When I write about a hike it is always with an attempt to make it coherent and interesting. For someone reading a post coherency is quite important, you won’t understand what I’m trying to say if it’s confusing or unstructured. I have found, however, the truth of hiking (and just being me in general) is that chaos is a far more common reality. When I leave the house I usually only have a vague idea of where I’m going to go, when I park the bike I may go fifty meters and not make a photograph, or I might sit and look at an attractive though non-photogenic scene (hard to describe and boring for all but me while I’m actually there) or I might walk for several kilometers because some distant feature has caught my eye and I’ve become curious. Occasionally I get part way to a spot only to have it begin raining which yields a big flop. Sometimes I am blown away by what I find. Sometimes I’m pleased with an accomplishment such as a long bicycle ride. Mostly I make sense of it after the fact and I leave out the boring, negative, unappealing details. If a hike turns out not to be interesting I don’t mention it at all.
There’s a lot I don’t write about. For example, Carol and I walk almost every day. We walk the same shoulder of highway, often at night, and through the winter months, always at night. 2 kilometers minimum if the weather is bad, if we are pressed for time, or if we are not feeling motivated. We aim for 5 which takes about an hour and provides a reasonable amount of exercise, fresh air and relaxation.
Another thing I tend not to write about is exemplified by Friday afternoon. It was a series of events with no story line, no pay off at the end, yet for me, well worth doing and rather typical, I think, of the sort of thing that makes an active lifestyle work. It is impossible to incorporate a big hike into an ordinary workday when the sun sets at 4:30 pm. People pressed for time simply aren’t going to do time consuming hikes or activities. My dilemma is not being able to say much about the little everyday activities that keep life interesting and keep me in shape…things anyone can incorporate into their day no matter how busy.
On Friday I hopped on the motorcycle and went for a ride with an hour left before sunset. It was cold. I dressed well and remained comfortable. I’ve seen this stretch of Route 16 a thousand times and photographed nearly everything of interest. It’s hard to get excited, and hard to write about not being excited. Still, much of life is lived within ordinary, unspectacular circumstances no matter what you do. The problem is not doing something because you decide in advance it is too boring and therefore not worthwhile. These are the thoughts that cause us to stay home, procrastinate, make excuses.
There is value in doing something even if it isn’t exciting. Getting Out of the House is important. It is the first step. It is important to remain open to doing small, aimless, improvised things otherwise you will fall into the trap of doing nothing while waiting for the next big activity to come along. I came very close to doing nothing because I didn’t have enough time to orchestrate something ‘real’ or ‘blogworthy’ .
My ride to Fox Island was basically not worth writing about. Sitting on the rocks by the bay for ten minutes was certainly a fine experience (at a personal level for me) but the sun had swung so far south I didn’t really get to watch it set. Sitting is sitting. My crazy internal dialogues aren’t suited to an activity blog so I’m restricted to relating external circumstances: I sat for awhile, the sky was nice.
And then I scooted home (heater grips ablaze) in the dark. End of story. Yes I enjoyed the ride but it’s tough to convey that to a general public who mostly think the machines are too dangerous.
The main reason I ended up in Fox Island was the possibility of making some photos. As I rode along I kept my eyes open for things to photograph. My mind was busy thinking. Eventually it occurred to me that I might have some luck on the rocks at Fox Island. I wanted to blur the water in a some photographs using long exposures. I would never have thought to do this sitting home in front of a computer screen.
My attempts really didn’t turn out, there were almost no waves. I’ll try again, of course, but I’m not inclined to write about failing or coming away with shots not ready for prime time. For every photo you see there are dozens on the cutting room floor.
So in not saying much about my late afternoon early winter motorcycle ride to Fox Island I am trying to make an important point: Get Out of the House anyway. Go. Do. It doesn’t matter how modest or seemingly pointless the activity. I sometimes think my blog defeats its own purpose by suggesting the only worthwhile activities are those that are impressive for one reason or another. I think the opposite is true but it’s difficult to articulate how and why this is so.
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