Adventures out of the Valley

Over the past 15 years I've considered myself somewhat of a wanderer. My friends in Los Angeles, Oregon and DC knew during any given weekend or tiniest of breaks I might be off visiting Vegas, San Diego, Seattle, New York, North Carolina, Philly, the eastern shore of Maryland or wherever I could manage to get to by train, plane or automobile. Last year my around the world trip was probably the pinnacle of it all. So, I was a bit surprised to discover that after almost 4 months of living in the Teton Valley I had not left. The furthest I had ventured from my home base was 50 miles north to Yellowstone. In some ways it was reassuring. I assumed since I hadn't felt a big urge to venture out too far it must mean I was content in my own home. I spent my weekends climbing and hiking and hanging out in Jackson. My week days were spent within a 3 mile radius of my own cabin in the woods. The realization that I hadn't left the valley in awhile coincided with my climbing friends deciding it was time to visit City of Rocks, Idaho. What I discovered was a group of people who like to travel the same way I do...no real plan, no lists made ahead of time about what to pack or maps showing how we will get there, just get in the car and go. Since November 1st I have managed to leave the Valley 4 times...here are my stories.


CAMPING AND CLIMBING IN IDAHO
My first planned trip out of the valley was an adventure across the Teton Pass to the beautiful state of Idaho. I've actually been to Idaho a few times. I wandered somewhere through there with my family at the age of 12 and recall virtually nothing since my nose was buried in Gone With the Wind the entire time. My second trip to Idaho was a quick stop over on my drive from Portland, Oregon to Baltimore, Maryland. My traveling companion, Lori, and I decided to spend about an hour in Wallace, Idaho. We mainly just shopped for Wallace paraphernalia to give to our friend Kathleen Wallace. Sometime in the early 2000s I hit Idaho again. This time with the actual intention of GOING to Idaho. Some good friends from DC moved to Mountain Home, Idaho and I went to visit them. The original plan was to hit Sun Valley and snowboard and ski our little hearts out. Sadly, I'd broken my wrist not long before the trip so they skied, I read and then we wandered around the little touristy town. Now, living at the border of Wyoming and Idaho, going to Idaho is really quite easy. I hiked through some canyons and a basin from Wyoming to Idaho in early September and celebrated the journey with a huckleberry milkshake in Victor, ID. I'd also been over the pass to Driggs to hear some tunes at the weekly music in the park. But this time would be different. This time 4 of us were headed not just over the pass and into Driggs but actually past Driggs, past Idaho Falls and to the City of Rocks. This adventure definitely warrants its own play by play.

On a cold Thursday night in November Elizabeth, Laura, our fearless driver and leader, Paul, and I loaded up our climbing gear, tents and some food from the kitchen and left Kelly, Wyoming. As we watched the sun set behind the Tetons, we knew we still had a long adventure across the pass and through Idaho to our destination. Utilizing Paul's memory and a general idea of where we were going we finally made it through the snow and down the dirt road to the Breadloaves area of the City of Rocks. We set up our tents in the blowing snow at 2am and crashed out for the night as the sound of the wind howling through our tents rocked us to sleep.

The next morning we awoke to drizzling skies but with the hope that the weather would clear up and warm up so we could get in some good climbs. Elizabeth and I explored the area, Paul cooked up some breakfast and then Laura and I took off to find some water. Sadly, all of the water pumps in the park were on lock down. As the skies cleared we decided we could make do with what water we had so we loaded our packs with our climbing gear and some snacks and set out for the day. With Paul's trusty guide to the area and a vague recollection of where he had climbed before we wandered through the amazing rock formations searching for a good beginning 5.8 climb. Though it didn't occur to us before, trusting Paul's memory and map reading skills might not have been the best plan. We ended up having a great long tour of the City of Rocks including bushwacking our way up a creek bed; however, we only ended up with one climb in by the time the sun was sinking low on the horizon. We made our way back to our campsite, attempted to get in a quick climb before the sun set completely but didn't quite make it. We cooked up some good grub (quesadillas! YUM!), drank some of our Fish Eye boxed wine and made a fire. The night was clear and calm and we had a good time sitting by the fire.

