Ryan Jordan's Backcountry

Summertime Escapes, Quickly

Chase and I have been backpacking the last two weekends - both very quick escapes.

Last weekend, we left Bozeman at 7 pm, drove an hour without a map up a massive network of USFS roads, stopped and parked, and walked into the woods a ways.

We were back home 20 hours later, after cooking two meals over fire, exploring a gorge, and panning for gold.

This weekend, we'd get an earlier start: 5 pm.

We again drove an hour, walked into the woods, found a hidden meadow, cooked over fire, fished in a stream, wrote in our journals, and took gobs and gobs of photos and videos: of flowers, water, camp, fire, mountains, trees, birds, deer...

Then we went to bed, woke up at sunrise this morning, watched the alpenglow descend the mountain faces, explored a marsh, fished some more, and played around a lot with our cameras.

You see, Chase has this growing passion for photography. At 10, he's enamored with the gear. He tells me he's specializing in macro photography, as he snaps twelve images of a larkspur.

This one didn't turn out half bad - he mounted the camera on a tripod, set the timer, and told me in no uncertain terms: "Sit still, please."

Photo: Chase Jordan. Subject: Dad sporting new trekking duds (4.5 oz shirt, 4.0 oz pants) coming to BPL real soon, in front of a 16-ounce double wall tent he may be taking on a packraft trekking traverse across the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem in a week. Sigma DP1, f/4, 1/8s, ISO100, 16.6mm.

Write Simply

Sometimes I think my barrier to writing is one I create myself: the misguided need to find huge blocks of time to allow creative juices to flow. Try that with a family, a business, and a yard to mow.

Instead, I find that being in wild places allows one to shed some of the junk of civilized life. Strip that away, live simply with fire and coffee, and inspiration seems to flow easily enough, requiring much smaller blocks of time.

Photo: June 22, 2008, by Big Bear Creek Montana: in the throes of writing the new manuscript.

Indian Peaks Sans Snow

This photo was taken November 10, at 12,300 feet in the Indian Peaks Wilderness, Colorado.

Andy Rice and I did a roundabout off-trail loop up and down this twelver one afternoon, because we did just about all that could be done in a place like Ward (i.e., drive through it).

At the summit, we were reminiscing about a snowshoe trek we took three years prior - almost to the day -
in deep snow that could only be described as wintry.

Granted, the Indian Peaks aren't exactly a dumping ground for Colorado's Great Storms, but we couldn't help but wonder if we should still be wearing sneakers up there in November.

Wilderness Trekking Gear List and Photos

I've posted an album of my photos from Wilderness Trekking III this evening.

Also, click the thumbnail at right to view a JPG of my gear list from the course.

Enjoy ~ rj

Fire Addiction and Brain Wave Entrainment

The process of brain wave entrainment is that type of mental therapy by which external cues (rhythms in visual or audio stimuli) synchronize internal functions (brain waves) to promote ... something.

That "something", scientists say, is related primarily to either mental focus and/or the regulation of certain chemicals responsible for feelings of satisfaction or relaxation. My guess is that brain wave synchronization, at its optimum, has the ability to regulate the processes by which dopamine, endorphins, and seratonin impact body responses.

That "something", the marketeers of brain wave "technologies" say, is related to how you perform: emotionally, mentally, financially, relationally, and sexually. Holey moley. I'm not even going down that path, for it's surely a windy trail leading to nowhere.

OK, so now on to Gear.

I believe that fire is a brainwave synchronization technology.

I have a friend who's a smokejumper. He says that his mental focus is so acute while he's in the midst of a wilderness fire that he's able to solve problems with absolute clarity while firefighting. He told me, "my brain is running a million miles an hour, and all of my life conflicts seem to flash before me, even though they have nothing to do with - and do not interfere with - the mental energy required to fight the fire I'm in." Once, he said, he came home from a fire and spent the next three days immersed in learning a new language. "I was travel-fluent by the end of the third day, and I'd never before taken a language class. My mother almost had a heart attack when I started speaking in Italian to her on the phone."

