More Adventure, Less Ennui

I spend a lot of time reading people’s stories. Trip reports, race summaries, adventure journals. The internet is an incredible thing. I wanted to talk a little bit about why I fill my hours examining other people’s stuff.

Every once in a while, I come across a great blog post. The kind of post that makes me want to be a better person. When I read this post the other day, I definitely felt inspired. I mean, how could you not be affected by sections like this:

I joked yesterday about what I’ve learned on the bike. Well, the single greatest thing I have truly learned on the bike is what Ken Chlouber from Leadville preaches every year.

You are better than you think you are. You can do more than you think you can.

I have not ridden Leadville. I could not. Yet. I have done nothing like it. A lot of you have not, and could not. But…

We can all DIG DEEP. We are all better than we think we are, we can all do more than we think we can.

This is an absolute truth. I have not ridden Leadville, but I have experienced exactly what Ken preaches – I have learned from the past year and a half on the bike that I can do WAY more than I thought I could. I am WAY better than I thought I was.

And so are you.

I want to be better. I want to do more. Sometimes, especially when it rains for 3 straight days, I feel like I’m not living my life to its fullest potential. I’m making more excuses than memories. It’s raining. My rear rotor on my car needs to be replaced. My bank account is down to the single digits again.

I need to develop a more positive attitude. This is a better example of how I should be thinking, from the South County Cyclista blog:

A few weeks ago on a Friday night I was trying to figure out where I was going to ride the next morning. My friends all had to ride later in the day or were out of town. Then it hit me. Why not finally make it up to the radio tower? I pulled up the map I had studied many times looking at the dirt road switch backs climbing up the steep contours of the land. This would indeed be a solo adventure.

Usually adventures like this need to be done solo or you risk ending friendships if the adventure turns sour.

I remember one time this past summer when Ace was away, it was a beautiful sunny day, and I wasted it inside watching golf on TV. Ugh. To be fair, we did a 20 mile road ride in the morning so it wasn’t a complete waste. But I still felt like I could have done more. Wasn’t there a little part of my area that I hadn’t explored yet? Wasn’t there someplace to go?

That’s why this idea from the Adventure Journal really intrigued me:

I once spent four years cycling more than 40,000 miles round the world. It was a heck of an adventure. But one of the things I learned during that trip was that you don’t need to spend four years cycling more than 40,000 miles round the world to have an adventure.

Adventure is only a state of mind. 
Adventure is stretching yourself; mentally, physically or culturally. It is about doing what you don’t normally do, pushing yourself hard and doing it to the best of your ability. And if that’s true then adventure is all around us, at all times. Even during hard financial times such as these. Times, I believe, when getting away from it all and out into the wild are more invigorating and important than ever.

That is why I began a series of ‘expeditions’ that are close to home, affordable, easy to organize, and designed to encourage other people to get out there and do stuff! I call them microadventures.

Right. I didn’t need to sit at home watching golf. There were all sorts of other things I could have been doing – new places to explore, new things to try, and new experiences to be had.

I think my real problem is that I wasn’t thinking outside of the box. I really did want to go somewhere, but for some reason, I was only thinking of places that I had been before. I wasn’t really into repeating something I had done hundreds of times (see my post on Adventures vs. Sessions), so I had a hard time motivating to get off my couch and do anything at all.

Ridiculous. Some of the best adventures are the ones that are unplanned, spontaneous, and completely improvised. Thinking only of the places I had been before made my decision really uninteresting, unexciting, and uninspiring. It’s no wonder I chose to sit at home. Because really, to take one more snippet from the South County Cyclista blog:

"It is only an adventure the first time."
- Dan Z.

Exactly. Time to start racking up some first times.

Maine Mountain Biking

We did a little mountain biking in Maine while we were up there relaxing (full pics on my Facebook Page). On Saturday, we just rode the Carriage paths around Acadia National Park More specifically, we did the "Around the Mountain" Loop. Here's some pictures:

On Sunday, we did the Camden Snow Bowl/Ragged Mountain Recreational Area.  We didn't have any idea where we were going, but there was one of those big trail maps at the bottom that gave us a few options. Here's the map:

We started off going up the Yellow Trail, then we wanted to keep climbing, so we hit the Red Trail.  After a little descent on the blue trail, we hooked back up with the yellow trail and rode that to the bottom.  It wasn't the longest mountain bike session in the world, but we spent the entire morning drinking beer on a sailboat, so we weren't really in the greatest condition for doing a ton of laps.  Anyway, here's the pictures:

It wasn't an epic trip, but here at the end of summer, the mountain bike stoke is kind of waning.  Soon, we'll start night riding (which will be fun), but on this vacation we weren't really in the mood to go super hardcore.  I can see this place becoming really cool, though.  If I was from the area, I'd do everything I could to support the Midcoast Maine chapter of the NEMBA.

