Bear's Quest 3 - The Valley of the Yellowstone

It has been awhile since landscape has surprised me, yet this is what the open vistas from Mt Washburn looking over the confluence of the Lamar and Yellowstone Rivers did. To look upon the rolling grasslands of the valley, golden with August tint reaching up to the sides of the Abskorba-Beartooth Range seemed to crack open my soul to such place. Not since I first gazed at the open realm of the Grand Canyon earlier this year have I been layed so bare before a view. It was like being present on the first day man awoke. I could see why those who passed through here long ago made it our first of many National Parks.

The approach out to the Valley of the Yellowstone from Bozeman, makes it's way from the edge of the Plains at Livingston, through a crack in the battlement walls made by the towering Abskorba-Beartooth Range. The peak tops obscured by clouds enveloping their true heights,  the River meanders and races from flood plain to gorge, with each turn building the travellers anticipation. Finally,  bringing one to the Arch at Gardner and enterence to this Temple of the Wild. There is a ambiance of Pilgramage found there at the gate. People with far off license plates all flock to this place to bare witness to what is one of the national tradition of what "Americans should see before they die..." I think about this as we round through the roads towards Mammoth Hotsprings, about these iconic places upon our land. Great parks of the Wild like Yellowstone, Yosemite and the Grand Canyon. Reminders of our tragic past Gettysburg, Arlington and Manzanar.  Symbols of our greater hope like Cape Cannaveral, Lincoln Memorial and Great Arch of the West. All these places have a story to tell, and even more nooks and side roads of America paint the texture of this experience. Needless to say I am overwelmed by the thoughts of how many views and lives have followed through these places...

We follow the tourist road, deciding to leave the Wild Backcounty for another time which we can probe her inner depths. Along this route we seem to see the same people from stop to stop. Mammoth, Washburn, Canyon Village, Yellowstone Lk, Old Faithfull and Grand Prismatic Springs. Each have a grandure to them, yet I am caught more watching how these fellow travellers interact with the Natural World that surreounds them. For many, they are children of a city life, taken to the road on the classic family endeavor. Maybe this is there first experience with what I find common day life in my world. Such as sleeping upon the ground with only the stars ar your ceiling, or watching elk graze the field, feeling the resonance of a great waterfall plunge in a canyon or seeing a squirrel steal your lunch before your eyes. This state of discovery effects all of us differently. But in the end, the result changes us in fundamental ways. To watch as thousands gather before Old Faithful, and absolute silence fall over them as the geyesr springs to life. This unanticipated reaction draws me in closer to understand the human side of the interaction with the Wild.

At my side in this journey is my partner, a soulmate that sees and feels the same Green Fire. Our conversations weave back and forth on topics of society, the wild and our own course in life. We grown closer with each bend and stop as she drives the roads along the  Yellowstone River. Gazing out from the switchbacking road ascending to Dunraven Pass, her golden hair seems to blend into he horizon, a smile showing from deep within. I realize that I will likely spend the rest of my days following long trails, rivers and roads with this woman. Taking from each place our own point of view, yet sharing the experience together. To feel a love of life and the wild spirit within, I drink deep in the moment.

My final glimpse of the Yellowstone is while sitting along the Madison River. Watching the river flow by, paitient fly fisherman in a tranquil zen-like state, casting 10 and 2 over and over again, while flys dance at thw waters edge, trout bounding. A golden eagle sits atop a stag tree overlooking the bend in the river. The moment seems to have a clarity of peacefulness, where the world seems to be vital and real to the very touch. Traffic slows behind us as travellers gaze off at the Madison, wondering what it is that we see, is it bear, bison or elk? Yet it is all that lays before us that has caught our attention.. I wonder as they leave the Valley of the Yellowstone,  what it is that they see, what will they bring home and will it draw them back again desiring more? I know it will myself, and gaze at a map with the spell sweeping over to go deeper...

Bear's Quest 2 -- The Grand...

