I’d like to share that this whole idea was a reflection of my life-long
experience in the outdoors. That I felt a quiet confidence in my ability
as a father to guide my son in this Rite of Passage. That I was a
regular viewer of Ray Mears and Bear Grylls survival programs, and that, at the
very least, I know all the theory. But the truth is I don’t, and it’s
beginning to scare me a little.
Sure, I’ve been hiking before. Throughout my childhood, my father
took me hiking, and fishing and hunting, all quite regularly. I’ve built
campfires in damp conditions and I’ve pitched a tent in complete
blackness. I’ve caught fish with nothing but some line and a hook, and
fileted it into boneless shanks to fry into the most succulent morsels of fresh
bass. But mostly that was nearly thirty years ago, and I’m not sure how
much I remember.
And I’ve had some fairly mad adventures; I once hitchhiked across
Africa. I’ll never forget walking alone on the highways of Kenya, as the
screaming local busses tossed themselves along the undulating roadway, passing
by just inches from me, while I thumbed for a ride. But I was the only
one taking a risk there – if something bad happened it was only myself that could
get hurt.
Hiking 500 miles in the Pacific Northwest is a different beast.
We’ll be in one of the remotest parts of America and, as Ben’s last post revealed, hiking with some very wild
animals, a long way from shelter and water and any sort of realistic aide. And most critically, my son's well-being largely depends on whether, to paraphrase the Boy Scouts, we're prepared.
With less than six months to go, the gears are creaking into motion to
make sure we’re prepared for this thing. We have dates. We have
plans. We have recruits and volunteers into ‘Team Hike’ (thank you
Dad and Olivia!). And I guess we have that healthy level of fear brewing,
which tells me this is definitely outside my comfort zone - we have a lot
to do before I'll feel ready.
So it makes me nervous. From the idea's beginning, I guess that’s been part of the point of
this thing. It's about transformation. If I were a well-seasoned outdoors-man, this would somehow
become a lesson in outdoorsmanship. But I’m not. I have just as
much to learn over the next six months as Ben.
And whilst I’m in ok shape I am now a City boy and I have, according to
anyone who’s ever seen it, the flattest bottom you can imagine (like, it’s
concave), which is a pretty important muscle group for hiking 20 miles a day
for 25 days. So it’s going to be just as physically hard for me as it is
Ben, if not harder.
So this Rite of Passage is going to ask a lot from both of us.
We’re both going into new territory, trembling from both excitement and
nervousness, but preparing for whatever comes our way. And if I don’t
manage to light the campfire very impressively each night, at least I’ll be
living by an important life principle I hope to teach my son: to strive, to
seek, to find, and not to yield.
