Outside Adventure to the Max: 2021 IN REVIEW: PICTURES OF THE YEAR

Before we take to the sea, we walk on land ... Before we create, we must understand. --- Ernest Hemingway

Cruising on a Carnival Cruise through the Bahamas really isn't the type of cruise. I'm a river guy more used to trail mix, power bars, and Hydro Flask half full of water, not an endless buffet and a boat I don't have to paddle. Still, who can argue with luxury, exotic ports of calls, and an endless buffet line?

Carnival Cruise

In all of my paddling days, I've never have lost sight of land. So, it was interesting to be out on the upper deck of the giant ship looking over the bow into the vastness of the Atlantic Ocean. Clearly an overpowering feeling of aloneness. I could help to think of those intrepid paddlers that have braved these vast seas, like famed Polish adventurer Aleksander Doba against this giant ocean, alone. He made three daring voyages earned him Guinness World Records titles, and in 2017 he became the oldest person to kayak across the Atlantic. "During the entire expedition lasting 110 days and nights," said Doba in an interview, "I survived 5 storms. One of them was special. It was 8, 9, and 10 on the Beaufort scale. The waves went up to 10 m. I know that no one had survived a storm like that in such a small vessel ever before. I proved that a Pole can do it! I was happy I got to survive a storm like that, although it lasted over two days and nights, and it was not easy."

Walking along the sandy beaches of Bimini, our first port of call, was pretty cool. Bimini is the westernmost island of the Bahamas. Located about 50 miles east of Miami, Florida, it's the closest point of the Bahamas to the mainland of the United States.
It was a favorite haunt of legendary author Ernest Hemingway. An avid outdoorsman and adventurer, Hemingway lived on Bimini from 1935 to 1937. While living there, he enjoyed fishing the deep blue offshore waters for marlin, tuna, and swordfish. It was from those fishing days that inspired his classics works of The Old Man and the Sea and Islands in The Stream.
In the opening chapter of Islands in The Stream, he wrote this about Bimini, "The water of the Stream was usually a dark blue when you look out at it when there was no wind. But when you walked out into it, there was just the green light of the water over that floury white sand, and you could see the shadow of any big fish a long time before he could ever come in close to the beach."

Like Doba, Hemingway had an intense passion for daring exploits and was always in search of his next big adrenaline-fueled adventure.

Tybee Island with KDK

And while for me, 2021 wasn't that dauntless, I did gain some new invaluable new perspectives and insights during my experiences while traveling on land, sea, rivers, and lakes.
This year, my wife Debbie and I did get to some new places. We took a trip to Cancun, Mexico, a cruise through the Bahamas to the Dominican Republic. Going coast to coast this year, we took another cruise and sailed along the Seattle skyline in Elliot Bay and took a walk along the beach with my granddaughter on Tybee Island in Georgia. In May, another big trip. On the way back from North Dakota to see family, we went cross-country. We traveled through the Black Hills of South Dakota and along the old Oregon and California trails on the way home.

While I have been living in California for almost nine years now, I still feel a bit like a tourist. There is so much to do and see in this state. I explored Slab Creek for the first time, saw a bit more of the Mokelumne River, and finally made it down the famed Gorge of the South Fork of the American River. I snowshoed through the China Wall train tunnels at Donner Pass near Truckee, California, and logged another section of the Sacramento River south of Red Bluff.

South Fork Whitewater

I also made a return trip to Loon Lake with Bayside Adventure Sports and enjoyed some great days on the Lower American River, Lake Natoma, and Lake Clementine. The Caldor Fire cut short my season on Lake Jenkinson with Sly Park Paddle Rentals, but now as the rain and snow have now returned to California, I look forward to a fabulous summer on the lake once again next year.

My desire to travel and experience the cultures of this world only grows with age. My long list of travels to all these splendid destinations this year will have a lasting influence on me for some time to come. I will forever remember the beauty and grandeur of these places. I can only hope that my pictures have somehow captured the spirit of these whereabouts.
Hemingway wrote, "It is good to have an end to journey toward; but it is the journey that matters, in the end."
These travels have only fueled my yearnings for more adventures in years to come. And as the saying goes, as one chapter ends, another one begins. And I'll add, and the journey never ends.