About a month ago I walked up to the Kaibab Rim for the first time at Lipan Point. I am not sure what I expected... Having gazed over countless ranges and fiords in my life, I had grown accustom to that great gulfing sense of  scale and open space.Here which Mountains and Waters bring to the heart of a follower of John, that enduring sense to return homeonce moe and explore the hidden places. At first it seemed almost comon place, yet as I descended the Kaibab, Toroweap, and Coconino, the textures and spell of this place began to weave its magic into my soul. I was drawn deeper towards a formation of hoodoos made of the Mavu Limestone rich in green above a fan of Bright Angel Shale... The wall of the Palisades of the Desert across Tanner Wash was an ever constant reminder of the depths in which we descend.. For that old naturalist within me had grown stagnet and stale.. Yet here within these desert canyon walls I had been surprised again by the overwelming ability of Nature to inspire and wake up those who had been asleep in there Suburban Lifestyles.. This ws the wisdom of John preaching itself with each foot fall.. By the time I had reached Tanner Rapids of the Colorado River, I had been awoken again...

I spent a week following lines and formations with my old soulmate found again. Scrambling over rock traverses of Unkar bend, exploring broken slabs of Red Wall towering hundreds of feet high, descending throuh bending slots or Shinumo Quartzite, only to argue over the nature of formation of swirls of iron red and calcite white bands of rock that only brought images of the clouds of Jupiter and he Great Red Spot... And always, the mirids of stars of the Night Sky... So many a man could not count. To look aloft and see the subtile colors ofthe Milky Way Core. Arguing about the contellations deep into the night, while Jupiter holds commanding presence behind Castor and Pullox, renamed through late night attrition the Dragonfly Cluster...

This is where the soul of man is mean to rise up and meet the dawn.. I walk each day, exploring the folds of the canyons. Looking deep and longing into the Black Rock of the Vishnu Schist that paints epic pictures of Gandoff at The Bridge of Kazadom. The word... Balorok rolls though my mind like dwarven drums.. I look deep withing he twisted quartzite fissures.. Something calls low and dedp to descend, yet knows to do so would be to test fates.. I shall return, and tempt the underworld.. This place calls to something which is reverse of a Mountaineers sight, to crag around and get low... To taste the deserts depths and returnto the Rim, telling idol standing tourists what lies just beyondthe edge of comfort...Just beyond, whre they dare tempt and test there very mantle... Then saunteron towards Campers Services and that fabled $2 - 8 min shower all hikers dream of...

So now 3 weeks later, I await a flight to return. To explore a new reach of "The Grand"... as a fellow Thru Hiker once said,

"The trail has ruined me. For how could any person who has lived true freedom, and seen the nature of the World as it stood before you be able  to return to a "Normal Life"..  You can't! Your RUINED! I'M RUINED!"

And so I walk happily into my Lover's Arms... One  Landscape that inspires, and the second a womanwho dwells there combing her silent calling into the depths of the canyons folds.. Lost by Nature's spell...

Let another week within The Deep Begin...

Mountains And Rivers Without End,

Ridgewalker

Bear's Quest 1 -- Year of the Wild Horse (2014)

In the last year I have been working on an experiment in a lifestyle based on Human-powered travel. Spurred on by outside factors, I parked my Volvo XC70 and took up the challenge of making my daily commuting based on the miles pedaled with my Novara Safari, a steel framed touring cycle produced by REI.

Over the course of the year, I put in 8200 miles biked, hiked and walked. In the end I fell short of my goal of 10Kmi. But through it all, I learned a great deal about myself in the time spent behind the Handlebars. I had anticipated that I would return to driving once the beginning of 2014 began. But as time grew closer, I could not find within myself a reason to begin driving again. I had made a change in lifestyle that I anticipated would take me well into the next year..

While riding one morning along a snowy trail for my morning commute,  listening to the hum of snow crunching below my tires, I made the commitment to work towards the same goal of human-powered transport with Mass Transit to major destination. The idea of keeping out of the personal car while seeking to connect with landscape, people, and my own tempo of being became more apparent. I had gone through a lifestyle change, that while thrusted upon me the past April. I felt it had the power to change me for the better as I rode each day. Each time seeking connection to the landscape which I traveled through..

Within Chinese Astrology, 2014 is know on as the Year of the Wild Horse.. My Safari, which I have deemed Bear's Quest, has taken me 8200 miles about Washington/Oregon... My challenge is to reach out farther with its twin tires keeping time... I seek to connect to the West as a fellow Thru-hiker (Ben) did this fall. To make it to the canyons, beaches and mountains which Westerners pay our homage to... Riding my steel horse bearing saddle bags as the ol' lone horseman once did...

Mountains and Rivers Without End,
Ridgewalker