Mountain 1. Paul 0.

High Altitude Surreal...

The root of suffering is attachment…

- The Buddha

7/8/15

Since I am attached to my thumb, hip, ankle, lower back, and ego…  I am suffering. The hike I departed on Monday turned out to be shorter, and more painful than planned.  The original goal was to go from the East Inlet of Grand Lake to Route 7 (somewhere around 30 + miles).  My back country permit was for three nights: Slick rock, Thunder Lake, and Aspen Knoll.  To best explain how my hike went, check out the trip notes I took on the evening of 7/7/15:

Stark and wild...

• Drove to East Inlet Trail Head off Grand Lake in RMNP - 9,000 ft. Raining
• Hiked 5 miles to Slick Rock Campsite. 10,250 feet.  Raining.
• Set up tent. Raining.  Began raining hard at 7:00 PM.  Rained throughout the night.
• Woke up at 5:00 AM. Raining.
• Broke camp @ 6:30. Raining.
• Hiked two miles to trails end. Not raining!
• Broke off from Fourth Lake.
• Followed caribou path (?) to Boulder Grande Pass (?) and ascended 1,000 feet.  Two miles.  
• Took compass reading.  Too far east.  Raining.  Distant thunder.
• Traversed 1 mile west through boulder field (not Boulder Grand Pass).  Raining.  Distant thunder.
• Followed several different caribou paths.  Found stream / waterfall.  Traversed through water fall.  Completely soaked.  Raining.  Distant thunder.  Very slippery "trail" conditions.
• Found top of pass. 12,061 ft.  Lake of Many Winds in sight. Raining, hail, high winds, thunder, lightning.  Could see lightning strikes nearby.
• Retreat.  Exhausted.  12,061 ft.
• Traversed through water fall.  Completely soaked.  Raining, hail, high winds, thunder, lightning. 
• Found guided group of six under tarp waiting out the storm.  Gathered information on a direct path to main trail out.  11,000 ft (?). Raining.  Distant thunder.
• Slipped.  Grabbed sapling.  Sapling’s roots pulled. Down hill pole-vaulted fifteen feet.  Slid another twenty feet off trail over slab onto switchback below.  Cursed.  Let go of sapling. 10,750 ft (?). Raining.  Distant thunder.
• Descended down to main trail.  10,250 ft. Two miles.  Not raining.
• Went back to Slick Rock Camp Site. Two miles.  Site taken.  
• Hiked five miles to East Inlet Trail Head off Grand Lake in RMNP - 9,000 ft. Raining.  
• Ate dinner.  drank beer. Slept in van on main drag of Grand Lake.

  

  Although I was soaked and beaten, the beauty of the area
  far exceeds the discomfort obtained.

I definitely got my ass kicked… But!  I did hike around 18 miles in 24 hours between 9,000 and 12,000 feet in REALLY shitty weather...

7/8/15

Every morning I am in any town I do a coffee for free wi fi trade.  I buy a small coffee, get the wifi password from the establishment, go back in the van and make breakfast and coffee while dubbing around on the internet. It seems like a great deal for everyone involved.

After I left Grand Lake I went strait to the Back Country Permit office of RMNP to tell them I would not be showing up at Aspen Knoll for the night and made reservations to Boulderfield Campsite (13,281 ft) on the side of Long’s Peak (14,259 ft).  I would have two days to recover and explore Long’s Peak…  

The sun did peak through at times and the high alpine flora was everywhere... 

Go West Young Van...

Crossing Lake Champlain into New York State...

Earn your Freedom.

6/29

Last week I found an assignment that I had started this past September, but never finished.  This particular assignment had never made it to completion until the last day of school ten months later.  The assignment was part of a learning expedition that one of the other teams in my building had done with their middle schoolers.  In this learning expedition, called "Rules to Live By”, students focus on what rules, pontifications, or quotations that inspire them.  As part of this expedition the staff was given an assignment - to place a rule, pontification, or quotation outside their doorway describing what “rules” we, as a staff, live by.  The expectation was that the children would find inspiration from the staff…  Nothing from my list, intentionally, made it past the idea phase. 

The New Rack.

