Acquisition as Substitution for Adventure

stabman

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Sep 17, 2007
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I was sitting here the other night, contemplating what outdoors knife I was going to get next (Cutlass Machete was looking pretty good:)).
Then I looked around, trying to figure out where to put all these damn knives, thinking I needed a new tool box for em...and then it hit me like a bolt of lightning.
Acquisition substitutes for adventure, albeit poorly.

I have all these great knives which exceed all my conceivable needs, but I don't get to use them enough!!!:mad:
Living in a city with no car makes getting out into the woods proper difficult, and there's only so much "woodsiness" one can engage in covertly in the city before the cops will show up.
So, I've been buying new knives, as evaluating them is a knife activity, and I get all these great plans to get out there and use the hell out of them...but the weeks go by, and the big adventure doesn't happen yet, and another knife looks neat.

Whenever I DO get to go out and really use them, the desire to acquire more gear drops immensely, in the time leading up, during the woods time, and for a bit after.
I guess I'm really craving the wilderness far more than a pile of new stuff, but stuff is easier to find in the city than widerness is.

Anyone else notice the same thing?
 
Buy a bus ticket! There is bound to be some wilderness place for you within range of a half-day travel and a round trip ticket would be less than the cost of another knife.

But to your question... yes. That is why I am making an effort to get out every weekend now that my work has slowed and the weather is still moderate. But when I am stuck working day after day, or on call, or I am housebound by ill health or foul weather, I do tend to spend more on gear rather than using the gear I have. It does assuage cabin fever temporarily. Sometimes. And then there is the "Christmas" factor of anticipation and arrival of the box.
 
Yep same here though I would include just thinking and planning for a new trip is part of the fun too. In fact, and I'll deny this if anyone says anything :D, the only time I'm on this website or researching gear is when I'm at work bored out of my mind. When I'm at home I can do a project or on the weekends I get out. Would suck to not have a car so I feel ya there.
 
Buy a bus ticket! There is bound to be some wilderness place for you within range of a half-day travel and a round trip ticket would be less than the cost of another knife.
Actually, the Greyhound ticket would cost more than many of the knives I want, and all the Crwon land is about 6 hours away.:(
There's some areas I know of where no one would notice the land usage, but they aren't on any bus routes around here.

The one huge downside of Southern Ontario is lack of ready access to non-private owned property to use.
 
Yes totally agree. I think we buy "stuff" a lot to make up for the lack of adventure time; I know I do it and I'm an outdoor instructor. Maybe we could call it Adventure Osmosis Syndrome?
 
Yep same here though I would include just thinking and planning for a new trip is part of the fun too. In fact, and I'll deny this if anyone says anything :D, the only time I'm on this website or researching gear is when I'm at work bored out of my mind. When I'm at home I can do a project or on the weekends I get out. Would suck to not have a car so I feel ya there.

Haha :D 95% of the time i spend on this site is from my iphone while I'm at work... once I'm at home I have WAAAAAAY too much other stuff to be doing :)

I can sympathize however; It is difficult to make it out as often as I'd like and spending time "researching" is as good a pastime as any other i suppose ;)
 
Sell a few knives and buy a car so you can actually use the rest?
How far away can the countryside be? I live in a conurbation of 2.5 million people but I can be in the countryside in 10 minutes by car or for about £2 by train or bus. I'm just genuinely puzzled.
 
Actually, the Greyhound ticket would cost more than many of the knives I want, and all the Crwon land is about 6 hours away.:(
There's some areas I know of where no one would notice the land usage, but they aren't on any bus routes around here.

The one huge downside of Southern Ontario is lack of ready access to non-private owned property to use.

Six hours away? Perhaps a closer look at your maps?

http://soto.on.ca/provincial_parks/provincial_parks.html
 
Yep possession of stuff does not equate to competence! I would rather have a rusty $6 Old Hickory and invest hours in formalized training with someone whose BTDT and invest even more hours in practice...than to have 9 various expensive customized knives sitting in a drawer or laid out on a stump for another ego boosting forum photo op.

If we ever bothered to total up the hours invested on Forums, Google Research and wishing we were magnificant and total up the $$'s invested in buying another piece of kit - and instead took half that time and half the $$ spent and invested it in going to classes or working with a qualified mentor and then in practice we'd all become the next Hugh Glass or Jed Smith.

I spent years wandering around in the bush trying to figure things out...then in the last 10 years I've been seasoning my self-development by going to various wilderness classes/schools and I've found going to schools or working with a mentor accelerated my knowledge, skill, and competence by an infinate amount! I now would rather spend $200 on another class than on another "perfect" knife that I'll rarely or never use.

But instead, we would rather spend hours Googling for the next "better" knife and spend another umpteen dollars for a super-doubled annealed wonder knife that will end up in a drawer next to the others! You're correct - adventure is in the learning and the experience and not in the kit sitting back at home being grossly underutilized.
 
Formal classes are not available or appropriate for everyone. But, IMHO, this forum (and other outdoor forums) is a class of sorts. I've learned a lot in my last half century outdoors. Some of it from mentors, some of it from just being out there doing and trying. Yet not a week goes by that I don't learn something worthwhile here. And not a single outdoor trip passes without my trying/learning a new twist on a familiar task. Downtime from being out there doesn't have to be wasted time. And, face it, few of us have careers that keep us out there most of the time, or can afford the time and expense of a wilderness school.
 
