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Like a hole in the head: taking on another sport

© Jill Florio

Just what I needed: another sport. It’s not enough that I have gear spilling out of my closets for rock climbing, caving, backpacking, kayaking and canoeing. That my kayaks are growing weeds in my ex’s backyard. There isn’t room for a boat – much less two – in my downtown apartment.

You may know the syndrome. I have old gear from when I first took up each sport: old harnesses and ratty rock shoes, my second-hand paddle jacket, a small mountain of dry bags. I possess every color of stuff sack and too many backpacks. I can’t toss the stuff. I figure that when inexperienced friends join me for an adventure, I can cover all their needs.

And then there’s the gear fitting specific adventure niches: sleeping backs for summer trips or winter sleeping, and old servicable car camping bags. My bivy sack is lighter, more desperate, than my one person Sierra Designs backpacking tent. But then I love my four-person, older-than-dirt Eureka, perfect for basing at Joshua Tree.

So enough already. I don’t even do winter sports: a good thing. I imagine I’d get sucked into a black hole of downhill skis, cross country skis, boots, bibs, poles, snowboards, mountaineering gear, ice climbing tools…

Accoutrements aside, one can’t steal the time to pursue every activity to the same intensity. I climb whenever possible, car camp quite a bit, and hike most days (living in Flagstaff after all; it would be a sin not to hike). Boating trips are few, maybe two river trips a year. Sad. I need the time to plan a decent backpack expedition (and give my expensive winter tent a go).

And then there’s caving. My original sport. My poor little coveralls and helmet are too clean these days. I just don’t seem to get underground anymore.

What to do? What do you do? It’s a wacky lovely wild world out there and you want to get out in it. But you probably have a job, hobbies, friends, a life. Maybe like me, you need to choose your sports, pick a couple and pursue them meaningfully, leave it at that.

It’s painful to decide. So why I find myself picking up two new sports this summer is a mystery. The trail running is at least relatively gear-free: just decent running shoes. I can use my climbing approach shoes, good enough for jogging up mountains and leaping over rocks. Not a bad athletic addition; trail running isn’t a time-intensive sport, giving me a nice hard workout in 1-2 hours time.

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