Up & around
In climbing, it’s all about the summit. (That’s not completely true, of course, and most climbing literature acknowledges the journey as being the true reward, but the reality is that the summit is the cherry on top of the alpine sundae.) It is easy to envision the goals of climbing, even for those who are not involved in any related activities and have no personal experience with it. It clicks with almost everybody; whether climbing makes sense – as a pastime – to someone or not, people are in tune with the process from the start.
As in climbing, there is no question that it is the journey that matters most. It’s funny, but often the things that stay in the memory the longest and bring back the fondest recollections are the little events that pass almost unnoticed at the time. The big goals are different, but there is a parallel to climbing in that, although there are no summits, there is the concept of circumnavigation.
Going around an island, seeing it from all its different angles, is a pursuit of knowledge. When a paddler has successfully negotiated a circle route around the edge of an island (or a peninsula, maybe), he gains a perspective on that place that he would never otherwise have had. Like the climber who, upon returning from the heights, feels a depth of knowing because of the journey, the circumnavigator has a similar level of understanding.
That knowing, that sub-cellular intimacy with place is what it’s all about.