The End is Near!

Less than one week left for me here on the preserve, and then it's back to....civilization. At least what most people would consider a more appropriate version of society, when comparing life in a cabin with no plumbing nor electricity with that of a New York City apartment.

I don't want to go. I'm happy here.

But I must, and I will, with hopes that next year I will again be here, living in this special, special place.

My biggest surprise was the level of disgust many people openly expressed in my very willingness to even want to live this way. When I added that I wouldn't own an automobile, they seemed to get it. I had simply gone off the deep end. In their minds, that is.

Going sans car was the key to this kingdom, I declare, should anyone be interested. The simple matter is, that one just can not experience the natural world while whizzing from place to place at sixty miles per hour.

The Shongum Path has been my commute, and a pleasant one. Somewhere along the traverse I lost two entire clothing sizes, and gained an intimate connection with much of the plant-life along the way. Teddy and I were often alone on those journeys, not another person on the trail, and when another human happened along I was often initially shocked by the ingress. I had been that deeply immersed in the experience of...experiencing the path I was on.

Not to say I was always observing the many variances in moss, lichen, trees, bushes, flowers, leaves, caterpillars, birds, sounds and such; sometimes the thing one becomes most aware of, when walking quietly, is that which is the world within themselves.

There was plenty of time for me to delve; I walked that path back and forth several times each week. Mostly taking stock on the things I have to be grateful for, this time in the cabin being just one. My choices over the past ten years or so led me to this place; my distaste for corporate sustenance, which eventually expelled me, forcing me to find a way to be self-supporting. The interesting labyrinth I walked trying to find my way toward that goal. Climbing - the change in life that changed my life!

Now I see what life has to offer, and though I am to return to city life in a few short days, I am a bit concerned. Will I be able to stand it? The noise and urban bravado were taxing my levels of comfort in the months(years, more aptly) before I too this hiatus in the woods. Altercations between myself and others were occurring more and more frequently; I just couldn't keep my mouth shut when confronted with selfish stupidity.

Teddy has been unmolested by hostile, unhappy, people dipping their shopping bags of heavy groceries for three months. Nobody believes me when I say these types hit try to him with the bags on purpose. But I know. I watch, and I see their faces as they prepare for attack. It's intentional. No doubt about it.

No doubt about it – there will be problems with my return....

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Help support Happiegrrrl in her quest to travel, climb and live an adventurous life(instead of being stuck at home working.....). Visit her online shop, ClimbAddict, for original designs on t-shirts, jackets, caps, stickers and giftware.

The Last Round-Up

As many of my friends know(owing that I have a big mouth), I've been lucky enough to get a gig as caretaker at a spot with the Mohonk Preserve for a few months. Tonight I head into the city again; not for good, but as part of my transport to the Yosemite Facelift.

My flight leaves out of JFK on Friday morning at 7, and I need to be on the first bus from Grand Central in order to make the flight within my “no stress” early arrival cushion. That's a 5:30am departure....

And so, I must leave here this evening at some point, get the last train to Grand Central just before 11pm, and find ways to fill my time between 1 and 5am, when I can go to the bus pick up point. Will the police tool me, or will my white-girl, non-transient costume save my soles from their constant demand to “Keep it moving?”

Yesterday was supposed to be – SUPPOSED to be – a rainy day. So instead of climbing, I stayed near the cabin, anticipating marvelous thunderstorms and the musical percussion of rain as it tickles at, or pounds away against, the leaves of the forest trees.

It did not rain.

I tried to make do, sure that the precip was coming any time now. Bike ride, walks with Teddy, conversation with the dude manning the gate, a game of Scrabble(Me against Me 2), reading. Things like that.

Which left a lot of free time. Time which I spent walking the road and picking up trash along the way.

'Keep America Beautiful' and 'Give a Hoot, Don't Pollute' were the environmental educational phrases of my childhood era, and they were fairly well implanted on my forming mind. My parents did their part in the process; dad would have us 'police the area' when we went on country picnics, whether they were in roadside county parks or under the shade tree of a farmer's hay field. Mom always had a trash bag available for picnic pickups the moment we touched down. If a bit of wind tried to make off with paper plates from our picnic table, she excitedly encouraged us to save them before they were goners - drowned in the waters of a fast-running stream, or playing Dodge Ball with cars on the the heavily trafficked interstate we'd pulled off.