As far as the pictures go, I'm experimenting with shooting in RAW mode, then adjusting all of the levels afterwords.  I think these pictures are a little oversaturated with color, but I kind of liked the effect.  I'm still trying to figure out the best levels for everything, so images on the blog might look weird for a while.

Last Chair: 9/2/2011

I've been dealing with some things lately, so I haven't really got around to posting much. Or Twittering. I did want to take this time to post some of the stuff that's been happening on the web while I've been away from the blog.

Phil Brown at the Adirondack Explorer has been doing exceptional work documenting the aftermath of the Hurricane. He was the first to report that the bridge over Marcy Dam was washed away, the first with pictures of Duck Hole after that dam breached, and he took this excellent picture of the Keene Valley FD clothes outside of their makeshift headquarters (after their building was obliterated).

If you haven't seen it yet, Adirondack Backcountry Skiing chartered a plane to check out new slide paths resulting from the drenching rains. There's a discussion going on over at the Harvey Road Forums about new skiing opportunities. At least something good might come out of this hurricane.

And there was a mountain bike photo competition in VT. Sick.

I've never surfed, and I'd imagine that a lot of people who read this blog don't surf either. But the video this week was too sick not to post. Here you go:

Change

I've been feeling really down lately. I don't know if it's the Month of August, some personal problems, a pay cut at work, or just the soul crushing ennui of suburban, middle class life. I can't help but feel like I'm just frittering time away, waiting for something to happen to me. Which is really the wrong attitude to take. The better approach is more like this (from holstee.com):

I'm trying to get past the "If you don't like something, change it" part of the slogan.  I know something isn't right, I know I want to change it, but I have no idea what it is or how to change it.  Besides, "change" isn't really always the easiest thing to pull off. Ask Barack Obama. Or Tupac. Or the millions of people who want to change their employment status. 

I feel like I want to go somewhere, or do something, or make something happen.  I'm not depressed, but I'm not happy either.  Maybe I just need a long walk to clear my head. Or maybe I need to start making plans for the winter. 

"Do what you love, and do it often."

Okay, maybe I'll try that for a while.  

Last Chair: 8/12/11

From time to time, I post some interesting links on my Twitter account. These posts appear on the feed on the right. Occasionally, I aggregate these tweets into a "Last Chair" post. I try to do it every Friday, but sometimes I'm too busy, or I'm travelling somewhere, or I'm too lazy. So here's a little update post for the couple of weeks I missed.

It's teaser season, so here's a new one from Meathead Films, a new one from Sweetgrass Productions, and a blog post with a collection of every trailer by the big boys (MSP, TGR, etc).

Someday, I really want to ride the Great Divide Route from Banff, Alberta to Antelope Wells, New Mexico. Here's a couple of blog posts listing reasons why: Part 1 and Part 2.

I didn't tweet this story, but I really liked this analysis by Drew from Wicked Outdoorsy of the decision to move Garmont from Vermont to Portland, Oregon.

The video this week is from Log Majal Productions. I don't know what it is, but as I get older, I find straight up Ski porn to be a little boring, and I'm looking for stuff with more of a story. This looks like it might fit the bill pretty well:

"The Source" Trailer from Log Mahal Productions on Vimeo.

Last Chair: 7/22/11

Okay, here's my tweets for the week. If you want to get this stuff in (semi) real time, follow me on twitter. And for that matter, friend me on facebook (where my presence is a little more family oriented and sometimes political). Here we go:

The Famous Internet Skiers have been busy, posting this report and this report, both from Utah.

I was into some of the more "intellectual" posts this week. Here's a post from someone who came back to bicycling after a long hiatus, only to find it drastically different. And here's a post on "getting back your inner ski bum" by patronizing local mountains and helping local people.

And here's a funny internet post that leads to a funny thread.

Video this week is from Nimbus Independant (there's a skippable ad at the beginning). If you like Rap music and huge air, then this is for you. If not, the Meatheads teaser must be coming out soon . . .


