Monday, April 1, 2019

Pickett & Pogue (Melo-transcendentalism)

Do you ever get envious of some of the adventure pictures and stories you see on the web?
 
I know I do. "What a life!" I always think. "Must be nice to do that for a living instead of being a slave to the establishment." I can admittedly be a bit melo-transcendental at times (and yes, I did just make that word up). To travel - to experience and inspire!

"What if that was me?"

If you aren't careful, seeing folks that have somehow managed to live that lifestyle can force you into a rut.

 
Don't you let it.

Amanda and I have been hiking Tennessee trails since before we ever met. We've also been lucky enough to hike in some incredible places across the Southwest, and even across the world (though we haven't been out of the country together, yet). We may not live in a van or a modified school bus featuring a composting commode or solar shower, but we do escape on occasion to sleep in a tent for a few months, as long as there's a nearby bathhouse so we can still look presentable at work.

And even with all the time we've spent in the woods locally, we still come across treasures we couldn't have imagined in this part of the country. We came across one such treasure yesterday, which this blog's title eludes to.

Pickett State Park and Pogue Creek Canyon. Within an hour and a half of Knoxville, Oak Ridge, and Harriman, and yet we (as avid outdoors enthusiasts) had never even heard of it. In one place, you get the largest canyon I've ever seen in this state, natural arches and bridges, caves, and even waterfalls. The difficulty of the trails ranges from super flat and relaxing to walk on, to challenging even for the most experienced. It was a place with so many options to explore that we'd have had to camp there for a week to even put a dent in them. We fully intend to.

Our first trail (below) led us to Hazard Cave.


The trail was pretty mild most of the way, with a few steps and stones to traverse during the final descent.


Of course we had to play with silhouettes and lighting once we'd arrived.



And I never miss an opportunity to kiss my perfect wife.


The cave is to the left of this photograph. I tried to run and climb to join Amanda for the picture, but couldn't do it in the ten seconds my phone would allow before snapping the shot. 

...It would have taken me at least 14 seconds. 



After the cave, we decided to head over to the park's Natural Bridge. On the way, we saw the amazing root system below growing over a stone ledge.


And then we saw actual arches! In Tennessee! There are several throughout the park which we are intent on returning to find. Some of our favorite memories are at Arches National Park in Utah, where we cowboy camped and listened to a Native American man play a flute during a melancholic sunset. Arches are much more rare in our neck of the woods, and especially ones of this magnitude!




There was a staircase to the top of the bridge, which seemed to condone crossing it. In the Southwest, this is often a no-no.



 Amanda wanted to blend in with all the trees, so she pulled this one out of her yoga-repertoire.



If you want to see us in our element, you'll never get closer than the picture below. We walk our own individual trail in a lot of ways (I'm the idealist, she's the rationalist; I'm emotional and empathetic and she's a walking calculator who only shows her truest soul to yours truly). 

Hiking together is a great metaphor. Sometimes the trail is easy, sometimes it's hard. Sometimes it's literally impossible to do alone. But you still hike the damned thing, no matter what. And more often than not, you'll find us with honest smiles like the ones beneath this text.




As we continued our hike, I was so happy to see (but mostly to smell) so much pine, which is very nostalgic for me as a South GA native in my childhood years. If you want, Amanda has managed to capture the fragrance astoundingly with her Pine or Cedar scented candles, which you can learn more about at The Gypsy's Store.




Pickett State Park featured super nice bathhouses and campsites, some of which were right on the water.


 There was a bouncy bridge that, while well constructed, made me feel a bit odd.



Both Pickett and Pogue are participants in the International Dark-Sky Association, which you can read more about in the photographs below.






To help support the many efforts of the State Park, we purchased a couple of t-shirts from the clearance rack in the visitor's center. I'm especially fond of mine, which features John Muir. If you haven't heard of him, you should definitely do some research on the guy. He's right up there with John Wesley Powell as an inspiration and a hero, but to be honest I need to do a lot more research myself as well. Essentially, all I know is that he had an amazing journey, advocated for the outdoors, and had one hell of a beard.



It was funny how it happened; While we were at Hazard Cave with no cell signal, our mutual best friend and hiking pal messaged us about an amazing place he'd found that he needed to show us. He sent a picture of one of the rock faces he was looking at, and Amanda and I had only seen one place like it in TN. The one we were at! No prior discussion, no planning at all, and we both selected the same park to hike on the same day, coming from different directions that were over an hour from Pickett. Once we returned to cell service, we managed to link up (it took all of five minutes - we actually found his car before any of the texts went through).

