Tag: adventure

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August Adventure Month: Day 23

Day 23: Monday, August 23
Write a song

As adventures go, today’s was fairly low stakes, though not easy. To write a good song – something meaningful and impactful – requires a dive deep inside, an inner exploration that might bring you to internal places you haven’t been in a while, if ever. It can be a risky or difficult emotional journey. The song I wrote for today’s adventure is a ballad, and addresses ironies and contradictions in the ways people communicate in relationships, the ways in which we verbally dance in order to care for feelings instead of being forthright and honest. It’s not my best, not my worst. Someday I’ll perform it, when it’s refined and ready.

Adventure: Write a song
Distance traveled: An inward, emotional journey, immeasurable distance.
Challenges: Engaging emotions, venturing deep inside where difficult feelings may live.
Risks: Hitting up against hard thoughts, memories and feelings.
Difficulty scale 1-10: 7
Highlights: The feeling of reward when the song is finished; playing the song in its entirety.

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August Adventure Month: Day 21

Kayaking Lake Placid, NY


I declared August 2021 Adventure-a-Day Month (yes, I can do that)! Every day of August, I embarked on some type of adventure, 31 days, 31 adventures, some big, some small, some physical, some mental. It’s my way of making adventure part of everyday life. I write about each adventure below.

Day 21: Saturday, August 21
Kayaking Lake Placid, NY

Lake Placid is gorgeous. An expansive lake with an extensive shoreline wending through and among towering Adirondack peaks. It’s peaceful, too, as its name suggests. For my Lake Placid exploration by kayak (Oru folding kayak), I set in on the north shore of the lake and worked my way across through the wind and south through a broad channel, then back north again and near some rocky cliffs, perfect for a swim. I spent about three hours on the lake and could have stayed out longer, but clouds threatened a storm approaching. Dinner in Lake Placid village followed.

Adventure: Exploring Lake Placid, NY, by kayak.
Distance traveled: About 8 miles paddled.
Challenges: Paddling against a strong wind at times; enduring hours in one position.
Risks: Capsizing. Getting lost on the water.
Difficulty scale 1-10: 4.5
Highlights: Drifting on the large lake with spectacular views of the Adirondacks all around.