Hiking

One of my favorite things to do when it's not winter is go hiking. Normally spring is the worst for it's lack of hiking and lack of skiing. Mud season makes the trails very muddy (surprise surprise). Hiking through mud isn't only obnoxious for the hiker but it's bad for the trail too. If you can avoid hiking when it's wet in the woods you should.

I'm going to drop some Leave No Trace (LNT) knowledge on you right now. LNT are principles and guidelines which help to maintain our beloved nature spots. The thing that LNT principles don't want you to do is leave an impact on an area. Nobody likes getting to a campsite or hiking a trail and seeing it full of litter, or the remains of an excessively large bon fire. Obviously littering, cutting down trees, and picking endangered plants would be considered leaving an impact. But other things which are just as important, such as staying on the trail, only having fires in designated fire areas and also camping at least 300 feet from the trail if you're not camping in a designated campsite also help keep the places we love pristine. One big rule about LNT is staying on the trail while hiking. If the trail is wet many people have a tendency to go around the puddle/ mud. This is wrong. You're actually supposed to walk through the mud or puddle. Think of it this way, the more people walk on the sides of a puddle the more erosion takes place and the larger the puddle becomes. If everyone just walked through it (your boots should all be water proof anyway) the puddle doesn't get larger. When people don't walk through the puddle or on the trail it actually makes the trail wider. Some might say 'well that's ok that the trail is 2 ft instead of 18 inches.' No this is not ok, trails aren't meant to be super highways for hikers. They are meant to get people into the wilderness. If you likes boardwalks and pavement to go Yellowstone and tour some hot springs. Going back to muddy trails. If it's spring you're not recommended to be in the woods at all on the trails. Reason being, it's so muddy that your impact is much greater than normal. When the mud dries it leaves the trail rutted and pot holed for pretty much the entire summer. When this happens on a repeated basis someone has to go in and do some maintenance on the trail. It is easier just to encourage people to not use these trails than to constantly do maintenance on them.

So for reasons stated above, I generally don't go hiking in the spring. But since this year has been an odd year as far as weather, the woods were pretty dry as well, I decided I'd go. A couple of friends I work with I told them that up the backside of Okemo was a trail that starts in Mt Holly, goes up the mountain to the fire tower on the Southface peak and there's 360 views. It's not a very well known trial and doesn't generally get the same attention as others in the area because it's not connected with the Long Trail/ Appalachian. But it is still a favorite of mine just because it was always so close. I've been a few times most recently two years ago with my dog Buster. My friends suggested that we go together. I thought this was a pretty good idea. So we parked a car on one side of the mountain and drove over to the other side to start.

Okemo is a round trip 6 mile hike. It is steep in sections and I wouldn't suggest bringing small children or people who are out of shape on this hike. It is mildly strenuous. We hiked at about a 30 minute mile including breaks. This might seem slow but the trail is very steep and it takes a lot more energy to walk straight up than it does to walk on level ground. Hiking is like skiing and can get very zen, where your mind kind of gets quiet. Being in the woods also is something I very much enjoy and to see the forest waking up after the winter was cool. We climbed the fire tower and found that it was very windy at the top, my ears hurt and it was chilly. Great vistas though. My friends and I walked down the trails and realized in some places that there was still quite a bit of snow/ ice, but it wasn't impassable.

Overall a great day! Much needed break from the stress of leaving the area.

A Winter of Books

While I was in Benin I kept a list of all the books I read and would periodically write reviews on said books. I was reading about 2 books every 10 days, on average. Since that time I have come back from Benin I haven't been reading so much. There are lots of reasons why, one being that I have a full time job, then there is also my ability to drive places, but mostly it's because I have free internet at my house and no TV. But I have managed to read a few since arriving here in December. Here is the winter book review of 2012:

Tell Me Where It Hurts- 3/5 Book about an animal surgeon. He works with doggies and kitties. It's really a pet lovers book. There isn't a plot line but rather a bunch of stories intertwined. The book follows the author throughout a 24 hour period.

Prodigal Summer- A later work for Barbra Kingsolver. 3.5/5 More uplifting than The Poisonwood Bible, it explores different forms of love and relationships within the setting of an Appalachian town. Her writing does get a little too feminist for me. There are male roles in the book which I feel would be a good opportunity for a more gender neutral tone to the book, but the male roles aren't believable.

Last Child In The Woods- 5/5 Great book to anyone who works with children on a regular basis. This non-fiction book was required reading my senior year of college. When I read it the first time I felt that I might need more perspective on the subject of outdoor environmental education before I really absorbed what Louv was saying. Now that I've read it a second time after working for an outdoor education facility I see the challenges that are in school systems and how they are overcome by simply putting a child outside.

