Lessons Learned Paddling Down River

I was recently resharing a story about a canoe trip that went awry many years ago. To keep it short, my brother and I thought we were doing an 11-mile paddle which we estimated to be less than 3 hours. It ended up being 26 miles and 7 hours, over half of the trip in the dark with nothing but some water and 3 packages of Zingers (pre-cell phone days as well). I was thinking about lessons learned: 

• Making decisions with inaccurate or incomplete information can often be dangerous. 

• A person must know their limitations (beforehand if possible). 

• Giving yourself a buffer of time and energy is a good idea for just about anything. 

• It’s always smart to pack snacks. 

• A journey into the unknown is better with others as long as they don’t blame you for any negative consequences. 

• It doesn’t help to make jokes about banjos on a canoe trip. 

I would like to say that I took these lessons to heart and reduced the number of misguided adventures in my life, but I am one of those that has to learn the hard way. However, I am getting a little better about thinking through things ahead of time in these later years. It helps substantially that I have a life partner who internalized all this early on in her life. Between the two of us, we are a great blend of spontaneity and preparation. One of the toughest yet most beneficial things to learn is how to balance these two.