Dave,
Solo tripping can be eerie.
You're so focused on what's around you, and it isn't always that familiar, like back home (Sounds your house always make fade into the background, birds around the house aren't heard unless you want to hear them.) Had that immature eagle been a starling, you probably wouldn't have noticed, but in the woods, fight or flight is very real. {You probably already knew that a bird as big as an eagle can't fly on wing strength alone - needs air under the wing surface as well as wing strength (Venturi, Bernouilli, all those scientists). The bird was just taking off when you spooked it, not (probably not) making an attack. Or, the Menegishi put it up to scaring you.}

My first trip to Quetico, I got badly spooked when a Coleman lantern ran out of gas - the familiar sound abruptly quit and I was suddenly alone in the wilderness.

This past August, solo on the Churchill River, I was watching the full moon and the aurora, hoping to hear wolves, and suddenly got the coldest chills I've ever felt.

Why?
I've done this before, I'm not all that far from civilization, and I'm seeing the things I came out here to see. I miss my friends, but I'm not a rookie, here.

But the sounds of the river are different, the spruce is contracting because of the day/night temp difference, and I'm so ALIVE - I notice it all, rather than blocking out the familiar noises as I do at home.

I didn't run for the tent like I did when the gas ran out. I guess I knew I was OK out on the rock. Maybe the spirits came and calmed me.

I don't know, but I can't wait to do it again.

Posted by Skip Guyer on March 05, 2000 at 07:55