Appreciation of Vacation

Appreciation of Vacation

One month to go and I will be on vacation for two months.  Some might call this unemployed but I prefer vacation.  You can stress about being out of work or you can celebrate that you have been given the gift of time to enjoy what life has to offer.  I can't say I don't stress a little about having worked enough in the summer to make it to the when I have winter work without being strapped for cash and living off ramen and spam for those two months of vacation.

After bouncing from Hood River to Colorado, back to the San Juan Islands and now out in Montana I really appreciate the 6 days between Hood River and Colorado that turns out is going to be my longest time off this summer and have no regrets because I lived it up to the fullest. After packing up my Trouse (trailer-house) and driving back north I got to have lunch with my parents and keep heading north to a picnic on a beach for dinner. No vacation should begin rushing around doing everything all at once so the next day hung out caught up on sleep, worked on the computer and spent the majority of the day chillen in the sunshine eating good food and floating around on a lake.

The next day over coffee and bloody's with breakfast the idea was set to go skiing in mid July. Of course that's reasonable so we headed for Glacier for some playing at a laid back pace.  Artist Point had recently been plowed out and we found road laps on blueberry chute were in play with less than 150 yards of walking on a gravel path to make it back to the car.  It was awesome to see 15+ foot snow banks in July. The afternoon corn was good enough we had to repeat the next day but not after another lazy morning of coffee and homemade salmon cake eggs benedict.  We then hit the nooksack river to pass the time for the snow to corn up. Headed up on the shred-stick because of course you have to ski and snowboard in July!

I had to leave Glacier before I settled in for the rest of the summer and forgot about all responsibilities.  I headed up to Whistler the next day for and afternoon in the bike park riding chairlifts up and all sorts of great trails down.  Being that the Whistler trip was prompted by a friends bachelor party we had to step it up the next day and get a helicopter ride up so we could bike 6,000+ feet back down to Whistler.  Very interesting getting dropped off on a snowfield with 18 bikes and left to enjoy gravity all the way back to pavement.

    

All good things have to come to an end at some point and after biking I had to head south to be ready to fly out to Denver the next morning.  I got to have an awesome dinner with my family and celebrate the birthdays that had passed since we'd all been together and catch up on the stories of all of our busy lives. Living the seasonal lifestyle is made easier by having a family that celebrates whenever works to get together and doesn't sweat the small stuff, cause it's all small stuff!

Appreciate your vacation. Whether it's a long weekend or a couple months.  Live it up and make the most out of the time your given to pursuit whatever makes you tick.  Don't sit around answering emails and dreaming about what you could be doing.  Be thankful that you have the health to get out and enjoy your time. Every hour there are 8 young adults ages 15-39 are diagnosed with cancer. If you want to support this demographic and help the kayak, climb and surf beyond their diagnosis then donate to First Descents. http://teamfd.firstdescents.org/2013/fd/bennydubs/

Seattle Children's FDi

So aparently when you work with people with cancer and do fun things everyone thinks you are running kids camps.  Everyone is always asking me how the kids were at a camp and of course partnering with children's hospital really helps keep that misconception going.  What people don't realize is that First Descents works exclusively with young adults with cancer ages 18-39 and are just recently branching out to offer a few programs for survivors over the age of 40.  Last weekend I spent the weekend in Leavenworth with some awesome survivors with the help of the young adult outreach program at Children's Hospital.   Many 18-39 year olds end up seeking treatment at hospitals that provide care mainly to kids.  Enough of my rambling, here's a blog post from a participant, "Gig" that was there for the weekend and she sums it up much better than I ever could.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/erin-havel/breaking-through-cancer-b_b_3423990.html

Thanks to the John Wayne Cancer Foundation for making this weekend possible!

If you want to help offer more programs for young adults with cancer please donate! It is the fastest growing demographic to be diagnosed with the disease and they need as much or more support as the kids do, but there are less programs offered.
http://teamfd.firstdescents.org/2013/fd/bennydubs/

THE CANYON

"Those who love it call it "The Canyon" --the canyon-- as if there were no other such topographic feature on the earth's face." -Edward Abbey

There's lots of stretches of the Colorado to ride on in it's 1,450 mile journey from source to sea. Well it once went to the sea but now the last 100 miles rarely sees any water at all as we have damed and irrigated away all of the naturally flowing water.  Maybe someday when we've embraced other power option the Colorado will hit the pacific ocean again.  Regardless of the politics of letting rivers flow free, the section from Lake Powell to lake Mead still remains free flowing from dam to reservoir. We were lucky enough to float the 236 miles from Lees Ferry to Diamond Creek.

 

It's easy to complain about the dam but while we were there they had a scheduled controlled release that was maybe a little lower than we would have liked but allowed for us to have clean green water the entire time. Not until the very last day did we see the chocolate milk looking water that is traditional for the Canyon with side creeks and higher flows turning up the sediment in the water.  We were lucky to see the water in the Canyon like this.

