Weekend away

I had a couple of realizations this past weekend while on a small birthday camping expedition in Washington state.  Both of them were things that I brought home with me, one good and the other bad.

First off, I realized that I have allergies.  Never have I ever had any problems with this type of thing, but perhaps that’s natures way of saying “happy birthday.”  Everything around the camp site was blooming and by the morning my head felt like it was swimming and I have not left the fog yet.  On a recommendation from friends and family, I’ve gotten some allergy meds and hope that those help, because right now I can’t seem to think straight and my concentration on the course today and yesterday has definitely waned compared with before.

The other realization was much better.  While on a decently long hike up to Upper Creek Falls about 15 miles north of Carson, WA, I was hitting pine cones with a walking stick and started seriously thinking about how my hand-eye coordination works.  We are all different, of course, and what I found was that if I look at the center of an object while aiming/swinging, I tend to hit towards the front of it.  In golf, my miss-hit tendency is definitely toward the hosel of the club and not the toe.  Same thing with the walking stick..  So, while traipsing down the mountain side I starting looking at the front of any object and swinging away.  To my astonished pleasure, I actually hit with a much greater accuracy.  I guess that if you keep your eyes open you can learn something anywhere..

I took this little tidbit of knowledge to the course yesterday and today and found that it actually does help with my swing.  It even helps me make more solid contact with my putts.  So, a great gem to have realized!

Here are a few photos from the journey:

The river we camped on:

A “rustic” toilet we found near our site:

self portrait on the way up:

Top of Upper Creek Falls: