There is an incredible power that comes with climbing that is unlike any feeling that I get from any other hobby...besides salsa dancing. Part of what is so wonderful about it is the preparation. You pull off into a parking area - sometimes it is a gravel lot, sometimes it is a paved road, sometimes it is in front of a local's home. Anticipation hangs in the air like electricity prickling hairs on the back of your neck when lightning approaches as you and your partner sort through gear, step into harnesses and pack for your day. Sometimes you check your guidebook. Other times, you know exactly what trail you need to take to reach your destination. As the wall comes within eyesight, the electricity continues to build. Crack climbing has become a punishing addiction. Insert your foot into the crack so that they are parallel to one another, torque your knee over, jam your hand in high above your head, tense your forearm and pull. Repeat. While the motion is gets repetitive, each subsequent move can differ depending on the crack and the climb. Sometimes it is a hand jam, sometimes a finger lock, sometimes a fist jam that you prey will not pull out. But it is not the mechanical, physical aspect of climbing that makes it unlike any other hobby.
The addiction comes in the fear - those moments of loneliness and frustration and hatred when you are up there on the wall, beyond earshot of your partner when you have no idea how on earth you are going to make the next move and you are pissed to the high heavens that you are not strong enough to pull it off. In these moments, we learn more about ourselves. We learn our limits, we learn how to persevere and push ourselves and we learn that sometimes we have to accept our shortcomings. The literal and figurative ups and downs of climbing can be difficult to overcome but that is the beauty of the lifestyle. It is what makes it so easy to make more climber friends - each and every one of us have a similar attraction to that spicy traverse, that pumpy overhang or that runout slab.
On Saturday evening, we were lucky enough to come across Andrew McGrath who had just drove in from such a stellar trip in Bend, Oregon that Jacquie and I are now obligated to go. Andrew introduced us to his friend Charlie, who was climbing in Squamish for the weekend with Jason and Erina. All fantastic people and very strong climbers. Erina and I enjoyed pairing off since we were so close in body type to lead up the tricky, technical walls in Chek. The trio was from Boston, MA and as a result we found that we had a number of common friends! The world can be so small.
When Monday came, Jacquie and I were finally able to tick the classic multi-pitch 5.8 trad climb of Shannon Falls. On top of Pitch 2 of Skywalker, commonly known as the money pitch, I cried. That corner crack did not give way easily and I took a fall before I managed to fight my way up it. As I belayed Jacquie up, I looked away from the mountain towards Squamish Lake and beyond. This was the return I had been waiting for more than anything else. This climb was the reason that I wanted to come back - to lead the hard pitch on what had been one of the first climbs I did when I arrived in Squamish the first time. The stinging in my eyes from the tears were relatively inconvenient since I was occupied with bringing Jacquie up, but it had to happen. During the summer of 2013, I was in the best climbing shape I had ever been. I climbed every weekend outdoors, making trips to the Adirondacks, the Shawangunk Ridge, Rumney, Farley and beyond. Squamish was the finale to my prior climbing career and those days of climbing with a calm and naïve mind are now far behind me. My trip ended with a significant injury to some tendons in my left wrist and what followed soon after landing back in Connecticut was the news that my brother was in the hospital due to an attempt on his own life with very little chance of recovery. Flying to see him made me hate the freedom and peace I had so selfishly indulged in when he was teetering and suffering on the same coast, miles away.
The completion of Skywalker on my own terms was needed to put some of my mind at rest, however as I sit here writing this blog...I find that I am still searching for more. More ways to push myself, be beside myself and look within myself to discover what else I need to put everything behind me. I am preying for my strength to come to me when I need it most - if you have made it through similar struggles to come out on top, give me some guidance so that I might be able to come to terms with my own.
Thursday, July 28, 2016
A Long Awaited Return
Friday - July 22, 2016
Whenever I go through phases of diligent writing and journaling, I am always surprised at how much discipline it takes to write every day. I could not imagine what it would take to write fiction because just catching up on what I have done day to day ties up so much time. It is even more of a challenge when the passing nature begs your attention. One could argue that I ought to take advantage of the opportunity of soaking in the scenery because it is not likely that I will do this again for years, however there is a lot to be said for being able to remember more of what we saw by reading back over the notes I kept. It often takes an entire off-shift of driving to catch up with what occurred earlier that day and the day before.
We woke up initially at 7:00am, but dipped back into sleep for an extra hour before getting out of bed. The blue sky could be seen through the trees and the sun greeted us a good morning to our east across the river. We rolled out of bed and began to break down camp. This process was slow because every trip back to the car was interrupted by a quick walk down to the riverbed. Attempts to bath in the water were initially interrupted by a trio of men hovering across from us on the water hoping to succeed at some fly-fishing. To our delight, after a few more trips to and from the car, they disappeared around the bend. Clean and raring to go, we made a quick meal of oatmeal and coffee, packed up our things and were off for the border. We quickly passed from Montana to Idaho, where the beauty of the mountains spilled over across state lines. Check-in's had to be made quickly, but before we knew it we had already reached the Canadian border. A quick hello and handing over of passports granted us permission to the province of British Columbia. Three years ago, I had first visited Squamish and that trip alone was enough to make me think that BC was incredible. On this day, whipping down winding roads through the forest to the expansive open plains surrounded by unyielding mountain ranges made me realize that there were no bounds to beauty. During this drive, I realized that mistakes happen for a reason. We missed a turn and pressed on despite multiple conversations about turning around to cut back on time, but driving past Fruitvale and Rossland on the way to Kelowna was breathtaking. Expansive is the only way to describe it - there are very few places I have seen that are quite as majestic. Everything seemed to be on a much grander scale from the torrential rivers to the massive mountains to the farmlands to the trucks. And they said things were bigger in Texas...
We arrived in Kelowna at about 7:30pm and were blown away by the sight of it. A friend of Jacquie's mother had recommended it to us and described it as a slice of heaven - we both had to agree. We were excited to see that there was a live band playing by the water, which consequently made the parking much more difficult to find. After nearly leaving the car on a rather sketchy road outside of a strip club, we managed to find a city parking area that was free in the evenings. We grabbed food at Fernando's Pub. It took quite some time to get our food so we decided to get it to go. Because it was already about 9:30pm and we had four and a half hours of driving ahead of us, we made a pit stop to stock up on fuel, Red Bulls and Starbucks coffees. The drive passed surprisingly quickly.
When we finally approached Squamish, I could feel a strong churn deep in the pit of my stomach. This was not a result of stomach aches or pains, but a churning of emotions and nostalgia as we weaved through the mountain rounds. Squamish was the last place I ever climbed before learning that my brother was in the hospital three years ago. Somehow, I always arrive deep into the night / morning. As a result, I am actually more familiar with the curvatures of the landscapes in the dark than I am during the day. Returning to Squamish brought with it a great release - I have felt the bad energy I have been carrying with me for years drain out of me over the past few days. The next morning, I was to Jacquie how Simba was to Mufasa at the beginning of the Lion King - awake early and squirming to get moving.
