A friend from Alaska is biking from Whitehorse, Canada to Delta Jct Alaska and sent me this article. I have had many Type 1 and 2 experiences and a few type 3's.

What are some of your type fun experiences?

Some of mine are.

Type 1. Backpacking in the Rocky Mtn's and the Sierra Nevada's.

Type 2. Paddling a small narrow winding Alaskan creek in rainy weather, with high grass and limited visibility during salmon spawning season and brown bear tracks everywhere.

Type 3. Sky diving over California City, CA.

REI. Understanding the Fun Scale

Ha. I like it.

I have had many of Number 1. Backpacking trails in California, Minnesota, Michigan, Wisconsin. Solo canoe trips in BWCA, Quetico, Missouri River in Montana. Group camping at State Parks with a bunch of friends.

Number 2 usually are winter trips into the BWCA, solo or otherwise. Usually there is a heaver amount of snow then expected, something on the sled breaks, and once, a member of the party went though the ice. But, after a bit of time, I am already planning the next trip having a bit more experience then before.

Number 3 - mostly centered around people, and not the place. Except for Philmount. I was an adult supervisor for some boy scouts and while the scouts were some great kids, I didn't like the Philmount experience at all. I want to backpack New Mexico again, just not Philmount.

Type 1: being in the Army.

Type 2: being in the Army.

Type 3. being in the Army.

Mike

Type 1: Countless BWCA, Quetico, and Canadian canoe trips. Play boating in my kayak on various rivers around the country. Rappelling over waterfalls and zip lining thru rainforests (but my husband would put these squarely in Type 2).

Type 2: The Hudson Bay trip I guided in 1989 that involved great disruptions due to forest fires: To the Bay or Bust
Also another canoe trip on which I was a camper that was interrupted by a sick camper who had to be evacuated twice combined with forest fires near the end of the trip that diverted us.

Type 3: The early spring day we spent trying to paddle a North Shore river thinking the ice was gone enough. We had to walk the quiet section because it was still iced over but thought we would be able to paddle the whitewater. We couldn't walk on shore because snow was hip deep. However, when we got to the whitewater sections, there were huge ice shelves sticking out over the must-make eddies. We were forced to turn around to hike back up the river, but the ice floes had started to break up. We had to straddle our boats in case we fell through and we made running sliding leaps from floe to floe. It took us 8 exhausting hours to go round trip and we never got to paddle.

straighthairedcurly: "
Type 3: The early spring day we spent trying to paddle a North Shore river thinking the ice was gone enough. We had to walk the quiet section because it was still iced over but thought we would be able to paddle the whitewater. We couldn't walk on shore because snow was hip deep. However, when we got to the whitewater sections, there were huge ice shelves sticking out over the must-make eddies. We were forced to turn around to hike back up the river, but the ice floes had started to break up. We had to straddle our boats in case we fell through and we made running sliding leaps from floe to floe. It took us 8 exhausting hours to go round trip and we never got to paddle.
"

Wowza. Yep, nothing fun sounding about that. Every step being a potential crash through the ice into moving water. No thank you.

LindenTree: "A friend from Alaska is biking from Whitehorse, Canada to Delta Jct Alaska and sent me this article. I have had many Type 1 and 2 experiences and a few type 3's.

What are some of your type fun experiences?

Some of mine are.

Type 1. Backpacking in the Rocky Mtn's and the Sierra Nevada's.

Type 2. Paddling a small narrow winding Alaskan creek in rainy weather, with high grass and limited visibility during salmon spawning season and brown bear tracks everywhere.

Type 3. Sky diving over California City, CA.

REI. Understanding the Fun Scale "

I have had and I am sure many of you have had outdoor adventures of the type 1 and type 2 kinds of fun. I am writing to defend sky diving which unfortunately was only mentioned as type 3. I have had many sky dives of the type 1 kind (pure pleasure) and type 2 kind (scary but rewarding). Fortunately, none of the type 3 (miserable). Since this is not a sky diving board some of you might have a hard time imagining a sky dive as pure pleasure. So, I found a film made by my jump master on my first jump. It turns out my jump master, B.J. Worth, went on to be one of the most famous skydivers ever. Here is a link to a film he made in the 70s or 80s that revolutionized how sky diving was done. Take a look and see if you think those guys are having type 1 fun.

Wings by B.J. Worth

LarryS48: "
I have had and I am sure many of you have had outdoor adventures of the type 1 and type 2 kinds of fun. I am writing to defend sky diving which unfortunately was only mentioned as type 3. I have had many sky dives of the type 1 kind (pure pleasure) and type 2 kind (scary but rewarding). Fortunately, none of the type 3 (miserable). Since this is not a sky diving board some of you might have a hard time imagining a sky dive as pure pleasure. So, I found a film made by my jump master on my first jump. It turns out my jump master, B.J. Worth, went on to be one of the most famous skydivers ever. Here is a link to a film he made in the 70s or 80s that revolutionized how sky diving was done. Take a look and see if you think those guys are having type 1 fun.

