Adventure Dreams

Walking Mileage: 1.91
September Miles Walked: 44.84
Temperature upon departure: 79
Humidity: 39%

Most people think of living an adventurous life as a flippant thought about as real as going to the moon as an astronaut one day. I was created by adventure. The residue of adventure is the core of me, of who I am.

Imagine hiking for hours in the woods and at the end of your day you really have gotten no where, just more woods and more trail. Throughout your day there were birds, insects, the occasional animal sighting where you connect with their eyes and sense no fear, then they turn and walk away casually leaving you in awe of the natural world. The light through the trees is cast in ways that you have never seen before in the man-made world of your regular life. Your mind feels free, the watch on your wrist doesn't seem to matter as your feet and the muscles in your back beneath your pack tell you when it is time to rest. That connection you feel with the earth, the trees, the rocks, the animals...I was born with that connection in my blood.

People say to me often that I was lucky to have grown up being taught to appreciate nature. I don't' believe it was taught as it was just a way of life. I have had more backwoods adventures in my life then many or most Americans could dream of. I grew up thinking everyone lived their lives wanting to be in the woods, then I moved to the south. There are country people yes, and God knows I love them as kindred spirits to my bush roots. But even the southern country people rely on the grocery store, electricity and tv. Most people like the city and believe "camping" includes making a reservation at a paved campground complete with electrical plug ins and a Taco Bell down the street.

My grandparents took me on their adventures through the back country in Alaska. We were part of the natural world and I never thought different of it. Only now in my life do I realize how amazing my childhood was in Alaska, spending time in the bush and having the natural world molding my mind with experiences.

I often dream of living in the middle of no where Alaska, building my own cabin, living a natural frontiersman lifestyle. Or of just purging myself of everything tangible in my life (except my dogs of course) and just walking. Exploring the gipsy blood in me, becoming an explorer of my life and my world. I would just end up in the woods though, not the city and the highways. The mountains call me, I am drawn to wonder in them. I have wondered around in the woods here in the south, it doesn't ever feel wild though like Alaska's back country.

I have an ambitious spirit and the city calls to me with a different type of mountain to climb. I am drawn to this challenge, but deep in my gut I crave real quiet and solitude. I don't know if I will ever feel settled in the city, or the south. All I know is I am an Alaskan in my deepest identity, and in my blood- with views of a snow covered Mount McKinley burned into my soul. I find adventure everywhere I go. I look at life from the point of view that everything is for a reason and the challenge and hardship means that the end result will be worth it, no matter how painful it can get. Everything has beauty, because "God made that!"