Trekking Poles for a Romantic Get-away

Jenelle tries to put something on social media at least once a week, if not more. It's a daunting task, trying to keep people looking at our website. She's not the one that gets the praise for making a piece of glass but she truly is a big part of what holds our little business together. I mostly just blow glass and write an occasional story. Being the great visionary that I am, I often come up with great ideas for our business as well. Jenelle helps me sort them out to make sure that we are staying on track with our goals and vision for the business. She usually seems supportive of my ideas but then they often get nixed when she asks me simple questions like, “is that practical” or “are you serious” or how about "isn't that a bit of an exaggeration”?

An example was last week. She had a picture of a fish on a piece of maple that I was working on. “What should I write on the post” she asked? My initial thought was down the lines of writing something that would get as many people to view it as possible and so I suggested, “Dwight is working on a gorgeous brook trout in his romantic getaway close to Deep Creek Lake”. I've often heard that putting the right words in the right places is the key to a vibrant business. Of course Jenelle loved it, but after a few seconds of thought she said something about that not being exactly accurate. “It's not exactly a romantic getaway,” she said. My thought was that if she would come and watch me work, see my muscles flex, sweat running down my balding forehead, and especially if she came out there with a glass of milk and a chocolate chip cookie, and a cute little flower tucked behind her ear, things would definitely get romantic. Since that's probably expecting a little much, I guess it truly is more of just a getaway, a place where I can go to get away. So maybe she's right, both of those words together don't work well as far as being honest. But it still was a great idea!

She tried to roll her eyes, but I could tell by her smile that deep down she thought it was a good idea.

Something that I enjoyed about my recent elk hunt was that I could dream and plan and instead of getting nixed, the other guys would join in and the dreams would grow and evolve into something that might actually happen.

One day when we were hiking out of the wilderness, our packs laden down with heavy loads of elk meat, we were wondering and thinking about how we could make trips like this happen on a more regular basis. The two big culprits that usually put a halt to a good adventure are time and money. And to chase after elk takes both. How could we possibly make more money and still have more time to hunt. We stopped to catch our breath and further discuss any thoughts that may have entered our brains. I noticed that Nate was resting on his trekking poles. Not only were they long and sleek, but they looked like real and natural river birch. Brian had a set of the normal collapsible type that are used for mountaineering. I just had one of those mountaineering poles because I very seldom shoot anything and so I like to carry a pole in one hand and a bow in the other.

“Where did you get those trekking poles, Nate?” Apparently he had cut them from river Birch back home. They looked awesome.

I’m not sure who had the idea first or if we all had the same idea at the same time. They say that great minds think alike so I'm thinking we all had the same idea at the same time. Ahha! Our own specialty trekking poles. Our wheels started spinning. They would be handmade from river birch with hollow handles that held survival equipment such as fish hooks, matches, cordage, and some other first aid things. 

There's this company called LifeStraw that invented this little straw with a filter in it that allows you to drink water from almost any puddle anywhere and have pure water. The downside is basically that you have to lay on the ground just to get to drink from the water source. Our trekking poles would have a tube that goes all the way from the top to the bottom with a filter in the tube so then you could just walk up to a creek or other water source and get a sip without bending over or taking off your pack.

If we started making these it wouldn't be long until we are off hunting three months or so out of every year. They would probably sell like hot cakes. We weren't sure what we would call our new business and so I suggested that since Keen and Bright already has a business license we would just run it under that. Maybe have a section called Nate's Trekking Poles.

From my experience, my great ideas and money often don't go hand in hand so we'd probably have a little tab where people could donate to get it started, or better yet, if you have a couple of thousands of dollars lying around and you wanted to partner in the trekking pole part of the business, we would accept that in exchange for the possibility of elk burger and steak heading your way in the future. I'm pretty sure that LifeStraw will be quick to partner with us as well. And I'm really hoping that we can find a reliable manufacturer out there somewhere.

I should probably run this idea by Jenelle before I get in too far. I'm pretty sure she'll love it so much that she'll break out the chocolate chip cookies and milk. And who knows, maybe she'll even have a little flower behind her ear.

I can see the post  on Facebook now,

“Trekking Poles for a Romantic Getaway Near Deep Creek Lake”.