Climbs ticked:
Saturday, June 23 - Bilbo Baggins (Trad 5.8), Gollum (Trad 5.7), High Boltage Line (Sport 5.10a), Pixie Corner (Trad 5.8), Davy Jone's Locker (Trad 5.7)
Sunday, June 24 - Master of My Domain (Sport 5.9, 2 pitches), Festivus (Sport 5.9), Giddy Up (Sport 5.10+), Real TV (Sport 5.10a)
Monday, June 25 - Skywalker (Trad 5.8, 5 pitches), Khalanie Crack (Trad 5.7)
Wednesday, June 27 - St. Vitus' Dance (Trad 5.9, 5 pitches)
Whenever I go through phases of diligent writing and journaling, I am always surprised at how much discipline it takes to write every day. I could not imagine what it would take to write fiction because just catching up on what I have done day to day ties up so much time. It is even more of a challenge when the passing nature begs your attention. One could argue that I ought to take advantage of the opportunity of soaking in the scenery because it is not likely that I will do this again for years, however there is a lot to be said for being able to remember more of what we saw by reading back over the notes I kept. It often takes an entire off-shift of driving to catch up with what occurred earlier that day and the day before.
We woke up initially at 7:00am, but dipped back into sleep for an extra hour before getting out of bed. The blue sky could be seen through the trees and the sun greeted us a good morning to our east across the river. We rolled out of bed and began to break down camp. This process was slow because every trip back to the car was interrupted by a quick walk down to the riverbed. Attempts to bath in the water were initially interrupted by a trio of men hovering across from us on the water hoping to succeed at some fly-fishing. To our delight, after a few more trips to and from the car, they disappeared around the bend. Clean and raring to go, we made a quick meal of oatmeal and coffee, packed up our things and were off for the border. We quickly passed from Montana to Idaho, where the beauty of the mountains spilled over across state lines. Check-in's had to be made quickly, but before we knew it we had already reached the Canadian border. A quick hello and handing over of passports granted us permission to the province of British Columbia. Three years ago, I had first visited Squamish and that trip alone was enough to make me think that BC was incredible. On this day, whipping down winding roads through the forest to the expansive open plains surrounded by unyielding mountain ranges made me realize that there were no bounds to beauty. During this drive, I realized that mistakes happen for a reason. We missed a turn and pressed on despite multiple conversations about turning around to cut back on time, but driving past Fruitvale and Rossland on the way to Kelowna was breathtaking. Expansive is the only way to describe it - there are very few places I have seen that are quite as majestic. Everything seemed to be on a much grander scale from the torrential rivers to the massive mountains to the farmlands to the trucks. And they said things were bigger in Texas...
We arrived in Kelowna at about 7:30pm and were blown away by the sight of it. A friend of Jacquie's mother had recommended it to us and described it as a slice of heaven - we both had to agree. We were excited to see that there was a live band playing by the water, which consequently made the parking much more difficult to find. After nearly leaving the car on a rather sketchy road outside of a strip club, we managed to find a city parking area that was free in the evenings. We grabbed food at Fernando's Pub. It took quite some time to get our food so we decided to get it to go. Because it was already about 9:30pm and we had four and a half hours of driving ahead of us, we made a pit stop to stock up on fuel, Red Bulls and Starbucks coffees. The drive passed surprisingly quickly.
When we finally approached Squamish, I could feel a strong churn deep in the pit of my stomach. This was not a result of stomach aches or pains, but a churning of emotions and nostalgia as we weaved through the mountain rounds. Squamish was the last place I ever climbed before learning that my brother was in the hospital three years ago. Somehow, I always arrive deep into the night / morning. As a result, I am actually more familiar with the curvatures of the landscapes in the dark than I am during the day. Returning to Squamish brought with it a great release - I have felt the bad energy I have been carrying with me for years drain out of me over the past few days. The next morning, I was to Jacquie how Simba was to Mufasa at the beginning of the Lion King - awake early and squirming to get moving.
Climbs ticked:
Saturday, June 23 - Bilbo Baggins (Trad 5.8), Gollum (Trad 5.7), High Boltage Line (Sport 5.10a), Pixie Corner (Trad 5.8), Davy Jone's Locker (Trad 5.7)
Sunday, June 24 - Master of My Domain (Sport 5.9, 2 pitches), Festivus (Sport 5.9), Giddy Up (Sport 5.10+), Real TV (Sport 5.10a)
Monday, June 25 - Skywalker (Trad 5.8, 5 pitches), Khalanie Crack (Trad 5.7)
Wednesday, June 27 - St. Vitus' Dance (Trad 5.9, 5 pitches)
Friday, July 22, 2016
Going to the Sun
Wednesday - July 20, 2016
This day was a haul - we drove for a minimum of 14 miles to make it from Minnesota to Glacier National Park in Montana. I was really looking forward to this particular morning because this was the first opportunity we had to utilize the contents of my car to a greater capacity. The campsite was empty with the exception of a man relaxing in a camp chair, enjoying the company of his Yorkshire Terrier. An enormous shoutout needs to be given to Freecampsites.net for this quaint find. There were four pull-in sites for cars and electrical plug-ins. The stalls in the restroom did not have doors, which was hilarious but totally acceptable considering the limited occupants. We pulled out our camp chairs and fired up my $20 Coleman stove. I was impressed at how easy it was to get started - simply insert the butane fuel cannister with the notch pointing skyward, lock it into place and go! Our water quickly boiled and soon we were enjoying bowls of oatmeal while lounging in our camp chairs, feet propped up on my Rubbermaid bins (love multi-purpose equipment). The campsite was also a community park, which I imagine is it's primary purpose. There was a large pavillion filled with picnic benches, a children's playground and a ballpark in the distance. Apparently there was a boat launch there as well, however we did not get a chance to check out the water source. Since we had such a long day, we decided to pack up and get moving once our bowls of breakfast were cleaned off. We drove down the long, flat backroads of Minnesota passing farms, farms and more farms. We made a quick stop in Valley City to fill up on gas. In town (I need to look up the definition of a "city"), we passed a United States Air Force plane mounted for display across the local VA building. Had we more time, I would have loved to stop and take a closer look. We jumped back onto the highway and continued on 94W. We passed a really interesting sculpture titled "Geese in Flight". It was a flock of geese that took a formation resembling an eye and it was marked the entrace to the Enchanted Highway. After having passed it, I do feel a twinge of regret for not taking a quick detour to see the other sights on that strip.