I did complete the assignment. I just never handed it in, or in this case, posted it outside my doorway.  It wasn’t that I didn’t want to, I just didn’t find any of my rules, pontifications, or quotations fit for middle school consumption. As much as I tried, they just didn’t seem appropriate.  Anyway, here’s my list:  ”Don't be fooled, independence can be a curse", "Dreams are not always shared", “If you think conformity makes for an easier life - try it for a couple years and embrace the depression", "The Cinderella Complex will ruin your marriage", “Live, work, consume, die” (not an original), “No one cares what you think, you’re thirteen”, and "The norm is a track that anyone with any sense travels, and only eccentrics jump".  Role modeling has always been a bit of a struggle for me, yet I continue to try…

Allegheny National Forest - 'for outdoor pastimes'.

So last week, after the students had left the building, and the district had sufficiently tortured me with a senseless meeting, I posted the following “rule” outside my classroom door: "Earn your Freedom”.  To me, that boils this whole education thing down to one clean and simple rule and it has been my motto for a long time.  

After I left school I stopped by to visit with a long time friend.  She would be my last visit before I hit the road west.  I inherited her from my parents. She is a mother, grandmother, widow, former neighbor, and fellow adventurer.  She also embodies two very important words: grace and dignity.  This is not just my opinion, this is  the consensus amongst my friends and family.  She, much like my parents, has been a steady force in my community as long as I can remember.  From my early years, I remember her laugh and my adventures with her two youngest children. During  my late teens and twenties I remember her well warranted looks of distress.  In my late twenties and thirties her seasonal absence - she and her husband of sixty-three years lived for over twenty years on a sailboat in the Caribbean.  Even though I never saw them in the deep winter during their seasonal absence I remember hearing about their adventures. 

Dark Star Orchestra happens to be visiting
Kansas City, Kansas  as well.  Go figure?

I also remember little details from their time at sea: their house being empty so we could throw parties, their son creating a data base for them so they could match the names and details of the various people that they met to the boats that they sailed, stories of failed propeller shafts and hazardous reefs, and their seasonal returns to Maine which were highlighted by amazing pop overs and home ground sausage. 

Now she lives alone in a small, but comfortable, retirement community in Falmouth.  And when I visit we talk of life.  We talk about the benefits of drinking and smoking, how best to introduce freedom to teenagers ready to travel abroad, art, travel, food, and mutual friends both present and past.   I listen carefully to her memories.  She is a good friend who often reminisces of past adventures and regrets none of them.  She too has earned her freedom.  So after a couple years of planning, I am, once again on the road…. 

Urban Adventure

So far this June Maine has seen about five inches of new rain fall and New Hampshire has seen over 6.5 inches.  For some folks the excessive rain is just a mild annoyance - just break out the umbrella and call it good.  For some this type of rain leads to washed out bridges, flooded basements and inundated gardens.

For those that like to rock climb this type of weather is the proverbial kiss of death.  Even after the rock dries it will take days, if not weeks, for the water to finish leaching out onto and over different parts of the cliff.  Hikers, bike riders and paddlers can continue their pursuits, but often this type of weather leads to limited visibility and sloppy trails - not the type of conditions that most folks look forward to.

So when the weather gets tough, the tough go urban.  This is why we have included an Urban Adventure category in this blog.

No fear wear....

My personal urban adventure started on the Down Easter, spilled out onto the subways of Boston and up to my buddies place on Beacon Hill.  From there we explored a couple of drinking establishments, practiced our piracy skills at the Wilbur Theater and then meandered our way from late night food street vendors back to Beacon Hill.

Dark Star Orchestra

Boston is a dynamic, beautiful city.  I try not to fret too much about it's occupants and the special characteristics they tend to demonstrate.

Even though it was pouring on Saturday we made the best of the day.  Brunch, lots of chill time and general communal foolishness and picture taking made the less then perfect weather irrelevant.

The kidz

All of this down time provided us with plenty of time to take pictures, prepare for the next leg of our journey and enjoy some good old fashion conversations.

Soon we were loaded up, on our way out of Boston and heading north to Hampton Beach.  For those of you that have not yet been to Hampton Beach, more specifically the Hampton Casino, it is a great venue and town.  Hampton is a tad on the cheesy side, but it has an impressive stretch of beach and has recently added a fantastic new outdoor theater and an extended waterfront.  From our hotel room we could see out into the ocean as the wind and surf surged onto the deserted beach.

Pre-Show Crew

The rest of the evening turned out to be as wild as the weather outside.  We all had lots of fun and eventually made it back to the hotel with some level of controlled chaos.  Although urban adventure may not be as close to my heart as climbing, it comes in as a close second...