Similarly, I've found fire to be a wilderness elixir that all but removes anxiety from expeditioning.

I'm not the guy who first understood this relationship, mind you. People have know about it for like, probably as long as fire's been around.

And so, if you share a tent with me that contains a blazing titanium shepherd's stove inside (TitaniumGoat.com) and are wondering why my eyes are glazed over and I'm oblivious to the storms and bears raging around the tent, you'll know why.

My brain waves are synchronized, man!

Thanks for What?

What are people thankful for?

It seems that Thanksgiving is the holiday that launches people into insanity, because it marks that time of year when stress levels peak doing those things that they have been cultured to do by the so-called fabric of American society.

The stress of shopping, elaborate meal planning (and consequent overeating), packing, traveling, and unpacking, financing gifts that nobody needs and will be landfilled in a shorter period of time than what you believed when you bought them, putting up decorations and then taking them down (in three cycles between October 31 and December 26), not to mention buying more, storing more, fixing more, and breaking more.

Welcome to the "holidays", and thanks for nuthin'.

And then, during the bedlam, there are these magical little moments of grace and simplicity that make you appreciate you're alive and have been given another day.

Like walking out of my house yesterday morning to the quiet stillness that followed a very cold snow storm that blanketed the Gallatin Valley in sparkling white.

And then, out of nowhere, hundreds of waxwings flew into our fruit trees where they enthusiastically found food for another day.

The scene absolutely mesmerized Chase and I. I can't remember the last time I simply looked around my own suburban neighborhood and said, "Whoa. That's cool." This was one of those moments.

It is the single moment that I was most thankful for yesterday - not because of being in tune with the natural cycles of a Bozeman winter, but because I was invited to be a part of it - a welcome reprieve from the human insanity that will dominate the coming weeks.

So, today, have a Waxwing-style Thanksgiving: appreciate the fruit of the day, grab hold - tight - of the opportunities that God brings you, and recognize that you may not be contributing a whole lot to the spinning of the Earth by assuming the normal role of an American for the next six weeks.

Now, go and hug somebody and toss that stress off the highest cliff you can find.

Photo Use for "A Waxwing Thanksgiving": Unrestricted for the small or large digital image (click thumbnail for large). Print it, post it, email it, share it, screensaver it ... I don't care, just use it to spread the cheer of holiday simplicity. Poster prints @ 8x12 and 16x24 also available.

Self-Sufficiency?

Andrew Skurka's completion of the Great Western Loop, at its surface, provided a snapshot into the window of what was a monumental effort in self-sufficiency.

Of course, there were others involved, working behind the scenes, that made this happen, too. Sponsors, web developers, parents, media personnel - all of these folks shared in the work.

Likewise, the Wilderness Trekking III course we recently hosted in the Beartooths taught me something valuable about expeditioning: that no single effort could ever exceed the multiplied synergies of people working together.

This truism, which I believe to be an undeniable fact, sort of flies in the face of modern American thinking which is places inordinate levels of value on "self-sufficiency", "self-reliance", "self-esteem", and "self-preservation".

While I love, and get accused often, of "going solo" (whether in wilderness or life), I understand and appreciate that dependence upon others, reliance upon others, and the ability to change the centricity of focus of esteem from self to others is absolutely essential - and preferred - for life satisfaction, be it in marriage, business, or expeditioning.

When teaching our den of Webelos this weekend about the art and practice of building fires using only magnesium firestarters, a pocketknife, and wood, I experienced a defining moment as a mentor when one Scout said to another, as the fire went ablaze:

"Whew, at least now our whole den can eat lunch!"

Who do you depend on for your lunch? And as important, are you making lunch for someone else?

Have you ever made a sandwich with someone else? One person spreads the peanut butter while the other person spreads the jam. And when the two slices are melded together, you have a product of team effort.

You say, "But the sandwich tastes the same, whether it's made by one or two or three!" or "More effort went into making that sandwich than what was necessary!" or "I could have done it myself faster"...

Woe to you, soloist.