This day was a haul - we drove for a minimum of 14 miles to make it from Minnesota to Glacier National Park in Montana. I was really looking forward to this particular morning because this was the first opportunity we had to utilize the contents of my car to a greater capacity. The campsite was empty with the exception of a man relaxing in a camp chair, enjoying the company of his Yorkshire Terrier. An enormous shoutout needs to be given to Freecampsites.net for this quaint find. There were four pull-in sites for cars and electrical plug-ins. The stalls in the restroom did not have doors, which was hilarious but totally acceptable considering the limited occupants. We pulled out our camp chairs and fired up my $20 Coleman stove. I was impressed at how easy it was to get started - simply insert the butane fuel cannister with the notch pointing skyward, lock it into place and go! Our water quickly boiled and soon we were enjoying bowls of oatmeal while lounging in our camp chairs, feet propped up on my Rubbermaid bins (love multi-purpose equipment). The campsite was also a community park, which I imagine is it's primary purpose. There was a large pavillion filled with picnic benches, a children's playground and a ballpark in the distance. Apparently there was a boat launch there as well, however we did not get a chance to check out the water source. Since we had such a long day, we decided to pack up and get moving once our bowls of breakfast were cleaned off. We drove down the long, flat backroads of Minnesota passing farms, farms and more farms. We made a quick stop in Valley City to fill up on gas. In town (I need to look up the definition of a "city"), we passed a United States Air Force plane mounted for display across the local VA building. Had we more time, I would have loved to stop and take a closer look. We jumped back onto the highway and continued on 94W. We passed a really interesting sculpture titled "Geese in Flight". It was a flock of geese that took a formation resembling an eye and it was marked the entrace to the Enchanted Highway. After having passed it, I do feel a twinge of regret for not taking a quick detour to see the other sights on that strip.
Though the landscapes in North Dakota went through very little variation, it was still beautiful to drive through. Montana, however, had North Dakota beat by a landslide. The rolling hills were littered with farms and fields bursting with color - patches of gold, emerald and tan kept a smile on my face for the entire duration of my drive. The highway ran over countless humps and as we passed over the highest one of each batch, a twinge of adrenaline hit me as my body anticipated a drop like you would find on a rollercoaster ride. The most immense, gloomy clouds seemed to hang stagnant in the sky as if they were in no hurry to keep traveling across the land. Despite passing beneath these dark clouds, we hit very little rain. We took a gas stop in Miles City, Montana where there was a large sculpture of a long-necked dinosaur. We checked out their beer cave and were impressed with their spread: Bud Light, Miller Light, PBR and Coors Light. Hidden amongst the 30 racks was a sixer of Bluemoon, the most sophisticated beer they had. I had looking for a relatively cheap and decent tire gauge for the duration of our trip and finally came across the cheapest one, ringing in at $3.54. We jumped back into the car and continued our journey - our next planned stop was Great Falls, Montana. The drive continued to astound us as it evolved from gentle slopes over hilly fields to patches of coniferous trees. As the sun set, it seemed as though the Big Man Upstairs was looking out for me because the road began to wind through a valley, blocking out the blinding rays. We hit Great Falls at about 9:30pm and were pleasantly surprised to see that it was actually quite large, like a real city. I got a jolt of excitement as we passed a sign for the Malstrom Air Force Base. For those of you who do not know, I have been doing some work for the Air Force these past few months which is why it has been exciting to see the places that benefit from our engineering work. We pulled into a Walmart to get some supplies for the next mornings breakfast and switch drivers. We still had four hours to go, so after refilling our tank we hit the road. For whatever reason, that stretch of driving took a lot out of me and I could barely keep my eyes open. I even went as far as open up my Gameboy, which I had not opened since the Friday before (a REALLY long stretch for me whenever I am in the middle of a game - Pokemon X for anyone curious to know) to try to stay awake. As we approached Glacier, I got my act together to get some directions for our campsite. When we turned off the highway and began to roll through single lane paved and unpaved roads, I was almost unsure that we were going to the right place. However, once again Freecampites.net did not fail us in providing us with the coordinates for another boat launch where there were 3 campsites. Since it was so dark, we could not quite find the campsites, but there was a completely empty parking lot open for us to pull into. After some readjusting and throwing equipment into the front seat, we settled comfortably into the back of the car for another great night of sleep.
Playlist included: TLC (officially the only CD to listen to more than once on the trip so far), Modest Mouse, Xtreme, Monchy y Alexandra, Regina Spektor, Outkast, Sean Paul, Chingy and Lil Kim (can you tell we were throwing it back?)
Thursday - July 21, 2016
I thank God for my eyes because with them, I am able to see the beauty of this world. I thank God for my body which is the vessel that carries me through this world and allows me to feel the earth beneath the soles of my boots and on the tips of my fingers. I thank God for my hearing which allowed me to notice a beautiful pair of birds hunting for food in the pools of a waterfall. I thank my friends and family and coworkers for being supportive of this time off because with every passing mile, I feel more rejuvenated. Glacier was so breathtaking that I could easily see myself coming back for weeks on end to take in all that it has to offer. We slept in until about 9:30am feeling incredibly reenergized. I could have never anticipated how comfortable a mattress pad on a 1/2" piece of plywood mounted in the back of a car could feel. I am definitely not insane - Jacquie has been having great sleep as well. We woke to the sounds of pick-up trucks pulling into the parking lot and both felt a twinge of sadness at losing our solidarity and opportunity for more quite sleep, but it was time to get up anyway. We unloaded our kitchenware and marched down to the water where we made egg scramble with onions and cheese. In my world, there is nothing that can replace the feeling of satisfaction that comes with cooking and eating a delicious breakfast outdoors. We even enjoyed some Folger's made classy by my drip coffee maker. Once the dishes were clean and packed away, we headed to the entrance of Glacier National Park. We gased up the car at a station just past the entrance and made a quick stop in the West Glacier Visitor Center where I purchased a National Parks passport, a series of postcards (get ready friends!) and a small, fabric map of the park. Purchasing the National Parks passport felt like the start to another journey - it will be a lifegoal of mine to visit as many national parks as possible throughout my lifetime. At the park entrance, I purchased an Annual National Parks membership! The membership and passport felt like an incredible combination of opportunities to see the beauty that our country has to offer. After all, there is no greater beauty than that which is found in our national parks.
I thank God for my eyes because with them, I am able to see the beauty of this world. I thank God for my body which is the vessel that carries me through this world and allows me to feel the earth beneath the soles of my boots and on the tips of my fingers. I thank God for my hearing which allowed me to notice a beautiful pair of birds hunting for food in the pools of a waterfall. I thank my friends and family and coworkers for being supportive of this time off because with every passing mile, I feel more rejuvenated. Glacier was so breathtaking that I could easily see myself coming back for weeks on end to take in all that it has to offer. We slept in until about 9:30am feeling incredibly reenergized. I could have never anticipated how comfortable a mattress pad on a 1/2" piece of plywood mounted in the back of a car could feel. I am definitely not insane - Jacquie has been having great sleep as well. We woke to the sounds of pick-up trucks pulling into the parking lot and both felt a twinge of sadness at losing our solidarity and opportunity for more quite sleep, but it was time to get up anyway. We unloaded our kitchenware and marched down to the water where we made egg scramble with onions and cheese. In my world, there is nothing that can replace the feeling of satisfaction that comes with cooking and eating a delicious breakfast outdoors. We even enjoyed some Folger's made classy by my drip coffee maker. Once the dishes were clean and packed away, we headed to the entrance of Glacier National Park. We gased up the car at a station just past the entrance and made a quick stop in the West Glacier Visitor Center where I purchased a National Parks passport, a series of postcards (get ready friends!) and a small, fabric map of the park. Purchasing the National Parks passport felt like the start to another journey - it will be a lifegoal of mine to visit as many national parks as possible throughout my lifetime. At the park entrance, I purchased an Annual National Parks membership! The membership and passport felt like an incredible combination of opportunities to see the beauty that our country has to offer. After all, there is no greater beauty than that which is found in our national parks.
Going to the Sun road is absolutely the most beautiful road I have ever driven down, hands down. After entering the West Gate, the road immediately brought you to Lake McDonald. Across the lake, you could see the Howe Ridge and Stanton, Vaught and McPartland mountains. Driving through the loop was incredible as it took you through tunnels and winding and snaking around the mountainsides. I could have driven down this road for miles, but after about an hour we pulled over to hike the Virgina Falls trail. We packed my climbing pack with all kinds of gear, just in case we ended up on the trail until late or in case something happened. Somehow, we managed to flag down the shuttle (which only passes each stop every 45-60 minutes) to take a quick a ride up to the St. Mary's trailhead. The first leg of the trail wandered through charred and burnt trees. The clearing provided by the fire allowed us some beautiful vistas of St. Mary's lake across which Little Chief, Mahtotopa and Red Eagle mountains could be seen. We dipped down a side trail to take in the clarity of the water cascading down from St. Mary's falls. We encountered a 5-year-old who was flaunting her model status and did not like her photos being encroached on by the likes of me or Jacquie. We quickly passed and the trail wound through the forest, occasionally overlooking baby waterfalls and creekbeds. We passed many fellow dayhikers which provided me some comfort since it was getting so late into the day and I was a little bit concerned about encountering bears. Jacquie picked a couple of flowers for us to drop at the top of the waterfall for Laura. Gathering flowers for Laura has been a healing tradition of our trail family (Laura Paradis, Holly Teufel, Kelly Stewart, Colleen Clark, Jacquie O'Brien and me) since her passing. Just between Jacquie and I, flowers have been picked and given back in El Potrero, Mexico, Red Rock Canyon, Nevada and Glacier National Park, Montana.
We took a break by the Victoria Falls where I saw that pair of birds hunting for food. It reminded me of a video of a family of ducks where the parents were teaching their newborns how to hunt for themselves in the rapids of a river and that it was rather treacherous for the newborns - a true test of survival. With this particular pair, only one was actually in pursuit of food while the other seemed to either be egging it on or expressing that it was too scared to hunt like its counterpart. As I watched the birds flit around the waterfall beds, a man asked me if I thought the hike was worth it. Personally, I thought it was rather short (3.6mi hike that Jacquie and I completed in a little over an hour with breaks), but I said that it was worth it. Nearby, a boy rapidly shook his head to the question and exclaimed there was no way. I laughed at the comment and it turns out the man and the boy were part of a Boy Scout troop visiting from Florida. He admitted that there was very little preparation that they could have done to be ready for hiking through the mountains of Montana - the stairmaster can only get you so far. He had engaged me by stating that he had seen many pairs of women hiking throughout their trip and he was wondering if we were in an organization. I wanted to say, "Yes, that organization is called the Female Race and we can hike outdoors just as well as any man can", but I held my tongue. He did not ask it in a malicious or sarcastic way, but that thought could not help but push it's way across my mind. I told him that we were not with any organization and that my friend and I were roadtripping across the country with our end destination being British Columbia. He was interested about our progress and excited to hear about the trip. We wished each other luck on the rest of our travels and I followed the trail back down to where Jacquie was relaxing by the falls. We channeled our inner Colleen and both made yoga poses by the water. As we hiked back towards the trailhead, we discussed our favorite authors - George Orwell and Ernest Hemingway. I admitted that I loved George Orwell too and that I had to read more of his work beyond Animal Farm and 1984. Like Hemingway, Orwell was also a war correspondent and he did a great deal of reporting out of Spain, my favorite country. We discussed what made us like dystopian fiction such as Orwell works, Brave New World and Fahrenheit 451. It's possible that it's because they invoke opposing feelings - sometimes a person is filled with gratitude that their own society is not quite as bad, but on the other hand it can make a person grow suspicious and begin to question their government and societal practices.
We hiked back to the trailhead and decided not to wait for the shuttle to get back to our car. Even though we left in the same direction down Going to the Sun road, it's charm was not lost on us. We decided to pull over to grab some items for our dinner in a local grocery store. There we purchased scissors (so I could finish making the curtains), spaghetti sauce, sausage, green beans and a 6-pack of Bufflehead Brown Ale. We returned to the boat launch and unfortunately the campsite we were hoping to grab was already taken. Luckily, I jumped out of the car to check out an area marked out by three large boulders where there appeared to be a pull-off and I found two fire rings tucked within the trees. I took these as campsite markers and excitedly ran back to the road to wave Jacquie over. We were thrilled with the find and began to unpack our camping gear and cooking equipment. We cracked open our Buffleheads to set up the tent when we decided it would be worthwhile to backtrack down the road to see if we could find any campfire wood for sale. We took a 5 minute drive back down North Fork Rd. and pulled off onto a road where the Smoky Bear Lodge was advertised to have a gift store and other amenities, but when we found it the owners stated that their campfire wood was only for sale to their tenants. It was not worth the journey back to town for wood, so we headed back to camp. I figured it might be a good idea to pull over to check the other empty campsites to see if there was anything left behind and SURE ENOUGH two logs were left behind! Jacquie hilariously cradled both logs in her arms as she ran back to the car and we drove off as if we were getting away with murder.
In my attempt to be conscientious about the fact that we were in Bear Country, I had us cook about 20 feet away from our campsite. The spaghetti sauce quickly came to a boil and I added the leftovers of my dehydrated pasta that I had prepared for the John Muir Trail. I was not sure how well they would be ready and I had to add some water to the pot to help the process along. I grew tired of waiting for the pasta to soften, so we switched the pot for our pan of sausage and onions (Jacquie cut them herself!). We added some salt, pepper and garlic salt from a nifty multi-spice container as our fixings sizzled. The aromas wafted into my nose, signaling to my stomach that it was nearly time for dinner. I added the contents of the pan to the pot and let everything simmer for a few minutes. We filled our bowls with dinner and made our way down to the water. These were the same bowls we had brought to Iceland and the food combined with the rubbery smell of camping bowls brought back fond memories of all the meals we had enjoyed together while on the trail. We reminisced huddling beneath the pavilion of an outhouse to keep out of the rain, next to a trio of Swedish men who were hungrily eyeing our expertly made dinner. I believe this is was the night that the joke about the food of my people was made.
I polished off my own helping of food and assisted Jacquie in finishing hers (in true Iceland form). We cleaned up, packed our food away then switched focus to building our fire. The fire started immediately with the help of all the kindling found nearby - it seems as though the folks using the campground before us had chopped up a few logs for their fire. The logs we had snagged were quite large though, so it took a lot of nursing to keep the fire going. It appeared as though we were overly ambitious - if and when the fire did finally catch, we would have to be up for quite some time before it would die down. Thankfully, it never quite made it. I channeled my inner Kelly / adventure-woman and began to make a number of jokes about going skinny dipping in the river before bed. It took a surprising lack of convincing to get Jacquie to agree - she was already bundled up in her warmest coat and for those of you that know Jacquie, she does NOT like the cold. Therefore, I was pretty pleased when my half-assed attempts to get her to join me were successful. We stumbled in the dark down to the river and began the process of disrobing. After several bursts of laughter, the both of us were in. We were both surprised to find that the water was actually relatively warm. Jacquie jumped back out pretty quickly but I laid in and enjoyed the running water. When we finally climbed into our sleeping bags for the night, we were both glad that we had to decided to jump into the water. I burrowed into my sleeping bag, thrilled to have finally gone skinny dipping in a natural body of water and even more happy to finally be camping in my tent without the rainfly on. The gurgling of the river lulled the both of us to sleep quickly. Tomorrow will bring us to the ultimate destination of our roadtrip, Squamish, where we will climb the granite slabs to our hearts content.
Playlist included: Cage the Elephant, Arcade Fire, Florence and the Machine, Phoenix, Vampire Weekend
Wednesday, July 20, 2016
Satisfy My Appetite with Something Spectacular
Sunday - July 17, 2016
When the days turned to hours turned to minutes turned to seconds, I did not want to leave - his face and his embrace kept me stagnant and hesitating. As our relationship strengthened over the years, I learned to never take his presence for granted - a lesson I'm thankful to have finally learned. I am not sure if this helped or hindered me when we finally hit that point of departure, but regardless I could not help the burning in my face or the tears welling in my eyes when it came time to go.
I had woken up at 8:00am to get ready and complete my packing. I brought my things downstairs at about 9:00am then had to start playing tetris in the car to make everything fit. We were finally ready to go get breakfast by about 10:30am. We went to Misty Moonlight (of course!) with Zach, Clair, Tony, Ana, Cata, Todd, Jacquie, Lee, Dolky and Austin. Austin and I both ordered corned beef hash because we are actually the same person.
Goodbye hugs were traded with all of my wonderful friends who made the trip out to see me. Jacquie, Tony, Austin and I headed to Lou's to thank him and Cat for letting us have the party at their place and then we were on our way. Without a second glance, we jumped onto the road from Route 20 to 90W and kept on till Buffalo. Here we got a sidetracked trying to find the correct highway, but finally made it onto Route 5 which took us on scenic lake drive around the Great Lakes. We passed through Erie and thought of Holly, of course. If we had more time we would have stopped in to say hello. The scenic lake drive added quite a bit of time to our ETA and we still had to stop for gas and food. We stopped in Dunkirk and went into a very interesting bar. It was a very small shack and as we walked in, most of the tenants turned to stare at us. A man, already inebriated, demanded to see our IDs. The bar tender laughed when he saw this which made me suspect that the guy was just a local having some fun. Needless to say, we kept our time in that bar short, grabbed our hot dogs and ran. We took some fun sunset photos over by the lake then kept on. We made it to Cleveland just after 11:00pm. I chatted for a short time with Michelle Cruz and Jacquie and I game planned the next day. We were going to reset and stay in Cleveland till noon to get lunch with Michelle, then see Shay after but it seemed that Shay was booked full with errands that day so we decided to leave early in the morning to head to Chicago. I had a tough time sleeping because I was so worried about making it out to Chicago on time, then the rain and thunder rolled in and kept us both up a while. Thanks Michelle for letting us crash for the night!
Fun fact: My oldies playlist lasted us from about 1pm till 9pm - solid 8 hours included Earth, Wind and Fire, Eric Clapton, The Foundations, Al Greene, Elton John, Billy Joel, Abba and much much more. Once we finished that playlist, we made the switch to Drake, Nicki Minaj and Fetty Wap.
Monday - July 18, 2016
We woke up at the same time as Michelle and managed to head out at about 7:45am, armed with coffees and bagels from Bruegger's. I was rushing on the entire drive, concerned that we would not make our 12:30pm lunch date with Shay. Our ETA was 1:15pm and I thought the whole link-up was shot but Shay suggested that she leave work an hour early instead so that we could meet at 2:00pm and take our time - perfect! Thanks Shay for your thoughtfulness. What was hilarious is that we actually arrived in Chicago at 12:45pm because we did not account for the time difference. We KNEW it would happen, but we were not sure when we were going to cross that threshold. We snagged a great parking spot - a woman nearly snuck in while I was reversing in but thankfully my aggressive NJ/NY/MA driver persona kicked in and I was able to box her out to keep our spot. The couple who had just parked their car behind us commented at how much of a jerk she was, trying to take our spot when we were clearly there first. They were very kind and gave us some recommendations for walking around the city. We took a walk since we had some time to kill, but we ended up walking away from the water instead of towards it. This ended up working for the better because we learned about a parking app that we could use to refill our meter and avoid tickets. We got that app then walked towards the water. We passed the Chicago Art Institute and looped back towards Jackson Blvd to get to the Plymouth Rooftop Bar. I was impressed that we made it before Shay who was always so historically punctual. Her and her friend Dan arrived shortly after. Shay was looking fly with her nice black dress and auburn blazer - I would not have expect anything less. We took some time catching up and getting to know one another while we waited for Patrick to arrive. Mr. Rabbitt did not arrive until 3:00pm so we ordered an appetizer in between to fill our empty tummies. We ordered just before Pat got there then gave him a lot of grief for arriving late. It was so great to see Shay and Patrick, it has been at least a year and a half since last seeing them. Shay is working for a non-profit and Patrick is soon to be pursuing a teaching degree! Jacquie and I split a pretty fantastic Caprese Avocado wrap - mozzarella, tomato and avocado! It was so incredible that I am still hung up thinking about it's tastiness. Old familiar jokes were traded and the group, new and old, relaxed happily on the rooftop enjoying a summer day in the Windy City. Once we finished up, we walked over to the water and made it to Buckingham (?) Fountain! It was a gorgeous fountain - Patrick and I made jokes about how the juxtaposition of the water against the city backdrop really added to the beauty. We also passed Columbia Art College and saw lots of great local outdoor pieces. So many beautiful gardens in Chicago! After a number of silly photos and frolicking, Jacquie and I confused the locals with the intersection we thought our car was parked at. Once we confirmed that we were NOT parked outside of Sears Tower (which would have required a train ride to get to in a timely manner), Dan and Patrick gave us recommendations and we exchanged hugs so that Jacquie and I could head back tot he car. We had an 18 minute walk and only 3 minutes left on our meter so we BOOKED IT back to the car. It was great! I've always wanted to breathe in the fumes of a metropolis while weaving in and out of unassuming pedestrians. Somehow we made it back to the car without incurring any tickets. Funnily enough, we were jumping back into our car as our friends behind us were getting into theirs! We waved them off and headed off to Naperville to see Ibby.
