**Ski season is wrapping up early this year and even though the signs have been here for a long time, none of us are ready, least of all me. Cherry blossoms are blowing up the city and for some reason I still get a shock when I see them; watching the slow death of Winter always leaves me bereft….
Ive been attending Bee clinic for 4 weeks now and all the hippies there celebrate weekly, the onslaught of Spring as I grimace for multiple reasons but mainly the loss of a favorite Season. Follow me on Twitter for the real-time action…at your own risk. Bee Clinic has been a mixed bag for me, overall very good but I am constantly distracted there by everything in the room: hive parts, the fragrant waxes and general organic/stunning nature of the art form…and of course the hippies. I dont know that Ive really absorbed all that I need to there since its so hard for me to focus. I will certify next week for sure, but I better be in the top echelon of the class otherwise its big trouble (getting bested in any category by hippies). I pick up my unassembled Hives next Thursday night and thus begins the tangible process of beekeeping.

**Its been amateur hour at my place since the hard drive on my main computer blew up and Ive had to deal with the douchebag decision I made last year not to back anything up externally. My Winter recap film we all know as “Searching for Saplings” has been lost; 9 months of collected footage half compiled just chugged down the drain. Its too stupid of a situation to be pissed at having lost it, completely my fault.

**With Spring in the air Ive got the backpacking itch, this year I will be in the High Country alot sooner than usual and its good news, for conditioning purposes. I will start out as usual with the kayak camping sessions Ive come to love every Spring and then progress with the snow-lines up to the Big Mountains, getting tuned for the big nut: a big 6 or 7 day solo trek through the ALW, specifically from Snoqual to Stevens Pass. I should take someone along but I dont know whom I can stand for that long, in that sort of setting who doesnt have that availability time-wise. You get out there like that and everything changes inside of you, even though your a guest of the Wilderness, you become a viable, functioning part of it. Its a deep experience where everything falls away except the sheer rawness of the moment which depending on whom you ask: is where you find yourself. For me it is this way, my soul fills with the wild air and becomes as clear as the big mountain waters I take my fill of. The essence of this place is so real that I get up there and I dont even swear…it just doesnt fit up there somehow. My problem with backpacking is unique inasmuch as I dont know how to hike with anyone, since Ive never really done it more than once; hell my first overnight backpack trip ever was solo, and done out of spite b/c my buddy bailed on me and I refused to ditch the trip, even though I had know clue what I was doing. I will never forget any trip Ive taken, but that one was special; a total tenderfoot out there all alone, spent the entire night hunkered in my tent just waiting for death’s bloody maw to sink into me via bear, cougar, bigfoot….anything I could imagine was out there just waiting for me to fall asleep. I got up at 4am and shakily peeked out of my little tent, determined it was reckless to make coffee but what the hell I might as well have something nice in the middle of this mess and so I made my java and sat back inside cowering until Sunrise. I planned a fire sale on Craiglist in that final hour before dawn and resolved to get the hell out of there at first light, if I didnt die first. Soon the ravens began hunting in the dark, circling unseen overhead, soon the stars began to fade and with it the nearby lake sparkled ever so slightly…….it all unfolded slowly before my eyes: the sun rising over the mountain, the ridge above the lake rustling to exuberant life, hungry ravens above now visible in pre-dawn light and most importantly I was alive. I made it….couldnt believe it….I felt more alive in that moment then I ever had before, watching the Earth wake up around me, and somehow I was part of it. That moment changed my life forever and it happened by such delicate chance, born out of so many emotional components including the reason I even went there alone in the first place. Since then Ive made many hikes, all of them overnight and 99% of them alone. I always say I will hike with someone but I never do, its just to big out there to bring anyone along, but not big enough to share. That makes sense to me, but probably no one else. It is what it is, its what I do…who Ive become I guess.

Im rambling,  thanks for reading….gonna hang up now.

Hench.