Nature is my Zen

Prepping to paddle Arrowrock

I decided it would be a good idea for my to record the trails I have hiked so that I can refer to them and give verbal trip reports to people who ask about them.  For the sake of simplicity, I will just do the hikes I have done in 2017 and hopefully continue to update this post when I go on more hikes.

Owyhee Reservoir

Station Creek, near Garden Valley, ID
Robie Creek Rd to Clear Creek Rd, ID
Cervidae, near Boise, ID
Middle Fork of the Boise River Rd (bike/hike)
Old Man of the Owyhees, near Marsing, ID
Thomas Canyon, Ruby Mtns, NV
Mount Blitzen, Tuscaroras, NV
Malad Gorge State Park
Massacre Rocks State Park
Snake River Canyon Rim Trail, Twin Falls, ID
Rim View Trail, South Hills Boise NF
Gooding City of Rocks
Three Canyon, Trin Alcove, Green River, UT
Tenmile Canyon, Green River, UT
Bowknot Bend summit, Green River, UT
Twomile Canyon, Green River, UT
Horseshoe Canyon, Green River, UT
Hell Roaring Canyon, Green River, UT
-Paddled Green River from Ruby Ranch to Mineral Bottom, UT
Juniper Gulch to Yellow Jacket @Leslie Gulch, OR (paddled Owyhee Res, too)
Earl M Hardy Box Canyon near Wendell, ID
Balanced Rock Park near Buhl, ID
Hagerman Fossil Beds Nat'l Monument, near Hagerman, ID
Cottonwood Trail, off Middle Fork Boise Rd, ID (paddled Arrowrock Res, too)
Copper Creek Falls Trail near Eastport, ID
Tubbs Hill, Coeur d'Alene, ID
Trail of the Coeur d'Alenes from Kingston, ID to Medimont, ID and back
Sunset Mountain trail, near Idaho City, ID
Idaho Centennial Trail to Prince Albert Hot Spring, near Mountain Home, ID
Bear Gulch Trail, near Ketchum, ID

Thomas Canyon, Ruby Mtns, NV

Juniper Gulch Yellow Jacket

Mount Blitzen Summit, NV

Gooding City of Rocks

Bear Gulch summit

For the sake of simplicity, I am leaving out trails in the Boise foothills for the most part.  I traverse those so often.  Peggy's Trail, Orchard and Five Mile Gulch, Table Rock, Military Reserve, Shane's Loop, Kestrel and Red Cliffs, Camelsback, Sweet Connie.  I have done all these and some of the multiple times.  And many of them have been hiked and MTB'd.

Box Canyon: very blue & clear water!

Rim Trail, South Hills Boise NF

I had another tattoo session this week.  Body of sleeve is basically done.  Now just needs detail work.  Wooty woo!

Had another reminder at work yesterday of where my "place" is.  *sigh* Men on egotistical power trips make terrible leaders/managers.  The world is a fucked up place.  Somehow, living life in a Catch-22 at work makes for a stressful unmotivated time.  I wish people would learn how to become successful inspirational managers.  Someday this may happen.  Luckily, my immediate chain of command seems to have done that and I am extremely excited to have someone in a position of power to give us a voice.  FINALLY!  Progress.  Albeit, any movement in the positive/progressive direction is a great thing and I will happily take it.

Did you know that June 21st was World Naked Hiking Day?  Since I was working, I was not able to do it.  But I did celebrate the next day.  Too much sunscreen involved in truly hiking naked.  I just did some stills celebrated my nudity in nature.  It was beautiful.  Freeing.  Feeling that way.  A part of nature.  That is happiness.  Nature is my happiness.  Call me a hippy if you want.  Yes, I'd like to live in as small a carbon footprint as possible.  I'd like to live away from a city.  Away from the hum drum of human civilization.  I wish I had the skills to live off the land.  To be closer and a part of the land.

I often find myself so very frustrated with my lack of success in the dating scene, or even the making-friends-with-men scene.  A perfect example of my track record is the following story.

A few weeks ago, a female friend of mine sent me a message saying she met a guy who was interested in most of the same things that I am passionate about (has a Jeep, has a kayak, goes hiking, loves being outside).  She recommended that I introduce him to those things in this area since he recently moved here.  Sure!  Why not?  And if we click, even better!  ('Cause let's face it, I'm a horny blunt, no filtered MFer).  So we meet.  I show him a great trail that involved balancing over fallen logs over raging creeks.  Mud.  Snakes!  Mountains!  Then he got to off road in his Jeep.  Then I showed him where he can kayak.  And I filled him in on the geological and human history of the area and we discussed  stories of our experiences doing the things we enjoy.  I thought it went well.  Never heard from him again.  Huh?  WTF.  Not even as an adventure buddy.  Much less anything more than that.  I am fine just having adventure outdoor buddies.  But not him.  I do not understand.  He was like the male version of me.  

Chopping through Sunset Mountain Trail before the snow stopped me.

I am thoroughly convinced that most men find me intimidating.  And since most men lack adequate self esteem, their reaction to my skill set and personality is to lash out at it.  To block it.  Rather than embrace someone like me, who could be a useful resource, much less anything more, most men high tail it and ghost me.  Their loss.  I know.  And the "it'll happen when you're not looking" bullshit gets old.  I stopped actively looking long ago.  

I am truly happy in my single life.  But sometimes it would be nice to have genuine intimate human touch.  Or to have intimate human interactions or some sort.  That part gets lonely.  Not enough for me to lower my standards I have set for a potential partner.  But nonetheless.  I went on a naked hiking and hot spring camp trip to Prince Albert Hot Spring this past weekend.  I was probably the youngest person there and outnumbered by men.  Most of the men were 50+ yrs old.  It was natural.  No one cared we were all naked.  It felt nice to be so...normal and not caring.  I used my camp hammock the first time.  I loved it!

Overnight, the hot spring leaked water down where the vehicles were parked.  As a result, a Jeep Grand Cherokee went to leave and simply sank down past his axles in mud.  They chased me down in my Jeep so I could come back and help.  I tried the snatch strap to yank him out, but he did not budge.  I got out the winch line.  Realised that my Factor 55 did not fit my shackles.  So I modified their set up and winched him out.  The men were standing out.  Listening to the orders I was giving them, respectfully.  I appreciated it.  They realised my importance.  Not simply as a woman, but as a person.  Why is it that men, once they are older, realise how useful and great of a woman I am, yet the men that are my peers seem to run screaming from me? *sigh*

MOAB...and ALS Ride in CDA!

06/01/17
And I do not mean the missile name.  For some reason when that missile was launched and I started reading MOAB everywhere, I had no idea what was going on.  I admit that I really try to avoid much of the news because it irritates me so much.  But to me, Moab is my happy place.  The place I love and feel so at home in.  And to hear the name used so...callously? and with the destruction of a place, well, I was not thrilled.  Then I discovered that the recent use of MOAB is an acronym.

And here you go, MOAB:

I understand now.  And am no longer bothered by the use of MOAB except by people that do not know the difference between a bomb and a geographic location.  *sigh*

I wrote up my trip report from the Green River, Labyrinth Canyon section.  I posted it on Expedition Portal, just like my last trip.  Here it is: http://forum.expeditionportal.com/threads/172357-Kayak-Trip-through-Labyrinth-Canyon-Green-River

I took a photo of a placard at Mineral Bottom that maps the Green River in the area, so I thought this may help:

We created a Facebook album that all of us can post pics in.  That is located here: https://www.facebook.com/michelle.parson.186/media_set?set=a.10103909863065041.17002521&type=3 but in order for me to share/post many pics on my report write up, I uploaded my fav pics on photobucket:

It is always hard to come home from such a wonderful trip.  Coming back to the drole of every day life.  This is also a reason I try not to lead a dull and boring life.  I get out and go do things.  I see what some people post on FB and consider it fun and I am so glad I do not have those standards or lead that life.  It may work for that person.  But it does not work for me.  I crave adventure.  It is an integral part of me.  To sit at home and do what?  Surf the internet?  Use my phone?  Stay inside?  Nope.  Not for me.  I can have a lazy day every now and then.  And in fact, I should, considering how my permanently injured leg is currently throbbing and my strained pectoral muscle is crying in a dull ache.  But nope.  That's what work days are for- to be dull and typical and stay in for the most part.  My days off are for me.  And I cherish them greatly.

Edit 06/20/17
It apparently takes me about a month now to write a blog entry.  On my days off I try hard to not be home and be out somewhere adventuring.  I have really amped up this mindset after my heart-crushing hateful useless realisation of work.  Being out in nature recharges me.  It helps me cope with the depression and hate at work.

This past weekend was my Ride to Defeat ALS in the Silver Valley area of Idaho.  The ride started in Kingston, ID and followed the rails to trails paved Trail of the Coeur d'Alenes westward.  I rode 45mi.  It was an out and back.  I turned around at Medimont.  I rode my Haro DoublePeak Trail 29er mountain bike.  Which meant the skinny tire people definitely had an edge on me.  There were three different distances: 27, 45, 63mi.  People could turn around whenever they wanted.  I was dubious to ride that far on my bike, having not truly practiced anywhere near that length.  But I did it!  I persevered!

Mom flew in to Spokane a few days prior and we stayed at an Air BnB in Coeur d'Alene.

I was glad to see a new part of Idaho and explore it with Mom.  I took it easy on her and kept it to simple hikes.  We did more scenic sorts of things than exertion types of things.  We hiked Tubbs Hills on Lake Coeur d'Alene and ate at Seasons restaurant for lunch in Coeur d'Alene the first day.  We ate home made nachos most nights and watched history/educational videos on my ipad on youtube.  We took the Coeur d'Alene scenic byway (Hwy97) to Harrison, ID and then took Hwy 3 back up to I90 and back to Coeur d'Alene.  It rained the whole time, so the mountains were mist covered.  What a windy road!!  Quite a few areas appeared to have been washed our earlier and had been repaired or were in the process of being repaired.  We saw a moose in a marshy area on Hwy 3 in one of the coves of the Lake.

We drove to the Canadian border and explored Bonner's Ferry and drove across Moyie River Canyon bridge and along the unmaintained Moyie River Rd to Copper Falls.

We stopped at the NFS Ranger station before setting off for Copper Falls to check on road conditions.  My convo with the rangers went something like this:

Best lines today from NFS Rangers:

"Well....the road is pretty bad. Treacherous."

*looks out front door*

"Oh. You have a Jeep. You'll be fine!"

I followed the route outlined in the Backcountry Roads Idaho book I bought years ago.  WE followed the Moyie River the whole time.  At one point, we pulled into a picnic day area and there were wonderful rock and fish sculptures near the river.  Beautiful and fascinating.

On the Copper Creek Rd, we met with this sign.  I could not resist taking a photo.

Before returning to Couer d'Alene, Mom and I drove to the customs check point on US95 so that she could see it.  My passport expired long ago, so we could not cross.  About 200ys past the entry point, we had to stop and take pics of the welcome sign.

Mom and I were asked to speak at the opening ceremony for the Ride on Saturday.  Mom spoke beautifully and multiple people came up to me after I finished the race to tell me how much they appreciated Mom's speech.  I got to cut the ribbon to start the race and we were off!

After the race I took mom to historic Wallace, ID where the Gyro carnival was in town.  We also stopped a the Old Historic Mission State Park in Cataldo, ID on the way back.  My allergies were the worst they have ever been, so I was miserable and tired of nearly tinkling myself when I had sneezing fits, having itchy tired eyes and sniffling constantly.  I felt terrible and even worse for mom since she put up with my misery wonderfully.  We went back to the BnB and I took allergy meds and crashed.

 

The next day I dropped Mom at the airport and I drove back to Boise.  It was Father's Day.  I wrote this on my FB page when I got home:

"Wishing every father I know, a happy Father's Day.

I admit envy to those that can speak to their fathers. To hug them. To see them. What I would not give to just hear my father's voice again. Get another (annoying, haha) phone call from him. Have him ask me how my day was. Just a year ago, those things happened. I was hoping my ALS bike ride would somehow magically make the pain less. But it has not. I miss my father just as much today as I did yesterday.

So even though my athletic feats for ALS do not lessen the pain, I will continue participating in them. Even though they will not make him come back, I can at least strive to feel closer to him. And through hard work, blood, sweat and tears, that is how I cope with my pain.

Wish your father's a merry day. Talk to your father figure. And feel blessed to have one in your life."

I created a Facebook fundraising page to help me reach out to a bigger audience to explain to them about my goals with addressing ALS and memorializing my father.  Here is the link: https://www.facebook.com/donate/990572258523/

Through a combo of daily Facebook updates and posting my event link, I managed to raise over $1,200 for the Silver Valley Ride.  I clarified with the Evergreen Chapter ALS Association contact that my funds will be contributed under my father's Community of Hope page to help us achieve our main goal of $17,000 raised.  So far, we only have about $6,000 total.  I have faith.  We will persevere.  I have until 09/29/17 to continue raising funds for the Silver Valley Ride.  I plan to continue reaching my $3,000 goal for endurance athletic ALS Association events.  I am almost half way to my goal!

Currently I am creating a binder/packet to bring to businesses to explain to them what my goal is and how they can help me achieve it and by default, help others who have ALSO try to find more adequate treatment AND diagnosis, help support patients when ALS takes over their body and support family of those afflicted with ALS.  I want to help people so that they do not suffer as terribly as my family did.  I found a few links of interest regarding businesses and soliciting for donations and ALS:

• http://www.bizjournals.com/bizjournals/how-to/marketing/2014/08/5-lessons-from-the-als-ice-bucket-challenge.html?page=all
• List of well known people with ALS --> some of which you all may have heard of: Lou Gehrig, Stephen Hawking (longest known person to have had it, 50+yrs), Steve Gleason, Jon Stone (creator of Sesame Street), and Mao Zedong
• http://www.griswoldhomecare.com/blog/famous-people-living-with-als-3-inspiring-stories/
• How Dutch Bros Coffee is involved

I recently joined the local Search and Rescue group here in town.  They have weekly meetings and trainings.  So far I have only been in it a month.  But I find what I have learned to be utterly fascinating.  I have become a certified Landing Zone Officer to help land helicopters.  That's pretty cool!  I am so excited to learn things with this group.  And have new experiences.  And share the knowledge I have with others, i.e. teach (since that is one of my true and favorite passions in life).  I have the SAR Academy next week.  EEeeeee!  So exciting!!