The drive took about an hour and we arrived at 6:00pm. Since we had just eaten, we decided to relax and drink some beers instead. Without much coercing, Jacquie and I decided to take it easy and stay in Naperville for the night instead of heading to Madison. Ibby was our last visit before heading out into truly uncharted territories, therefore we figured it would be nice to take advantage of a real bed and shelter for one more night. Although Jacquie has driven cross-country before, she took the mid-route to get to Colorado, therefore Day 3 would be a fresh start into new states for the both of us. and had gone north to Wisconsin, North Dakota or Montana so we decided that we'd have that be our fresh Day 3 start. I showed them the John Muir Trail, we joked about silly thirsty single engineer males in Naperville and tinder profiles. After a couple each, we walked the 20 minutes into town to Lou Malnati's for deep dish pizza. There we split a pitcher of Goose Island and got pretty rowdy as we got deeper into it. We had a very loud conversation about politics, which may or may not have been a wise restaurant conversation but oh well, I'm used to being an obnoxious and rowdy 20 year old. We chomped into our pizzas, which were amazing. Afterwards, we headed around town. I'm appalled by how Ibby took us poor and unassuming ladies through the streets of Naperville under the guise of showing us around, while she was actually just trying to catch and battle pokemon. We ended up at Potter's - it had looked closed from the front but they had a nice porch out back where we happened upon a live band playing. We got a round and enjoyed the music. Soon it came to quitting time (we actually passed our Lou Malnati's waiter on the way out) and then walked the long walk home. Ibby set us up and Jacquie and I fell into a deep, deep sleep. Haha.
Playlist included: Florence and the Machine (all of them), John Mayer (Dreaming with a Broken Heart), TLC (No Scrubs on repeat) and the Chicago Soundtrack.
Tuesday - July 19, 2016
We're headed to Wisconsin! Jacquie and I got an opportunity to shower at Ibby's (which we're both very grateful for, I'm not sure how many more days will pass before we get to shower again). We'll be stopping in Madison for lunch and hitting up all the recommendations from Erin!
We loved Madison. It was a beautiful city! We parked right outside of the Public Library which was really nice, I would've loved to spend more time there if we had the opportunity. We walked by the capitol building to find a spot. Since we had already had pizza the night before, we decided to just peak in at Ian's Pizza on State before heading to Michaelangelo's. It was a really quaint cafe with a foreign owner. I'm not sure where his accent was from, but he had opened the cafe about 20 years ago. The food was delicious - I tried their curried chick pea soup! So tasty, but it filled me up enough that I didn't need my sandwich anymore - oh well, road snack! We added time to our meter then walked down State St. We were really caught off guard by how beautiful the streets were! The roads were lined with many restuarants featuring comfortable outdoor seating, thrift shops and quirky stores. We kept getting held up from the lake terrace, our end destination, by these stores and after making a few purchases had to actively avoid looking at any interesting looking storefronts. The lake was gorgeous. You could just make out homes on the opposite end. Young folks littered the docks with their half covered bodies, soaking in the rays on the beautiful summer day. Sailboats filled the pier and a small section near us was sectioned off for swimming. Jacquie became obsessed with the city and decided that she'd find a job to work there next summer. After stepping into a few outdoor gear shops, we found out that there was a climbing spot out by Devil's Lake. It's a shame, if we had more time we absolutely would've spent an afternoon checking out what Wisconsin had to offer. We grabbed some toiletries from the pharmacy (since I left my toothbrush at Michelle's the day prior), grabbed some iced coffees from Colectivo's and retreated back to our car.
We drove for miles and miles, passing through the rest of Wisconsin and the Twin Cities. The landscape went through minimal changes but I still found it amazing. Jacquie, unable to read or write or occupy herself when she's in the passenger seat due to motion sickness, decided to quiz me on every state's capitals and nicknames. Her US georgraphy questions killed time for about an hour haha, so we had to find some other conversations to have. One of the more interesting ones was where we asked each other, "If any childhood book you read could be real, which one would you live in?". We agreed immediately that Harry Potter and the Chronicles of Narnia were givens. Others included Alice in Wonderland, Roald Dahl stories (not the Witches though), the Magic School Bus and Dr. Seuss. As we approached the Minnesota-North Dakota, we switched to the Sounds of the Trail and listening to Gizmo talk to us about gear, a day in the life of a thru-hiker and more. Definitely one of my favorite podcasts - any of you out there that may want to go backpacking or on a long thru-hike ought to consider listening to it! We found a free campsite in Hendrum, MN and pulled over there for the night. My only regret is that the sky was more or less overcast and as a result we couldn't sleep beneath the full moon. When we pulled into camp, we had two differing concerns on our minds. Jacquie was terrified that we had pulled into the quintessential serial killer haunt - remote, dark and spooky. I was terrified that we would encounter lightning storms since we passed a number of strikes on the drive over, but I reasoned with myself that North Dakota is so flat, just because we can see the lightning doesn't mean that it's anywhere close by. We manuevered into my makeshift bed in the back of the car and fell asleep comfortably.
Playlist included: Cage the Elephant, Mandolin Orange, Adele, Romeo Santos, Xtra, Marc Anthony, Destiny's Child, Outkast, Childish Gambino, and the Sounds of the Trail Podcast, Queen
When the days turned to hours turned to minutes turned to seconds, I did not want to leave - his face and his embrace kept me stagnant and hesitating. As our relationship strengthened over the years, I learned to never take his presence for granted - a lesson I'm thankful to have finally learned. I am not sure if this helped or hindered me when we finally hit that point of departure, but regardless I could not help the burning in my face or the tears welling in my eyes when it came time to go.
I had woken up at 8:00am to get ready and complete my packing. I brought my things downstairs at about 9:00am then had to start playing tetris in the car to make everything fit. We were finally ready to go get breakfast by about 10:30am. We went to Misty Moonlight (of course!) with Zach, Clair, Tony, Ana, Cata, Todd, Jacquie, Lee, Dolky and Austin. Austin and I both ordered corned beef hash because we are actually the same person.
Goodbye hugs were traded with all of my wonderful friends who made the trip out to see me. Jacquie, Tony, Austin and I headed to Lou's to thank him and Cat for letting us have the party at their place and then we were on our way. Without a second glance, we jumped onto the road from Route 20 to 90W and kept on till Buffalo. Here we got a sidetracked trying to find the correct highway, but finally made it onto Route 5 which took us on scenic lake drive around the Great Lakes. We passed through Erie and thought of Holly, of course. If we had more time we would have stopped in to say hello. The scenic lake drive added quite a bit of time to our ETA and we still had to stop for gas and food. We stopped in Dunkirk and went into a very interesting bar. It was a very small shack and as we walked in, most of the tenants turned to stare at us. A man, already inebriated, demanded to see our IDs. The bar tender laughed when he saw this which made me suspect that the guy was just a local having some fun. Needless to say, we kept our time in that bar short, grabbed our hot dogs and ran. We took some fun sunset photos over by the lake then kept on. We made it to Cleveland just after 11:00pm. I chatted for a short time with Michelle Cruz and Jacquie and I game planned the next day. We were going to reset and stay in Cleveland till noon to get lunch with Michelle, then see Shay after but it seemed that Shay was booked full with errands that day so we decided to leave early in the morning to head to Chicago. I had a tough time sleeping because I was so worried about making it out to Chicago on time, then the rain and thunder rolled in and kept us both up a while. Thanks Michelle for letting us crash for the night!