More Ski Videos

The Secret of Golf

My grandfather had two rules for golf. The first rule was “miss ‘em straight”; meaning, if you hit a bad shot, at least make sure the bad shot was in the general direction of the target. The second rule was “learn how to listen to the grass grow”. That one was a little bit more complicated. I guess I could have chalked it up to general weirdness (he also suggested washing your hands with “hot soap and water”), but I really think it was meant as more of a statement of grand philosophy.

I’m not someone you would call “relaxed.” I’m always thinking, fidgeting, or thinking about fidgeting. I like to be constantly bombarded with stuff – information, music, pictures, stories, etc. It’s not that I can’t relax (I relax with the best of them). I just seem to do a lot of stuff while I’m relaxing. Last night, after I got done mowing my lawn, I decided to just lay out on the couch. Before I knew it, I was drinking a beer, watching the Tour de France on TV, flipping back and forth to the Mets game, facebooking, texting Ace, and browsing internet message boards. Not exactly the tranquility that I had in mind. Since golf is a lot like life (but more complicated), I really have to teach myself to listen to the grass grow when I’m not on the golf course (since I seem to have learned to do it on the course – 37,38,38,38 for my last four 9’s).

One of the things that helped me this year is not dwelling on my last shot. It’s awful easy to screw up your next shot because you’re thinking about how horrible the previous shot was. In golf, your mind works better when it has a short memory: logical forgetfulness. The way I got there was a bit of a mental shift. Instead of thinking “I’m in this damn bunker because my last shot was so shitty”, I’ve started thinking: “Here I am in this bunker, how can I get this shot close?” It’s not a very drastic change, and it can easily be applied to other areas in life. Instead of thinking, “Damn, my relationship sucks because of this shitty thing I did”, it’s better to think: “Okay, here’s the situation I’m in now, how can I make it better?” The quicker you can make the transition from reflection to preparation, the easier it is to move on.

Another thing that has helped me this year is that I always make sure that I’m well fed (usually a sandwich before the round). And I always have a beer around the 4th hole. Somehow it’s easier to listen to the grass grow when I’m not starving and sober. Ace will tell you, when I’m hungry, it’s like a Snickers commercial. Also, it has been found that heavy drinking is more healthy than totally abstaining from drinking, possibly because of social reasons. So who’s up for a margarita!?!?

Finally, right before I swing, I think to myself: “It’s perfect”. I don’t know if this actually does anything, but I generally find that if I have a bad thought – “I’m going to slice it into the trees”, “I’m going to chunk this chip 2 feet in front of me”, “I’m going to hit it in that pond” – it almost always comes true. So, I figured that the opposite couldn’t hurt. I think this seems to work for me off the course as well. When I have a bad feeling walking into a casino, I generally lose money. But when I expect to win, I seem to do pretty well. I think this is one of the reasons that people accepted “The Force” as a possibility in Star Wars. The mind is pretty powerful, and it doesn’t seem too far fetched to believe that an enormous intergalactic planet-sized space station can be destroyed because some teenage kid trusted his “feelings” on the final shot.

I don’t really think that these steps are what my grandfather had in mind to improve your golf game. Otherwise, he would have just said that the secret is a short memory, food, confidence and alcohol. Wait a minute . . . Maybe that is the secret to a great golf game!! And a great date! For that matter, it might be the secret to a great business meeting, wedding, bowling tournament, poker game, bachelor party, sporting event, or parole board hearing! I mean, sure, this type of lifestyle might turn us into a nation of fat, forgetful, overoptimistic drunks, but some people would say that we’re already there. Which brings me back to the Grandpa’s first rule: As long as we’re going in the general direction we want to go in, it’s okay to miss every once in a while. Just make sure your next move is perfect.

Trip Report (MTB): Pine Hill Park - Rutland, VT

After 50 miles on the road bike on Saturday, we got back in the woods on Sunday. Pine Hill Park in Rutland is a great spot for us for a couple of reasons:

1. It's in easy day trip range, less than two hours from our house, and about an hour from our friends' house
2. The fast, flowy trails are a nice change from the rooty, rocky technicality of SMBA (which has been in great shape lately, by the way).

