Sept. 30, 2009

Early morning. 7:00AM departure from hotel and a 9:00AM flight. Uneventful flight with little interaction with folks around us. Arrived in Denver and loaded into the Tahoe. Made our way into Denver and met up with Laura. Hit up REI for some hydration packs, socks, and found a good deal on biking gloves. Got worked over a little more at the fly shop where we bought leaders, fly tying materials and couple "example" flies. Dinner, pool, and indoor-shuffle-board rounded out the day after some fly tying. Excited to hit Sylvan Dale ranch tomorrow. Don't know whether our plans to hit Casper, WY will hold up or if we'll end up in Big H(C)orn. Thanks Laura's roommate. Frantically bought a day license before crashing. Read a bunch of Charles Bukowski and its screwing with my dead a bit.

Westbound

It has been a long year. Quickly passing, but trying in indescribably ways.

Ben and I head to Colorado tomorrow to begin a 18 day tour of western waters, searching for angry browns. It is our hope that this trip meets a very pressing need for immediate escape from reality while marking the beginning of changed perspectives and approaches to life. Contradictions are obvious, but the experience of losing Dad so quickly has impressed strong desires to make meaningful contributions with our lives while finding ways to live life to its fullest and for today. Balance, harmony?, between these two approaches to life will be hard to achieve and examples are hard to find. However, the changes in my own perceptions and engagement with life, the world, are palpable each day. There is no going back - there is hardly any recognition, consciousness of how I used to think, be. I am confident this experience will make me a better, happier, and peaceful person.

I've taken trips before and often cursed my failing memories as I later tried to recall certain events, places. So, since this blog was started to catalog outdoor adventures (mostly), I think I'll try to keep a daily log of our activities, however briefly. Looking forward to the first post, tomorrow, from Denver.