This is the view we get when we overcome resistance, execute discipline and sit down at the desk to do some good work. How is this fair? I mean, at least go sleep in a pile of sweatshirts or something, but not here in the office next to the pencil and pen mug. I mean, go catch some mice or something.
Lost Lake is one of those hidden Chaffee County gems. You really have to know what you are looking for since there are no signs marking the trailhead. To find it, you go up Cottonwood Pass until you see a paved turn out on the right side of the road and a trail going into the woods on your left. Follow the trail over a few meandering hills, past another little lake, over a stream or two, to a steep uphill section that plows its way through undergrowth (most of that little section is spent ducking and protecting the lenses on our cameras). You emerge at the top of a little ridge and there before you lies the lake.
With emerald green water and a little island in the middle, I’m reminded of a secret place that you would go to as a kid to play. Maybe if you’ve read Swallows and Amazons you’d get a sense for it, but the lake is much smaller and beneath a cliff band that marks the Continental Divide. I’d love to bring a boat and go out to the island (I’m not brave enough to swim the waters in September, thank you very much). The view from above looks out on the lake with mountains framing it in beyond.
Peace. We encountered not a soul when strolling up. The only sounds were the wind rustling the pines and the dogs panting back and forth, occasionally whining at a stick they’d like us to throw.
Life. All around we saw wildflowers, green grass, shrubs, trees, lichen. Fish swam in the little streams. Marmots peeped amongst the scree. Horse hoofprints were imprinted in the mud of the path and on our way home, we crossed paths with several other families taking a stroll to the lake.
If you are thinking about going to Lost Lake, September and October seem like the perfect months to do it. Much later and the snowfall may close off the road to the pass. Much earlier and you risk sharing the solitude with other summertime hikers seeking their own solace.
After seeing our local hardcore band play at the first Collegiate Peaks Music Festival, I knew that they would be the subject of my first music video. It was supposed to have two or three storylines but it was taking a long time so we settled on the footage from the Coyote Cantina instead. This was all supposed to be secondary footage for the piece, but it seems to work ok. Enjoy.
Finally got this little video piece of Lucy and Sienna out for a morning of stick chasing on the Whipple Trail in February. Just watching it makes me cold. So glad its summer!
Ahhh spring. The day dawned partly cloudy, but warm. The light played off of the trees and buildings as we rode slowly down the street taking in all of the activity. But the trees, the trees. Explosions of color accompanied perfumed air as we rode past the fruit trees bursting with blossoms. We heard buzzing most of the time and watched our native pollinators go at it with legs heavy and yellow with pollen.
If you are like us, stuck in an office all day with the computer to keep you company, I highly recommend that you get OUT of the office and take a long walk or bike ride. Leave the car at home. You’ll pass the blossoms too quickly and air from your vents won’t do the sweet scents justice. You’ll also miss the experience of getting close, letting the color fill your eyes, and you won’t be able to circumnavigate the tree, watching the streets and buildings around it with dynamic perspective.
Besides, you just might pass a friend on the sidewalk.
Its hard not to think about every decision I make these days. It seems as though I’m now filtering all decisions through my waste and energy filter. I can’t stop thinking about how much I consume and how much of that is wasted. I eat too much. The food I eat travels too far. It has too much packaging on it that quickly ends up in the landfill because it wasn’t designed to be recycled. Much of what I cannot eat goes into the refrigerator or freezer where it is cooled with coal-fired electricity plants spewing CO2. In order to reduce the carbon released into the atmosphere, we are seriously considering nuclear again. Hmmm… let’s create some nuclear waste that has an enormous half life just so I can keep my leftover green onions cold while they rot away, forgotten in the crisper drawer. Why think about it? I can just throw them “away”.
I drive too much. If its too cold, I get in the car and drive to the supermarket. And if its raining, no way am I walking. I live 12 minutes (drive) from where I work. I daily get into my car (designed to carry a lot more cargo than just me) start up the engine and feed it gasoline until I arrive. At night, I repeat the process in reverse. Last Thursday I spontaneously decided to drive to Summit County to see a movie. I drove 1.5 hours to be entertained. Not a big deal, the exhaust just goes “away”.
I just read that the years and years of build up of sunscreen in our popular beaches is killing off coral reefs. Why am I not surprised? And we just thought that when we swam, the ocean washed our sunscreen “away”.
My favorite is my plastic grocery store bag. We purchase our groceries but need a way to transport them to our car and then from our car to our kitchen. Fortunately for us, we don’t need to plan ahead and bring a bag or two. Conveniently, the grocers provide us with free plastic bags that help us contain our prize sleeves of Oreos for that 45 second walk to our car (dang, why did we park SO far from the door?) Once home, that free plastic bag becomes useful once again for another ten seconds (fortunately the garage is MUCH closer to the kitchen). So the useful life of our free plastic bag is about 55 seconds. And then what happens to our plastic bag? And scientists estimate a bag will last 400 to 1000 years. (no one knows for sure as plastic bags have only been around since the thirties).
