OMD Travelogue | Day 47 – Mallory Paige

[x_section style=”margin: 0px 0px 0px 0px; padding: 45px 0px 45px 0px; “][x_row inner_container=”true” marginless_columns=”false” bg_color=”” style=”margin: 0px auto 0px auto; padding: 0px 0px 0px 0px; “][x_column bg_color=”” type=”1/1″ style=”padding: 0px 0px 0px 0px; “][x_text]Sometimes love is instant. A lightning bolt straight to the heart. That’s how it is with this book. I immediately wish I could transport back in time to meet Richard Proenneke. Follow him around as he builds the remote Alaskan cabin, asking questions and learning the ways of the wild. I hope that someday I’ll be as cool as him. Seeing a door hinge in a gnarly piece of wood, bravely adventuring, learning to coexist with the rugged land.

Morning sun warming my back, I pick up the book and don’t set it down until I’ve read every last word.

Rolling over, I stare up at the jewel toned sky. Replay favorite passages.

Nature provides so many things if one has the eye to notice them.

Baylor trails behind as I walk the lane looking for raspberries. Tiny, tart red specks peek out from the green. Palm filled we turn back the way we came. One for me, one for Bay. We finish them off before we’ve reached the cabin.

Learn to use an axe and respect it and you can’t help but love it. Abuse one and it will wear your hands raw and open your foot like an overcooked sausage.

Pulling out the hatchet I go about splitting some kindling. Baylor doesn’t particularly like fire and the weather doesn’t justify making one anyways. I’m splitting purely for the fun of it.

I do think a man has missed a very deep feeling of satisfaction if he has never created or at least completed something with his own two hands…There is definitely a need and a place for teamwork, but there is also a need for an individual sometime in his life to forget the world of parts and pieces and put something together on his own – complete something. He’s got to create.

Digging around in the tank bag, I pull out a vial of beads, a spool of elastic. Squirrel squeaking excitedly from the tree, I lay out my supplies, go about making a bracelet.

I suppose I was here because this was something I had to do. Not just dream about it but do it. I suppose, too, I was here to test myself, not that I had never done before, but this time it was to me a more thorough and lasting examination.

What was I capable of that I didn’t know yet? What about my limits? Could I truly enjoy my own company for an entire year? Was I equal to everything this wild land could throw at me? I had seen it’s moods in late spring, summer and early fall, but what about winter? Would I love the isolation then, with its bone-stabbing cold, its brooding ghostly silence, its forced confinement? At age fifty-one I intended to find out.

We go for an evening ride. Settle by the river. Watch the silty water swirl, bubble and flow to places beyond my scope. I throw a stick for Baylor. Look at Rufio. Ponder. Though OMD differs greatly from Dick’s cabin building adventure, at heart we have the same goals. I think to myself:

I suppose I am here because this is something I have to do. Not just dream about, but do it. I suppose, too, I’m here to test myself, not that I haven’t before, but this time it will be a more thorough and lasting examination.

What am I capable of that I don’t know yet? What about my limits? Can I truly enjoy my own company for an entire year? Am I equal to everything traveling across North America on a motorcycle-sidecar will throw at me? I’ve made it to Alaska, but what about the rest of the continent? Will I love the adventure then, with its long-term time frame, its relentless challenges, its constant call for vulnerability, ingenuity and growth? At age thirty-one I intend to find out.

47 days down. Many to come.[/x_text][/x_column][/x_row][/x_section][x_section style=”margin: 0px 0px 0px 0px; padding: 45px 0px 45px 0px; “][x_row inner_container=”true” marginless_columns=”false” bg_color=”” style=”margin: 0px auto 0px auto; padding: 0px 0px 0px 0px; “][x_column bg_color=”” type=”1/1″ style=”padding: 0px 0px 0px 0px; “][x_line][x_creative_cta padding=”25px 25px 25px 25px” text=”Read More from
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