Fun fact: My oldies playlist lasted us from about 1pm till 9pm - solid 8 hours included Earth, Wind and Fire, Eric Clapton, The Foundations, Al Greene, Elton John, Billy Joel, Abba and much much more. Once we finished that playlist, we made the switch to Drake, Nicki Minaj and Fetty Wap.
Monday - July 18, 2016
We woke up at the same time as Michelle and managed to head out at about 7:45am, armed with coffees and bagels from Bruegger's. I was rushing on the entire drive, concerned that we would not make our 12:30pm lunch date with Shay. Our ETA was 1:15pm and I thought the whole link-up was shot but Shay suggested that she leave work an hour early instead so that we could meet at 2:00pm and take our time - perfect! Thanks Shay for your thoughtfulness. What was hilarious is that we actually arrived in Chicago at 12:45pm because we did not account for the time difference. We KNEW it would happen, but we were not sure when we were going to cross that threshold. We snagged a great parking spot - a woman nearly snuck in while I was reversing in but thankfully my aggressive NJ/NY/MA driver persona kicked in and I was able to box her out to keep our spot. The couple who had just parked their car behind us commented at how much of a jerk she was, trying to take our spot when we were clearly there first. They were very kind and gave us some recommendations for walking around the city. We took a walk since we had some time to kill, but we ended up walking away from the water instead of towards it. This ended up working for the better because we learned about a parking app that we could use to refill our meter and avoid tickets. We got that app then walked towards the water. We passed the Chicago Art Institute and looped back towards Jackson Blvd to get to the Plymouth Rooftop Bar. I was impressed that we made it before Shay who was always so historically punctual. Her and her friend Dan arrived shortly after. Shay was looking fly with her nice black dress and auburn blazer - I would not have expect anything less. We took some time catching up and getting to know one another while we waited for Patrick to arrive. Mr. Rabbitt did not arrive until 3:00pm so we ordered an appetizer in between to fill our empty tummies. We ordered just before Pat got there then gave him a lot of grief for arriving late. It was so great to see Shay and Patrick, it has been at least a year and a half since last seeing them. Shay is working for a non-profit and Patrick is soon to be pursuing a teaching degree! Jacquie and I split a pretty fantastic Caprese Avocado wrap - mozzarella, tomato and avocado! It was so incredible that I am still hung up thinking about it's tastiness. Old familiar jokes were traded and the group, new and old, relaxed happily on the rooftop enjoying a summer day in the Windy City. Once we finished up, we walked over to the water and made it to Buckingham (?) Fountain! It was a gorgeous fountain - Patrick and I made jokes about how the juxtaposition of the water against the city backdrop really added to the beauty. We also passed Columbia Art College and saw lots of great local outdoor pieces. So many beautiful gardens in Chicago! After a number of silly photos and frolicking, Jacquie and I confused the locals with the intersection we thought our car was parked at. Once we confirmed that we were NOT parked outside of Sears Tower (which would have required a train ride to get to in a timely manner), Dan and Patrick gave us recommendations and we exchanged hugs so that Jacquie and I could head back tot he car. We had an 18 minute walk and only 3 minutes left on our meter so we BOOKED IT back to the car. It was great! I've always wanted to breathe in the fumes of a metropolis while weaving in and out of unassuming pedestrians. Somehow we made it back to the car without incurring any tickets. Funnily enough, we were jumping back into our car as our friends behind us were getting into theirs! We waved them off and headed off to Naperville to see Ibby.
The drive took about an hour and we arrived at 6:00pm. Since we had just eaten, we decided to relax and drink some beers instead. Without much coercing, Jacquie and I decided to take it easy and stay in Naperville for the night instead of heading to Madison. Ibby was our last visit before heading out into truly uncharted territories, therefore we figured it would be nice to take advantage of a real bed and shelter for one more night. Although Jacquie has driven cross-country before, she took the mid-route to get to Colorado, therefore Day 3 would be a fresh start into new states for the both of us. and had gone north to Wisconsin, North Dakota or Montana so we decided that we'd have that be our fresh Day 3 start. I showed them the John Muir Trail, we joked about silly thirsty single engineer males in Naperville and tinder profiles. After a couple each, we walked the 20 minutes into town to Lou Malnati's for deep dish pizza. There we split a pitcher of Goose Island and got pretty rowdy as we got deeper into it. We had a very loud conversation about politics, which may or may not have been a wise restaurant conversation but oh well, I'm used to being an obnoxious and rowdy 20 year old. We chomped into our pizzas, which were amazing. Afterwards, we headed around town. I'm appalled by how Ibby took us poor and unassuming ladies through the streets of Naperville under the guise of showing us around, while she was actually just trying to catch and battle pokemon. We ended up at Potter's - it had looked closed from the front but they had a nice porch out back where we happened upon a live band playing. We got a round and enjoyed the music. Soon it came to quitting time (we actually passed our Lou Malnati's waiter on the way out) and then walked the long walk home. Ibby set us up and Jacquie and I fell into a deep, deep sleep. Haha.
Playlist included: Florence and the Machine (all of them), John Mayer (Dreaming with a Broken Heart), TLC (No Scrubs on repeat) and the Chicago Soundtrack.
Tuesday - July 19, 2016
We're headed to Wisconsin! Jacquie and I got an opportunity to shower at Ibby's (which we're both very grateful for, I'm not sure how many more days will pass before we get to shower again). We'll be stopping in Madison for lunch and hitting up all the recommendations from Erin!
We loved Madison. It was a beautiful city! We parked right outside of the Public Library which was really nice, I would've loved to spend more time there if we had the opportunity. We walked by the capitol building to find a spot. Since we had already had pizza the night before, we decided to just peak in at Ian's Pizza on State before heading to Michaelangelo's. It was a really quaint cafe with a foreign owner. I'm not sure where his accent was from, but he had opened the cafe about 20 years ago. The food was delicious - I tried their curried chick pea soup! So tasty, but it filled me up enough that I didn't need my sandwich anymore - oh well, road snack! We added time to our meter then walked down State St. We were really caught off guard by how beautiful the streets were! The roads were lined with many restuarants featuring comfortable outdoor seating, thrift shops and quirky stores. We kept getting held up from the lake terrace, our end destination, by these stores and after making a few purchases had to actively avoid looking at any interesting looking storefronts. The lake was gorgeous. You could just make out homes on the opposite end. Young folks littered the docks with their half covered bodies, soaking in the rays on the beautiful summer day. Sailboats filled the pier and a small section near us was sectioned off for swimming. Jacquie became obsessed with the city and decided that she'd find a job to work there next summer. After stepping into a few outdoor gear shops, we found out that there was a climbing spot out by Devil's Lake. It's a shame, if we had more time we absolutely would've spent an afternoon checking out what Wisconsin had to offer. We grabbed some toiletries from the pharmacy (since I left my toothbrush at Michelle's the day prior), grabbed some iced coffees from Colectivo's and retreated back to our car.