Pigs in Heaven- 2.5/5 My co-worker saw me reading Prodigal Summer and thought I might like this book, also by Barbra Kingsolver. This book was published 10 years before Prodigal Summer and you can tell the difference in the writing. While some characters are more believable (primarily the male roles) others are very forced. It's about the welfare of a Native American girl who was given to a white woman and raised by her. It asks questions about what is actually best for the child, who is wrong and who is right. But it ends up being exceptionally predictable and for the ending she tied a nice pretty bow around the whole thing leaving nothing hanging, she might as well have said 'everyone lived happily ever after'. Apparently this book was a companion to the first book she published. The next book in the Barbra Kingsolver line was Poisonwood Bible where she left some sticky ends, and thus the whole of the book was more powerful.

Living With Cannibals - 3/5 A collection of stories about women adventurers. While it was a feminist read for sure it was about women who defied the norm of adventurers and just went ahead and did what they wanted to do anyway. There are many mini biographies of these women and their lives. Quick fun read, when you're about done with one of them, there's another story on the next page.

Lord of the Flies - 4/5 This is the first time I've ever read this book. I'm not sure why we never had to read it in grade school but perhaps it was because the Columbine school shooting and others like it began when I was in middle school, so books portraying violence among children probably weren't high on the public school reading list. But this book reminds me of a teenagers version of The Fountainhead. It's deceptively easy to read, and it's a short novel. Like The Fountainhead the characters are based around one idea or persona and their traits are highly predictable. Each character is one sided and after a single goal. Nobody is conflicted, ever. The point is made stronger because of it, but I felt a hard time connecting to the characters on an individual level. We all want to say that we fully connect with Ralph but I found it hard to do after he gets single minded about the fire. I also feel that we all have a bit of Jack and Piggy in us too.

The Screwtape Letters - 5/5 Mind blowing. Good job C.S. Lewis. This raises questions about Heaven, Hell, religion and how we as people mull about in our daily lives. Each day having the possibility to be toward a positive or negative end. Really good, very creative.

The End

We've come to the end of another winter. I had my last day on the hill yesterday, a great sunny day but conditions dictated that I would not be able to continue skiing on slush. A friend of mine frequently describes the end of winter like the end of summer camp. Everyone knows it's coming but nobody wants it to end. Such is the reality of seasonal employment there is always an expiration date. All of those fun people who you became friends with and bonded are now leaving we're all moving on to other things. Some stick around and become the leaner 'summer crew' at Okemo but most go do other things. You probably all know that I'm going to Alaska. I have friends who go to New Zealand and instruct, and still others are deciding that they need to move rich peoples yachts from point a to point b.

This may sound depressing and I won't lie, it is. Leaving is always depressing. But I'm not someone to look at my situation and only see negative. I'm between things. While I am frequently leaving I'm also going somewhere. The world is once again full of potential I'm packing my bags and putting them in a car and then I will soon by on an airplane first to North Carolina and then to Alaska. A new adventure begins as an old job ends.

Spring/ Mud Season

Here in Vermont we have something the locals lovingly refer to as mud season. Other areas of the country might call this time after winter spring but trust me when I say that mud season is a more accurate representation of the time. Spring comes after mud season.

On the mountain there is usually some spring skiing to be had as the last of the base melts away. But generally speaking once the mountain closes there is little else to do. The mountain closes, and many of the small shops, restaurants and bars also close. There are a few who stay open during these times of little to do, as even the locals don't get out too much. In particular there is one bar that stayed open all year round last season and is now where all the locals hang out, I'd be willing to bet that they sell more beer brewed in Vermont than any other bar in town. You all can keep your PBR and Guinness I'll stick with Long Trail and Switchback.

The roads about here turn all frost heave-y and those dirt roads become pot holed and unmanageable in the 6-10 inch deep mud. People barrel down the roads and the mud sucks their tires places they hadn't anticipated. For those who have never really been around lots of mud, it has a smell. When all the bacteria have unfrozen and been steeped in the snow melt, the leaves that fell late in the fall begin to decompose again, and nothing is growing to help clear the air. You may think to yourself 'Wow that sounds like a terrible time of year'. You guessed right.

The only good thing about mud season is that the locals finally have the state to themselves. We no longer have to pull Hummers with summer tires out of the ditch on a night with only 1 inch of snow, when a local gets stuck it's legit. We don't get to the grocery store in town and see that there is nothing left. We can drive through town without getting stuck in traffic. We can order a beer without a bunch of Jersey Shore tools crowding the bar and sipping on their drinks with those little red stirring straws (just a clue guys, but those are meant for stirring. It's not a milk shake, it's a rum and coke.) Don't get me wrong, I love the tourists, without them I don't get a pay check. But it still is nice to pass the grossest season in Vermont without them.

Life in the Fast Lane

There are some distinct disadvantages to wanderlust. As I'm coming into yet another transition phase I'm remembering all those pesky things that come up and a little piece of me says 'This would be easier if you would just stay still for a little while!' But alas, I'm too much of a free spirit to take my own advice. But since I've in the past few months told you all about how AWESOME it is to be a drifter, this time I'm going to tell you how much it sucks.

