My ideal adventure trip is somewhere between watching Discovery Channel travel documentaries and heading out on a 25-day trek to someplace isolated and incredible.
My body, my laundry, and my family responsibilities won’t let me be gone for a month. I wish they did, and I envy those who can and do.
A few months ago, while hiking in Chile’s Patagonia, I bumped into the British explorer who originally mapped the area in 1976, when the region was pretty much a blank spot on the map. Tall and lean and with a mischievous sparkle in his eye, John Garner told me about treking in rubber boots, making a tent out of a tarp and a tree, and slogging across a glacier studded with crevasses, alternately pulling and pushing a sled loaded with supplies.
He told me about the ferocious winds and bitter cold. And then he said, “if you can stand up, it’s a travel day.” Yes.
