Hobbies

I took up two new hobbies last year: fly tying and orienteering.
Most everybody knows what fly tying is. One takes an assortment of hooks, feathers, thread and other assorted bits and pieces and assembles them in a certain fashion on a particular size hook for a particular species of fish. I started doing it in hopes of making some extra money but, as so often happens, it was a scam, or if not an outright scam, an unethical enterprise. So I kept the tools and made myself an assortment of Woolly buggers. It was fun, relaxing, interesting and I can't wait to take them out on the water. Need to find a boat trailer first.

Orienteering is a not-so-new twist on a old hobby: Hiking. Only in orienteering you use a compass to find your way as opposed to following a well marked trail. One of the intriquing aspects to orienteering is you don't have to stick to trails anymore. After learning how to use a compass and a map, you can strike out across country, over hills, mountains, deserts, whatever terrain, comfortable in the knowledge that you can find your way home again.
After pouring through a couple of books, I bought myself a good compass and purchased a USGS map of a particular area in which I was interested in exploring for the purpose of hunting. I had passed this particular place not far from the Mt. Baker National Forest and always wondered what lay up in those hills. I was curious especially if there were any deer up there. It looked like prime deer hunting.
I took a backpack well stocked with emergency supplies and struck out through the woods on a weekend. I studied the map I had taken, picked a landmark and a corresponding compass heading and took off. At first it was fairly flat going but after half an hour or so, the ground became increasingly thick with brush and sloped uphill. The map I had indicated this so it was no surprise. After I had made my way upward for about an hour, I came across some unbelievably thick ferns, and I found that deer had been bedding down in them. It looked like a veritable deer park, they had been so thick in there.
I kept checking my map and compass and had to stop more and more often to rest. At one point, as I rested waist deep in the wet ferns, I looked around and discovered that I no longer had a point of reference in relation to where I had started from. I felt a wave of panic rise in my gut for just an instant, and then I remembered my compass and map. I took them out, reoriented myself according to my initial compass heading and felt immeasureable reassurance. After getting my wind back, I struck out again, left the thick fern beds, and made the top of a ridge where the underbrush was not quite so thick. I hadn't gone much further, however, before I came to an area that had been logged off many years ago. The loggers had taken the bigger timber and left the smaller stuff lay on the forest floor creating a false forest floor that was easy to step through. It was the worst to manuever through because it seemed like I was forever stepping off a log or branch and falling. It took lots of time to move around logs and brush piles I couldn't climb over but I used my compass to plot those diversions and it was a pleasure to me to discover that I could return to my original compass heading.
As I crested the final ridge I could see my destination far ahead. I didn't realize, however, and the map I had didn't show very well, that I had to cross a large flat meadow that was, in reality, a swampy area thickly covered with wild rose bushes and other prickly plants like that. That area took me longer to traverse than the whole rest of the trip but the whole time I could see my destination so it was no big deal to wander back and forth trying to find an easier route through it. Eventually I made my way up to a logging road which marked the top of my route. Everything from there on out would be downhill.
The whole trip was one big thrill. I learned that I no longer had to be afraid to be out in the deep woods as long as I had a map and compass and a backpack stocked with the proper emergency supplies and first aid. I can't wait for the weather to clear and the work to allow for me to get back out there again this year. I have one trip planned already and hope to get to go orienteering in Eastern Washington as well.
For those of you who find yourself bored with the routine of following well traveled and well marked trails, invest some time in the sport of orienteering and discover anew the thrills of self sufficiency and adventure in moving over unmarked and untraveled terrain.