We drove for miles and miles, passing through the rest of Wisconsin and the Twin Cities. The landscape went through minimal changes but I still found it amazing. Jacquie, unable to read or write or occupy herself when she's in the passenger seat due to motion sickness, decided to quiz me on every state's capitals and nicknames. Her US georgraphy questions killed time for about an hour haha, so we had to find some other conversations to have. One of the more interesting ones was where we asked each other, "If any childhood book you read could be real, which one would you live in?". We agreed immediately that Harry Potter and the Chronicles of Narnia were givens. Others included Alice in Wonderland, Roald Dahl stories (not the Witches though), the Magic School Bus and Dr. Seuss. As we approached the Minnesota-North Dakota, we switched to the Sounds of the Trail and listening to Gizmo talk to us about gear, a day in the life of a thru-hiker and more. Definitely one of my favorite podcasts - any of you out there that may want to go backpacking or on a long thru-hike ought to consider listening to it! We found a free campsite in Hendrum, MN and pulled over there for the night. My only regret is that the sky was more or less overcast and as a result we couldn't sleep beneath the full moon. When we pulled into camp, we had two differing concerns on our minds. Jacquie was terrified that we had pulled into the quintessential serial killer haunt - remote, dark and spooky. I was terrified that we would encounter lightning storms since we passed a number of strikes on the drive over, but I reasoned with myself that North Dakota is so flat, just because we can see the lightning doesn't mean that it's anywhere close by. We manuevered into my makeshift bed in the back of the car and fell asleep comfortably.
Playlist included: Cage the Elephant, Mandolin Orange, Adele, Romeo Santos, Xtra, Marc Anthony, Destiny's Child, Outkast, Childish Gambino, and the Sounds of the Trail Podcast, Queen
Tuesday, July 12, 2016
Cellophane Boy
Time advances without assistance or regard to man's desires. Weeks
have passed since my last blog (my apologies) and in less than one week from
today, my life will be fully contained to my vehicle and my address will be the
open road. I have had an overwhelming list of tasks needed to prepare for my
journey – slowly but surely that list has lessened with each passing day.
My first project was to install a makeshift, plywood bed into my
Highlander. I would call the effort a resounding success! With the aid of my
ex-colleagues and life-time mentors, I was able to construct a sturdy frame for
a mattress pad, safely secured to the existing bolt holes left over from the
second row seating and equipped with a pull-out table to use for food prep and
eating. This took only about a day and a half - I attribute our expeditious
progress to our shared experience in engineering projects as well as already
owning most of the equipment. The first day consisted of removing the second
row seating (which was surprisingly simple!) and prototyping the frame for
the bed. Dave failed us initially as our head carpenter when he neglected to
measure twice and cut once, but thankfully for my wallet, the frame
was larger than it had to be. It's always better for have more material
than less! On Saturday morning, we mocked up the pull-out table and Joe welded
some super dope brackets to tie in the bed to the car frame. When the afternoon
came, we assembled the rest of the parts and pieces to have a decked out,
retrofitted Highlander! Excited to have many new nooks and crannies in my car
for storage, I set off to procure as many items that I would need for my trip
as possible (though during that week I only got as far as getting storage bins
and organizers for the car).
What followed was an extra crazed week of dehydrating beef,
apples, bananas and more for the John Muir Trail. The kitchen was littered with
my vacuum sealer, Maranda’s dehydrator (Thanks girl!), rolls of vacuum sealer
packaging, fruits and boxes of every kind of snack you could think of. The
process of dehydrating was surprisingly simple, but time consuming. Last night
I found myself thoroughly overwhelmed by the whole effort though. Trying to
find the time to plan and physically prepare everything has been difficult while
still working a full time job, not to mention being on a high priority
assignment.
I have accomplished so much in these past few weeks – they have
been both awesome and stressful. I've driven hundreds of miles between
traveling to Taunton for work, Maine for pleasure, Hartford for friends and New
Jersey for family. During these travels, I have found myself deep in thought
about a topic particularly troublesome. What has been pressing on my mind is
whether the choices people make to surround themselves with their passions
actually presents challenges in facing the realities of our world. I am
choosing to take this time off of work because I have enveloped myself in
responsibilities and work such that I think it has taken a negative toll on my
psyche and has not allowed me to address more serious, internal issues. But
when does this time and freedom shift from being a necessity to becoming an
addiction? Is it wrong to be addicted to freedom?
I have been listening to a podcast lately about long thru-hikes
because of my upcoming trip on the John Muir Trail. Some people say that thru-hiking
will ruin your life. That is not necessarily a negative idea. What people mean
by this phrase is that thru-hiking is an immersing activity that takes you away
from the distractions of society, such that once it is over anything that is
not hiking or being outdoors is distracting. At what point does the choice to
live the life you love mean that you are no longer being a “contributing”
member to society? With the shootings of Alton Sterling, Philando Castile and
the Dallas Police Force, is there a threshold we cross between taking a break from
society and complete neglect for its issues? Please do not misunderstand, this
is not in any way a cut against those who choose to make the outdoors their
home and their life, but I have just been listening to so many interviews in
which it seems as though “real life” and crowded, human interactions has become
too much for some that the most preferable course of action is to leave it all
behind. Again, I understand that every person has preferences – not everyone is
meant to live in a big and bustling city. But are these folks that withdraw
from their daily responsibilities and commitments doing it because of this
genuine and personal preference, or is it as a result of a desire to
disassociate with it all because it is the easier thing to do?
This has been on my mind because I would love to do a thru-hike and
I am truly excited for my six month hoopla (as my mentors would call it),
however I do not want either to consume me such that I feel that it is a waste
of time to have a full time job, a family, a home and what some would call “comforts
of life”. I suppose we will all see where I fall six months from now and
whether these feelings still hold.
This song is absolutely NOT wholly representative of the thoughts
reflected in this blog, however there are some key lines that (if you squint
really hard), that remind me of this idea of blocking out reality.
And I can't relate to the hypnotist
And I can't get close 'cause of plastic
wrap
And I want to have kids but their father's
up inside the clouds
The
distance between is on my mind
Up
until now things have been fine, temporarily
You’re
cute but the circumstance has changed
Your
substitution method, crutch
Your
whole protection from your pain
This
presentation of my ploy
Is to change my Cellophane Boy
I actually think this song is about
a man that Gwen Stefani wants to have children with, but cannot because he
wants to continue wearing condoms lmao. Remember, this song is not
representative, but if you squint really hard and pretend she is not singing
about pregnancy…we will be on the same page.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)