Friday, July 6, 2007

Wrangell

I arrived in Wrangell on a very benign day, weatherwise. It sprinkled a couple times, and that was it. It was overcast most of the day, but as I pulled up to the city dock, the sun came out and stayed out almost an hour. I think that counts as a sunny day here.

As usual, many errands to run. I think I've tracked down a place to borrow a computer so I can hopefully upload these reports. We'll see. I happened to arrive at the beginning of the weekend, and Wrangell seems to be one of those places that closes down on Sundays It's a hard drinking, hard praying towns. A lot different from Ketchikan. 1900 souls versus Ketchikan's 14,000. And Ketchikan gets the cruise ships and Wrangell gets the dregs.

Last night, at the cabin, I was pondering more on the impression that, as a camper, the ground gets harder as we get older. And that probably goes for discomfort in general. As we age, we lose the ability to adapt like we could when we were young. It wasn't a problem to spend a night curled up on a rock. OK, well it's still not necessarily a problem, but it sure is a tougher night than it was back then.

I guess it's just all about inflexibility. As we age, our corneas become stiffer and we need glasses, our bodies become stiffer and we need yoga, and our attitudes become set and we lose our ability to understand new ideas. So I guess it's not surprising that it's also harder to sleep on rocks than it used to be.

Next stoop Petersburg. And I'm starting to smell the barn. I should be seeing Carlie in Skagway in 3 weeks. Boy, am I looking forward to that!

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Great progress on your trip, great stories on your blog! See you soon, Rimbeaux. :) Dorothy

Anonymous said...

BC, glad it's you and not me up there but hope the paddle has been all you wanted and expected it to be. Stay safe. JLines

Bernd said...

Great catching up, Rimbeaux. So glad Cass, Hip and Barry could visit.
Just returned from a 12 day Grand paddle trip with all the family. Great memories of scouting Lava with you.
Hot and dry - 120 plus. Not sure if I prefer yours or ours, though the mid 70's in SF right now seems pretty good.