Why Slow Travel on Forest Roads is Worth It

I prefer to travel where the pavement ends and my phone says, "No Service".

Let me also add, as long as I am in a high clearance 4-Wheel drive vehicle.

For the last four years, my step-father and I have headed out West to explore forest service roads that lead to spectacular ruins and scenery.

Today, four years ago, my mother died.

She loved the West, and we go to remember her and reflect upon her life.

We also go to unhook from our normal day to day life, and we philosophically explore what it means to live a good life.

Forest service roads are a way to feel fully human and tap into your sense of adventure.

You Slow Down...Literally!

You can't drive fast on a service road. They are usually gravel, with a lot of washboard road that makes you slide if you drive too fast.

Since you are going slow, roll down the windows and smell the air. All of your senses are engaged with your environment. It becomes a full-body experience, especially when traversing a high road with a devastating fall to your death if you're not paying attention. My step-father says we could roll several times and my ass would still be glued to the seat. But the view! It's worth the full-body sphincter experience, trust me!

No Service? No GPS.

Where we go, there is no GPS unless we invested in a satellite version. Our phones don't work, so old-fashioned common sense and reading a forest service map are needed skills. Or, just drive down a road for the joy of seeing where it goes. Some of our best experiences have come from taking the road barely traveled, and being rewarded with a view not on any social media accounts.

Nature Is the Show

Yesterday, we saw a marmot, bald eagle, black bear, trout and I found a 350 million year old rugose horn coral that somehow found its way into my gold panning apparatus while I was panning in a remote riverbed.

I mean, what a great day! I didn't find any gold, but somehow I found a fossilized portion of something that was once alive 350 million years ago when the land here was covered with a shallow sea.

Traveling this way connects you to the environment in a way highways and byways can't.

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You Feel The Landscape

With windows rolled down, you notice the temperature changes as you drive slowly through the many micro-climates you encounter. I was walking near the waters edge of a high mountain lake yesterday, and the moisture from the lake, the rotting plant matter mixed with dead fish and elk shit was a smell you just can't replicate anywhere else.

I love it, personally. It means I'm in the landscape, not just looking at it from a car window in my air conditioned bubble.

There is a silty dust here that is different from most places I've been. Thousands of years of compacted mountain snow has transformed the dirt into something that is unique here. When it's windy, you really feel it as it enters your eyes and nose. I ate a lot of dust yesterday, and enjoyed commiserating with my step-father about the state of our mucus membranes.

It's About the Journey

When we hit the forest service roads, we have a general idea where we will end up, but it's more about the pull-offs when we see something cool, or the river that beckons us to stop and get our chairs out to soak in the beauty of the place.

We give ourselves over to where the landscape takes us. We discover things that aren't on any TripAdvisor list of things to do or see.

It's not for the faint of heart, and you need to be sure you know how to handle yourself.

There are tools to consider taking with you, like a shovel or a whatever you need to change a flat. I pack extra food and water for a day or so, and a blanket if something happens and we have to sleep in the truck.

Last year, we had a flat and had to wait 14 hours for a tow because the lug nuts were stripped and we had no cell service. But we were prepared, and we actually had a pretty good time waiting. Made me feel alive in a way that gets lost with modern life, and without any tech, we had to rely upon the people that helped us out.

And we always find nice people.

I hope you've enjoyed some of the highlights of this trip. I know I've enjoyed reflecting upon it and sharing it here.

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Random fact about me: My favorite meal is Korean Hot Stone Bowl with the little dried fish as an accompaniment.

Fly Fishing: Embracing New Waters Through Grief

The river gave me more than a view yesterday...it handed me back my joy.

I've always loved to fish.

When I was a little girl, and dad told me he was going fishing early in the morning, I would get dressed and sleep in my clothes so he wouldn't leave me behind.

Not that he would, but he liked to tease me.

This trip is showing me what I've been missing in my life since Dad died.

He was my fishing partner for 50+ years, and I haven't returned to it seriously since he died.

That changes now though. I've fished in boats and on banks, but I've only waded into the water and fly fished one time, many years ago.

My stepfather tried to teach me how to fly fish when I was a teenager, but it didn't take.

I can still remember his words, "Fig-ure eightttttttt.....fig-ure eightttttttt...." as he tried to teach me how to plop that fly in the right spot and let it drift to the fish.

I wasn't ready then.

Now I am.

I want to wade into waters I haven't experienced before, and not just as it pertains to fly fishing.

This is just a step towards more merging, less separation.

I think I can appreciate the slow rhythm of the water in a way I wasn't able to before. I've developed patience and now I want more refinement.

Entering the water for the solitary experience instead of feeling like I need another to fully enjoy the moment is...new to me.

Now I know why my stepfather brought that sling on the trip. He told me using a sling will help me throw a fly.

One father died, but my other one has stepped in and still teaches, like he always has.

