Meditation

The biggest drawback to selling my home and living in the Airstream (AS) is the loss of my favorite meditation spot/chair:). The comfortable and large lounge chair and blackout blinds in my bedroom were the perfect combination for meditating; I'd gotten in the habit of meditating morning and evening and looked forward to each. There are more distractions (e.g., road noise, other campers, etc.) and no lounge chair:) in the AS and it isn't conducive to deep or long meditation. While I'm still working on this, opportunities to meditate outside are becoming more frequent. For example, while hiking the Under the Rim trail in the Bryce Canyon Wilderness, I took a break on a large boulder. As I was peeling my small orange the sound of peeling my orange was distinct; there was no wind that day, nobody else on the trail, and the birds had finished their morning singing. After peeling the orange and slowly savoring each wedge, I sat there meditating for awhile, visualizing the beautiful rock formations that surrounded me. If the boulder could have been replaced by my old lounge chair, I could have stayed there for hours:)

Kodachrome Basin State Park

I biked about 20 miles this morning including roundtrip to Kodachrome Basin State Park. A beautiful park of colorful sandstone chimneys. Evidently, the contrasting colors of the park caused National Geographic Society named in Kodachrome in 1949. The road from Cannonville, UT where I'm camping is paved and the Park campground appears very nice, including some sites with full hookups, showers, and paved/level sites - wish I'd stayed there:)
My computer is still down and I haven't figured out how to upload photos from my iphone to my blog so apologies for the lack of photos with this blog. Will upload them next week. I'm also planning to put all of my photos on Picasa.

Red Canyon

Just to see how I'd feel after yesterday's strenuous hike at Zion, I hiked 6 miles in the Red Canyon area this morning. I wasn't stiff or sore but I was tired so took it easy the rest of the day. I'm staying in a campground in the town of Cannonville, UT; very small - maybe a hundred people or so. They have a gas station, post office, and visitor's center for Grand Staircase Escalante National Monument but no grocery or other stores. I walked around the town to get a feel for it; I'm sure the people are nice but the town is too small and isolated for my taste.
After my computer start up disk arrives on Monday (hopefully), I'll be moving west closer to Zion National Park. Stay tuned!!!

Bryce - Under the Rim Trail

The last few days of easy-moderate hikes boosted my confidence in my leg so today I hiked part of the Under-the-Rim (UTR) trail at Bryce Canyon NP. There is a sign near the trailhead to UTR that says - "This is a Strenuous Hike"; I agree with this assessment:) My route took me from Sunset Point to Inspiration Point (truly inspirational!) to along the UTR trail to intersection with the Swamp Canyon Trail where I hiked up to the road and walked back to my truck. Took me 8 hours; based on the time and maps it was probably 14-16 miles. I feel tired now; we'll see aches tomorrow brings:)

I was present for some of the hiking and had a wide range of thoughts along the way.  In all my years of hiking, I've typically been on a schedule (e.g., got to summit before noon; got to get to the campground before dark; got to hike this trail or that; etc.). Starting with yesterday's hike at Calf Creek Falls and continuing with today's hike, I felt more at ease about schedule. I got a late start (for hiking) yesterday (10am) and today (8am) but it didn't matter; I said to myself that I would turn back whenever I felt like it. Yesterday and today, I passed (we were going opposite ways) hikers who reminded me of me (in the past); they appeared on a mission/in a hurry. They didn't want to stop to chat and could hardly be bothered to say hello.

It's been 5 weeks since I sold the house and started traveling/living in the Airstream. I've slowed down and chilled out a bit during this time; much more so than I would have if I had just taken a 5 week vacation from work. There is something about not having a deadline to my journey that is liberating. Even if I could have taken a 5 or 6 week vacation while I was working, I don't think it would have been enough because I would have been focused on the end date. My 3 week vacation in Australia last summer made me realize this to some degree. While I loved my vacation, I realized I couldn't ever totally relax knowing that I had to go back to work.

Yesterday, one of the college kids I met on the Calf Creek Falls trail asked me what I was going to do next. I said I didn't know and it wasn't until this morning that I decided to hike the UTR trail. Not having a fixed itinerary or timeline is truly liberating and is allowing me to reflect like never before.

For example, as I hiked today and noticed the diversity of plant life and habitats, I started thinking about how we as a society use the word "diversity" in a completely different context than I did as a biologist. High species diversity was always a goal when I was an ornithologist. The more different species of birds in an area, the better. On the other hand, when people talk about diversity, they tend to focus on what I would term variation or differences within a species (i.e., humans).  We are all of the same species (Homo sapiens); the fact that humans around the world vary in height, weight, color, language, etc. is really a microscopic view of traits that is (in my opinion) not very interesting.

Musings like today's about diversity are all part of being present and focusing on what is important in life.  I have a long way to go but life is good and getting better:)

While taking a break, I noticed this bat hiding underneath a rock. He hardly moved when I sat next to him.

Calf Creek Falls Hike

A friend's recommendation led me to hike the Lower Calf Creek Falls today. Located off Highway 12 east of Escalante, Utah, the Calf Creek Recreation Area contains a campground, year-round flowing Calf Creek, and hiking trails. I was present much of the 3 mile (one-way) hike into the falls and found myself smiling or whistling much of the day. This easy, relatively flat hike is like a walk on the beach in that in follows the stream and the substrate is largely sand. I don't know what it was but I felt no need to hike quickly; maybe it was the sand which forces one to slow down. I took over 100 photos; the rock formations and setting are so beautiful!  Met some nice "kids" at the falls; they are attending the University of Utah and just taking a break after finals and before graduation.

Another idle thought occurred to me during my hike - it is amazing that the violent geologic forces which cause these rock formations can result in such beauty; however, as I hiked and thought of the ancient peoples who used to inhabit this area, it made me wonder whether beauty such as this is universal or in the eyes of the beholder. It was a beautiful today - temp was in the 60s, sunny, calm; but under different weather conditions, I imagine this environment could be harsh, especially in pre-Gortex times:)

Sunrise at Bryce Canyon

At 6:34am April 30th, I witnessed a beautiful sunrise at Sunrise Point at Bryce Canyon NP. I'll upload more photos once my computer is working again; its difficult on this loner.
After a cold, windy, and beautiful sunrise, I hiked the 8 mile Fairyland Loop; took about 3.5 hours with elevation change of 1716 feet. I recognize these hiking statistics are meaningless to a lot of you my hiking/climbing buddies feed on this nourishment:) Felt pretty good during and after the hike; didn't see anyone for the first half. The scenery was awesome!

Computer Issues

Just a quick blog to let you know I'm having computer issues again. After a lengthy call with Apple tech support, it appears it will be Tuesday before they can send me a start up disk to figure out what the problem is. I'm using the campground computer for this blog and will try to keep as up to date as possible during this time.
All my best,
Rob