Pareidolia on canoe trips

[Steve in Idaho]

Now remembering the first time I camped next to the upper SF Payette. As I settled into my bag waiting to drift off to sleep, I thought I heard some large hooved creature walking on the rocks. As I listened intently, I imagined there was a moose ambling along the river bank. The cadence of the sound was too slow and too random though. It took me way longer than it should have to realize that what I was hearing, combined with the sound of rushing water, was melon sized rocks that were making their slow migration downstream - one muffled clack at a time.

 

[Penns Woods]

The closest I ever came was when I was camped in my canvas wall tent next to Pine Creek here in Pa The tent has no floor and any critter can easily pass under the canvas wall into the tent. Just as I was about to fall asleep I remembered This area is know for rattle snakes. Suddenly I was wide awake and didn't get much sleep for the rest of the night. I just knew one of those snakes was going to crawl under the side and into bed with me. Nothing happened that night but I made a quick get away in the morning.

 

[ppine]

Yes. I have spent a lot of time working in the outdoors. Some of the work was tedious and repetitious. The mind starts to fill in the blanks. Understanding ecosystems involves a lot of pattern recognition. Deep thinking out there in the Big Wide Open can cause ones mind to wander. I have had what I would call mild hallucinations. Time and space can become indistinct. The present gets mixed up with the past.

Moving water, 100 miles vistas, being perched on steep mountains, etc speeds up the process. It makes it more intense. White water has mesmerized me from a young age. Great Falls of the Potomac was the first place I felt it.

In high school a friend slipped a fell in a side channel at Great Falls in February. He was swimming sold Class III rapids in street clothes. We ran down the bank trying to find him. There were no cell phones. We had to find a pay phone for rescue. There was no swift water rescue in 1966. The fire dept tried to reach him with a ladder which failed. Finally he managed to climb onto an island. A helicopter saved his life.

My friend was an ocean life guard and a surfer. I do not know anyone that could have survived that swim except him. It seemed surreal. His Mom found out about his adventure watching the local news.

A life well lived involves some risk. A life in the outdoors creates many challenges. Some of them are strictly mental, and experience allows us to control our fear, anxiety and trepidation. I would not trade a life outdoors for anything. Its November, when is the next trip?