This weekend we didn’t go camping. We wanted to, but all the campsites up our favorite mountain valleys were full. But it wasn’t a camping fail…
We grapple with the new world order of crowds in the outdoors. We have strategies to avoid crowds, which involve rigorous studies of maps and time devoted to exploration of certain areas. Areas we come to know really well through wondering what’s in that next valley over. A valley with no trails according to All Trails, but we see the trail and so we venture into the valley and see what there is to see.
Learning to pivot
And so these days we have lost interest in driving for hours to find a campsite, in the name of spending time outdoors.
But we went for one heck of a hike and spent time by the river. A hike where the wildflowers were taller than West, taller than Greg and I in some places.
And we took one of those trails not found on All Trails. A trail that led from one of the more popular hikes in our town to a deserted mountain basin, an epic red mountain overhead, flowers upon flowers, endless views of our favorite range.
We sat while West explored his new mode of travel – aka bipedal movement. He stumbled over the rocky terrain, Nalgene in hand, a true mountain baby.
That’s all to say, baby or not, oftentimes things don’t go according to plan for us.
We all know the outdoors can be fickle that way, but more often than not when things don’t go our way, we find a worthy alternative.
Our mission is always the same, get outside, be with the trees, put our feet in the river. There is more than one way to be outside, all of them good.