Larry, another thing you and I have in common, didn't know you are a sky diver.
The only reason I put it in my category 3 is because I am terrified of heights, (four rungs up a ladder and I am shaking like a leaf) I did it on a bet. I spent 44 days on a wilderness fire in California and my co-workers said. "When we get off this fire we are going to go sky diving. "Who's in" I agreed to it figuring they never would never follow through. They indeed did and I had to keep my promise. I went tandem and my instructor darn near had to push me out of the plane. Funny thing is, I am a private Pilot and have ridden in helicopters countless times, I just don't jumping out of them.

I'm not dissing sky diving, this is why I put it in my type 3.

"Type 3 fun is not fun at all. Not even in retrospect. Afterward, you think, “What in the hell was I doing? If I ever come up with another idea that stupid, somebody slap some sense into me.”

LindenTree: "

LarryS48: "
I have had and I am sure many of you have had outdoor adventures of the type 1 and type 2 kinds of fun. I am writing to defend sky diving which unfortunately was only mentioned as type 3. I have had many sky dives of the type 1 kind (pure pleasure) and type 2 kind (scary but rewarding). Fortunately, none of the type 3 (miserable). Since this is not a sky diving board some of you might have a hard time imagining a sky dive as pure pleasure. So, I found a film made by my jump master on my first jump. It turns out my jump master, B.J. Worth, went on to be one of the most famous skydivers ever. Here is a link to a film he made in the 70s or 80s that revolutionized how sky diving was done. Take a look and see if you think those guys are having type 1 fun.

Larry, another thing you and I have in common, didn't know you are a sky diver.
The only reason I put it in my category 3 is because I am terrified of heights, (four rungs up a ladder and I am shaking like a leaf) I did it on a bet. I spent 44 days on a wilderness fire in California and my co-workers said. "When we get off this fire we are going to go sky diving. "Who's in" I agreed to it figuring they never would never follow through. They indeed did and I had to keep my promise. I went tandem and my instructor darn near had to push me out of the plane. Funny thing is, I am a private Pilot and have ridden in helicopters countless times, I just don't jumping out of them.


I'm not dissing sky diving, this is why I put it in my type 3.


"Type 3 fun is not fun at all. Not even in retrospect. Afterward, you think, “What in the hell was I doing? If I ever come up with another idea that stupid, somebody slap some sense into me.”"

Fear of heights is a funny thing. I think it kicks in for most people when they are near the ground. I find it a bit scary to be at the top of a ladder cleaning gutters. I am not a fan of rock climbing or standing on the top of a building or near the edge of a cliff. However, looking out the window of a plane is a pleasure. How many people with fear of heights opt for a window seat on commercial flight? You mentioned you are a pilot and are not afraid in planes and helicopters. This seems typical of many people.

Being in free fall 10,000 feet above the ground does not invoke fear in the way standing on a cliff does.Yes, you have to have some experience to give you confidence that you can deal with it when the time comes. Even looking at the free fall clips in the video I linked is not scary. It is aerial ballet. However, there is one scene where they are getting close to the ground. You can see that they are over a corner of the runways at the airport rather than over a giant valley. That tells me the time for fun is over and it is time to get apart from others and open your chute.

I suppose getting over a fear of say rock climbing is a learned thing too. I know it took me quite a few jumps to get basic confidence. There is a particularly dangerous time in a sky divers development. People in that stage are sometimes call hundred jump wonders. They have typically gotten over the fear thing but are not fully aware of all the dangers. I think you see something similar in canoeing. People with a lot of experience are more likely to wear a pfd than those with just a little experience.

This is a cool topic, working on it. I’m afraid of heights but being in a plane doesn’t invoke that cuz I’m enclosed. That is just a carnival ride. Looking over the edge of a cliff no way. That said I used to be a laborer for plasterers back in the day and set roof trusses on a carpentry crew. When your boss says get your ass up on that 3 story scaffold or start sheathing that roof or you ain’t gettin paid, well you suck it up and get to work and the whole time you can’t wait till quitting time. When the plywood hit the deck I’d be right on the pile, I’ll just hand it up to you guys ok, but that didn’t last too long, once the other guys knew I hated it there was no mercy. I remember one time on Christmas break I worked and we finished off a roof of a townhouse, the last thing I had to do was hang off the edge of a roof with a 7” skilsaw and cut the last tail off the subfascia scared stiff. When I was done I sat on the ridge of the roof and it started snowing, still as a church aside from the hum of a generator and I said man, if I get off this roof in one piece I’m never getting back on again. I fell off a ladder one time one story up carrying something and fell into some bushes, got some deep gouges in my back and learned right then the earth is a hard thing to land on.

