With school not starting for a few more days, I decided to take a ski adventure into the mountains.  The plan was to drive up FR 517 until the snow stopped the truck and skin from there.  Also part of the plan was to build a snow shelter, camp for the night, skin up some more and enjoy the views before heading back to the truck.  A cheap fix to the swelling cabin fever of the Christmas break.  A combination of bad sleep, poor decisions, and deeper than expected snow resulted in a day trip of just a few hours of skiing.  Not exactly the plans I had  envisioned when scouring topo maps and the weather forecast.  Even though it was an abbreviated adventure thanks to the culmination of calamities the fresh air, silence, and spitting snow over the vast landscape provided perspective .  Along with my ski tracks were those of fox, rabbit, deer, elk, and presumably chasing them all wolves.  The harshness of winter gives the landscape a new slate that shows the activity of the forest.  A story that says out here I am alone.  Just a visitor passing through who should enjoy what’s here before the falling snow starts the story over.

At the expense of throwing the defibrillator at this blog (see last post) I have to say that 7am MST is way too early to be using a plunger.  A Folgers induced Vesuvius rocked the early morning silence on my block.  It’s just as well though, I couldn’t sleep in.

I had dreams of wolves and bears.  The last thing I remember in my dream was wrestling with a pack of wolves in a snow storm, kill me now.  I don’t know who would of won and that’s probably best.  In the nights prior to leaving town I didn’t have dreams.  They were restless nights of tossing and turning, stressing and wondering.  Today, I woke up refreshed, and after the Folgers ran it’s course faster than Usain Bolt, much more refreshed.  Yesterday I woke up at a mountain lake with the brisk wind and snow slapping my face.  No worries, no schedule.  Just fishing and exploring on the agenda.

The outdoors impress a feeling of obligation to keep going and exploring.  There’s the guilt of possibly missing something around the next bend or over the next ridge.  At some point though, nature always wins.  You have to head back appreciating what you were able to see and postulate the wonders of what lies beyond.  Hoping you’ll be fortunate enough to make it back and put in another round.

I headed back after exploring what I was able to explore.  Joyous and refreshed, it was time to head back to the hollow concrete canyons .  Like an alcoholic and Jim Beam, this cocktail of fresh air and solitude will hold me over, for a while.  Rolling back down the highway with my windows down the 5.2 cruised at almost 90 mph as I was distracted by the peaks around me and singing along to Johnny Cougar.  I’ll sleep good tonight, I thought.

Link to a few Pics…caution may be NSFW…that is if you’re stuffed in a cubicle somewhere.

If you’re reading this I know two things.  1) You should cancel your internet service if you’re reading crap like this, and 2) you weren’t with me on the ride so you probably don’t care.  To me though it’s these memorable moments to myself that shift the whiskers and skin flakes on my face to form a genuine smile.  A smile of appreciation for my place at that time.  I know some of this may sound more lame than charging processing fees on your kids allowance, but I don’t care, it was a couple of hours that really put a smile on my face.

Wherever I go, my Census and Me!!!…..My Census won’t be used for “counting every man, woman, and child.”  Instead I’ll utilize it as toilet paper, a napkin, a coffee filter, roll it up as a telescope, a frisbee, fold it up as a sailor hat, a rag to wash the floor, put it in the spokes of my bike so it sounds like a motorcycle,a nonstick liner for my casserole dish, a floor mat for my truck, a blanket, chopped up for confetti in a pinch, taped back together as head cover for my golf clubs, and umbrella, a sail for my boats in the bathtub, taped on my pants to hide the coffee stain, scraping ice off my windshield, a shim for the wobbly table at the diner, rolled up as a straw, a sled, taped on my window to “go green” and insulate my house, replace a roof shingle, a scoop to clean out the litter box, a coaster for the coffee table, a kite, a handkerchief, paper airplane, crumpled in my speedo for bulge enhancement, insoles for my sneakers, a mousepad, cutout as a paper snowflake in winter, taped back together in Spring as a tent for camping, a shield for sword fights, something to 3 hole punch when I’m bored at the office, something to fill in between stacks of $20′s when trying to pull a fast one on the mob, a folder, a paper target for my BB gun, on second though maybe I’ll crumple it up as a basketball and put it in the trash can.