I enjoy paddling kayaks and canoes in rivers and streams. Not as much in stillwater. Nothing harsher than mild whitewater usually, but I surely do enjoy a good splash coming over the bow or having my kayak submarine and pop back up as I bust through the hole. Most of my reading that isn't Bible study are river guides. Others like detective novels. I like knowing which side of an island to run three miles from the put-in even on rivers in states I've never been and never expect to go. Studying a river map, especially one with historic data of former mills or Indian fish traps or whatnot, gives me great pleasure. It's come in handy a few times. I actually lead a trip down a creek that I'd never been on before - but I knew which channels to run and where to stop for lunch because I'd read about the trip in enough different guides. It's a sickness.
Fishing. Any kind of fishing on any type of water, so long as it is sporting and uses rod & reel. I won't gill-net or use trot-lines (except for survival, which I have been fortunate enough not to have to do). I generally do catch & release and get involved in the health of the waters I fish as well. My favorite is surf fishing I think. One never knows what one will catch in the surf, but more importantly just the fishing is enough. Standing in the surf and being a part of the interaction between sun and moon and having the crashing sound of the surf drown out the spinning thoughts in my head is enough. More than enough, it's a true joy. If I can look up and see a formation of pelicans skimming menhaden from the surface, or perhaps a few porpoise playing in the far breakers... well that's just icing on the cake. Next favorite I'd have to guess would be fishing with dry flies. Watching a big trout shoot up through the water like a polaris missile to hit a fly I've presented just right, well that's fun.
Sometimes I get really lucky and I fish while paddling a canoe or kayak.
I enjoy hiking, but get very little opportunity to pursue this hobby. Last trip I took the mountain was foggy and it was like hiking from nowhere to nowhere. Just keep walking and smelling the damp and seeing the twenty or thirty feet around me present itself and then disappear again. That was cool. It was like I was the only one around. Like no one could bother me or ask me to interrupt my reverie.
I enjoy camping. I base camp out of my truck now. I used to do the backpacking thing, but carrying one's home is a bit extreme if one is not a turtle, snail, or hermit crab. Now I take enough for great comfort in camp, and then go off on day trips, usually camping alongside a river. It's great fun to put in upstream and float fish my way downstream, winding up at the campsite, able to waddle over to my campsite and grab a cold beer and start cooking a hot meal before going back after my car.
Biking. I very much enjoy biking, but get extremely little time on my bike. I prefer the kind with pedals rather than engines. I used to race, mostly informally but in a few sanctioned events. I was terrible at sustained speed, but I could go all day long at a more moderate pace. And so that's what I did - started touring. What was cool was when we could set up way-stations and stop at someone's house each evening, wash up and get a good meal and sleep in a soft bed, then go the next day another 50 or 100 miles to the next spot and get there just as exhausted and just as ready for a hot meal and a soft bed. This part of my life is in the past, though I surely do love thinking back on it.
- Zurf
But no matter it is a funny witty reply.