Heard of the Pacific Gyre? It is one of the world’s five major gyres or circular ocean currents. Unfortunately, the Pacific Gyre is becoming a toilet bowl for flushing “away” our plastics.
The circular rotation around it draws waste material in and has led to the accumulation of flotsam and other debris, so much so that the plastic debris gathers in concentrations of one million pieces of plastic per square mile in some areas. While historically this debris has biodegraded, the gyre is now accumulating vast quantities of plastic and marine debris. Rather than biodegrading, plastic photodegrades, disintegrating in the ocean into smaller and smaller pieces. These pieces, still polymers, eventually become individual molecules, which are still not easily digested.[1] Some plastics photodegrade into other pollutants. –Wikipedia
So, sure. You could argue that everything we do creates waste and problems. I think the main thing here is that we as humans actually THINK about our actions and the intentional or unintentional consequences of those actions. Before making a decision, we should really weigh out the benefits and costs (as much as we possibly can anyway) before choosing. This process helps us grow and progress. We can think our way out of habitual reaction and start to make decisions based on values rather than convenience now. Look around you, what you eat, wear, use, surround yourself with, and try to imagine the humble beginnings of each object, how it has been used since you’ve owned it and where it will go in the future. Where is your “away”?
I spent my first Earth Hour with good friends, enjoying a candle and gas lamp lit meal complete with thoughtful conversation. As far as energy usage goes, Earth Hour was probably just a drop in the bucket. But the hour with no lights really allowed us to think profoundly about our consumption of energy and how our decisions affect that. I’m grateful for friends who are not afraid to consider these concepts and for their willingness to participate in an event like this.
The day should have been warm. The sun shone brightly overhead, the skies were a deep blue and it was March at Monarch Mountain. I shivered as we waited for the first of the competitors of the Big Air competition to take the big hit at the bottom and fly through the air.
I like this competition in particular because it features local kids on the Monarch Freeride Team (check out their website: www.option23.org) as well as riders of all levels coming in from other parts of the state. Kids of all ages go huge off the big jump at the bottom of “Aftershock” terrain park. Expertise varies as some competitors are content with a simple grab while others get inverted. Its all in good fun and the crowd is supportive of each trick. The coaches know their stuff and even have digital media that covers the basics of the tricks they are teaching.
Vistas abound at the top of the divide and provide a beautiful backdrop to the floating skiers and snowboarders.
For more info, check out Channel BV. The Big Air comp is coming up this weekend. You’ll probably see me there with my camera…
Lach, our local Buena Vista musher, just finished his second Iditarod, having started four of the grueling races. I had the opportunity to photograph some of his team two years back. I also included some of the photos he took from the back of the sled. Check out ChannelBV.net for a link to the Iditarod site. Enjoy.
We were making morning glory muffins. Being early March, no local veggies and fruits were available so I went to our local supermarket and loaded up on organic carrots (probably from Chile), organic apples (probably from Washington — stored cool with nitrogen pumped into the shed to slow respiration – ripening) , walnuts, picked up some orange juice (from oranges grown in Florida and not in South America) and was feeling good about the amount of “good” food I was purchasing but not so great about the distance that all of it had to travel. “The average bite of food has traveled more than 1500 miles before it reached your lips, changing hands an average of six times along the way.” – Bill McKibben – Deep Economy
It has become apparent to me in the past few years that just buying organic at the grocery store is not enough. At this point in my eating habits, I’d much rather feast on fresh vegetables from Seth and Caitlin or Erin’s greenhouse. I’d rather understand exactly who grazed my cow, what their education has been and which land management techniques were used. I’d rather know that the eggs I buy were laid that week from hens that have a choice whether or not to stay in their roost or go out and discover yummy bugs.
That being said, I still frequent our local supermarket, still buy lots of veggies out of season (had to make the expensive and damaging trip from South America), and still consume packaged food. I have mixed feelings about this…I really am striving to change my habits, but it is too nice to open a cold carton of orange juice and begin gulping.
So today, as always, I’m waiting in line watching the people ahead of me finish their transaction and the people behind me unloading their cart and I begin to feel very sad. Box after box of processed food hits the conveyor belt along with cans of soda, packages of candy and bags of chips. The people were obese and the food in their cart reflected it. My sadness came from a deep desire to help people realize that we make choices every day about what we eat.
This affects not only our world as we think about farming practices, processing plants and chemicals needed there, transportation, storage and waste, but also our health, the way we look and feel. The food industry (producers, refiners, processors, transporters, resellers) equates to a trillion dollar industry. Likewise, this same processed food grown with pesticides, fertilizers and genetically modified seed produces health problems that only a trillion dollar health care industry can fix. Why wouldn’t the government love the idea of food related health issues then? Think of the economy and the tax revenue. Could it all be solved by eating food from our local sources? No, but perhaps we could put a big dent in it anyways.
Well, these are simply the thoughts racing through my head at the checkout line. Lets think about what we eat, where it is coming from, what is involved in getting the food from the ground into our mouths.
