I don’t want to go back to a day, the weeks or the world, today. Today I would like to just keep going north. There are rocks, trees, rivers, and portage trails I’ve not yet seen and sometime, if not this time, I’m never gonna see them, and today it disturbs me more than ever.
At first I thought it was just in my head, during breakfast I mentioned not going back, the trips planner, said I was being ridiculous.
When we all planned this trip I didn’t think I was going to say to the rest of the group, you go back with out me, I need to keep going for awhile. They figured today, and I did for awhile, that this was the end, there all surprised, one guy is mad. But I was sitting on a real big rock wondering, what if I just did it. I just kept going, instead of starting some other day; I just started today, right now and kept going.
One guys wife wants to come with me, she gets it. She is working a nerve in her husband’s ear. He says what the heck, let’s go. I don’t need anyone else to mutiny, but two canoes and four people would be better than three. I didn’t ask, maybe he just thought it would be safer that way, so he grabs his packs, the group is split.
What a brew ha about food and cooking gear, the four of us don’t care, we aren’t worried, it’s a, so what, into whatever. He’s trying to draw a line in the sand, the problem is, I already crossed it, and so did my three new traitors.
Mr. mad and his half paddle out; they head south for the path we came in on. We grab the maps, wonder about food, pump water bottles full and as a group decide to just go north. I never meant to become some insubordinate trouble maker by upsetting his apple cart. He made a fantastic trip, had a great plan with all the food packs and where to stop, rest, and so on.
Then, I just got hit by a whim, and none of us as a new bunch really knows where or when the whimsy will wear itself out, but were going north until it does. The group going home will notify the families, the offices will get a phone call.
We will come back late according to one man, I can live with that , and I’m sorry he’s so upset, but I couldn’t live with me wondering for the umpteenth time, what if once in my life I just kept going, not only off the map, but off the plan. The first paddle stroke, I felt a lot better. The trout whisperer
