If you want adventure, you have to be willing to get lost

Hello Everyone,

I originally sent this email out on August 7th, 2014.

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Adventure is one of those things that has a pretty high reputation among aspirations. Unless you want to be a Jedi Knight, in which case it's verboten.

If someone says they seek adventure, that is seen as a good and perhaps even noble pursuit. Adventurers discover new things, have fun, get exercise, and don't live the mundane.

But nothing is an unalloyed good. There is a cost to adventuring.

Specifically: you have to be willing to be lost once and awhile. Also, the bugs are pretty bad, no matter where you go adventuring. Bring good bug juice, that's a basic rule of adventure.

Recently, Chris and I adopted the adventuring lifestyle by attempting to discover a little known hiking trail near Charleston Lake and trying to ride it with our mountain bikes. The trail is called the Blue Mountain Trail, which makes the use of our mountain bikes a bit more sensible that it might seem at first. That being said, 'mountain' might be a bit of an exaggeration, so it's a bit of a toss up on how good of an idea this is. This 'mountain' is certainly the highest point around, so it kinda qualifies for the name, but it's more of a case of the one-eyed man being king in the land of the blind.

The first thing we did was miss the trailhead when we went by it, sending us down two different, and completely wrong, paths. The first led to a farm, which was quite obviously not our destination. The second was more insidious. It kind of seemed like it could be the trail we were after, except it was very muddy. It got to the point of being completely bogged out at some points, and eventually led to a pond. We weren't expecting Everest, but a pond is about the opposite of a mountain.

We could have given up then, but that's not the adventurer spirit. On our way back down the lane that led back to the car, we noticed the actual trailhead. It's the kind of situation where it will seem blindingly obvious every time we take that trail from now on, but trust us that at the time, it was easy to miss.

The correct trail was exactly what we hoped for. It was fun to ride, and took us to the top of the 'mountain' from which we could see the entire countryside. It was beautifully clear and warm. We had the perfect vantage point, and we would have missed it if we had accepted failure on our first or second attempts at finding it.

So, even if you end up on the wrong path now and again, don't let yourself get down. And don't be too embarrassed if you missed an obvious turn. It evidently happens to the best of us. The trip is usually worth it in the end. And seriously, bring some bug juice, they are ferocious.

wes