{"id":18,"date":"2007-07-19T18:18:16","date_gmt":"2007-07-19T23:18:16","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.peacefulways.com\/?p=18"},"modified":"2011-01-27T13:04:46","modified_gmt":"2011-01-27T18:04:46","slug":"risk-taking-not-thrill-seeking","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.peacefulways.com\/?p=18","title":{"rendered":"Risk Taking, Not Thrill Seeking (re Backpacking Donut Hole Trail)"},"content":{"rendered":"

The\u00a0phrase above is how Fran described herself\u00a0in her\u00a0response to my ad on match.com\u00a0five years ago (see Comment<\/em> below).\u00a0 \u00a0Sounds good, although I may not have fully understood what I was letting myself in for.\u00a0 I could hardly have preferred it the other way –Thrill Seeing But Not Risk Taking.\u00a0 That might be eating cotton candy on the boardwalk and riding the roller coaster.\u00a0 Blaaaa.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Monday evening\u00a0we returned from a three-day backpacking trip on the Donut Hole Trail in Sproul State Forest.\u00a0 I got my dose of “Risk Taking, Not Thrill Seeking.”\u00a0 The\u00a0area where we hiked, and the Donut Hole Trail in particular, are described as follows:\u00a0 “North-central\u00a0Pennsylvania features the most isolated and expansive forest lands between New York City and Chicago.\u00a0The experienced backpacker looking for an isolated trail will appreciate the lonely Donut Hole Trail…maintenance may be a problem…with inconsistent\u00a0blazing…stinging nettles…expansive isolation, deepwoods experience, and the opportunity to witness wildlife” (quoting from\u00a0Backpacking Pennsylvania<\/em>, by Mitchell — the backpackers’ bible).\u00a0 We can\u00a0confirm that Mitchell speaks the truth.\u00a0 We were lost twice and each time\u00a0eventually found our way back to where we\u00a0went astray (easy to do with\u00a0“unestablished trails” (Mitchell) and the inconsistent blazing.\u00a0\u00a0Encountered bears and snakes, including a timber rattlesnake.\u00a0\u00a0I think I’m phobic to poisonous snakes.\u00a0\u00a0The local\u00a0backpacking\u00a0stores do not\u00a0sell snakeproof gaiters (they\u00a0seem to carry all other types), so I adapted some heavy canvas gaiters (WWII surplus that I already owned)\u00a0and these were comfortable and efficient to use (although, thankfully, never\u00a0tested).\u00a0<\/p>\n

I found an answer to the snake problem in\u00a0my Britannica (Rattlesnakes…11th ed), but the implementation poses some difficulty.\u00a0 “The surest way of clearing a ground of them is to drive in pigs, which are sure to find and to eat them, without harm to themselves.”<\/p>\n

I am the one who suggested this trail and helped prepare myself with a solo hike on the Tuscarora Trail in May.\u00a0\u00a0 But we\u00a0hope to tone down the Risk Taking somewhat\u00a0for future backpacking, which sounds like the wise thing.<\/p>\n

Here’s the complete story<\/a> of our hike.\u00a0 Pictures are available at www.photos.sheldontimes.com\/<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The\u00a0phrase above is how Fran described herself\u00a0in her\u00a0response to my ad on match.com\u00a0five years ago (see Comment below).\u00a0 \u00a0Sounds good, although I may not have fully understood what I was letting myself in for.\u00a0 I could hardly have preferred it the other way –Thrill Seeing But Not Risk Taking.\u00a0 That might be eating cotton candy […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-18","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-family","category-recreation"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.peacefulways.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.peacefulways.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.peacefulways.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.peacefulways.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.peacefulways.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=18"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/blog.peacefulways.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":368,"href":"https:\/\/blog.peacefulways.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18\/revisions\/368"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.peacefulways.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=18"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.peacefulways.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=18"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.peacefulways.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=18"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}