Six hours away? Perhaps a closer look at your maps?

http://soto.on.ca/provincial_parks/provincial_parks.html

For what it's worth, our provincial parks are very much of the "look but don't touch" philosophy, and offer little opportunity for bushcraft that does not break park policies (cutting trees down, building fires outside firepits, that sort of thing). However, I live in Toronto, the most densly populated area in Canada, and there are sections of genuine crown land within an hours drive. You just have to know where to look. Pick up a copy of the "ontario hunting guide" (even if you're not a hunter)... I think all the crown land in southern ontario is listed in there.
 
Sell a few knives and buy a car so you can actually use the rest?
How far away can the countryside be? I live in a conurbation of 2.5 million people but I can be in the countryside in 10 minutes by car or for about £2 by train or bus. I'm just genuinely puzzled.

Insurance and gas would cost more per month than most of my knives do.
And come March, I have to start paying $450 per month for my student loans (Yay!)

The "countryside" around here IS accesable in about 30 minutes by car, but it's still private land. You can use it if no one finds out though. The bus service sucks here though. Greyhound has discontinued some more routes this year, and the city bus stays in the city. It doesn't even go to all parts of the city even...this is Windsor, "Motor City Canada", where everyone is supposed to have a car (at least when there were jobs here).
Trains cost even more than buses around here.
 
For what it's worth, our provincial parks are very much of the "look but don't touch" philosophy, and offer little opportunity for bushcraft that does not break park policies (cutting trees down, building fires outside firepits, that sort of thing). However, I live in Toronto, the most densly populated area in Canada, and there are sections of genuine crown land within an hours drive. You just have to know where to look. Pick up a copy of the "ontario hunting guide" (even if you're not a hunter)... I think all the crown land in southern ontario is listed in there.

Yep, Provincial Parks aren't the sort of wilderness I want.
Up past Toronto is where the Crown Land starts, pretty much. Not any around Windsor.
 
This phenomenon is the same in paintball as well - he is a cartoon that illustrates it:

manual.gif


The guy who spends all the time in the woods has very simple - well worn kit. Those that don't get out - buy to suppliment it - and then drag a ton of shit along with them to make sure they USE it when they go.



TF
 
This phenomenon is the same in paintball as well - he is a cartoon that illustrates it:

manual.gif


TF

I had the full set of paintball gear once.
Whenever I had money to go play, everyone I knew wimped out on me.
So I traded it for a knife after 4 years of no use.:)
 
Yep, Provincial Parks aren't the sort of wilderness I want.
Up past Toronto is where the Crown Land starts, pretty much. Not any around Windsor.

Sometimes you have to settle for what you can get. I spent most of my life in New York City. Not much woods of any sort, but ... there are big parks like Central Park where you can get air, sunshine, grass, trees. It's inspiring.

Then get on the subway up to the Bronx and Van Cortlandt Park. In Van Cortlandt, I could get lost all day, no one to run into. No fire or hunting, but good hiking through heavy brush, rocks, hills. Serious bird sanctuary areas -- NYC is on a flyway during migrations.

Once you get a feel for that kind of outdoors, put together a three day pack and catch a bus or train upstate for a state park, and gradually learn to spend more time relaxing without people around.

Even here in New Jersey, there are spots, not isolated, but not city, either:

Woodland Lake

the sky above
the trees below
the lake before them all

ignore the cars on roads just out of sight
and all this looks like earth before the fall

with grace the waterbirds arrive as fleets of them deploy to feed
ducks dabble as swans cruise by and geese glide beside every reed

-- EB
 
WHere there is a will, there is a way. Aren't there any hiking clubs or outdoor stores there? Post an ad looking for a camping trip partner with transportation. And maybe trim your expectations of "wilderness" a bit. Chopping down trees isn't an essential part of getting out there. Use a firepit if it is a requirement. Or seek permission to use a gas or wood burning stove. We have strict rules in many of our local State parks here, but the rangers are reasonable if you ask questions and obey the rules within reason. I've gotten permission to camp outside of established camping sites by promising to practice LNT, and doing so. I've found plenty of downed dead wood to use in fire and shelter building without chopping. I guess it boils down to just how badly you want to be out there, if you have the time.
 
Sometimes you have to settle for what you can get.
That's what I've doing so far.:)
But it just doesn't scratch the itch the way it does when you get out somewhere where there's no park benches, no fee for firewood, and no one around.

What knife will I buy next...:D
 
. Aren't there any hiking clubs or outdoor stores there?
Not that I've found so far.
There's a section at SportCheck which sells camp equipment, but that's the best I've seen so far.
I'll have to search more to see if there's anything like that which I haven't found yet.
There might be.:)
 
Formal classes are not available or appropriate for everyone. But, IMHO, this forum (and other outdoor forums) is a class of sorts. I've learned a lot in my last half century outdoors. Some of it from mentors, some of it from just being out there doing and trying. Yet not a week goes by that I don't learn something worthwhile here. And not a single outdoor trip passes without my trying/learning a new twist on a familiar task. Downtime from being out there doesn't have to be wasted time. And, face it, few of us have careers that keep us out there most of the time, or can afford the time and expense of a wilderness school.
I agree. My learning has been accelerated through sites like this. It's not as good as a formal class but learning this stuff while I'm bored is better then doing nothing. The trick is to practice the skills that are discussed here. Never rely on something you just read once on the interwebs.
 
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