"One hundred years from now, as people look back on
our use of this continent, we shall not be praised for our
reckless use of its oil, nor the loss of our forests;
we shall be heartily damned for all these things.
But we may take comfort in the knowledge that we
shall certainly be thanked for the national parks."

~Secretary of the Interior Ray Lyman Wilbur, 1931

Friday, December 05, 2008

Leaving the Great Outdoors, Headed to the Urban Outdoors





It looks like I will be moving back to DC for 6 months starting in January. This is a big jump, but I'm confident it is a good one--be it stepping stone back out west or stepping stone to something else or a whole new door open.

For the record, these are the boots I wore for the past 9 months. Every day for 5 months at Wupatki, plus my whole backcountry season at Bandelier, during which I hiked over 250 miles in these suckers.

D. and I ventured to Amarillo (Armadillo?) spontaneously to pick up car parts and visited the Ft. Sumner area as the sun was setting, the moon was rising, and Venus and Jupiter were making themselves known.


The next day, D., V/G., and I proceed on an epic adventure a la "Portage up Mt. Washington" (see Chubbers, every summer). We salvaged a flotation device, paddled is downriver, and carried up the F.Trail. It was epic, the F. Trail surprisingly felt shorter than ever, the rapids were fun and I finally used my lifejacket that I have carried around for 17 months, I got to sport my hiking skirt in the park and feel cute and outdoorsy at the same time, and
Quote of the trip, repeated with all sorts of fill-ins: "Eww! I've got Rio in my _____!"

1 comment:

Matthew V said...

Fort Sumner? That's so cool. I was just watching Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid last week and they were hiding out there.