Living in reverse to avoid craziness

It started out as a joke, but my pal, Foonski, taught me some quirky ways to flourish in the outdoors from Thanksgiving to New Year’s, when so many seem to go crazy. Live in reverse: When everybody is doing the same thing, that is, driving, shopping and generally pushing with an aggravated sense of urgency, do the opposite. Bail. Drive or hike to where you feel a special sense of self and place. One calm winter night, right when the Christmas parties were hitting and traffic was jammed like too many rats in a maze, Foonski pulled out a tide book and noticed a series of nighttime minus low tides ( just as will arrive next week). Foonski talked me into heading to an extended coastal reef with tidepools, where we put our waders on and walked in the tidepools with high-power flashlights. The number of critters we saw, incuding octopus, was like something out of a National Geographic film. Get out of the tunnel: Heavy traffic can create what we call the brake lights ahead of you, the headlights behind you (and perhaps who you are talking to on the phone). You can become oblivious to the outside world. In the process, you become unaware of what is outside the tunnel, often just over the hill, and all the great places to hike, bike, fish, explore and wildlife watch. In tunnel-effect, Foonski would pull off and we’d find a park, river, lake or beach within 5 or 10 minutes. It was always a game-changer. Plus our dogs, Rebel and Sam, made sure we’d take a break, too. Try a new orbit: One day we heard it might snow in Yosemite Valley, so on the spot, we headed to Yosemite Valley, with the idea to run around and try to catch a first snowflake of the year in our mouths. Yosemite Valley is 187 miles from San Francisco. Same with Tahoe. If you venture to parks and getaway destinations during the week, you can avoid 95 percent of the people; 38 miles to Point Reyes in Marin, 47 miles to Brannan Island and the Delta, 70 miles to Big Basin Redwoods. You just decide to go.

Toss your “Should List” for a few hours, try living in reverse, and when everybody else is going crazy, the outdoors can provide your salvation.