Adventure

I've got to admit, taking time off to do an adventure vacation... my usual thing... not only brings my adrenaline way up but it gives me a goal to live for and train to.

I'm far too hyperactive to do a passive vacation where you stay home and rest, or drive to a touristy city and take a bus tour. I want to die spent.

Adventure vacations are just larger and grander versions of my usual weekend, where I'm glad it's Monday and back to work so I can rest. Thus my vacations are long strenuous mountain hikes or extra long bicycle rides which include overnights with wide variation... from the tent carried on my back to a hotel. In a long wilderness hike or bike, I usually lose a dozen pounds simply because I can't carry that much food. Road biking is not too bad, since along the road there is fast food and motels, and thus credit card camping is the norm.

Even day hikes or mountain biking can turn out to be strenuous. The temps were way above 100 degrees when hiking 15 miles from the North Rim of the Grand Canyon to Phantom Ranch in the gorge last summer and I chugged 3 beer before the rest of the group showed up. I rode a gorgeous canyon pass in Jackson Hole one hot summer a few years ago that took all day... when I finally got out and to a convenience store, I gulped a half-gallon of Gatorade. A 100 oz bladder only goes so far.

The allure is the challenge, and the opportunity to prove my fitness... in spite of injuries and accidents.


-© 2009 by Willy

P.S., and off to New Hampshire I go, hiking the White Mountains.