Monday, July 4, 2011

Misery Makes Good Adventures Memorable

Poison Ivy
A couple of weeks ago this adventurer/explorer went hiking in one of the local State Parks, Mount Spokane.  It is always a nice place to hike with a spectacular view from any one of the three main peaks of the flatlands of Eastern Washington and the mountainous regions of Northern Idaho.  For added pleasure there are a few geocaches to seek out and open.  One of the drawbacks to hiking in the Spokane area is the space around cliff faces and stream banks sometimes has an obnoxious little plant known as Poison Ivy.

Early in the Spring Poison Ivy has not yet shown it's leaves of three, if you haven't heard that little rhyme it goes like this: "leaves of three leave it be".  The danger to this is you can wander into a patch collect the irritating oil on your skin an not know it for five to fifteen days when a wonderfully bright and itchy rash appear on your flesh.

Was the adventure worth the suffering and irritation?  Yes.  Sometimes an adventure involves unforeseen consequences eg. being soaking wet and cold, getting snowed on in mid August, getting a case of poison Ivy while searching out a treasure, etc...  The fact is, these miserable circumstances only make the adventure more memorable and in a lot of cases more story worthy.  I am certainly not suggesting that an adventurer go out looking for misery only that learning to accept it as a possible consequence and an added attraction to any good outdoor story is part of the adventure.  

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