Taking the Long Way:
I’ve considered the various hikes koda and I have taken, and the adventures that resonated within each. Over snow covered trails, through canyons and up steep mountains that range so high you pass the alpine line and feel a sense surrealism being above the ability of life itself. After thinking about those hikes and which story I was most excited to tell, I found the real adventure of it all was unavoidable. The most incredible adventure of it all was the spontaneous decision to pack up what we could, hop in my 5 seat Tuscan Hyundai and make the strenuous drive out west.
Located far east, we said goodbye to the Atlantic ocean and began one of our grandest adventures yet, out to the Rockies.
With no set plan or places to be, we took every day as it came. I often consider if having no set plan is a plan in itself. A plan to test chaos as it comes and let life take you on its own journey and set you on an adventure that could never really be “planned”. The pros to this, I think, are the surrender of expectations and only gratitude for what you end up with in the end. The cons of course are the nights without a camp spots, dead ends, and having murphy’s law truly be tested on you. I read once, though, that at the end of the day, our toughest experiences add to our overall happiness. Our ability to experience the hardship, while it feels like torture in the moment, stands out so vastly in our minds that they become exceptional experiences and stories in our lives to share with others that we wouldn’t trade for the world. This type of happiness is significant, as it does not decay or become outdated as other possessions do that once gave us joy. It stays with us and can be accessed at any moment, giving us the same gratification and sense of accomplishment.
To me, after all was said and done, this adventure and experience is engrained in me and consistently adds to my happiness when I recollect on the collection of incredible moments and memories made, no matter its initial impact.
After two months spent living out of my car with Koda, we had eventually made it through Colorado, Utah, Montana and Wyoming. Each state offering its own unique trails to explore and landscapes to see. After all of the barriers we faced, I have a tremendous amount of gratitude for the this trip. When trying to pick just one adventure, my mind goes to so many incredible places.
I can think back to waking up at 5 am on a prairie outside of Moab, Utah. The distinct and unique shapes of canyons carved over centuries off in the distance, doing their best to keep the suns fiery red and orange rays from rising. Koda running freely through the tumble weeds as the suns hot beams break through the canyons tight grasp. Neither Koda nor the sun can be constrained and they celebrate their freedom together, dancing in the light that morning.
But is that the adventure I want to tell?
My mind shifts to colder weather. Being up 7,000 feet above sea level in Marble, Colorado. Snow on the ground and a hot fire blazing in front of us. Koda lay asleep at my feet from a long day of trekking. White peaks stand guard, surrounding us in every direction. The strong pull of the river a few yards away continues to rage, sounding through the mountains, but no longer visible. It is a night so cold that the outer lining of the tent sparkles like a sheet of crystals with sheer ice. My fingers and toes sore from attempting too keep the fire stoked in the bitter cold. The intense chill and depth of the darkness is interrupted, though, and all at once forgotten as the milky way cuts through the sky above, flaunting its beauty and lighting up the world below.
But perhaps it is the night after our 15 hour drive I should tell. From the bottom most part of the Colorado sand dunes, up to the top of Wyoming. Arriving in the dead of night, unaware of our surroundings and finding a camp spot in grizzly territory on unfamiliar grounds. The unfamiliarity and awareness of new predators came in like an uneasy lullaby to our extreme fatigue after the long journey.
This feeling completely subdued by the light of day, gently waking us up to see where we had landed the night before. Miles above see level, we find ourselves face to face with the Grand Tetons. A thick cloud cover of fog lay between both us and the Tetons. At some point in the night, we climbed high to find our spot for the night. Now awake, it was as if the Tetons were face to face with us, bidding us Good Morning and welcoming us with its inconceivable vastness. My mind shifts again, from adventure to adventure.
There are too many to narrow down to one. Because truthfully, the entire two months was its very own adventure. Picking one would be an injustice to another. Every trail offering something new and unexpected.
One of my favorite quotes reads:
“We thought of life by analogy with a Journey, a pilgrimage, which has a serious propose at the end, and the thing was to get to that end, success or whatever it is, maybe heaven after you’re dead. But we missed the point the whole way along. It was a musical thing and you were supposed to sing or to dance while the music was being played” – Alan W Watts
While this trip included a vast collection of trails, I consider the long road between each -from the day we left, until we arrived back east- a trail in itself. A journey that koda and I traveled together and an adventure, in which, we danced the whole way along.