DAY 1 PHOTOS-no water, hiking through City of Rocks, climbing, rapelling, nighttime drinks with the Fish Eye, moon over Breadloaves





I have a completely irrational fear of the dark and the quiet and calm night was the perfect setting for hearing strange noises in the night. I think I woke Elizabeth up at least twice with "Did you hear that?" One time I thought someone's headlamp was shining into our tent but it turned out to be the moon. Despite my worrying, I actually had a pretty good night's sleep and we woke up to a sunny day. There were definitely some tracks around our tent, I knew something was sniffing around out there, I think it was a coyote!

With schoolwork still to be done back in Wyoming we had planned to leave on that Saturday so despite the welcoming warm sunshine our climbing in this beautiful place was limited. Laura scouted out some climbing options nearby while Paul cooked us a scramble of everything left over for breakfast. We set up our ropes and got in another climb that morning and then decided we needed a photo shoot on the rocks before we left. After our photo session we loaded up our stuff vowing to return soon and spend a lot more time climbing in the City of Rocks. On our way back we made a quick stop at the burrito truck outside of Idaho Falls and made it to the pass from Idaho to Wyoming just after dark. I couldn't have asked for a better first adventure out of the valley.

DAY 2-me climbing, me rapelling, breakfast, photo shoot pic, the burrito truck, Sweet Home Wyoming!





ENCOUNTERS WITH A JACKALOPE
My second trip out of the valley was actually required for school. The final week of my first teaching track was to be spent teaching elementary students in Riverton, Wyoming. Riverton is in the middle of Shoshone country and is over the hills and through the woods from the Teton Valley. As soon as you head east and then southeast from the Teton Valley and are nearing the rock climbing and NOLS mecca of Lander you reach rolling hills and flatlands and then you are in Riverton. Our trip to Riverton was fairly uneventful. We drove, we stayed in a hotel (where we had cable for the first time in 4 months-Laura and I ended up watching some TV show about cat shows...except for Top Chef I don't think there is anything worthwhile on TV), we taught some students, we saw a Shoshone cemetery, we went out to dinner in Lander at a brewpub that had $2 beers! and then we returned home. The highlight of the trip for me was the little country store where we stopped.

At the country store we had our pictures taken with the mythical Jackalope and loaded up on tasty treats, including huckleberry ice cream. Needless to say, my second trip out of the valley was not a huge adventure but, nonetheless, provided different scenery for a short amount of time.

THE NEVER ENDING ROAD TRIP
After my trip to Riverton I stuck around the Jackson area for awhile. My parents, brother, sister-in-law and new, very cool niece came for Thanksgiving and then I had Winter Ecology class for a couple of weeks where I learned about snowpack from Exum guide Ron Matous and did a research project tracking animals in the snow. During our class we had a three day weekend so my friend Molly and I decided to take a trip to Estes Park, Colorado. Estes Park was beautiful and the school, Eagle Rock, that I visited there was inspiring. However, the road trip there and back was something that could only be experienced to truly understand but I will attempt to do it justice here.

The trip there wasn't too eventful. We left on a Thursday, after class and dinner were over. We headed out on what was to be an 8 hour trip around 6pm. We picked up a teacher from Journeys Schools, John, who, like Molly, used to work at Eagle Rock School. We headed south into the dark Wyoming night. Sometime around 8 or 9pm we realized we had taken a wrong turn and, in fact, had gone about an hour or so out of our way. Once we finally got back on track we were off on the long drive to Estes Park. We hit Ft. Collins around 2am and found the road Molly thought we were to take was closed. We finally got ourselves headed the right direction and rolled into Eagle Rock at 4am. Luckily, we had comfy beds waiting for us and a few hours sleep before breakfast at 7:30am. Breakfast was great! We took a little nap and listened to a students P.O.L. (Project of Learning) which was so moving I found myself crying. The next day we went to graduation and wandered around the town of Estes Park before heading off on our 8 hour trip back home. We had some work to do for school and were eager to get back.

