Posts tagged #2016

ad·ven·ture - /adˈven(t)SHər,ədˈven(t)SHər/

 

Adventure Tuesday

"By replacing fear of the unknown with curiosity we open ourselves up to an infinite stream of possibility. We can let fear rule our lives or we can become childlike with curiosity, pushing our boundaries, leaping out of our comfort zones, and accepting what life puts before us" - Alan Watts

 
 

Adventuring

    These days many people are out and about in the world, adventuring, and then afterwards we like to share or experiences. Do you ever read about other peoples adventures and wish you were doing the same? I do all the time. What a lot of people fail to recognize is that most of our life is a big adventure. W always reminds me that "this is our Adventure, right here and right now". If you keep thinking about what you could be doing you are going to miss the biggest adventure of your life, your life! I am pretty sure all of us can think back to a time (or several times) when we did something adventurous. Now, the worst thing you can do is to compare yourself with others. I think this is a problem that is nowadays slowly increasing, because we get fed by Instagram and Facebook, and see pictures of all the awesome places people go to, and think "hey I wanna go there too". 

    Back in the day, before Instagram existed I would go on hikes and live my own little life in my bubble. I wouldn't think about my hiking as an adventure. Maybe because if you keep doing something on a regular basis it is not an adventure anymore, it becomes a habit? I couldn't care less about what other people did out in the world, because I didn't know about it. Am I the only one who look at other peoples Instagram feed or blogs in awe? I guess social media comes with a lot of packages. 

 
 

Adventure in Books  

    When I was browsing the internet world googling about adventuring I came across a few sites that are showing the usage of different words through time. So according to them, are we adventuring more or less nowadays?

 
 

Do we Adventure Less?   

    So, it seems like adventuring has decreased lately, well in the last 200 years? Maybe, maybe not. Question is how we define adventuring. I guess back in the day they wrote about the conquering of giant dragons and sea mammals in the ocean? In my opinion an adventure is what you make it. If you think something is an adventure you are probably right. The whole world can't have the same viewpoint of everything, nothing would be an adventure then. Someone who climbs Mt Everest might not think that going to the local park is an adventure. But Sam who's 5 years old might think the world of that park and call it an adventure. Or Christina who is 43 years old might call a hike in the small forest close to her house an adventure, because it includes things she wouldn't normally do in her day to day life, like jumping on stones to get across a creek.

Plus, a search on the statistics about google searches on adventures shows us:

 

 

Canoeing Adventure

 

I am a hiker/adventurer?

    The development of social apps has opened up the world of adventures for many people, but unfortunately it also opened up the world for criticism. Angeliqa wrote about that not to long ago in her Swedish hiking blog. People get judged for how they look (body appearance) when they go hiking, as if you wouldn't be enough of a hiker just because your body shape isn't representative of all the mindless mannequins in a store. Just because you don't look like you can run a marathon doesn't mean you can't, just because you look like you can run a marathon doesn't mean you are able to go hiking. Peoples perception are most often skewed, and if we fail to recognize that it can hit us hard, really really hard. Not everyone are able to let comments like that go by us without a batting of an eye. 

 

Solo bike adventure <20 minutes from a city

 

Hiking and Preparations    

    There are tons of right and wrongs when you go hiking, things you can do before hand to make it easier, gear you can wear or use to make it easier, but that doesn't mean that you have to have all that gear to be able to go hiking or go on an adventure. Hiking and adventuring is for everyone. The biggest preventer for me to go on an adventure right now is TIME. 

    What is your opinion about hiking and adventuring?

    Here is a positive thing about hiking, 

 
Posted on October 18, 2016 by Ann Rumbleinthearctic and filed under Adventure Tuesday, Alaska and tagged Adventurer Alaska Adventure 2016_2 Summer Adventures Life in Alaska 2016.

365 days ago - In Alaska

 

Flashback Friday

    I took a short break from the blog. I do spend a lot of time when I want to write on my blog. Sometimes I can think about a million things I want to talk about but lately I have been so busy. I just got a new job a few weeks ago and I am going to balance that (it's only 50%) with the writing of my dissertation... Anyway, I have been thinking a lot about Alaska lately, and that's one o the reasons why this theme exists.

 
 

Memories

    I have discovered that I am really good at collecting memories, well who isn't? I love taking pictures, and sometimes I actually don't have time to look at them immediately, and then I forget about them. I love going through my photo album on the computer and rediscover old memories. I don't think I would ever be able to rediscover old memories in the same way with only text.

