We all have stories about our first times.
One of my favorite things to watch are those moments of trepidation expressed by someone who has never - ever - been in a packraft, but suddenly finds himself deep in a wilderness, far from a road, and wondering how the heck he got to this point. It's as if he's saying, "Oh my God - what have I agreed to? I have zero boating experience and I'm about to get into - and captain - my own boat in a place where rescue is nearly impossible."
I love watching people go through that!
Not because I love watching people go through miserable emotional experiences - quite the contrary - but because I love seeing the satisfaction they get fifty miles later when they've battled rapids, freezing rain, grizzly encounters, and logjams - and battled them with grace and toughness and celebration!
It would be neat if we could watch everyone battle their life struggles with such vigor. Perhaps these lessons and the people that learn them comprise the more valuable reasons to preserve wilderness, than to do so for wilderness' sake alone.
Photo: Matt V. taking a deep breath, about to enter Danaher Creek in a packraft for the first time, deep in the heart of the Bob Marshall Wilderness, July 2009. Sigma DP2. Ryan Jordan photo.
Been there, but in a canoe - the emotional trauma is only exceeded by the joyous levitation that comes with experience.
Posted by: Matt Lutz | August 25, 2009 at 09:56 AM
true, very true.
Posted by: Ryan Tucker | August 25, 2009 at 11:07 AM
Very true. You feel the joy of the mentor and the person experiencing their "first time" learns something new and special about themselves. Great feelings on both sides.
I'd live to get that "first time" packraft feeling. My little experience has been tame and, in a way more important. Solo. Sure that makes for a first time experience but some experienced are better shared and only in part because I'd learn morexwith a good mentor.
Maybe some day (hint hint).
Posted by: Ken knight | August 29, 2009 at 10:59 AM