Thursday, October 15, 2009

In praise of muddy trails!

Sure, sea kayaking is pretty hard to beat but if there isn't time to get on the water or the weather conditions are on the "sketchy" side of being responsible, the second best thing is to find a muddy, mountain trail - and go for a run, or a hike! Gotta love that! Now that the rainy season has given us a taste of what's to come here on Canada's very own "Pacific Island", muddy trails ain't hard to find! So that's Joan in the pic, enjoying the mud, rocks, and roots of Mt. Tzouhalem.

There's something rather "therapeutic" about mud. Remember when you were young and how cool it was to get dirty? Well, maybe or maybe not, but I certainly do. It was like how you feel after an extremely productive and satisfying day at the office, or the way you feel when you put something back together again and there are no extra pieces lying around. It's just simply exhilerating having a good trail run and arriving home spattered with mud! In fact, there's a bit of a sense of accomplishment!

Why is it that we adults sometimes utter rather bleak-sounding warnings such as, "Don't get caught in the rain!" So what will happen if you did get, caught? Do the "rain police" issue a ticket or confiscate your running shoes? Would we be prone to shrinkage which, at my height, would make me extremely vulnerable?! And then there's, "watch the leaves, they're slippery!" In my mind, "slippery" is the way you describe the snow-packed trails in southern Alberta after they've been "caressed" by a few hours of warm chinook winds and then subjected to night-time lows of minus twenty. The result is - "SLIPPERY"! Why is it that as we grow older, we are increasingly vigilent about getting wet, or muddy, or finding ourselves stepping on wet leaves? Ever noticed that teenagers aren't much for wearing sophisticated, technical rain gear...and rarely come down with pnemonia? (Gotta admit though, I do like the technical outdoor gear!)

So there you have it, try out a muddy trail during a rainfall - it's absolutely soul cleansing and it's guaranteed to bring back some pretty cool memories! It's also a wholesome way to relieve a lot of that stress that builds up being adults! Heck, who's gonna see you anyway!

Really worth it,

Duncan.

5 comments:

  1. Yeah but who's gonna clean the mud off our shoes???
    L

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  2. I just wear 'em in the house, the mud eventually falls off.

    John C

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  3. Gee, never thought of that guess I could give it a try.
    L

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  4. Yeah now that you mention that John I bet that is exactly what Duncan does too...just wanders on it and lets it fall everywhere...such a messy guy!
    L

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  5. OK John and L, that was a serious entry!! Be kind!

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