A different way to judge travel

Our oldest son Paul is on Yellowstone Lake on a two-week canoe venture. It is his seventh canoe trip on the lake that lies within Yellowstone National Park.

He is alone in a part of the country where there are grizzly bear, moose, elk and deer. At night, while in his tent, he hears wolves howling.

He judges these kinds of trips on the benefit, rather than the difficulty.

And it defines such trips as being dropped in behind the Brooks Range in Alaska, where there are no roads, only the trails cut in the permafrost by migrating caribou.

He was airlifted in by float plane and dumped there with an inflatable rubber raft and a map showing where he needed to be on a certain date for extraction by the same plane.

He has taken long (40-50 mile) hikes in the North Cascades, Glacier National Park, Yellowstone and the Grand Canyon. He explains that difficulty is not the deciding factor, but rather the benefits.

His wife, Cindy, has best described him as being born in the wrong generation. She says he is an explorer, better suited with Lewis and Clark than in today’s world.

He goes to Yellowstone to snowshoe in the winter, and when the two go to Stehiken, Cindy goes up Lake Chelan by boat; he hikes in from the west side, and they meet at the ranch there.

It’s just the opposite method I use to judge when making a trip. Difficulty is my main deciding issue, nuts to any benefit.

I’ve done a bit of traveling, myself. In my distant travels, I study the country I plan to visit, taking into account travel laws and customs.

I have little time for those who go into other countries and flaunt their laws and customs.

I’ve talked with Paul to get him interested in foreign travel and he simply replies that there’s too much to see here in our own country.

His canoe trips include going down the Green River and ending up in the Colorado River, plus a slug of float trips.

For this trip on the Yellowstone Lake, he packed two packs of supplies and what he can fit in his backpack. The packs are waterproof and just fit into his canoe, a new lightweight canoe that weighs in under 40 pounds.

This time he has packed an extra five dinners. He camps in designated lone campsites, elevates his food to keep bears from taking it. He fishes for some of his meals and says the fish will hit any lures you put into the water.

My last communication was that he was ready to put his 17-foot canoe into the water. There’s no cell phone service on the lake, but in case of emergencies he packs a small radio that is connected to the ranger station in Yellowstone. I have a difficult time finding some of the benefits he comes by naturally.

He might get his urge to travel from me, but not the difficult choices.

I had some difficult times, like in Vietnam and Cambodia, but had prepared in advance for them.

Now, as always, it’s the long wait until he gets to where there is cell phone service. 

I still have a difficult time finding the benefits in trips like this. I just think of the difficulties.