Wild Adventures Close To Home

by Steve Gillman
(Canon City, Colorado)

I have had a few wild adventures. They include climbing to the top of Mount Chimborazo (20,600 feet) in Ecuador, getting lost in the mountains of Colorado, and sea kayaking in six-foot Lake Superior waves, days from the nearest road in Canada. Perhaps I would have had more of these kinds of trips if I had more money. Time, too, can be an issue when you want to have some fun.

Fortunately, wild adventures don't have to be expensive or in far-away locales. You can have plenty of fun and excitement near home if you use your imagination.

A Dirtbagging Adventure

Dirtbagging is simply stripping camping or backpacking down to its essentials: fun and adventure. You throw some things in any old pack, and just get out there, without worrying about extensive planning or fancy gear. It might mean leaving extra clothes behind, and sleeping in a pile of leaves or next to a fire. It can mean using your wits instead of your wallet.

My version of dirtbagging started with a bus ride to the end of the line, near Traverse City, Michigan (where I lived at the time). The driver looked at the rubber tube I pushed ahead of me onto the bus, and at my small day pack. He just laughed. At the end of the line I got off in a wooded area, then walked another mile to get to the Boardman River.

My supplies included a homemade plastic bivy sack, some snacks, and a few warm things to wear to bed instead of using a sleeping bag. I also had a small umbrella. I might have had ten pounds in the bundle on my lap as I floated down the river sitting in the tube. My butt and my feet were in the water, and I steered when necessary with my hands.

Trout surfaced everywhere on the river as evening approached. Deer were jumping back from the riverbank when they saw me. Large blue herons hunted for fish in the shallows. I ate wild strawberries at every stop. There really was no paddling required. I just went with the flow of the river, relaxing and even closing my eyes for brief naps. Of course the trip still had the element of unpredictability, and thus adventure.

Rain came when I stopped to set up camp, and continued all night. I managed to stay dry in my garbage bag bivy sack, with the small umbrella covering my head. At some point in the middle of the night, a large white-tail deer almost stepped on me. He scared me half to death with his snorting. It was still raining when morning came.


Actually, it was a thunderstorm. I would have liked to wait, but unlike a tent, a plastic bivy sack doesn't give you enough space to keep yourself entertained. It was time to get moving, so I bundled up my few things, got into the cold river, and sat in the tube in the middle of the storm.

The wild stretch was soon past, and I began to drift by beautiful houses. I was sitting in my tube in a heavy sweater, with my umbrella overhead. Dawn was coming late because of the storm. I watched people drinking their morning coffee. Some of them looked up from breakfast to see me in a flash of lightning. I just waved and floated on.

I didn't want to put my hands into the cold water, so I learned how to steer through the rapids using only my feet. I had to a portage around a dam, through knee-deep mud that nearly took one shoe. But I arrived home safely before noon I scrambled up the steep bank near the house, and walking down the street in the rain, carrying my umbrella and rubber tube, hoping the neighbors were still sleeping.

Other Wild Adventures Near Home

I, and any friends I could convince to join me, used to drive to a big river an hour away, park the car, hike upstream for an hour or more, and then build a raft of dead trees for the return trip to the car. We called these trips "Tom Sawyer Day." I even did one trip where I took my bicycle twenty miles down the river on a homemade raft, through a wild stretch of forest.

What else could you try? You could get a book on wild edible plants and have a short survival trek in the nearest wilderness. You could organize your own adventure race with friends. You could pack up, get on a bicycle, and see where you end up in two days. Use you imagination and you can always find some wild adventures without traveling far or spending much.

To get the ebook Ultralight Backpacking Secrets (And Wilderness Survival Tips)" for FREE, as well as photos, gear recommendations, and a new wilderness survival section, visit The Ultralight Site.