I'm going to Yosemite specifically to participate in a major clean up campaign. Sure, to climb, socialize and wonder at the wonder, too. But mostly for the Facelift clean up event. I'm happy being a picker-upper.

So it was a natural thing that I spent yesterday ...policing the area... before heading off on vacation. Scouring the roadside, bumbling through brambles, and sloshing over watery ditches, on a mission. In search of wayward trash.

Your trash....

Not “Yours” as in “You.” Buy you know what I mean.

Perhaps I should have written “Their trash.” Those despicable “They's.” It's always Them.... Or the They's and Their's. Those people who have no respect for the natural beauty of nature! No concern for the bitty fish who swallow their garbage, innocently mistaking it for food, in turn picking up the pace on their slow march to death. Couldn't care less for the cyclist who gets a flat from running over the shards of their broken beer bottle, slung from the window of the car. Let me tell you – DUI is alive and kicking, despite strong legal repercussions. Nearly all the cans and bottles are of the Budweiser brand, interestingly. Whiskey fifths are a distant second, so far as containers for intoxicating beverages are disposed of roadside. For the friends who – hopefully – don't let their friends drive drunk(but draw no distinction when it comes to littering), Snapple and Arizona Iced Tea bottles and cans are almost as abundant as their bud's Buds.

I don't really mind, so much, picking the stuff up. After all, it is part of my agreement in this situation. Well...not entirely. I'm just supposed to take care of a small area. But I have help with that. A group of regulars regularly sweep that area and, now that the summer picnicking season is passed, we're scraping the bottom of the barrel, garbage-wise. Lots of cigarette butts, to be sure. But the used tampons and rubbers, chip and cookie bags, and other such fair-weather trash has pretty much migrated to warmer climes.

And so....I wander.

Yosemite – what have you got for me!?

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If you enjoy my blog and would like to subscribe through RSS, you can click the FeedBurner Badge here. Thanks for your support!  Subscribe in a reader
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Help support Happiegrrrl in her quest to travel, climb and live an adventurous life(instead of being stuck at home working.....). Visit her online shop, ClimbAddict, for original designs on t-shirts, jackets, caps, stickers and giftware.

Where, Oh Where, Has My Little Blog Gone?

I know I have been derelict in my blogging duties. I actually have several posts that haven't been written....

A couple new "Camp Cooking" ideas, info about my "newbie" - my first time teaching someone who had never climbed outside yet. She's doing great, and got up Ken's Crack her second day out. She's belayed/followed on multipitch already and Sunday will be learning about gear placements(I don't know why people don't teach others how to PLACE gear so they know how to clean it; don't know about you but I can't afford new cams or even tri-cams, and wouldn't have the heart to tell my second they owed me when they couldn't clean it, if I hadn't tought them HOW to clean it first!).

The hair accessory thing has been taking massive amounts of time. MASSIVE.

And then I came up with some new designs for my ClimbAddict shop last week. I think some pretty good ones, so hope you will check it out.

AND - I really, REALLY, need to start making some money off the ClimbAddict and hair accessories....So, if you can find it in your heart, please check them out and let others know about them. I desperately would love to save some money for a van and road trip to SoCal this winter....

I'll be getting a blog going for the ClimbAddict stuff soon, but for now, I di have a Twitter thing going on - Woun't you please think about being a Follower for it? Here's ClimbAddict on Twitter.

Okay - It's time to head out for the weekend. I'm climbing with a person du jour on Saturday and doing trailwork/teaching Lauren gear on Sunday. I'll have fun, so you have fun too!


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If you enjoy my blog and would like to subscribe through RSS, you can click the FeedBurner Badge here. Thanks for your support! Subscribe in a reader
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Help support Happiegrrrl in her quest to travel, climb and live an adventurous life(instead of being stuck at home working.....). Visit her online shop, ClimbAddict, for original designs on t-shirts, jackets, caps, stickers and giftware.