Ride pics

Playing around with videos and pics while out riding:

 

 

Hero dirt - hard packed, some moisture still from overnight frost

Rocks, everywhere!

Big skies, snowy mountains and warm sunshine

Canyonlands and the Big Silence

I've been wanting to get out to the Needles District of Canyonlands National Park for a while now and finally did recently.  It's quite a ways from where I live and the easier way to see the Park is from the Island in the Sky area to the North.  The Needles is 40 miles south of town and 20+ miles from the main road.  Nevertheless, the drive is gorgeous and well worth the trip.

The approach from the highway goes through Indian Creek Rec Area and was particularly scenic and a new area for me to explore.  I'm excited to get back out there when the temperatures are warmer and days longer.

While the topography is nearly the same as the rest of the area, what struck me was a sense of remoteness and utter silence.  A high pressure weather system has been sitting over the region for a while and we seem to be at the center of it.  Temps are mild, the wind is non-existent and there's not a cloud in the sky!  Perfect hiking weather.

After listening to a recent radio program on electronic smog and electromagnetic hypersensitivity, it dawned on me that going to remote places like this on a regular basis are essential to health overall. I recommend this show and advise people make attempts to remove some of this smog from their lives on a regular basis.  The point made by the guest that a 30min cell phone call affects the brain for hours later really hit home.

 

 http://www.groundzeromedia.org/puddle-in-a-microwave/

 

Days are too short for long hikes, but this one was pretty awesome even for a short duration.  I look forward to going back and getting lost for a day in the Spring.

What a difference a year makes!

It was high time to leave Michigan and get back out to the Rocky Mountain West.  At the time, I didn't really know how that was going to happen.  But like with anything, when you focus on a dream or a goal, a deep desire, the World opens up and makes a clear path for you to follow. 

My biggest initial apprehension about moving was simply being alone along the path.  But at one point I knew that the only way I would get to do what I dreamed of doing was to go it alone.  No one I knew was in a position to come with me, nor did any of them really want to leave.  Complacency has a momentum all its own, like the grooves of a vinyl record that can be hard to escape.  But I'm glad to be gone.  It was easy to fall into old habits.  It was easy to find a partner to share the misery of the place.  But now I see how that was happening all around me and I wonder, "why the fuck would I do that?!"  Copious days in the woods and a centering back to myself helped me break out of that paradigm.  I am so much better for it.  No more sadness.  No more longing for something better.  No more shoveling snow (not yet anyway!).   I was able to leave everything behind me, the past seems to hardly exist anymore.  I live in the NOW and watch the future unfold without too much deep expectations of its outcome.  Because, honestly, it always seems to unfold perfectly.  Learning to allow and accept was a huge victory for me.

To see where I've gone, some of the adventures I've had, you can link to my Instagram page here:

https://instagram.com/chadguyer/

The Earth is healing.  Ultimately,  I feel we are constructs of the planet itself and that through its elements, we get regeneration, recalibration, synchronization to the Home frequencies that instill well-being and happiness.  I think, too, that each individual has their preference for the Element they enjoy the most.  Mine happens to be sky (air) and rocks (earth).  Oddly, though I'm considered a Water sign (Cancer), I don't really relate as quickly to the sea (6 years in the Navy beg to differ).  Maybe I just don't seem to choose it now.  I guess my Aquarius ascendant is pulling rank these days (as it should).   Most human spaces are just ugly, un-energetic.  Gone is the glory of the architecture and building seen in Gothic Europe.  We build cheap shelter from the very healing elements of this place - the Sun, the Wind.  We treat the materials, rock and wood, with harsh chemicals that pollute our spaces, our bodies.  It has been a healing experience for me to come to the desert, the mountains and all the spaces in between.

Since Instagram is a better medium for pictures, I will continue to post them there and not here.  If you hate reading and just like photos (picture books), just follow me there.