So last week we all had the week off so we headed to Moab, Utah for a week of random adventures. It was an amazing trip. A couple days of hiking and scrambling in Arches National Park. A couple days of mountain biking. And a couple days of canyoneering (which basically means climbing, scrambling, hiking, squeezing through slot canyons, and rappelling).
The stars at night were astounding. I lost track of how many shooting stars we saw. Thanks to Kaity we feasted like kings every night. Even with all the physical activity, I think I may have actually gained weight on this trip!
Every day was the best day we had. But two specific highlights were: 1) scrambling in Arches National Park with my brother and finding ourselves unable to downclimb off the huge monolith we'd scaled. Upon further exploration and downclimbing we came across anchors in the rock. What does that mean? Basically that we were free climbing above where people climb up to while being tied into a harness. We weren't so much unnerved as amused by this experience. 2) doing a 140 foot rappel off Corona Arch. This particular arch is so big that back in the 80s some guy fly his plane through it.
I'm also reading a great book called Trails of a Wilderness Wanderer by Andy Russell, a true story about a guy who grew up in Alberta, Canada many years ago. I came across two quotes that seemed to fit our trip perfectly:
"For we know that happiness is being healthy, with enough to eat, a warm bed, and a scrap of canvas to keep out the weather. It is good books to read, a camera and a pen with which to record interesting things. It is telling stories around the evening fires, with maybe an owl hooting somewhere in the background under the purple canopy of stars. It is watching campfire smoke lift in a twisting ribbon between sentinel spruces. It is meeting and knowing people from all corners of the world in such a setting, where all the frills and gingerbread fall away, revealing men not as gods, but as truly a part of nature's pattern. Happiness is growing up in wild country where there are fish to catch, horses to ride, dogs to hunt with, and butterflies to watch. It is, above all things, laughter and love."
"He who has not walked alone amidst peaks beneath a sky adrift with clouds has not really had a look at his beginning or come to fully understand himself. For it is in such unscarred country beyond the marks of wheels that a man really finds himself - knowing the warm feeling in his soul that only fear is the enemy and that true values are not measured in bank accounts cached away in artificial edifices of stone, but in depths of serenity and peace found where air is clean and water flows cold and pure."
