AUTHOR’S NOTE: This column is intended to be entertaining at the expense of truth and accuracy, but I sneak in some good information as well. It is up to the reader to distinguish between entertainment and reality.
Q: Why do you paddle?
A: To enjoy peace with nature, away from all of the crowds, commotion and congestion:
Q: What is a “bus stop”?
A: This is a term borrowed from the rafting community and applies only to multi-person vessels. It is much more descriptive of what happens on a commercial guided rafting expedition, where everyone but the guide gets dumped in the water. Also known as “last stop” (everyone out but the driver).
Q: Do you notice any juxtapositions in our paddling world?
A: Why yes, I do. For me, paddling is a relaxing, regenerative experience, providing time and space for lollygagging and taking photos, occasionally enlivened with the thrilling acceleration provided by nature in the riffles. For others, like Bruce and his minions, it is a challenging, skill-building slog requiring stamina, contortions and endurance.
A (continued): Canoeing can be relaxing and regenerative. The ladies pictured above and below are choosing to make it a challenge for no apparent reason (there are no obstacles to avoid with these extreme maneuvers in the middle of a calm lake), and with no foreseeable advantages resulting from their skillful application of physics and body mechanics (they won’t end up with a better view or closer proximity to wildlife). A complete waste of energy…
Q: What is the strangest canoe design you have seen?
A: This one:
Q: Thinking about the role that photographs play in our community, what did Ansel Adams say that would be relevant to paddling?
A: It so happens that Ansel had quite a bit to say that is relevant to paddlers, paddling and the things that make paddling so important in our lives.
“A great photograph is a full expression of what one feels about what is being photographed in the deepest sense and is thereby a true expression of what one feels about life in its entirety.”
“Sometimes I arrive just when God's ready to have someone click the shutter.”
“The whole world is, to me, very much "alive" - all the little growing things, even the rocks. I can't look at a swell bit of grass and earth, for instance, without feeling the essential life - the things going on - within them. The same goes for a mountain, or a bit of the ocean, or a magnificent piece of old wood.”
“There are always two people in every picture: the photographer and the viewer.”
“Every experience is a form of exploration.”
“It is horrifying that we have to fight our own government to save the environment.”
“How high your awareness level is determines how much meaning you get from your world.”
“Let us leave a splendid legacy for our children...let us turn to them and say, this you inherit: guard it well, for it is far more precious than money...and once destroyed, nature's beauty cannot be repurchased at any price.”
“I believe the world is incomprehensibly beautiful - an endless prospect of magic and wonder.”
Q: What is a lizard tail, as mentioned in Tom Douglas’s trip report this month?
A: It is the body part that sticks out behind the legs of a lizard (duh). To make sure there is no confusion about this, I submit the following illustration:
WORD OF THE MONTH: Fossick, fossicking
Definition: rummage, search
Used in a sentence: It is entertaining to watch sandpipers fossicking for food. Also, during Christmas Bird Counts, or any bird count for that matter, the idea is to fossick for birds and point them out to Bruce, so he doesn’t miss any.
GOOD ONE:
MUG O’ THE MONTH:
OVERHEARD . . .
PARTING THOUGHT:
