Where do you go when your dreams die?

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Where do you go when your dreams die?

Postby Moondog55 » Fri 21 Jun, 2019 10:48 am

Since circumstances have meant I am no longer going to Canada and Alaska I have been feeling very "Blaahh"
Even skiing isn't filling my brains pleasure centres with anticipatory hormones as the white season usually does.
My beloved won't walk with me [ well she can't really] and while I have always walked solo due to the industry I was in I no longer feel the need to avoid people on my time off.
I'm not all that interested in joining any of the local clubs as I really dislike small group politics and my past experience in walking clubs was poor.
I'm thinking of getting rid of all my gear and just car camping for the future, I mean I am already starting to sell off the Extreme cold weather gear that is saleable and gifted a bit to the mates in the USA.
Anybody else ever get the Deep Blues when things don't workout as anticipated?
Ve are too soon old und too late schmart
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Re: Where do you go when your dreams die?

Postby johnrs » Fri 21 Jun, 2019 11:30 am

its the winter solstice Moondog
Wait a while
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Re: Where do you go when your dreams die?

Postby Mark F » Fri 21 Jun, 2019 12:00 pm

You may be feeling the effects of SAD (Seasonal Affective Disorder). Like you I am trying to prolong my more physical outdoor activities but also planning for more car camping in the future with camp based walking and a bit of canoeing. I am slowly getting my camping setup worked out so that it fits in the back of the Subaru below window height but provides a good level of comfort (fridge, solar power, table & chairs etc) - not planning on the Landcruiser and caravan/camping trailer :roll:
"Perfection is attained not when there is nothing more to add, but when there is nothing more to remove".
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Re: Where do you go when your dreams die?

Postby puredingo » Fri 21 Jun, 2019 1:41 pm

To the pub?

Actually do NOT do that, A slippery slope to despair is certain.

Just keep moving, mate. Things always seem to work out.
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Re: Where do you go when your dreams die?

Postby wildwanderer » Fri 21 Jun, 2019 2:25 pm

The above advice to keep moving and busying yourself with projects is good advice.

Re local clubs. You dont need to attend club meetings or social activities. Just do walks. Far less politics etc when people are struggling for breath up a hill.
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Re: Where do you go when your dreams die?

Postby Zapruda » Fri 21 Jun, 2019 2:52 pm

Don't give up on your passions like skiing and walking, Moondog.

Why not focus some of your extensive MYOG or backcountry cooking knowledge in to a small digital book?

Or immerse yourself in the history of your favourite skiing and bushwalking areas? Maybe join the KHA?

If you ever want to dust off the boots, be it skiing or walking, let me know. I'd be keen to meet you in Vic for an adventure.

Cheers,
Stef
Last edited by Zapruda on Fri 21 Jun, 2019 11:06 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: Where do you go when your dreams die?

Postby Biggles » Fri 21 Jun, 2019 3:42 pm

Moondog55 wrote:I'm thinking of getting rid of all my gear and just car camping for the future,


Go for it! That's what I did way back in 2010 — no regrets! :D
“Is é comhrá faoin aimsir an tearmann deiridh ag an duine gan samhlaíocht.”
—Oscar Wilde, 1890.
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Re: Where do you go when your dreams die?

Postby rcaffin » Fri 21 Jun, 2019 6:08 pm

Why can't you still go ski touring and bushwalking?
Yeah, post non-trip depression, compounded by the short days of winter.
Hang in there Ed.

Cheers
Roger
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Re: Where do you go when your dreams die?

Postby Tino B » Fri 21 Jun, 2019 6:22 pm

Biggles wrote:
Moondog55 wrote:I'm thinking of getting rid of all my gear and just car camping for the future,


Go for it! That's what I did way back in 2010 — no regrets! :D

Don’t listen to silly old Biggles. Car camping has its place, but is a poor alternative to the real thing.
Think of how much research, time, consideration and money you put into amassing your gear - you will be effectively giving it away.
As to the vicissitudes of life, I find they come in multiples, and have had dreams crushed recently. I find solace in the solitude of the bush, be it alone or with a few friends.
It’s little consolation, but I’m Ballarat based and am up for an adventure any time, any place.
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Re: Where do you go when your dreams die?

Postby CBee » Fri 21 Jun, 2019 7:48 pm

If horizontal is fading, go vertical.
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Re: Where do you go when your dreams die?

Postby vagrom » Fri 21 Jun, 2019 7:58 pm

Mix it up - car camping to western Vic and the Eyre Peninsula but if you haven't seen Tasmania's Central Plateau from Higgs Track to Cynthia Bay then there's your remaining adventure on foot.
Surgite et .. andiamo!
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Re: Where do you go when your dreams die?

Postby ribuck » Fri 21 Jun, 2019 8:15 pm

Moondog55 wrote:I'm not all that interested in joining any of the local clubs as I really dislike small group politics...

What I have noticed a lot of people doing successfully is to join a local club and walk intensively with it for a while. Just long enough to find a few compatible people with whom they can do private trips. Then they jettison the club. That's not my style, but it seems to work for those who do it.
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Re: Where do you go when your dreams die?

Postby Moondog55 » Sat 22 Jun, 2019 9:00 am

rcaffin wrote:Why can't you still go ski touring and bushwalking?
Yeah, post non-trip depression, compounded by the short days of winter.
Hang in there Ed.

Cheers
Roger


Lack of motivation ? Also I think having an atypical pneumonia that will not go away isn't helping, now taking what I think is my 5th course of antibiotics and still feeling sick/achey/lethargic/tired because of that.
But mainly because for the last long while the trip to a Canadian winter and traveling the Polar Bear Express and seeing Alaska in winter has been the main thing on my mind
Ve are too soon old und too late schmart
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Re: Where do you go when your dreams die?

Postby Petew » Sat 22 Jun, 2019 9:54 am

I had a similar funk a couple of years ago. I was a keen road cyclist but then was diagnosed with a chloridal melanoma in my right eye which pretty much means I can't see much to the right and had to give the cycling away I sold all my cycling stuff and bought a kayak! Kayaking is awesome, kind of like a hybrid between car camping and bushwalking. Do you live near any water?
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Re: Where do you go when your dreams die?

Postby Moondog55 » Sat 22 Jun, 2019 10:36 am

Sorry to say that I hate the water, owned canoes and kayaks when my kids were growing up but I have an irrational fear of drowning and can't cope, river crossings give me the shakes etc
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Re: Where do you go when your dreams die?

Postby Petew » Sat 22 Jun, 2019 10:51 am

Bummer. A camel?
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Re: Where do you go when your dreams die?

Postby Aardvark » Sat 22 Jun, 2019 1:18 pm

I remember a smoking survey some years back which said that 9 out of 10 men who had tried camels, preferred women.
Ever on the search for a one ended stick.
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Re: Where do you go when your dreams die?

Postby rcaffin » Sat 22 Jun, 2019 6:23 pm

A good cure for these problems is to read three Best Sellers (eg Dan Brown maybe?) and to watch three of the latest Hollywood blockbuster movies (no suggestions: I don't watch them).
By the end of that bit of aversion therapy you will be desperate to go bush!

Cheers
Roger
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Re: Where do you go when your dreams die?

Postby Moondog55 » Sat 22 Jun, 2019 6:28 pm

rcaffin wrote:A good cure for these problems is to read three Best Sellers (eg Dan Brown maybe?) and to watch three of the latest Hollywood blockbuster movies (no suggestions: I don't watch them).
By the end of that bit of aversion therapy you will be desperate to go bush!

Cheers
Roger


OK Roger Thanx for the laugh
Also thanx everybody else [ except Aardvark for the camel joke :D My beloved wasn't impressed but I laughed to loudly and spent the next 20 minutes or so coughing up a lung] I'll send PMs to Tino and Zapruda
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Re: Where do you go when your dreams die?

Postby andrewa » Sat 22 Jun, 2019 7:06 pm

I’m thinking seasonal affective disorder...plus “passage of time”...

One of my inspiring moments was a few years ago when Les Southwell, aged 88 yo, died on Bogong during winter - he’d been up there skiing with a mate for the week!

