Immerse yourself in nature
Take Cancun: the softly crashing waves, the toe-warming sand,
the empty bottles of booze and the crowds filled with scantily clad
women and you have my Spring Break – well, kind of.
Trade the ebbing tide for a slowly meandering canyon stream.
Replace the sand with grainy red clay, the booze for Iodine
filtered water and the babes for five dirt-crusted dudes and the
picture is a little clearer.
Last week I participated in the highly underrated sport of
hiking.
I’ll be the first to advocate March Madness, the upcoming
baseball season and the latest off-season move in the National
Football League, but there is something special in spending time in
nature.
Few choose to strap the weight of a small child to their back
and trudge through sinking sand during their week of rest, but I
did.
My first real hiking experience was a swift 11-hour drive away
in Escalante, Utah. The trip ended in miles of dirt washboards and
attempts to hit the road-crossing rabbits.
As stated earlier, this was my first real time hiking, so you
can imagine my – and my body’s for that matter – surprise when we
decided to undertake a seven-hour first day. I swear my arches were
about to collapse and my hips and shoulders were rubbed raw from
the jostling pack.
Though bushed, I still had an overwhelming sense of
accomplishment. I could continue on this narrative for quite some
time, but I would rather point out a few things that I learned this
week that you may not know, …
Sleep nude. I normally adhere to this advice, but with the
desert temp dropping as the sun set I crawled into my bag with
layers on. Bad call – I woke up hours later sticky with sweat,
which not only added to my indecent odor but also made me cold as
it dried later that night.
Don’t lead. Thrice I saw one of my buddies sink knee-deep in
swallowing sand and their misfortune was my gain.
Use poles. If it weren’t for the arm-cardio, my fingers would
have swollen into watermelons.
Don’t throw rocks at your naked friends. In perhaps the greatest
gut-busting moment of my life, I watched as my clothed friend
wrestled our not-so-clothed pal looking to take revenge from a
slight stone pelting.
I learned much, much more, but I suppose each trip teaches you
something. So, for my final tip … get out there. You can’t enjoy
our wondrous world if you’re not immersed in it.
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