We made it through Colorado, had just passed Laramie and were headed towards Rawlins, Wyoming when the weather started getting nasty. We swerved left and then right, missed all signs and posts on the side of the road and wound up in a ditch with a flat tire. The police were there pretty quickly. They told us we were the luckiest of the bunch as there were three cars that rolled over ahead of us. They also told us to call AAA, because we had it, and to get off of the side of the road and up to the nearby gas station to keep warm and stay out of the way of other vehicles which could also slide into us. We spent the next hour or so in the convenience store. I looked at the amazing tape collection and listened to the police scanner while Molly called AAA and John tried to find a tire place that was open since we really didn't want to drive the 6 hours back to Jackson on a spare. Sadly, all of the tire places were closing in the next hour and there was no way we could make it to one before it closed. On the up side, AAA was going to come and tow us out of the ditch in an hour or so and the convenience store had a very cool Barry Manilow and Stars of Nashville tapes. I resisted the temptation to buy them and we trudged through the blowing snow back to the car to wait for AAA to show up.

AAA came around 7:30, towed us out, changed our tire and sent us on our way down the icy road. Unfortunately, the spare was a little flat so, until we could find some air, we could only drive 35mph. We made it about 20 miles down the road, with no service station in sight, when we encountered traffic that was stopped on the freeway. As it turned out there was a major accident, which we didn't get to see any evidence of, on the road ahead. It took them about 3 hours to clear the accident and so we sat in the car, called some people back in Jackson on the phone, called some other people on the phone, tried to name all of the state capitals, tried to memorize all of the state capitals, listened to some music, tried to figure out what was going on ahead of us, talked about pizza (because there was a Little Caesar's pizza truck next to us and we hadn't eaten dinner), talked about how we could possibly get some pizza out of the pizza truck and, occasionally, sat in silence. By 10 or so we started moving again but since we had not gotten to an air pump yet we could still only go 35mph. Our next 2 goals were air and food. We found the air at a very sketchy truck stop where the people in the convenience store actually told us not to stop but at this point we really had no choice. Despite being really hungry we decided not to eat there instead we headed on down the road towards Rawlins.

As we drove into Rawlins we discovered the hospitality of Penny's Diner. It was open 24 hours, had nice people serving us and best of all they had food! I remembered Penny's from my brief stop in Rawlins on my move out to Jackson. I had gone running by it, thought of my friend Penny who lives on the eastern shore of Maryland and hoped I would one day eat there. Not only did I finally get to eat a Penny's Diner but it was probably one of the brightest spots on our trip from Estes Park to Jackson. The people at Penny's even printed us a map for our trip back that showed the road conditions for our entire trip. We loved them for it.

Once we were refueled we headed on down the road. We could now drive 55mph thanks to our inflated tire. However, it was around 1am and we'd been on the road for 13 hours. We were tired and weary and decided to stop at a rest area and get a few hours of sleep before driving the remaining 5 hours back to Jackson. It was cold in the car and I didn't get a whole lot of sleep but felt pretty awake once we started driving again. I ended up driving the last leg of the trip. The night was clear, shooting stars were everywhere and the moon reflecting on the snow made the Wyoming grasslands look like a winter wonderland. I loved driving in the middle of the night and then having the chance to watch the sunrise over the snowy wilderness. I had to drive slowly over the pass into Jackson since the road was covered with snow and ice but the scenery was so beautiful I didn't mind the time it took. We finally pulled into Jackson around 9am, dropped off John and headed back to Kelly. I was happy I went to Colorado and Molly and John were two of the best people to share such a crazy trip with but it was nice to be home. I buried myself under my covers and slept until 1. I always love a good road trip...you never know what might happen.