After a sweet breakfast at the Big Apple Diner, we pulled in around 11:30. It was hot. Really hot. And the way that Pine Hill is set up, you start climbing from the parking lot, and don't stop climbing until you get to the top right corner of the map:

We rode up and up and up (Lower Ledges to Upper Ledges to Droopy Muffin to Jersey Turnpike to Strong Angel to Stegosaurus).  When you finally reach the top, you're rewarded with a pretty sweet view:

We were glad to be done climbing for a while, though.  It was time to play.  We rode Overlook to Underdog - a fast descent with some fun features.  Then we climbed up Salamander to PA4J (really fun going from north to south).  All the trails were well marked and fun to ride:

They have a bunch of really cool bridges:

We rode Lonely Rock, Rembrandt's Brush, Halfpipe (favorite trail there), Sisyphus, Svelte Tiger, Vista Trail, and then we started making our way back down.  We got a lot of miles in, but it only took us about 2 and a half hours.  Must be getting a little faster.

Not much else to say about Pine Hill, except that it's pretty perfect for families, beginners, or just people looking to take a hiatus from breaking their bodies on crazy technical rocks.  I had the GoPro with me, so I shot some footage and made a little video.  I'm thinking that I'm going to start bringing my video camera mountain biking, just so I can get some different angles to break up the monotony if I decide to make a year end video.  Anyway, here's the vid:

Last Chair: 7/15/11

Slow week on the old internets, but here's a couple of links that I found interesting (and posted on my twitter feed - which appears on the right).

Here's one that I didn't put on the feed: A really cool Trip Report from skiing Mt. Shasta over the 4th of July weekend.

For biking links, I liked this shirt from the Tour de France and this Trip Report from the Dolomites.

And for life/motivation: here's 29 life lessons learned from travelling the world.

Video this week is the teaser for the Tuckerman Ravine segment of the upcoming Warren Miller movie.  looks like they got some pretty good shots:

Edit: Damn embed isn't working . . . Here's the link, I'll fix mine when they fix their embed code.

Trip Report (MTB): Millstone Hill - Barre, VT

I seem to do a lot more mountain bike Trip Reports than skiing Trip Reports. I think there's a couple of reasons: 1. Most of my ski days are at one mountain, whereas my weekend mountain biking trips are a little more varied (on weekdays, I stick to the Stables) and 2. I'm still kind of new to this mountain biking thing. So these places might be kind of old hat for some people, but for me, they're new and exciting. Anyway, on with the report:

We decided to make our excursion to Millstone a day trip, which, as it turned out, was pretty ambitious. We drove the 45 minutes up to our friends' house, loaded our bikes into the big pickup, and drove 2 and a half hours to the trail center, pulling into the parking lot at around 12:30. The shopkeep seemed pretty cool, and directed us to "an easy sixteen mile loop that you can do in about 3 hours". The route was highlighted on the trail map, and marked with arrows the whole way around. We said it sounded good, geared up, and started riding. The initial climb was a little steeper than we expected, but we were rewarded with a pretty sweet view.

The fun part about this trail system is that there were several points like this - places to step off the trail, relax, and check out a sweet view.  Then, it's right back to singletrack:

Lots of fun trails, and lots of up and down (more than we're used to at SMBA).  There's some fun little spots to explore, including the Black Lagoon:

And the Green Lagoon:

The really "cool" parts are the areas on the trail map marked with a snowflake. In these areas, a breeze blows through old mine tailings that retain snow and cold from the winter (even in July!). Nice cool down on a hot day.  We cruised around the southern part of the map on a really cool trail called "Fellowship Ring".  Plenty more views:

After riding Boiler Maker (fun) and TNT (technical, some hike-a-bike, but doable if we worked hard at it), we had done about 8.5 miles of the 16 mile loop, and it had taken us 3 hours.  

We decided to just ride a little more, doing Zig Zag (a fun downhill trail) and Froot Loop, then heading back to the trail center.  First, though, we had to stop at Inspiration Point:

All in all, we did 10 miles in about 3 hours and 45 minutes.  Not bad, but I don't feel like we even put a dent in the map.  I  really want to go back and ride the northeast corner of the map, and there's some newer trails (like Rollercoaster) that look totally sick.  After riding, we drank some Maple Soda as a recovery drink:

To really get into this place, we need to spend a couple of days here - riding about 6 hours a day.  Apparently, there's a Bed & Breakfast in town with rooms for $40 a night.  Definitely have to put it on the calendar this fall.  On the way home, we stopped at the Inn at Long Trail for food and Guinness.  Here's a black lagoon I can really get into:

Brilliant!