Its Saturday morning, sometime around 4. Across the room, next to an empty beehive sits a backpack with 4 changes of clothes, one tripod and camera, 3 new moleskines and 4 new fine point sharpies. Last night I bought two more copies of Denis Learys’ book to give away, I love giving away books…..you should try it sometime, nobody ever believes your actually giving them a book. The books are in there too, and thats all. Im packed and ready.

Yesterdays post about the North Pole was no joke, two days ago I decided to spend 5 days in the Arctic Circle, hunting the Boreal Fields with my camera, bush piloting into a village, stand amongst the wild places…..
I summed it up thusly the day I thought of doing it:

After 4 months of focusing heavily on everything but myself, Ive finally burned out. I need a serious break and at first I figured a nice loop through California and around into the Tetons with an old friend would do the trick but after 2 days of planning I knew it wasnt enough. I need to get out there….big time. Far far away where I can drop off the planet and think, write, breathe the wildest air, drink the coldest waters and stand amongst the strongest mountains.
This has been the most lifechangeing Summer Ive ever known, now that the dust is settling on everything Ive learned, I need solitude to sort my thoughts and file everything into its appropriate brain file. Where else can I go besides the Arctic Circle? Basing out of Fairbanks, I will hire a Bush Pilot to fly me wherever I can think of, example: I want to eat Walrus so lets find some. I want original scrimshaw from an old Eskimo, I want to stand in an airstrip next to some remote lodge, lets go do that and so on……
Now is my time to GET OUT AND DO SOMETHING the way I have for so many years.
Ive seen the Northern Lights from Montana and Idaho but Ive never stood in a Boreal Plain and soaked in them. Whats that like? Ive never been in a twin engine plane with some gnarly, hairball pilot in the middle of Wilderness, whats that like? Ive never had a cocktail in Alaska, what bar-stool tales will I hear? I will relish it all. What does a cheesburger in Alaska taste like?
Im tired of waiting for this, Ive never waited for anything in my life until this Summer and it didnt go to well for me, despite my chuckle as I type this sentence. If Im laughing Im getting better so I take the sign as good.

And there you have it. This will autopublish Wednesday at noon but right now it hasnt happened yet, I am standing on the precipice of this dream, this chasm thats obsessed me for years. No phones, no laptops, just me alone in Alaska with my writing tools and my camera.
I bought my tickets just yesterday, took a room at some lodge….I call it the Moosenut Lodge……the only thing I know for sure is that at noon today I will be having a cocktail in Anhcorage and tonight I will be under the Aurora, full force.

I promise kids, I wont get stabby with Santa. (unless you pay me)
My mother wants me to say hi to Palin. Can you believe that!

So long….

Arcade Fire – Sprawl II (Mountains Beyond Mountains) by jhowlett

jump through the pic

jump through the pic

I rebuilt the feed section on the right for the new Season, Summer. Check it out, explore the feeds and learn something new. Here is the lineup:

*My Blip jukebox

*PSKiteboarders forum

*NW Bro Weather

*Dank Squad

*WTA Hikers

*Henry Rollins

*Mike Vallely

*Warren Ellis

*Ino

*Shipwreck Honey

(Shout out to NWR: The second your feed becomes active, Im pulling you out of the bullpen and throwing you in.)

Another interesting way to learn about thru-hikes.

Meet IceAxe, his trail journal is pretty good.

**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.

Goodnight, Bastards. (Stay the hell away from my berries.)

an early start

 
ive been sunk in Call of Juarez since Sunday, in between watching Spaghetti Westerns and Deadwood, while mounting bindings to snowboards and eating way to many chuckwagon homemade fajitas, baby carrots and toast, washed down with vodka and a sneaky Autumn cigarette. The wind has been blowing like hell, the booze has been flowing like water and the filthy assistant has been working overtime, keeping up with my evil ways antics; all the while my mind keeps wandering back to stranger, more dangerous days.
Ive decided to wrap up the Solo Hikes project, despite festering set of leftovers sitting in a file somewhere south of this post……..its gone on long enough. I enjoyed doing it, I enjoy looking at the reminders of that Summer, the Summer that my world went upside down. I used to think that backpacking, hiking, trekking was for dirty hippies with nothing better to do than smoke weed in the Wilderness but I learned my lessons well that Summer, it is so much more hardcore than that and frankly I never saw a single filthy hippie more than 1 mile off a trail. For me, doing this sort of thing turned me inside out, Ive never dug so deep into myself to find strength to continue, courage to close my eyes in a midnight world where animals shriek and scuttle to parts unknown, and Ive never been more rewarded in my life by the very same things. I recommend this to anyone, especially solo.

Breakfast on the ridge

This was at the end of August in 2k8, a solo trek spanning lakes Lila and Rachel in an overnight attempt at Ramparts, easily one of the most beautiful of areas in the Alpine lakes Wilderness. I had a bear come through camp in the night, endured terrible temperatures and high winds that brought storm after storm, including 3 brief blizzards. It was a cold night and I was very much alone in the harshest of elements to date. I got out just after dawn, made breakfast on a ridge a mile away and with field glasses watched as a bear raised all sorts of hell in the camp at Rachel Lake. It was a miserable trip once camp was set, and the first time I felt the scope of being alone in the middle of nowhere, brought on no doubt by inclement weather. The photoset tells the tale, there are some beautys in there, I hope you enjoy. Rampart Lakes set located here.