The benefits of being lost and bored

[Chase]

This has happened recently on a couple of occasions while out hiking by myself. There's something uniquely meaningful about feeling like you've discovered something, totally by accident, instead of reaching it via some prescribed route that you've memorized and navigated directly to. Not to diminish that experience in any way, since it's also rewarding to set a goal and reach it as planned.

Yesterday I put together a roughly 10-mile hiking loop at the coast that mostly used trail but there was one off-trail section that started off through lovely sand dunes then took me into a gnarly bit of scrubby vegetation that was taking over the sand. I saw more animal tracks on that short off-trail hike than I think I ever have anywhere, ever. Bird, rodent, snake and even bear tracks! My phone battery was low so I couldn't use the GPS app, just navigated by sight and the sound of the ocean. Really incredible.

It's so anti- where civilization is going. Few people "get it" when I try to share these experiences and how meaningful they were to me. Do you have the same issue? It's hard to explain it to someone who's never gotten off the grid and explored on their own before. Is it even possible to communicate the value without having the experience yourself?

Chase, we totally need to hike together again so we can ponder the value of getting lost...

I like the question wondering if it is possible to communicate the value without having the experience yourself. It raises more questions!

[Chase]

Been reading Rinker Buck's beautifully written The Oregon Trail: A New American Journey and was struck by the short list of skills that he argues helped Marcus and Narcissa Whitman be successful as the first to bring wagons to Oregon in 1836, an unthinkable feat at the time, especially for a woman. The final item is "...and the ability to live with uncertainty."

I believe that ties to this discussion since part of the fear most people carry with them on any trail is one of "uncertainty." On the trail and initially as homesteaders, the Whitmans knew how to problem-solve and thus found a way to combat whatever happened in five minutes or five weeks. Lost, bored, whatever... That wasn't an obstacle they couldn't overcome.
Like the way other posts above show that some people can be out there with uncertainty, I will be mindful of that word on my next few solo hikes.

[by 1846 Marcus Whitman screwed up a lot of things and it got him killed, but that's not related to this point.]

[jessbee]

Chase I've added that book to my reading list.

Meanwhile I came across this video today regarding overthinking and worry, and how we need to learn how to be ok with quiet, alone-time:
http://www.sciencedump.com/content/phil ... e-thinking

[Chase]

http://www.nature.com/news/why-boredom- ... ng-1.19140

There's an annual international conference on boredom!