The Winds

I recently went on a backpacking trip to the Wind Rivers in Wyoming with a group of friends. Its an amazing range spanning 80 miles long and 30 miles wide with several wilderness areas throughout. We went to the Popie Agie (pronounced poposha)wilderness about 8 miles in to Stough Creek Lakes. Its a pristine alpine landscape with granite spires in every direction and lakes dotting the amphitheater floor. The trip was one of the best I've been on for several reasons: the trail was shaded the whole way. There were NO BUGS at all. The weather was perfect the entire time and I wasn't mauled by a bear.

We stayed 4 days, hiked probably 20 miles and saw some beautiful country. To quote a phrase from a favorite novel it became "more perfect" daily. On the last evening I slipped away from camp and sat next to a lake watching everything. A muskrat swam around in the middle, back and forth like a lap swimmer in a pool, then dove and reappeared with a fish. The sky was clear and I spotted a falcon miles away, circling a huge cliff face. I felt like Ralphie on Christmas night as he clutched his Red Ryder BB gun (with a compass in the stock).

Colie takes a hit

Paradise

"My idea of paradise is a perfect automobile
going thirty miles an hour on a smooth road to a twelth century catherdral"

-Henry James

It will be different for all of us of course.

Theres a chance I'll be on a backcountry lake eternally with other outdoorsman- plenty of fish for all. Every cast would be perfect and yield a killer strike. If I was in no mood to share the lake that day, people would just melt into the water, and be chalked up as a mirage. I would envision whoever I felt like talking to, they would appear and be talkative on demand or attentive to my ramblings as I saw fit. Noah would keep swimming close to the canoe, trying to dump me when I wasn't keeping a wily eye out. He likes the water now, and never held a grudge.

John Muir and I would climb the highest pine tree on the hill, letting the rain sting our faces in pure ecstasy while lighting crashed harmlessly around us. The animals would come to the fire at night- a regular garden of Eden, where smokey the bear is real and has a killer singing voice.

No aches, or pains, just a perfect body in a perfect place for eternity.

Barbacoa

I wonder if the Indians
Wanted to be somewhere
Else during these festivities
Like we do today –
Never content with the current company.
I bet they envisioned (after a few peyote hits)
Texting and talking to other tribes on cell phones
Letters and words ricocheting from tepee to tepee
Attempting to get through somehow.

Zorba the Greek

Last week as I rinsed off my sweaty face with cool water and looked into the mirror I thought of Zorba. I pictured him staggering down the mountain with a coal blackened face, grinning ear to ear at the boss, which made me wonder why I was not grinning ear to ear after laboring in the heat all day. I read this book about five years ago and loved it. I think back then it was the theme of friendships unraveling and lost forever that touched me, and helped secure a spot on my favorite list, but what stuck out this time was Zorba's insatiable zest for life. No matter what he's doing its 110%, and its as if he's seeing the world for the first time everyday.

"He has been all over the racked and chaotic Balkans and observed everything with his little falcon-like eyes which he constantly opens wide in amazement."

His fun loving and free spirited attitude is envied by the boss. He loves to talk to Zorba and take everything in because living a studious knowledge driven life has left him bereft of life. The boss waxes philosophical in many parts throughout. He just can't wrap his mind around the time he's wasted not seizing the day, and regret eats at him constantly.

I loved the tid bits of truth, by both men, which the book is full of:

Zorba - "What is a woman, and why does she turn our heads? Just tell me, I ask you, whats the meaning of that?"

Boss - "I felt once more how simple and frugal a thing is happiness: a glass of wine, a roast chestnut, a wretched little brazier, the sound of the sea. Nothing else.

Its a fun read that was thought provoking and has made me more Zorba-like in my approach to daily life.