Sometimes, it just seems that Mother Nature has her way with me, and there is little I can do to relieve frustration. About a month ago, Mother Nature saw fit to:
- Dump record-setting rains on my house, which flooded my basement.
- Sustain 40mph winds that blew over my motorcycle and broke a turn signal.
- Have the earliest frost in a decade, and kill my late-blooming tomato plants.
- Usher in fall well before it should be, which, in combination with the rains, clogged my gutters.
Sitting in my living room with a friend, who is an outdoorsy-type to say the least, I was sharing my woes with nature to him. He told me that there are a few of ways that you can have a blast and defy Mother Nature simultaneously.
1) Go White Water Rafting
Know this: Water is, has been, and always will be one of the most powerful forces on the planet. Whilst we humans may feel powerful when we create bombs that level cities, our singular destructive capabilities are miniscule when compared to water; it has the power to humble almost anything on the planet.
Steam was used to power our locomotives and boats, helping a young America become a thriving country and powering the industrial revolution. It currently cooks our food, powers our houses, and concentrated blasts of it are used to strip the paint from naval ships.
Ice and snow’s destructive capability has to be universally respected. Avalanches can bury entire towns or just make our transportation generally worthless. No matter the amount of technology we come up with, we have yet to make a production vehicle that can get through 3+ feet of snow unaided. Ice needs to be mentioned as well, from making many mechanical processes useless to aiding in throwing our cars off of roads; frozen water may just be the biggest inconvenience to modern culture.
Finally, lets examine the liquid state of water. Rivers have carved the Grand Canyon, a lake powers the monstrous hoover dam, and oceanic tidal waves formed by earthquakes have devastated entire countries. Whilst frozen, water may be inconvenient, and when superheated, it can be the most harmful; there is no denying that liquid water is by far the single most destructive force on this planet.
You may ask: That’s a nice story, but how does examining the states of water help me get Mother Nature back?
Nothing defies Mother Nature more than getting in an inflatable raft that could be popped with a sharpened pencil, and riding the most destructive force on the planet with the express purpose of finding rocks to jump over.
2) Find a Ranch and go Horseback Riding
Before I write any article, I run it by my friends first. Believe me when I tell you that this point was the most fun to tell people. Their first reaction is always the same, and I said the same thing when this was mentioned to me.
“But my little sister goes horseback riding all the time, how is that getting back at Mother Nature?” Let me explain: It’s time for the little sisters reading this to get proper respect.
Again, we need to examine history to truly understand why taming and riding horses is a great way to stick it to nature. Before humans tamed horses, we walked everywhere; think about that. The average human walks at a rate of 3 miles per hour, and has a carrying capacity of 200-400lbs depending on size.
Enter the horse: Capable of sustaining 30mph for miles, and carrying 20% of their bodyweight with no noticeable detraction from performance. The average 15-hand horse weights between 900-1000 pounds; meaning it can take that same 200 pounds and run ten times faster than a human for miles.
Never mind the effect horses had on warfare. Genghis Khan, arguably the most successful, humble, and brutal warmonger in history recognized this principle and mounted his entire army on horses. He went on to conquer almost the entire known world during his life, and accomplished it multiple times.
Riding one of these beasts means taking what used to be a wild animal and taming it. It is undoubtedly a great way to get mother nature back for any of her transgressions when you take an animal as powerful as a horse, put a saddle on its back and an iron bar in its mouth, and order it to prance around beneath you.
3) Go Off-Roading in a Car
Off-Roading is in my opinion, the most fun thing to do on this list. I got a group of 7 guys together with five jeeps between us, and went to a local trail well known to be the bane of lesser vehicles. Then we all got in a car, formed a line, and drove over every single thing we could.
We crashed through brush, climbed over rocks, forded streams, and sprayed mud. More than once we got stuck, and it took ingenuity and teamwork to get our buddies out of a bind. Aside from white water rafting, where you are stuck in a small raft with 6-8 people, this activity promoted the most camaraderie of all the activities. Plus, there’s something inherently rebellious in taking an object designed to do one thing, (drive on roads), and make it do something entirely different. This is how I showed mother nature that whilst she may have her way with me, sometimes humankind has something up their sleeve she should watch out for.
The first example will allow you to tame earth’s most powerful element: water. The second example will allow you to subjugate one of the most versatile and powerful animals on the planet: horses. This last example takes a piece of human technology and goes out with the explicit purpose of taking whatever mother nature has done to the landscape and running it over.
About the author: Pete Wise is a content developer and white-hat SEO Jedi. This article was written for Wilderness Aware Rafting who lead exciting rafting, horseback riding, and jeep tours in Colorado. Follow Pete on twitter: @MySEOHeadache