Your Friendly Hise Hikers Tuesday Tip: Security Is Mostly A Superstition.
In a recent interview, someone asked me if I was scared of sleeping in nature. I thought about it for a moment and remembered only one time that I was truly nervous about sleeping on the trail… and that was the first night on our first backpacking trip in 2015.
The only reason I was – let’s be honest – terrified about sleeping was because the weekend before we were charged by a mama bear.
I didn’t have enough time between that experience and this first trip to process everything and comprehend my reality.
Over the years, we have shared the experience of being charged by a bear – what we learned after that experience, and how we prepare and go into trips since then.
Most recently, this summer, I had a chat with a gentleman who was hiking northbound on the JMT near South Lake Tahoe and he confided in me that he was absolutely beside himself with fear over the notion of running into a bear.
And you know what? I shared my story with him and told him that bears do not want to encounter us any more than we want to encounter them (I mean barring the bear being extremely hungry or other extenuating circumstances)… and he said he was SO grateful to have chatted with me that I had put his mind at ease! HOORAY! And talk about coming full circle on something, right?
I was reminded of this Helen Keller quote because it was a favorite of one of our friends, Rob, who passed away in 2010 – and we think of him with fondness very often.
“Security is mostly a superstition. It does not exist in nature, nor do the children of men as a whole experience it. Avoiding danger is no safer in the long run than outright exposure. Life is either a daring adventure, or nothing.” – Helen Keller
Here’s to more daring adventure!