| My own wild adventures include summiting Mount | | | | garbage bag bivy sack, covering my head with |
| Chimborazo in Ecuador (20,600 feet, the last | | | | my small umbrella. The next unpredictable event |
| 4,000 feet over glaciers), getting lost in the | | | | was a large white-tail deer that almost stepped on |
| mountains of Colorado, and kayaking days from | | | | me in darkness. His snorting scared me half to |
| the nearest road in Canada, in six-foot Lake | | | | death. When morning came, it was still raining. |
| Superior waves. I may have had more of these | | | | It was a thunderstorm, actually, and I might have |
| trips if I had more money years ago. And of | | | | waited, but unlike a tent, a plastic bivy sack |
| course time can be an issue when you want to | | | | doesn't have enough space to do anything. I |
| have some adventure. | | | | decided it was time to go home, so I bundled up |
| The good news is that some wild adventures | | | | my things, got into the cold river, and climbed |
| aren't expensive or in far-away places. There is | | | | onto the tube. The storm got worse. |
| plenty of fun and excitement near home, if you | | | | I was soon past the wild stretch of river, and I |
| look. | | | | began to drift by beautiful homes that sat along |
| My Dirtbagging Adventure | | | | the banks. I was on my tube, wearing a heavy |
| What is dirtbagging? It is simply stripping camping | | | | sweater, umbrella overhead, trying to stay warm |
| or backpacking down to its essentials. You throw | | | | and dry. Dawn came late because of the storm, |
| some things in any old pack or duffel bag, and get | | | | and I watched people drinking their morning |
| out there. Forget the extensive planning or fancy | | | | coffee through the windows of lighted kitchens. |
| equipment. Leave extra clothes behind, sleep in a | | | | Occasionally, some looked up from their breakfast |
| pile of leaves or next to a fire, and use your wits | | | | and saw me in a flash of lightning. I waved and |
| instead of your wallet for a change. | | | | floated by. |
| For example, my own dirtbagging trip started with | | | | Not wanting to put my hands into the icy water, I |
| a bus ride near Traverse City, Michigan (where I | | | | quickly learned how to steer through the rapids |
| lived at the time), to the end of the line. I pushed | | | | using only my feet as paddles. I portaged around |
| the rubber tube ahead of me onto the bus, and | | | | a dam, through knee-deep mud that nearly took |
| the driver looked at that and at my small day | | | | one of my shoes. Finally, just before noon, I |
| pack with a laugh. I got off the bus in a wooded | | | | scrambled up the steep bank near the house. I |
| area, then walked another half-mile to get to the | | | | walked down the street in the rain, carrying my |
| Boardman River, where the road crossed it. | | | | umbrella, my pack, and my rubber tube, hoping |
| I had a homemade plastic bivy sack, a small | | | | the neighbors were still asleep. |
| umbrella, some snacks, and a few warm things to | | | | Other Wild Adventures |
| wear to bed instead of using a sleeping bag. I | | | | My friends and I used to drive to a big river an |
| kept everything in a bundle on my lap as I floated | | | | hour away, park the car, and hike upstream for |
| down the river sitting in the inner tube, my butt | | | | an hour or more. We would then build a raft of |
| and my feet in the water the whole time. I | | | | dead trees and float back to the car on it, which |
| steered as necessary with my hands. | | | | sometimes involved falling off and chasing the |
| As evening approached, the trout surfaced | | | | raft. These trips were named "Tom Sawyer |
| everywhere. I watched deer jump back from the | | | | Day," and I even did one trip where I took my |
| riverbank as I floated past. Prehistoric-looking blue | | | | bicycle twenty miles down the river on a |
| herons hunted for fish along the edges of the | | | | homemade raft, through the Manistee National |
| river. I feasted on wild strawberries and other wild | | | | Forest. |
| plants whenever I took a break. I didn't need to | | | | Other ideas? Get a book on wild edible plants and |
| paddle much, instead just going with the flow of | | | | take a short survival trek in the nearest woods. |
| the river, relaxing, and even closing my eyes for | | | | Organize your own adventure race with friends. |
| a few minutes during the calmer stretches. But | | | | Get on a bicycle, start peddling, and see where |
| the trip still had the element of unpredictability, | | | | you end up in the next day (bring food and water |
| and thus adventure. | | | | or take a route that has stores). If you use your |
| The first unpredictable event was the rain. It | | | | imagination you can always find some wild |
| started when I set up camp, and continued for | | | | adventures that don't require traveling far or |
| the next twelve hours. I barely stayed dry in my | | | | spending a lot of money. |