Atlantic. Its appeal fades when you’re huddled under an overturned canoe in mud up to your elbows with hail pounding the ground. Can you imagine Indiana Jones in such a disreputable position? I think not. The wisest among us understand
this. Days after finishing a 760-kilo- metre wilderness canoe trip in the
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