The Adventure Stoke Commences

Getting my writing mojo back in the peace of the trees

I am reinventing myself again.

About a month ago I began to feel a sense of freedom that I haven't felt in a long time. A REAL long time. I had an epiphany. I suddenly realized I was feeding a cycle of hurt that was holding me back. I finally decided to man the fuck up and do something about it. I quit the cycle. It's funny how we like to nurture our pain. But when you constantly feed the pain the wound is always weeping. You will never heal in that state. Salt in the wounds feels so good but sometimes you gotta learn to let it go.

Looking Forward

I had to make a conscious effort to look beyond the hurt and start making better decisions for myself. It's a very tough decision, but you will never make it to the other side if you never take the leap. The other side can be scary and something completely estranged from what you know, but that's because you haven't jumped. Once you're there, it's all you know.

The shock and awe of my life decisions are settling in now and while I don't think my pain will completely subside it's time to start living... and writing, again. I leaped. I think it scraped me up a bit, but I'm scrambling to the top and I see a horizon.

El Capitan - Leap.

Finding Freedom

I love my boys with every cell of my body and miss them when I'm away, but having them 50% of the time frees up a lot of my personal life. The realization that exploring the world is only as far as my imagination now is fucking liberating! I've purchased hiking books, started a bucket list of adventures, joined a mountaineering meetup, and am starting to connect with more people. As long as I have a wifi connection and my laptop, my job is such that I can do it from anywhere. I plan to take full advantage of that.

So I'm making an effort to live. Even if it's just a weekend.


Shasta

Last November I was extremely grateful to have had the rare opportunity to experience backcountry skiing for the first time at Mt. Shasta. I had been jonesin to use some new powder skis I got over a year ago. A friend of mine had dialed me in with the whole AT setup and I was able to put it to use on the mountain.

Skinning up Shasta


The view from Helen Lake


Headed down Avalanche Gulch

We only skinned up the mountain part of the way the first day which left me slightly disappointed mostly with the quality of snow - or I should say ice, which I'm not a fan of - but the mountain redeemed itself the next day when after skinning up to Helen Lake the views of the valley below opened up under bluebird skies and puffy clouds. With skiable corn snow and blue skies, the conditions were almost perfect. It ended up being a great adventure weekend.



Feeding My Art Pig in SF, An Adventure in Mexico, and Majestic Yosemite

A few weekends back I took the train into the Bay Area to visit the SF MOMA then a week later flew to Baja for an annual girl's trip with my friends. The week after that I was in Yosemite with my boys, hiking and exploring, then was off to find some peace in the trees of my grandmother's old place in Amador County. I have a trip planned to visit Colorado in April... my list continues.

My trip to the Museum of Modern Art - San Francisco


There's a story behind this selfie - My weekend adventure in SF landed me in the kitchen of a woman's home who designs clothes. She let me pick out this "Happy Jumper" as I like to call it, and I ended up wearing it to a party I was spontaneously invited to that evening. I spent the evening dancing my heart out and having a blast. 


Baja Mexico Trip with the girls - Slept under the stars, on the rooftop, where we watched an entire night of electrical storms moving across the Sea of Cortez and woke up to an incredible sunrise.


Our days in Baja were mostly spent relaxing on the beach drinking beer and cocktails, but we managed to make time to hike up some gnarly hills in the middle of the desert and visit the town of Los Cabos.


What happens when five ultra runners leave their quad in the middle of the Baja desert on a steep hill?
They hike that shit.


The sunsets in Baja were totally legit.



Yosemite National Park with two of my favorite little men.


Yosemite National Park was free for all fourth graders!


Yosemite National Park - An epic background.


Yosemite National Park - Bridalveil Falls


Exploring/running the "Independence" Trail in Amador County


Finding the beauty again at Independence Flat in Mokelumne Hill


Spending some much needed alone time in the Peace of the Trees to research my adventure stoke.


So I'm reinventing myself. My blog. My life. I may, or may not, be running much these days, but you can guarantee that I will finding grand adventures and feeding my soul with them. My list has just gotten started...


The "Stoke" List

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