It proves that there’s hope for all of us to enjoy the great outdoors until the end. That’s how I’d like to go.

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Re: Where do you go when your dreams die?

Postby Heremeahappy1 » Sun 23 Jun, 2019 4:10 am

I agree with your car camp jaunt. All the comforts, fire, conversation, a few frothys.
Take a notebook and reflect on some good trips, write down whatever comes to mind. Sights, sounds, smells and feelings. Enriches and deepens your experiences and writing can be cathartic. It certainly gives me perspective.
These scratchings can be eyes only, memoirs, trip reports or burn after use.
A lot of people avoid pensive pennings.
Dont let fear stop you
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Re: Where do you go when your dreams die?

Postby Neo » Sun 23 Jun, 2019 7:59 am

Things will pick up Ted.

Car camping is great. I use my lightweight gear. (living from an mx5!)

Can do day walks, find short off-track missions in unusual spots, do one nighters etc.
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Re: Where do you go when your dreams die?

Postby Lamont » Sun 23 Jun, 2019 8:07 am

Where can you go? To the beach! It's right on your doorstep. Might be a good change? Low tide walking, looking across the bay or Bass Strait is pretty sweet.
Coffee on the sand is hard to best.
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Re: Where do you go when your dreams die?

Postby kicyclist » Mon 24 Jun, 2019 2:52 pm

Hi Moondog,
Your motivation will change, the physical& mental states are usually linked.
Serious injury in 2014 threatened to end my adventures at 55yo.
I still have not done any walks with a full pack on my back since then. In 2016 I restarted cycle touring and love it more than before 2014.
The wife& I go car touring and do day walks with only light packs.
For the winter blues there is nothing like ocean swimming to give a natural high afterwards and to help keep my fitness up.
I read that you are not much into water, perhaps try just getting your legs wet at the end of a beach walk.
Do you have a Mountain or touring bike?
We are past the winter solstice so slowly heading toward more daylight!
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Re: Where do you go when your dreams die?

Postby ribuck » Mon 24 Jun, 2019 4:20 pm

I bet if you actually got yourself out into the snow, you would love it.
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Re: Where do you go when your dreams die?

Postby Moondog55 » Mon 24 Jun, 2019 5:23 pm

IF
I still can't breathe, a walk to the post office leaves me gasping for breath and shaking all over. Yes when I recover I know I will feel much better but this walking pneumonia is a real beech
Ve are too soon old und too late schmart
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Re: Where do you go when your dreams die?

Postby north-north-west » Fri 28 Jun, 2019 1:23 pm

Life is like a long off-track walk. There will always be bits where you just want to drop all your gear and turn into a mushroom. Ease off the pressure on yourself and just keep on plodding on until it gets a little better. As they say in the classics "this, too, shall pass."

Of course, I'd be all for you selling off the gear if any of it was small enough for me...
"Mit der Dummheit kämpfen Götter selbst vergebens."
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Re: Where do you go when your dreams die?

Postby Moondog55 » Fri 28 Jun, 2019 2:47 pm

north-north-west wrote:Of course, I'd be all for you selling off the gear if any of it was small enough for me...


You could always grow or buy it just in case you did
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Re: Where do you go when your dreams die?

Postby north-north-west » Fri 28 Jun, 2019 6:57 pm

Moondog55 wrote:You could always grow or buy it just in case you did


Vertical growth is not an option at my age. And the horizontal growth would preclude me from walking. Sorry about that.
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Re: Where do you go when your dreams die?

Postby crollsurf » Fri 28 Jun, 2019 9:45 pm

puredingo wrote:To the pub?

Actually do NOT do that, A slippery slope to despair is certain.

Just keep moving, mate. Things always seem to work out.


Maybe not the pub but I'd definately knock back a few too many drinks one night. Dream about what could have been and eventually think well *&%$#! that. Wake up the next day with a hangover and move on.

Being depressed about not going on a mega trip like that is totally natural. There would be something wrong with you if you weren't depressed. You never know, it may happen one day but there are plenty of other adventures out there. I've been getting into walking sewer lines along creeks around Sydney lately. Not Alaska but...
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