A NOT SO WHITE CHRISTMAS
I spent 2 more fun-filled weeks hanging out in Jackson (which will have to be discussed at a later date) before boarding my first plane since May! I paid the 15 dollars to check my bag assuming, of course, that paying to check a bag should mean it would be more likely to make it to its destination. That assumption, as we all know, was completely WRONG! My journey from Jackson to Cleveland was fairly uneventful. I experienced the delays that are inevitable when traveling from one snowy place to another snowy place with a lay-over in Chicago. I did land in Cleveland at 2am but was, along with half of the other passengers on the plane, bagless. Here is the great thing about your bag not showing up when you show up...the airlines will actually deliver your bag to you and you don't have to lug in anywhere but into your house, which, I think, is a pretty nice deal. I told the woman working in the Cleveland lost luggage section that as long as I got my bag before Christmas day I was pretty satisfied. She assured me it would actually be there the next day, the 22nd. Of course, it wasn't...my parents live 4 hours from Cleveland, who in the world was going to drive my bag down there? They ended up sending it Fed Ex Overnight! Really! That's crazy! It definitely cost more than the 15 bucks I paid to check my bag. Anyway, the whole bag thing was just part of my Christmas adventure and really wasn't even much of an adventure since a) it happens to the bulk of people who fly at some point and b) I actually expect it to happen so it never really comes as a shock that my bag isn't there when I am. I am always excited to end up getting it at some point!

So, I made it back to my small hometown in Ohio to spend Christmas in what, turned out to be, 50-60 degree balmy weather. Definitely no white Christmas here. Meanwhile, back in Jackson, I was receiving facebook messages and phone calls from people who stayed for the holidays telling me about the snow over their knees and hearing news reports of avalanches. The biggest adventure of my Christmas was my mom's small accident. She ended up hitting her head and cutting it a bit. Luckily, one of our dinner guests, Jonathan, is in med school and had the equipment to stitch her up. Apparently, he'd been trying to get people to let him stitch them up all week. His sisters said even when someone had something as small as a paper cut he'd offer to stitch it for the injured. For him, my mom's cut was a golden opportunity to use his mad stitching skills. So, on Christmas night Jonathan gave my mom a great Christmas present, she avoided a trip to the emergency room and instead wound up lying on the couch getting her head stitched up by a 28 year old doctor she has known since he was born.

My original plan was to drive east the day after Christmas to catch up with some friends and maybe even get in some climbing, which I'd definitely been missing. I woke up on the 26th with a feeling deep in the pit of my stomach that I shouldn't go east. Have you ever had one of those feelings that you really shouldn't do something, so much so that it makes your stomach churn? Well, I've been getting them for the past couple of years and I've learned to follow that instinct. Anyway, I thought it would probably be best for me to stay in Ohio and hang out with my mom. Not only did she have a newly stitched up head but this was also her first day off of work, without the chaos of the holidays, since I'd been back. It was nice just to sit and talk with her and start delving into one of the several new books I received for Christmas. I was sad that I didn't get to see several people that I'd been really looking forward to catching up with and talking to in person back east; however, I knew, deep down inside that Ohio was exactly where I was supposed to be. Since it was 70 degrees outside I also couldn't resist the urge to get out and do something so I went for a long run and hike through the woods. It was exactly what I needed to feel reconnected to my hometown and to have a chance to reflect on what I'd experienced the past 5 months. I was overcome with the feeling that I am doing exactly what I should be doing and this next year is going to be a great one!

DON'T KNOCK L.A.
On December 29th I left Ohio and headed for Los Angeles, the first big city I'd been to since I left my brother's house in Chicago back in August. I was excited, I could feel the city vibe. Though I had a love/hate relationship with L.A. when I lived there I was happy to be back for a visit. There was still smog and traffic and crazy amounts people but there was also the beach and the sun and the hikes and the great friends. I walked out of LAX, took a good deep breath of smoggy warm air and thought, I'm happy to be here. I was also very excited to stay with my friend Lori whom I hadn't seen since she and Mike visited New York City in July. I spent my first day there going for a run and a walk around Los Feliz and then meeting up with my friend, Eric, who works at Warner Brothers, for some lunch. We wandered around the WB lot and then grabbed some Thai food. The next day I had a chance to see my friend Kathleen and visit my friend, Lori's, dad.