1) Jobs never quite line up.

When transitioning from job A to job B it is usually never a smooth transition. Job A ends, rather than you give them a two week notice and can plan for a short time between jobs. Job B begins, usually at an inopportune time. So you're left waiting. You still have to pay your bills, but you're not making any money and it's just a long enough time that applying for unemployment isn't worth it. And so you live on your friends and families couches who've taken you in again. Because of this I have a room in Ludlow, Barre, Brookfield, Emerado and soon to be Charlotte.

2) Jobs never quite line up.

Sometimes the opposite happens. Job A starts before Job B ends, or because you've applied and been hired so late there is no physical way to get there before Job A starts. Some jobs you can leave early and it's not a problem. They're winding down and it's beneficial for the company to let you go early, no hard feelings, everybody wins. This is generally how it happens after you've been somewhere for awhile, if you've been an employee a company isn't as annoyed to give you a little slack. There are circumstances where companies cannot give you that time. Say for example, you're scheduled to be in the backcountry and you can't leave. Then you get to choose which company you're going to screw over. This is a delicate decision, if you piss off the one you're working for you may not get to come back, or if you piss off the job that you're going to you might be in for a long season of kiss-ass.

When there is no physical way to get there say for example it's Friday and they want you in New Hampshire on Monday and you're in North Dakota, companies are very understanding.

3) Gear

Every job is a little different and so you have to plan for the gear you're going to bring. Now after doing this a time or two I have the big ticket items, backpack, sleeping bag, warm clothes. But then there's always that thing that you don't have. This job it's rubber boots, and yes I really do need them.

4) Organization

Being a free spirit doesn't usually lend itself to organization. Filling out paper work and getting your drivers license and social security card, then filling out other forms that you'll see later when you file your taxes needs to be done before you arrive. It's not like you can walk down the street and hand the stuff over a few days before you start.

5) Travel

I have to get from where I am to where my job is by a certain day. If you have enough time they expect you to be there. Now the question becomes, should I drive? If you drive you have to figure out how many days it's going to take you. If you fly now you have figure out a place to leave your car.

Camp in Winter

My family has a cabin on a lake, we simply call it camp. Camp has been in our family for generations. My great grandfather bought it. My grandfather grew up loving this place, when the time came the next generation (my dads) spent summers up at camp, then my cousins and myself, and it is slowly changing from my generation to the next.

My cousin Nathan and I have had numerous adventures together. As kids we were inseparable. We mostly boated around on the lake in every kind of boat you could think of, paddle boat, kayaks, canoe, sail boat, motor boat, row boat, we even once built a raft out of 5 gallon drums and boated that around.

While we come and visit in all seasons winter is usually the loneliest time for camp. Keeping this in mind while at work I was thinking of what to do with my days off. My thought process was...'I could go skiing, I could then go food shopping, do my laundry, and cook lots of something tasty to bring me through the next week.' I then realized that this is exactly what I'd done the last month and half. I was bored with it. I got in touch with my cousin Nathan. We both decided that we needed to do something different, we needed a change of scenery. He suggested that we go snow shoeing up at camp. And so we were off on Wednesday up to camp to visit our little slice of heaven.

We were going to go around Cook Hill which is up a little ways from the lake but found the road hadn't been plowed probably since the beginning of time. The back up plan was the lake. Now in the summer Nathan and I have taken every single boat we've ever been in and boated to the landing on the town side of the lake (the opposite side) and back. It only seemed fitting that since we have the opportunity to walk that we should.

Real winter had come to Camp. Throughout Vermont winter of 2012 has been a dud. All the ski resorts are sad about it and there hasn't been hardly any work for the plow guys. Some how Camp had been spared, at least when we arrived and had 2+ foot snow banks. We realized that snow shoes were a really good idea at this point. There was deep snow on the lake, and it hadn't settled at all so our snow shoes sank a couple of inches every time. We made it about a 1/4 of the way and realized how far the opposite shore actually was. When we got to the store we each got a drink and a snack to get us back. The way back was much easier because we walked in snowmobile tracks. We figured that camp to the store and back was approximately three miles one way which means that we had snow shoed six miles. After looking online I found that snow shoeing in deep snow burns double the amount of calories that regular walking does. It was as if we walked for 12 miles.

The things that struck me about camp in winter time is how quiet it was. There was hardly any wind and it was as if the sound just was absorbed in to the snow. We also saw that camp was being used, or at least the property was by ice fishermen wanting to get to the lake. We've given permission to people to use the property as a entrance to the lake from the far side. Our camp is one of few that does this, if nobody did it than the far end of the lake would be very quiet. The only public access to the lake is on the opposite side. It made me happy to see that camp was being used.

Overall a great day, I came back feeling much better about everything.