Even now. At 57.

My stepfather caught this moment below where I became fixed on fly fishing, my mind made up.

Time to enter the water.

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Random fact about me: I was a Campfire Girl as a kid.

Discovering Insights at Black Canyon of the Gunnison

It's not often that an experience leaves me breathless, but yesterday, my visit to Black Canyon of the Gunnison National Park did just that.

The South entrance is closed due to fire damage so we took off from Gunnison, Colorado on Hwy 50, and drove to the North entrance to the park via Hwy 92, which takes you through some breathtaking scenery.

Getting to Hwy 92 was a scenic treat, as we passed through Curecanti National Recreation Area.

The road is not heavily traveled, and there are plenty of stops along the way to get a prelude of the Black Canyon of the Gunnison.

It took us a couple of hours to travel this route to the park, but the scenery is stunning and worth the extra time.

Once we navigated to the North rim, we went to the campground and took the short hike, Chasm View Trail, that puts you at the edge of the canyon.

I mean...at the edge.

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This was my approach to the first viewpoint. I was stunned. That little trickle of water down this canyon wall is the river.

It's hard to convey the sheer size of this canyon. You really have to see it to take in the scale.

I was overcome with emotion, thinking about how it took 15 million years for that little river to carve this out of rock.

This, of course, led me to contemplate the power of incremental change.

I stood there, on a rock shaped by 15 million years of incremental water flow.

What I realized is that my own self-hood is shaped not by the dramatic, book-worthy awakening story, but by the small choices I make daily.

Like choosing what I eat, drink and deem worthy of supporting my body.

Or choosing the tone of voice I use with people that need further explanation on something they don't get.

And understanding that a kind word travels farther and impacts more people than being an asshole.

I realized that we all have our own drops of water against the rock moments daily, and how those may seem insignificant in the moment, but they cut the canyon of our soul, character and general presence in the world.

We then decided to head on over to Telluride, and we had a very nice dinner and a relaxing walk around the downtown.

I'm not a winter person, but summer in this place is definitely heavenly.

A wonderful day, full of exciting and sobering realizations or reminders, depending on my state of mind.

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Random fact about me: I prefer a skort to shorts or a skirt when traveling.

How My Mother's Struggles Shaped Me

The best thing my parents gave me was their imperfection.

Sometimes, the gifts that your parents' give you aren't what they did right, but what they struggled with, and how they overcame it-- or didn't.

This is the time of the year that I review my mother's life, and what gifts she left me since she died 4 years ago.

My mother was a very smart woman. She could devour books and articles, and she understood so much about so many things.

But she had a problem in applying what she learned about, and believed implicitly, to her own life.

This is a problem that many of us have, isn't it?

We know better, but we don't do better.

I watched her struggle with this, and I learned how to do the opposite. When I learn something, and believe it is going to work or improve my life, I work on applying it.

And I've learned to be patient with myself as I work on the application, and give it time to see if it really works.

She didn't intend to give me this gift, but I took it anyway.

And I'm eternally grateful that she showed me the consequences of her decision to know, and not apply, as I watched her live her life according to her own terms.

She was cool like that...teaching what to do, and what not to do.

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Random fact about me: My favorite fiber supplement is Organic India Psyllium Pre & Probiotic Fiber, Cinnamon Spice. It's really good and I look forward to drinking it in the evening.

I'm A Gold-Digger

Yep.

I'm heading on a three week trip to Arkansas, with a road trip to Colorado, where I intend to pan for gold.

Today's a travel day, so the flurry of activity getting ready for a long trip almost trumped getting my post written this morning, but I found a spot of time.

I don't go through the AIT machines at the airport, so I have to really make sure I abide by the two hour recommendation before boarding.

The 'pat-down' takes some time, and I get the side eye from passengers and airport personnel, but I don't care. Last year, I was held for two pat downs because the tape thing that registers bad chemicals went off. It ended up being the lotion I used on my skin for psoriasis.

So I switched lotions immediately.

My general distrust of any large body of people agreeing that something is safe when it feels very unsafe is my reasoning.

There's a long list of ooppsies, our bad! in the history of really knowing whether or not something is harmful or not, so I just go with my gut.

Hair color on the scalp...not cool with that, either. Hence why I don't color. I saw what that stuff did to my hands when I was hairdresser for 2 years, and figured I better stay away from putting it on my head as I got older.

I never thought breast implants sounded like a good idea, or talcum powder down south.

No to trans-fats, no saccharine, and a big nada on tanning beds.

I use an app called Yuka to check bar codes when I'm shopping for something that goes on my skin or in my mouth. It lists out all the ingredients and tells you whether they are going to harm you eventually if you keep on using them.

It helps me make better decisions on the fly at the store, even though I look like I'm doing an inventory count. I highly recommend it, though.

Ok, that's it. The next three weeks will be interesting!