 
 

    I really need the pictures. What about you? Do you keep a diary at all? I know I tried to use one when I was really really young, but it didn't really work that well, and well here I am. I guess you can say that this blog sometimes work as a diary, less private of course, but still a way for me to reflect on my thoughts about different subjects.

 
 

Where were you a year ago?

    In Alaska, as in many other places up north, you start to see Aurora already in late August early September. Last year I remember seeing Aurora almost every night, kind of mellow, was still waiting for that big show to arrive....which kind of didn't happen until I was going in to work early one morning and was completely unprepared for it. Either way, I have seen so many Aurora shows, and back then it was more like a thing you saw on a regular basis, so you didn't really react that much unless it was a great show. Now, well now I really miss it of course. 

 
 

    Last year we also had a pretty bad snowstorm, that took down lots of trees, most of them broke in half literally. We got this really heavy snow that covered the landscape for a few days/weeks before it melted off again. I know people sometimes talk about a fifth season, well I would argue that in Alaska we have six seasons. Spring/Summer and Fall/Winter. It is that in between space that you can or can't call one or the other, it's very interesting to experience. Sometimes we tend to list the seasons based on dates, but that doesn't always work at more northern latitudes. Other times we list them based on what we see, like snow on the ground during wintertime, but what is it if the leaves are still colored and we have snow on the ground, and then a week later the snow is gone?

 
 

    Heavy snow, falling trees and power lines don't mix well. We lost power for about a week (well off and on), others were without power for almost 3 weeks. I am lucky because I have the wood stove, so even without power I could still prepare food on the wood stove. 

 
 

    The snow came and then it went. Typical Alaskan weather. 

 
 

What did you do around this time last year? Was the weather different from today? Obviously here in Madison it's very different from Alaska. Lately we have had colder temperatures of course, they are creeping closer to the freezing point, almost there. 

Happy Friday you guys!!

 
Posted on October 14, 2016 by Ann Rumbleinthearctic and filed under Flashback Friday, Alaska, Nature, Photography, Cabin Life and tagged Alaska memories Fall Winter Lifestyle snowstorm 2016_2 Aurora Aurora Borealis Norrsken Cabin Life_ Snow Cabin Wintertime Life in Alaska 2016.

Brady's Bluff and The Fairytale Forest in Wisconsin

 

Adventure Tuesday

Brady's Bluff - The Fairytale Forest

  At Perrot State Park, where we went camping a few weekends ago, there are a few very short hiking trails. One of the park rangers pointed out a short hike, up in elevation, the evening we arrived. He looked at his watch and said well if you are fast and set up your camp, maybe you'll make it in time to see the sunset. I decided that I didn't want to bike over there to watch the sunset, but after seeing the low sun and the show it already had started, I changed my mind pretty fast. After arriving at the campsite, W and I had a beer and then I biked to Brady's Bluff by myself and took pictures of the sunset.

 
 

     I literally ran up all the stairs so that I wouldn't miss it. 

 
 

    It felt like I was running up a tree house, these pictures don't give the reality justice, even though they are really pretty!

 
 

    I sent pictures to W of the sunset and he was regretting his decision so much that we went there the next day too. The view and everything was still spectacular, of course.

 
 

    The bluff itself consists of sandstone that has ben capped by a certain dolomite, Prairie du Chien dolomite.

 
 

    In the mid 1930's, and the depression, the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) built large parts of this trail. During the depression the CCC was formed, intended to decrease the number of unemployed people, conserve nature and to "keep youth off the streets". The results at Brady's Bluff are pretty spectacular.

 
 

    These stone steps covers large parts of the trail, and today of course, some areas have been reinforced, and also new wooden steps have been added (I guess they now realized how heavy those rocks must have been and that few people would want to carry those stones up the bluff..)  

 
 

    Just look at all those beautiful steps, built in with nature. The trail itself started down low of course, but very fast the bluffs and the thick vegetation took over as you zig zagged and circled to get up and up and up.

 
 

    I know I say this every single time, but it's so green and lush here. It's quite amazing.

 
 

    We got this amazing view again, well again for me of course, but the first time for W.

 
 

    Do you have a new hiking route you've discovered lately?

 
Posted on October 4, 2016 by Ann Rumbleinthearctic and filed under Wisconsin, Adventure Tuesday and tagged Perrot State Park State Park Fairytale Deep Forest deciduous Forest brady's bluff bluff camping Summer Adventures tent Smores Summer Adventure Morning Sunset Park Hiking vandra Wisconsin Hikes Macro Summertime 2016 Camping.