The canyon is much more of an awesome camping trip and much less of an whitewater rafting trip.  Every night getting to pull into a different beach, usually with hardly on footprint on it, and pull out all the conveniences of rafting.  It's hardly camping when you have a full kitchen, included the kitchen sink, a BBQ, camp chairs, ice for cocktails and a toilet with the best view in the world! Every night falling asleep on my raft under a full sky of stars I realized there was no where I'd rather be putting my head down at night.

The side hikes in the Canyon provide a nice way to break up the day.  We hiked 1 or 2 side canyons everyday, often to find some much needed shade and a few refreshing waterfalls.  It's impressive to hike through the desert only to find a waterfall gushing out of the rocks and a lush green oasis created on all sides.  

We left as 8 strangers, returned as 8 friends.  It was a trip of a lifetime to say the least.  I hope to continue my luck of making it a habit to return to the canyon every 5 years or so for some fun, relaxation and personal sanity time.  It is not surprising that when you spend 16 days away from technology and the routine of everyday life, you come back with a better sense of who you are and what you want from life. I am now ready for a summer of working with First Descents and making the most of all my time off in between. Now after two trips, I feel so lucky to have spent over a month of my life in The Canyon.  I call that because I now love it too!

I'm challenging myself to write this blog to keep track of myself and so that family and friends can hear about my experiences in a seasonal summer lifestyle! In doing so I also hope to spread the word about an amazing organization that provides free outdoor adventure programs to young adults (18-39) with cancer. If you enjoy reading about my adventures I know you'll feel great knowing you helped change someone's life with a small or large donation to First Descents. Thank you!
http://teamfd.firstdescents.org/2013/fd/bennydubs/

Another Grand Adventure

Rafting the Colorado River through the Grand Canyon is a requirement for everyone's bucket list.  To get to sit in the bottom of a massive ditch carved out by mother nature and float for over 250 miles will change your life.  It will forever be a highlight to have been in the bottom of the Grand Canyon looking up at it's vast size when most have only looked down from above in a few places.

Tomorrow I will put on and float under AZ89a as it goes over the Navajo bridge and not see another car for over 250 miles to Diamond Creek.  It's an opportunity that presented itself in a less than ideal way with my brother's lady friend backing out to get knee surgery and leaving me an open spot on the oars.  I was lucky enough to have the time available to get to join my brother on his first time down the canyon.

I had dreams of going down the Grand Canyon as anyone with reasonable amount of river miles does, but never thought I would get an opportunity to go before I was done with college let alone to get to go a second time before I turn 27.  I'm extremely grateful for the life that I have gotten to live and hope to keep on pursuing everything that makes me happy. I'm excited to put onto the river and be without cell phones, internet, running water and all the conveniences that don't fit on a raft, and you won't find in the middle of a National Park.  There will be much more, and current photos, to come when I get back to everyday life.  Until then, have fun, enjoy life and don't do anything I wouldn't do!

I'm challenging myself to write this blog to keep track of myself and so that family and friends can hear about my experiences in a seasonal summer lifestyle! In doing so I also hope to spread the word about an amazing organization that provides free outdoor adventure programs to young adults (18-39) with cancer. If you enjoy reading about my adventures I know you'll feel great knowing you helped change someone's life with a small or large donation to First Descents. Thank you!

http://teamfd.firstdescents.org/2013/fd/bennydubs/ 

Seasons are Natural

The seasons are guaranteed to change, it's just natural. This cycle will make the leaves change colors and fall to the ground which will shortly thereafter, if we're lucky, be covered in glorious snow. So if it's natural for our environment to  change around us seasonally, it makes sense to change our recreational habits along with them. For some of this this change also comes with a full change of lifestyle.

Mt Baker Ski Area

Winter is easy. Live at my small home in the mountains, slide on snow almost everyday which is made easy by my job as a ski patroller at least 4 days a week.  It's easy to find me in the winter, I still have a landline in the cell phone free town of Glacier, WA.

Then there's summer. Always there's the question in the winter of "so what are you doing this summer?" This is the question that has brought me to writing this blog.  I'm always debating my answers of "being a dirtbag", "working for a non-profit" or "guiding kayaks in the San Juan Islands". Never is there time to explain the jigsaw puzzle of jobs and adventures that make up my summer life.

San Juan Islands

I'm challenging myself to write this blog to keep track of myself and so that family and friends can hear about my experiences in a seasonal summer lifestyle! In doing so I also hope to spread the word about an amazing organization that provides free outdoor adventure programs to young adults (18-39) with cancer. If you enjoy reading about my adventures I know you'll feel great knowing you helped change someone's life with a small or large donation to First Descents. Thank you!
http://teamfd.firstdescents.org/2013/fd/bennydubs/