Have You Adventured Today?

What Will You Remember? Adventure

When I hear a Van Halen, Pink Floyd, Rush (etc.) song, it brings back memories. It is largely that sentimental side of me that keeps me coming back to those old playlists. Now when I hear MCR, Green Day, Linkin Park, I get that same rush! Why is that? Memories and adventure. Every one of those songs comes back to me and reminds me of past of concerts, soccer trips, wakeboarding, and other epic adventures. When I hear “Everybody wants you!”, I remember my good and hilarious friend from high school…she and I would always find each other at the HS dance to crazy it out to that tune. Thank you for that fun memory Nancy!

How many times do you fondly look back on that time you sat on the couch with your coffee watching Fox News Sunday? Or maybe Oprah and a beer? Wait, wut? Never?! When we are collecting memories that we can play back fondly later in life, what is the common theme? I submit to you that it is basically one thing: Adventure. Adventure raises our adrenaline and helps us to stick those memories deep in our brain. Whatever brings those memories back, a particular song, smell, taste, weather, or place…those are only the vectors. What powers those memories is your adventure at the time.

Adventure Now!!

One of my best lifelong friends has a sort of mantra that he has followed through life. “Let’s make some stories”. Man, Loren has it right! We need those memories and those stories to enjoy with each other later in life. I miss my friends, but those memories bring them right back instantly. So, my view on all of this: find a way to make new memories now. Look for every micro-adventure or even epic adventure you can possibly get your mitts on and just do it! I will never forget a particular spring day with about 10 pals at a local creek with a frisbee and a coupla cases of beer. Half gals, half guys, and we just had the best day enjoying the spring weather, beers, and camaraderie. That’s all it took.

My wife and I do this today. A simple impromptu fishing trip is enough to build adventure and memories. Hell, I bowl so infrequently now that a trip to the lanes would generate new memories! No matter what you consider to be adventure, get off your ass and go for it. The smiles and fun will be worth it no matter what, but you will inevitably develop some new fond memories as a result. This is kind of a free-spirit post today…maybe just some random thoughts, but I believe every word here.

Some Micro-Adventure Examples

My micro-adventures probably are not yours. When I say that a half-day fishing trip does it for me, maybe it actually is a trip to the local bowling alley for you. Perhaps it is a literal Sunday drive to a place you love and haven’t been to in a while. Maybe it is taking your son or daughter to the lake or even just a night out with your husband or wife. Adventures don’t have to be epic multi-day themes like hiking, vacations, paddles, campouts, or road trips. Maybe your adventure is grabbing a couple of friends and going to a nearby town for breakfast. Just that simple road-trip may be enough. Add in your Harley’s or sprinter-van or whatever and you enhance the experience more perhaps.

For my wife and I, a trip to the golf course is an adventure because we don’t golf often at all. Maybe even if you golf every day it still qualifies as a memory-builder. I’m not saying memories are the only thing here…really more of a side-benefit. The real benefit is the joy and release of living your life one hundred percent in the present for a few hours. I’ve never worried about my job or taxes while landing a fish on a dry fly. The world’s worries evaporate from me on an elk hunt with my son or daughter. For me, just seeing a new stream, mountain, or desert is enough to fill me with joy and adventure. Make a list…what is your potential list of micro-adventures?

Epic Adventures!

Micro-adventures are awesome, but maybe you need an epic adventure every once in a while. I’ve already got several planned for this year:

• Hiking with my daughter at Havasupai, Bryce, Zion, and Escalante
• a multi-day self-support paddling trip with a lifelong friend and our gals on the East Fork of the Owyhee River
• multi-day camp with the same friend and our families
• a family cabin trip to McCall, Idaho this summer
• a seven-day adventure with my new packraft and some friends on the Middle Fork of the Salmon River
• a one-week archery rut bull elk hunt with my daughter
• rafting the Carson River
• a handful of concerts (if they happen) and
• my usual epic fun big game hunts with family.

Ok, now I admit I may be over-doing it, but guess what? I’m going to die someday. I’m dying. We are all dying. Can we all just agree to just go the hell out there and seize life by the (insert favorite mental image here)? Nobody ever wished on their deathbed to have not missed that one epic episode of Oprah (have they?)! Epic adventures are those that will rejuvenate you as they stack fond memories deep in the recesses of your mind. Don’t wake up some day and regret that you didn’t face that dream epic adventure, please.

What Adventure for You?

What should you be doing to seek adventure in your life? This is a very personal choice but make it a choice. What can you fit in? Shed hunting? Rock hounding? Maybe it is seeking rare books in used bookstores. Perhaps it is finding rare board games? Maybe you have always wanted to find gold nuggets or fossils? If you are a hunter, maybe photography can help you to fill the time scouting and being outdoors?

My wife and I bought a wakeboarding boat years ago. We could see that we weren’t getting those epic family vacations to Greece and Italy to happen. Much of that was due to our kids’ involvement in sports and other activities. So we took the money we had ready for those vacations and plowed it into a really nice tow boat. What a brilliant move that turned out to be! Maybe 100 days of wake surfing, wakeboarding, tubing, and just enjoying our family and friends! Expensive? Yep, but no more expensive than 12 years of family vacations that maybe wouldn’t even have happened. We could see that weekends were easy to come by, but two-week periods were not. Adventure!

Just Do it

Yeah, damned Nike and their now cliché “Just do it!” campaign, right? Wrong. They had it right all along. Now, I’m encouraging you to start some lists. What are those micro-adventures you want to tick off your list? Get together with friends and family and come up with that list. While you are at it, start building the epic adventure list too. My Owyhee River trip this spring all started with me and my buddy sitting around the campfire talking about things we would like to do. Now it is becoming reality.

Make your lists and then keep them. Add to them, subtract from them, but most of all…check the boxes off!! Make adventure a key part of your life. It will inspire reading, research, and planning that may end up being half of the fun. For me a rainy day represents time to research hunting areas, backpacks, reloading data, kayak paddles, and maps. My future adventures give me so much fun in the planning and scheming phase, sometimes even more than the actual adventure! Give it a try. Get some micro-adventures in now, while you plan and scheme for those epic times ahead. Involve those you love and make some memories, or as my life-long friend would say: MAKE NEW STORIES!!!