Trigger Warning: Opinions Ahead May Diverge From Your Own

Oh, the Monday blues. Tired Mondays can still be a thing even if you are no longer gainfully employed. I had all sorts of ideas for Mondays Hard Thing but also knew the “thing” couldn’t be too physically taxing as I was tired. The weather was good, so I trolleyed the kayak down and did some rolling practice. I simply do not understand how much I can dread something which is literally over in seconds. Contrary to my usual practice, I used my wing paddle and rolling with a wing blade is so easy that by the time I thought about what I should do I was up. And, yet, in those few seconds upside down there can be so much unnecessary angst. “The mind is primary.” If only our minds were easier to control.

I’ve written previously, but only in passing, about the ingrained Australian habit to arbitrarily decide what can be shared as trip reports, in guidebooks, or – shudder deeply – in social media posts, recently the topic came up again after a friend of mine attempted a circuit route in Wadbilliga National Park descending one creek and ascending another. Travel was much slower and more difficult than anticipated and the two adventurers found the route pretty sketchy (possibly bush fires had altered the route). This happens to us all, and, back when I was knocking around the high mountains of Canada we used to call this phenomenon “getting schooled” or even “getting spanked.” The general idea being that the involved party had over-estimated their ability and underestimated the difficulty. There is, or should be, no shame in getting spanked. After all, if you’ve never “been schooled” you’ve never tried anything audacious, and we should all try something bold at least once in life.

The general arguments for not sharing information are threefold: (1) unprepared/inexperienced or otherwise unworthy people will follow the trip report and will get into difficulties; (2) the trip itself is in terrain that is so inherently dangerous that no-one should go there; (3) the area will be over-run/over-used resulting in environmental degradation. There is a fourth subtext that trends through the narrative but is never overtly stated but runs roughly thus: the trip was hard/sketchy/scary/extreme for the participant who operates at a very high level, therefore, anyone else that follows will find the trip hard/extreme/sketchy/scary regardless of individual ability.

As to this last covert reason, I’m reminded of the “pandemic” where monitoring of other peoples behavior reached perhaps its most extreme level, with the devout Covid believers requiring everyone to wear a mask and have several “vaccines” even though logic dictates that if the mask/vaccine combination actually worked those who feel the need of protection might avail themselves whilst leaving other people to make their own risk assessments. But I digress into terrain likely to offend many. As Andy Kirkpatrick said in his last podcast “like wanking at the dinner table” some things are best left unsaid or undone.

I don’t buy any of the three or four reasons previously expounded and the whole thing reeks like a dead fish of inflated egoism. With a blog that’s lasted over a decade and hundreds of trip and route descriptions on Bivouac.com – a site where people specifically go to get route and trip information – my experience suggests that the number of people who go out and follow a route or trip description they have read online into terrain that is beyond their skills is vanishingly small. If you want to save people’s lives, refraining from driving would have more effect.

Nor am I impressed by the idea that the terrain is too dangerous for anyone to visit simply because one person found such terrain sketchy. On the weekend, we paddled past Burrewarra Point and paddled through numerous gauntlets. I avoided one that another member of the party paddled quite safely through. He had the confidence and skill to pull it off, but the gauntlet looked sketchy to me and I passed by. Both of us made appropriate decisions and it would be completely improper for me to control another paddlers behavior.

Finally, the argument that the area will be overrun by “tourists” with ensuing environmental damage. We can all pull one area out of thousands which has seen an increase in tourist numbers with consequent environmental effects. The one that stands out to me is Joffre Lakes in British Columbia which was once a quiet hiking trail to a series of three lakes but now features nose to tail parked cars for kilometres along the highway with visitors lining up to stand on the log that protrudes into the first lake. It is worth noting, however, that the first lake is about 100 metres from the trail head, and the furthest probably only about four kilometres away, all on good trails.¹ Places that are tough to get to, that is, no trails, thick bush, mandatory swims and scrambles, requiring navigation skills, will never get that busy. There are just too few people who enjoy suffering. If you doubt this assertion, stroll (I seriously challenge you to stroll) into the Budawangs on any of the well documented routes in the guidebook and/or online and judge for yourself whether these areas are suffering over-use damage. Most routes you won’t even find an old faded footpad.

The older I get the more I realise how far I’ve fallen and it’s sure easy for us aging coots, who must work to maintain last years level of fitness, to fail to recognise that something hard/extreme/sketchy/scary for us, is a stroll in the park for the youngsters. In 2019 we were backcountry ski touring in Canada and feeling pretty chuffed that we could still put in decent days, until a group of young men powered past us on the trail (ironically we were following the Joffre Lakes trail to access Mount Tszil). As the guys skinned past us chatting easily, I suddenly realised just how much slower we had become over the intervening seven years absence from the mountain world.

The Older I Get The Better I was

I am your fire and brimstone

Chasing, chasing your shadow

We’re hypocritical thinkers in the worst way

With our busted up confessionals and liars and freak shows

We’ve been vindictive and so wicked, forgive me

We’ve come to shake things up

We’re here to make things interesting

God forbid that we bring offense

When you read your sins in the album print

And honestly, this honesty has been killing me

I am your tired and burdened

Chasing, chasing your heaven

We’re clinically defective at the worst times

With our twisted up convictions and night walking

We’re the drifters and the dreamers forgive us

Mad dogs, fury, raging on with glory

Lyrics by Write This Down

1The biggest environmental impact of the new found popularity of Joffre Lakes is due to the 6 hour round trip drive from Vancouver to get to the trailhead.