PEAK TRAVEL EXPERIENCES
Most of us when we travel look for adventure, but not too much. We want excitement, but not to the point of terror. We are often willing to go some distance and pay well to find such a moment.
There are moments in adventure travel your fear is under control and your adrenaline is high and the moment fixes itself in your memory as a peak experience. I would like to share four memories of such moments and add to each what some people see as a peak moment but which would have been too much for me.
Over the years I have skied half a dozen different resorts in Colorado, most them with my daughters. The special moment came at Copper Mountain early in the morning when I reached the top spot before anyone else and got to ski a long intermediate sloop with inches of fresh snow. I was in control, gliding smoothly over the snow with no one else around. I had the greatest feeling of control and sense of soaring through space. The moment is locked in my mind.
What would be too much for me? When we were in New Zealand we watched visitors Bungee jump. My level of fear in the nine second drop would have been too high for me to have appreciated the sense of exhilaration.
While at a two week writers conference in Aspen, Colorado, I took the opportunity to go white water rafting. Eight of us, with oars, in a large rubber boat with a guide in the back to keep us from disaster. The dangers were many, being swept out of boat, getting caught in an eddy, or boat being flipped when hitting a rock. People had died, but while my adrenaline was high it only added to the thrill. If we paddled hard when told to we would avoid major hazards.
What would have been too much for me? A seven day Grand Canyon rafting cruise. Friends have taken it and found that given the hardships and dangers the participants formed a tight bound and met for reunions for some time after the adventure. Frankly seven days of river hazards would have been too much for me.
Again I was at a writers workshop at Aspen and a friend talked me into taking a hot air balloon ride over the mountains. On a beautiful morning as the sun was rising we rose into the air and soared silently over the picturesque landscape. It was an awesome experience. Later I was to take a balloon ride over Boone County that was different, but I was captivated by the feeling that I was seeing my surroundings in whole new way.
What would have been too much for me? Hang gliding or paragliding goes beyond my fear tolerance. Even in my teens, if such an opportunity had existed I probably would have passed.
An adventure that included both exhilaration and a too heavy loading of fear happened when I was older and my sense of balance was deteriorating. It was a ropes course at a program for grandparents and grandchildren in upper Minnesota. Working the high wire portion resulted in my grandson saying, "Grandpa, I'm never seen you look so scared." He went on to do the ropes portion walking backwards and later blindfolded. The thrilling part for me was the final portion that was a zip line that took us over a forest area. Here with the harness on I felt secure.
Strangely a seven and half kilometer sky ride on wires over the rain forest in northern Australia was not as clear in my memory. There were two stops on the ride to walk around what we were viewing from above. I suspect it's not as fixed in my memory because it was in the midst of so many other exciting wonderful things like the great barrier reef.
Danger, by the way, is not always needed for an experience to be a peak experience. A medieval feast in a old castle in Ireland with strong sense of having dropped back in time is an event that also makes my list.
