I’ve guided a lot of trips over the years, and some stand out in my mind, often because everything didn’t go as planned. Like the one in this picture.

It was the second week of June, 2018, and a small group of friends and I were on the Gaspé peninsula in Quebec, coming down the Bonaventure river. The water was a little low, which meant slow going. We were on the lower river, had had a long day, and because we were in a long canyon where the hills rose steeply right out of the river, we ended up camping on a narrow gravel bar on the side of the river because it was the only remotely flat spot. Because space was so limited, none of us set up tents, choosing instead to set up a few tarps, side-by-side, and all sleep under them. It wasn’t part of the plan, but we all were comfortable enough. When I see those guys we still laugh about it. We named it Hobo camp. It was memorable because things didn’t go as planned. But we persevered, had some great laughs, and left the situation with a great memory and experience.

The picture above is from the next morning, packing up Hobo camp, and it always reminds me that it’s the attitude I bring into the situation, not the situation itself, that determines the outcome.