Did I ever let you know concerning the time I needed to sleep in a cave? OK “needed to” most likely isn’t the best time period. I wished to sleep within the cave. Sleeping within the cave was an integral a part of my three-day bike-packing journey. Hell, it was one of many promoting factors I used to persuade two buddies to hitch me on this jaunt up and down Mount Mitchell, the tallest mountain on the east coast.
“Dude, we’ll sleep in a cave. Will probably be epic,” I stated.
This wasn’t the primary cave I’d slept in. There was the large, hole room within the aspect of a cliff in Utah, roughly the scale of a suburban Atlanta McMansion, that housed a distinct mountain bike crew, however that was extra of an AirBnB form of factor. We really rented that cave. There was an outhouse close by. I truthfully don’t keep in mind a lot about that have, however the cave on my Mount Mitchell journey is completely imprinted on my mind. There wasn’t a flat spot lengthy sufficient to comprise my sleeping pad inside that tiny cave, and it was situated proper subsequent to a creek that was rising quicker than I preferred throughout an all-night thunderstorm. I didn’t get a lot sleep. Protected against the rain, I sat watching the creek degree rise and the lightning solid unnerving shadows within the woods surrounding us.
I’ll always remember that evening, however what’s odd is that I contemplate sleeping in that cave to be one of many highlights of that individual journey. Possibly the spotlight. The mountain biking was nice, notably the practically four-mile downhill off the sting of Mount Mitchell by way of Heartbreak Path, however nothing stands out fairly as vividly as that chilly evening once I was apprehensive about drowning in my sleep. However right here’s the kicker: I take into consideration that depressing evening fondly.
Why does the discomfort of an journey persist with us? And what occurs in our mind the place we come round to remembering that discomfort as a superb factor?
My spouse and I took our children on a month-long street journey by way of the Rockies and Southwest after they have been youthful, and the one factor my daughter remembers is getting caught in a sandstorm whereas climbing in Utah’s Lifeless Horse Level State Park. It was a scary second on the time—there have been tears—however she smiles and will get animated when she talks about it now. Why wasn’t the view from Lifeless Horse Level, which is actually on postcards, as memorable because the whipping sands? Why don’t I keep in mind the adrenaline rush of the seemingly limitless downhill of my Mount Mitchell journey as a lot as I do not forget that evening within the cave?
I did a multi-day hut to hut bike packing journey in Oregon as soon as that had epic views of Mount Hood and among the greatest bike-specific singletrack I’ve ever ridden. Know what I keep in mind most? Hiding out in a forest service outhouse attempting to flee a random snowstorm. My spouse and I took our children to paddle board Bear Lake in Nantahala Nationwide Forest, which is a good looking physique of water surrounded by lush forest and the occasional waterfall. I keep in mind having to ditch our paddle boards and cram right into a granite overhang to keep away from a vicious thunderstorm that hit mid-paddle. If it weren’t for the images I took, I wouldn’t keep in mind the paddle or the lake in any respect.
I’m no psychologist, or sociologist, or any form of “-ologist,” however I believe the difficulties stand out as a result of we crave discomfort. That’s a part of the enchantment of journey normally, proper? It offers us the uncommon probability to expertise hardship, even when it’s self-imposed. Let’s be trustworthy, most of us stay fairly cush lives. Probably the most uncomfortable factor that occurs to me throughout a typical day is my TV indicators me out of Netflix for no motive by any means and I’ve to search for the password once more.
Some of the heated debates I’ve had lately was whether or not or not a bidet is healthier than rest room paper. That’s the place we’re within the grand scheme of evolution; we’re refining methods to wipe our butts.
Tenting offers us an opportunity to eschew our climate-controlled homes and Sleep Quantity beds for a nylon tent and a sleeping pad that deflates in the course of the evening. Multi-day bike journeys give us an opportunity to bushwhack by way of miles of rhododendron and slog by way of a 20-mile climb, dying of thirst as a result of we forgot water. And people points of journey persist with us extra vividly than the views or the swoopy downhills and even the possibility to commune with nature as a result of it’s the discomfort that we’d like most of all. Just a bit bit. Each occasionally. Nature is nice, mountain biking is nice, path working and paddling are nice…however possibly the undervalued facet of all our favourite adventures is that they provide us moments of worry and starvation and exhaustion that aren’t out there to us in our every day lives. And people moments assist floor us and put our lives in context. Possibly these moments of discomfort even reset us a little bit bit, to the purpose the place we understand that getting signed out of Netflix isn’t that large of a deal.
Abruptly, I’ve the urge to discover a new cave to sleep in and make one other reminiscence.
Cowl photograph courtesy of the writer