Type 1: As I was driving home this evening, I passed pond after pond and seeing them reminded me of how I loved tying my fishing rod to my bike and pedaling to farm ponds with my brothers. We'd wade and cast to largemouth bass in that peerless, northern Ohio, golden light.

Type 2: Caving in West Virginia and Kentucky. We climbed waterfalls, rappelled into pits, waded streams up to our nostrils, and wormed through passages. It was brutal. It was the best.

Type 3: I went kayaking in early spring. I remembered all of my wetsuit save the gloves. I used wool socks for mittens and kept removing them to bang the ice off of them. My hands were so swollen and red and aching.

Lindy rang the recess bell with this post. C'mon, you kids, it's time to play away with the Fun Scale! What are your 1, 2, and 3?

So what scale is paddling straight to the base camp and spending the week in camp simply admiring the solitude and scenery?

On the sky diving. . . had a friend once that was a commercial pilot. His comment was "why would anyone jump out of a perfectly good airplane?"

I’ll just say that type 1 fun is certainly enjoyable in the moment, type 2 and type 3 fun usually make for WAY better story telling for years to come.

MikeinMpls: "Type 1: being in the Army.


Type 2: being in the Army.


Type 3. being in the Army.


Mike"

Funny!

Type 1: Our 3 girls all born within 32 months.

Type 2: Our 3 girls potty training.

Type 3: Our 3 girls in puberty at the same time.

ockycamper: "So what scale is paddling straight to the base camp and spending the week in camp simply admiring the solitude and scenery?


On the sky diving. . . had a friend once that was a commercial pilot. His comment was "why would anyone jump out of a perfectly good airplane?""

My pilot husband tried that line on the pilot of the skydiving plane we were prepping to jump from. The pilot didn't miss a beat, turned and said, "What makes you think this is a perfectly good airplane."

straighthairedcurly: "

ockycamper: "So what scale is paddling straight to the base camp and spending the week in camp simply admiring the solitude and scenery?



On the sky diving. . . had a friend once that was a commercial pilot. His comment was "why would anyone jump out of a perfectly good airplane?""

My pilot husband tried that line on the pilot of the skydiving plane we were prepping to jump from. The pilot didn't miss a beat, turned and said, "What makes you think this is a perfectly good airplane.""

I remember one jump in which four of us and the pilot were climbing to altitude in a little Cessna 180. We suddenly hit severe turbulence. One minute you were flying along and the next you were stuck to the ceiling of the aircraft. The pilot opened the door and started yelling GET OUT!, GET OUT! We were glad to. I certainly didn’t want to land in the plane under those conditions. Besides, a sky dive is always more fun than landing in a plane. Both good reasons to jump out of a (maybe) good airplane.

Cool topic for sure:
type 1: evenings in the BWCA/Quetico, Sylvania, or Wisconsin northwoods when the wind dies, the sun hits the top of the trees, and the bite heats up.
type 2: Alaskan climbing is very demanding in even good conditions, and on Mt. Huntington (which the REI author cites and is indeed the most beautiful mountain in Alaska) I was tested as much as I have been in any endeavor while climbing Huntington's French Ridge. Afterwards we relished it and plotted new climbs. But I don't recall much fun during the climb itself, and I do recall being scared silly by the exposure and the consequences of a mistake.
type 3: bad attitudes can turn type 1s and type 2s into type 3s easily.

I'm going to start a sky-diving thread in the hope of getting more Types 1, 2, and 3.

And I will start a thread for those that define real fun as a short paddle to a basecamp followed by a week of sitting in camp with good friends, eating good food, and fishing. All with no one else in sight and no other sounds for the entire week!

Maybe we will see someone jump out of a plane while we are sitting on the bank. . .adding to our enjoyment of the class 3 lifestyle.

Type 1: Kayak fishing the Texas coastline. Hiking many of the National Parks out west! The mighty 5 in Utah, Grand Tetons, Glacier, Badlands, Grand Canyon, Mesa Verda, Rocky Mountain, etc...

Type 2: The hike alone up Angel's Landing at Zion NP - my wife made it about 20 yards on the first section of chains, then said "no, no, no" as she returned to the peanut gallery of Scout's Landing. I continued the rest of the way hoping I wouldn't slip. An hour and half later, I returned to find her with all the friends she met watching the rest of us "crazies."

Type 3: I place my 8 year old son on the back of my 14' SIT kayak with the plan of paddling out St. Mary's Bayou in East Matty along the Texas coast. The tide was so low I had to wade through knee deep mud pulling my son in the yak in hopes of finding water that was deeper than 3 inches. After about 200 yards in 80 degree, humid weather, with no deeper water in sight I decided to turn back. I was covered in mud and sweat and we never even wet a line.