[at-l] TOLERANCE, SHMOLERANCE... OT as far as im concerned

[jbullar1 at twcny.rr.com (Jim Bullard)]

At 03:51 PM 4/18/2005 -0700, Robert wrote:
>My sense of wilderness is ruined by other people being around.

Apologies to Robert. I know the above was a tongue-in-cheek reply but your 
post in this thread was handy when I wanted to add my 2 cents.

I spent Saturday jogging along the Grass River for a couple of miles in 
between shooting photos of a canoe/kayak whitewater trip. I did a bit of 
whitewater canoeing myself a number of years back. I've now reached an age 
where adrenaline rushes no longer appeal to me but I learned some valuable 
lessons from the experience when I did do it.

The first thing you need to learn is to 'go with the flow'. You have to 
take the water as you find it. If you fight it, you will lose. If you are 
lucky you'll just get wet. If you aren't lucky...

The next thing to learn is how to read the water. You can't go with the 
flow if you don't know what the ripples and waves are telling you about 
what is going on.

The most important thing is to know what you can handle. If you can't make 
out what is happening or the currents are more than you are up to, portage 
around it, don't try to run it.

I believe this applies to hiking as well. You cannot control who else is 
going to be in the woods with you, nor can you control what they will do. 
If you encounter someone you don't like, doing something you don't like, 
move on. Turning the situation into a battle of wills only spoils your day. 
If your day was ruined, look in the mirror to see who ruined it. No one 
else decides how you feel. You do.