I wound up spending my New Year's Eve in a great bar in Koreatown. It's called the Barcade but is a bit divier than the Barcade in Brooklyn. In Koreatown's Barcade most of the video games don't work, it's small and the free pizza was pretty crappy. There were, however, working pinball machines, good beer and punk music on the jukebox. Most importantly, it wasn't crowded at all. It was the perfect way to spend a New Year's Eve. The next morning I went on a long walk to Griffith Park observatory to look out over the city and see what I could see. Then, I went back to Lori's to watch football all day and watch USC whip up on Penn State. Sorry Nittany Lions fans, just had to cheer for the team that paid me for 4 years plus, who doesn't love Pete Carroll?

On January 3rd I had a magical day at Disneyland. OK, I realize that there are some of you out there who will scoff at my excitement over Disneyland...you have clearly never ridden on the Matterhorn or Space Mountain. To me, the Matterhorn is Disneyland's shining glory...it is what sets Disneyland apart from Disney World. Plus, I heard a really cool Dirtbag Diaries podcast about guys who used to get paid to wear lederhosen and climb around on the Matterhorn, not a bad gig. Of course, since it was still a school holiday, we did have to wait in line for tickets for an hour and a half AND most of the ride lines were at least 45 minutes long BUT it was well worth it to see Disneyland decorated for Christmas, get to experience the Haunted Mansion decorated as the Nightmare Before Christmas, spend some quality time with Lori and bask in the thrill of Space Mountain and the Matterhorn. Additionally, there was the pure joy of seeing thousands of excited amusement park goers in all of their amusement park glory. Screaming children, arguing parents, overweight tourists, newlyweds or wanna-be newlyweds in their bride and groom mouse ears, and teenagers sticking their tongues down each others throats in line may have been some of the low points but it gave us something to gawk at and talk about; however, the lights, the rides, the smiling kids and the extremely happy employees (what do they give those guys?...Mary Poppins, especially, seemed way too happy) are just a few of the highlights Disneyland has to offer. It was a very fantastic Christmas present...thanks Lori!

My final day in Los Angeles was spent eating breakfast at Venice Beach and then wandering around looking at all of the great Venice Beach sights. Venice is one of my favorite spots in L.A. mainly because of the people watching. I have not found another place in the various cities I've called home where I can sit and watch all walks of life run, skateboard, rollerblade, bike and meander by all while I'm hanging out drinking a beer. If I wanted to I could also have my fortune told, get a henna tattoo or a real tattoo, buy an airplane made of tin cans, see some crazy artwork, jump in the Pacific Ocean, support the legalization of marijuana, support vegans and vegetarians, buy an Obama t-shirt, participate in a drum circle, learn to juggle and get a free hug. It's almost as good as Disneyland and doesn't have the hefty price tag. Throw a roller coaster down there somewhere and I think I'd be in heaven.

After my exciting morning at Venice Beach Lori and I headed to the Burbank airport. Luckily, along the way I called to check on my flight and found out it was canceled. One quick call to United and I was rebooked on a flight out of LAX. It worked out well and I made it to Denver in time to catch up with my friends from Jackson and fly back home. Not only were 2 of my 21 classmates on my flight but so was Ron Matous, the aforementioned Exum guide, on his way back from Patagonia. Jackson is a small town filled with interesting people and I was happy to be going back.

BACK HOME AGAIN
There is a song by a woman named Kathy Mohr. I have no idea what the title of the song is as the CD was given to me by a friend at school. However, the song talks about being back home where the air is clear and the buffalo roam and seeing the setting sun from a mountaintop. The song lyrics were running through my head as our plane descended into the valley and I could see the snow on the Tetons glowing in the moonlight. All of a sudden a sense a calm overtook me and I was so happy to be back in the land of snow and headed home to my small cabin in the wilderness. My friends picked me up from the airport, we headed into town to get some food and hear a great bluegrass band and as I lay in bed that night I thought of all of the adventures 2009 has in store for me...I have a feeling that it's going to be even better than 2008 and if that's true there should be many more stories ahead.