Embracing the Unusual
It was a collection of questionable choices that led me so far, looking at a fork within the highway, questioning which path to go. I sit on my bike, take a look at my map, and surprise why the path I had simply ridden is nowhere to be discovered on the piece of paper. I do know the path was actual. I rode it. It was exhausting. I needed to get off my bike and push a number of instances. The ache continues to be lingering in my legs, however there’s no black or blue line on the map representing that ache visually, so I don’t know which path I ought to pedal on this highway. I’m already late. The solar is beginning to set. I used to be alleged to be again at camp an hour in the past, and if I select the improper path, I’ll be pushing my bike again to the tent at nighttime.
It’s exhausting to pinpoint the precise second when a state of affairs turns south. I prefer to suppose it’s a set of poor choices that probably culminate with me discovering my approach by way of the woods like a blind man studying braille. Pedaling up a path with no marker, not placing a headlamp in my backpack, selecting to knock out a “fast loop” earlier than dinner with no stable understanding of the native path system…all of those choices have helped inform my predicament, however finally, I’m on this pickle as a result of I made a decision to veer off my regular plan of action. That is what I get for attempting one thing new.
I’m a sucker for consistency. I thrive in routine. Similar cup of espresso every day whereas watching the identical sports activities information present on the identical time each morning. Similar lunch-break exercise. Similar tacos on Tuesday. I run the identical 3.5-mile loop 3 times every week and bike the identical highway/gravel route round city twice every week. I stroll the canine across the block in the identical path, say hey to the identical neighbors. It’s ironic, contemplating I make a portion of my dwelling by writing about touring to new locations, however the reality is, I’m at my greatest once I’m planted firmly within the heart of my consolation zone.
However right here I’m, in the course of a spur-of-the-moment, one-night tenting journey in a bit of Pisgah that I hardly ever set foot in, as a result of my daughter requested me to take her tenting with a few her pals. Positive, the dads had been solely invited on this journey to drive the automobile, arrange the tents, and cook dinner the meals—we’re like unpaid Sherpas—and the women in all probability would’ve gone on their very own if we’d enable them to hitchhike and simply eat Twizzlers for dinner, however I’m not going to let the reality get in the way in which of how I’ll keep in mind this example once I’m on my deathbed. In my revisionist historical past mind, I’ll recount this story because the time my teenage daughter requested me to go tenting together with her.
So I didn’t give it a second thought when she stated the plan from the opposite dads was to camp on a creek in a bit of the forest I had by no means explored earlier than. I couldn’t pack the truck quick sufficient. Visions of high quality father/daughter time danced by way of my head. We’d inform ghost tales round a campfire. We’d identify constellations within the sky. I’d present her methods to fish with a spear. By no means thoughts the truth that I don’t know methods to interpret the evening sky or spear a fish…I’d wing it.
As an alternative, I’m in the course of the woods, pedaling what is bound to be the improper approach up a gravel highway, and it’s all as a result of we veered from the strange and I received misplaced.
Every part about this journey is totally different. As an alternative of lugging the entire household tenting, it’s simply the 2 of us. I let my daughter decide the menu for dinner, so as a substitute of the pan-fried pizzas I usually make, we’ll have hen teriyaki bowls with contemporary fruit, if I ever get again to camp to make it. Contemporary fruit whereas tenting! Have you ever ever heard of such a factor?! The paths are unusual. They’re additional bumpy, like path crews added further roots and rocks. And as I’ve said, they’re not all the time on the map. Even the wildlife are totally different on this a part of the forest. The ferns are greater, like one thing out of Jurassic Park, and the squirrels are bizarre. A few of them are white. Native legend has it {that a} pair of albino squirrels escaped from a carnival truck a long time in the past and bred like bunnies within the woods.
Silly white squirrels. Silly path that doesn’t exist on the map. I suppose it’s my fault for placing the mountain bike on the again of my truck so I might do “a fast spin” earlier than dinner. There aren’t any fast spins in Pisgah. A mile-long path might take you half a day if you happen to’re sick geared up or unprepared. I’m typically each of these issues.
At any level throughout my bike trip, I might’ve simply rotated and retraced my steps again to the campsite and the start of that fictional path, assuming I don’t break by way of the area/time continuum by doing so. This fast spin has was an epic journey as a result of I’m an fool and I in all probability have a number of miles to pedal earlier than I get again to the campsite to cook dinner my daughter dinner. I hope I’m not lacking any ghost tales.
Simply as I’m feeling extremely sorry for myself, the gravel slog transforms right into a circulate downhill on a path that cuts a slim path by way of the dense forest. After all of the unhealthy choices, all the white squirrels and fictional trails, I’ve a stable three or 4 miles of heart-pounding downhill with drops and quick turns that sneak up on me once I open up the throttle a bit an excessive amount of. The path traces the sting of a creek, which will get greater as I proceed down the slope, till I notice this is similar creek that runs beside our campsite. This lovely, downhill path is taking me on to my daughter, and I make it again to the campsite earlier than darkish and see that she’s been busy doing laps together with her pals on a small sliding rock a couple of hundred yards upstream from our tent. She hasn’t even seen I used to be gone.
We’ll have her rice bowls that evening, and I’ll marvel at how fantastic contemporary fruit tastes in the course of the woods. I gained’t have the ability to level out the celebrities to her as a result of that’s not a ability I possess, however I’ll retrace my bike trip from earlier within the day, drawing within the fictional path on the map, and highlighting the path I took on the gravel highway and placing a star subsequent to the flowy downhill that introduced me again to the beginning. I need to do this trip once more. I need to add it to my routine and produce it into my consolation zone.
That is what I get for attempting new issues.
Cowl photograph courtesy of the creator
