"What do I get out of all this? For a moment, I get to evade modern man's almost complete dependence on secondhand information....We have come to rely on what others tell us about the world beyond our narrow boxes.
"The canoe commute does give me a first hand glimpse of what is going on beyond the various manmade containers I inhabit. I benefit from regular access to information that clearly is unmediated."
PDF of original article embedded here: https://slate.com/human-interest/2014/09/history-of-the-cia-...
Humanity can intrude, but even that can be sounds from a bygone era, like the steam train blowing its whistle as it’s leaving the New Hope station across the Delaware from us. There are few sounds more warming than a train whistle echoing off of valleys.
By comparison it takes some getting used to driving into even moderate suburbs.
Nature, for me, is the antithesis of that -- things move and happen in the physical rather than the potential. And that's relaxing!
The thing that strikes me most is how the writing culture was alive and well and indeed, the writer is gifted with a style that transcends the bureaucracy that surrounded him. For me, it's like paradise lost since I've said aloud that if Uber did boats, the slowest among them would be superior to any method on land in a city that judged from a plane is a snake's forked tongue of rivers surrounded by traffic on goat paths and train trestles that look like a motocross racetrack.
The fact that CIA was doing this at the time gives you a rough idea of how thoughtful they were and how the choice of time and place many Americans enjoy at work today is a feeble attempt compared to this magical existence. I can only imagine the organizational conversation that occurred to put this commute in place, particularly given my own experience with government and FFRDCs. To me, the improvement in cadence, community, and cognition is clear, but I doubt those views are widely held today. I know I'd sleep better at night if I rowed an actual canoe twice-a-day instead of a water rower.
;->
https://www.uber.com/gb/en/u/uberboat/
It's terrible - it is basically a bus on water and not a personal speed boat taking you where you need to go like you can get in Venice (I highly recommend a fast boat transfer from Venice airport! Beats the water bus and makes you feel like a rockstar)
Lightly reworded, this could be the first quote from an A.I. placed in control of a physical body.
How is information gathered while canoeing direct, while information gathered while driving isn’t?
But I am also having trouble reading into that paragraph with certainty.
Humans have remarkable powers of sensory perception outdoors, evolved over eons. Those skills can atrophy in modern built environments. We mostly use our big brains there, which aren't nearly as smart as all our intelligences put together.
But those powers come alive again, when exposed directly to the elements they've evolved to understand: earth, wind, water, ice, mud, weather, plants, animals.
It's true that we also gather lots of sensory input when, say, driving. It keeps us alive! But it's a recent adaptation, to highways, traffic, concrete, motors, metal boxes, compared to the elements we've evolved to perceive over many millenia.
(And therefore everything filtered)
"We'll know our disinformation program is complete when everything the American public believes is false." - William J. Casey, CIA Director
No experience is unmediated. There is always an interpretive apparatus attached to perception.
Something I've noticed more often these days is people commuting from New Jersey into Manhattan via electric scooter.
This is done by first going to Fort Lee, crossing the George Washington Bridge, then down the Hudson bike path to wherever their office is. They say it's faster and less stressful than doing the traditional bus or train + subway commute. I believe them.
There is also the financial benefit which is you get to avoid paying to cross the Hudson River, which is expensive whether you cross by car, bus, train, or ferry.
Granted even before electric scooters became common, you could do this via traditional bicycle. But you'd arrive at the office all sweaty, and most people don't have the luxury of being able to shower at the office, not to mention rampant bike theft. Plus there is an abomination of a steep hill going up to the outbound George Washington on your way back home.
Now I'm a remote worker. I have a mild nostalgia for the ride home... no nostalgia for the subway. But if my office was somewhere with seasons, and I could paddle to work, I'd work weekends.
There was a guy that would commute into SF via a MASSIVE zodiac with (4) 600-HP engines and would do ~80MPH across the bay from Saucalito to the ferry building. He had a full time boat pilot, who he paid ~$100K/year (I asked) and he would make it from saucalito to SF in ~15 minutes.
He was a hedgie in FiDi...
As someone who has made the GGB commute all the way down to Sunnyvale for a time... I was super jealous of the fact this guy had that luxury.
The other part is to not wear a backpack and put it on a bike rack or in a basket, or just leave stuff in the office and drive or take the bus now and then if you need to drop off or pickup something bulky or heavy.
It is illegal to ride a privately owned one on the road or pavements/sidewalks here, but that doesn't seem to stop anyone.
I am all for it (apart from mixing with pedestrians) - seems like a great idea.
On the CIA side of the river there's another trail (Potomac Heritage trail). I was always surprised that you could freely run in the woods there so close to the CIA but also that you could see no sign of their "campus" from the trail.
There was a lot of unmediated information. :) Perhaps we passed each other on the trail.
[1] https://earth.google.com/web/@38.95800982,-77.13235337,18.82...
https://www.filfre.net/2023/03/spycraft-the-great-game-part-...
It’s mostly fine below Little Falls as well, unless there has been a ton of rain recently.
Edit: here, in case you don’t believe me
https://www.potomacriverkeepernetwork.org/robert-dreher-urge...
The CIA's location upriver is non-tidal, so it's clean-ish compared to the tidal waters of DC proper. DC's 19th-century sanitary sewers overflow into the storm drains when it rains. Yes, this is as gross as it sounds. DC Water is working on it. https://www.dcwater.com/css
Edited to add: One of the sewage outfalls runs directly from the White House into the Potomac River near the Kennedy Center. Make of that what you will.
Yeah, thats what biking to work daily for over a decade was like.
LPT: Check your bike into a hotel baggage check with the bellhop, tip them $20 and they will protect your bike in their storage for at least a week, longer if you build a report with them.
I used to lock my bikes up at various high-end hotels in SF.
1. The millenium tower : ring the guard button in the valet port coche and they buz you into the garage near the dumpsters and they have a bike-rack-tree to lock your bike to, and its behind cams and security doors.
The intercontinental and the W hotel allow you to store your bike for a week. (make sure you tip well, and get the name of the host)
sometimes you need a bit of social engineering when you arent staying at the hotel - like a good tip... but also its just being amenable and friendly, and you talk them up first and tip at the end of the convo....
but you can do this with any large hotel, and so long as you tip well...
So come in and say things like:
"I am in town for a conference, and only need to store this here a day or two"
"I am checking into the hotel later, but I have to go to an interview right now" (Tip this one good (($20)) as it will make him less likely to get upset if you dont return the same day.
I have had so many bike components, and whole bikes stolen from me in SF, Santa Rosa, San Jose ubtil I learned this trick.
Like going to the gym after work to relieve the stress of the day!
I think the floating commute is a massive testament to the cleanliness of the river. I can't imagine swimming in a major city's river without feeling the need to decontaminate before heading into the office.
At last I have closure.
It’s a very pretty area, and I imagine made for one gorgeous commute.
I lived in downtown Chicago for a bit, and did indeed consider buying a folding kayak to commute to work, since I worked in the Merchandise Mart where there was river access across the street.
I can resonate with many of the stated benfits from the canoe commute, but I will say that even just the city sections are a huge boon to my feeling of connection over taking a car.
Too many car commutes to an office can feel a bit surreal, like your world may as well be fictitious.
Instead of riding miserable Caltrain or driving the 101, biking 40 miles with friends is an absolute pleasure, even if you have to start pre-dawn to get in the office on time.