He then took us to Pogue, where I got the shot below.


She's so stunning.


Background isn't bad either.

 Our buddy (Steven) said that the view paled in comparison to the final overlook, but we were sadly losing light and had a long drive home.





The point, though, is this. If you can find places like that on short day trips (which you always can), it makes returning to work the next week a lot easier. I still get disillusioned, no doubt. All we want is a few acres to ourselves. A log home, some chickens, and a garden. Rain water and solar power and a German Shepherd. Space. Peace and quiet, to truly focus on the things I need to write and the messages I need to leave the world. To just focus on each other.

Those things will all happen in time though, and being inspired by places like Pickett and Pogue will ensure that it does.

You know what's funny? Sometimes, when I point people toward the blog they didn't know we had, they ask me if hiking is my job. When I tell them it isn't, they ask "How do you do it, with work and all?"

And that answer is one of the simplest of all.

I do it because I must.

Love ya'll. More to come.





Friday, March 29, 2019

Ah, Spring:



Ah, Spring:
 
 
 
The sun is shining (on occasion, when it decides not to pretend it's still winter).
 
 
Folks are venturing once more into the great outdoors (where they can clog our trails and fill our campgrounds with litter).
 
The grass is growing (and growing grass must always be cut!).
 
Fresh flowers in bloom (and cars of all colors turn yellow, in permanent need of a wash).
 
 
No, but seriously, I'm stoked about spring. The parenthesis are for you "glass have empty" assholes - no judgement, I used to be one and still am on occasion. Everyone else can reread and omit the parenthesis.
 
 
SPRING! I'm so EXCITE that I forgot the "d" OMG. I'm gonna camp and fish and kayak and hike and camp camp camp!
 
 
We're gonna launch a whole new line of products - "The Campfire" line - which will be the exact same as the old line, except they'll be made on a FRIGGING CAMPFIRE! Campfire candles and melts and balms, oh my!
 
And campfire food, too!
 
And I've almost had my beard for a whole year, which is exciting. I started growing it the last time that it was SPRING! 
 
And it's almost time for our second trip to the Southwest, where we'll be having a wedding ceremony on the Grand Canyon's North rim. And I'll finally get to see the white dress she's been hiding from me, and her chaco'd feet beneath it.
 
 
Spring is the time for new life. For fresh starts. For change. If there's something you don't like about your life, SPRING into action (OH GOD I KILL MYSELF SPRING INTO ACTION THAT'S PUNNY HAHA).
 
 
Vitamin D and flowery dresses for my sweet three year old child.
 
Dark beers turn into light ones (which have fewer calories) to be drunk in moderation while singing "Kum Ba Ya".
 
 
The blog was in a bit of a hibernation - into the "Work, Sleep, Bills, Occasional-snow-hike-to-stay-focused" rut - but we're back, folks!
 
Know why?
 
Because it's
 
"Ah, Spring."

Here are some links for things you can do this spring if you're unfamiliar:

https://www.nps.gov/grsm/index.htm (Hike the Smokies - reach out if you need more specific suggestions.)

https://tnstateparks.com/parks/frozen-head (Camp at Frozen Head - they have great bathhouses and plenty of trails.)

https://www.nps.gov/obed/planyourvisit/rockclimbing.htm (Rock climbing at Obed.)

http://windrockpark.com/  (Take your 4x4 to Windrock!)

...and so, so much more.
 
 
 

Wednesday, January 16, 2019

A Month In The Life of a Lion

I haven't had the time to write about life in the past month or so - I've been too busy living it. Fiercely and unapologetically. I've walked my authentic path and the result is something I haven't really experienced in the past: Happiness. Not some idealized version of the word, but rather the experience of living in the present moment without thousands of other things weighing down on my mind.

It hasn't been the forced version of happiness so common in America these days. It's not an Instagram photo with just the right filter to project false contentment. It's not ambition, where people scrape and hoard, using debt to fill a gap they can't explain. It's just happiness, man. The simplicity of it is a wildly complicated thing for an idealist like myself to describe, but it's just so easy - so natural - to experience. A life where I don't accept the guilt of other peoples' judgements. A life where the people that Amanda and I surround ourselves with love us for who we are without dissecting every decision we make or how it effects them. It's a life of agape love - of unconditional acceptance and respect of who a person is and why they make the decisions they make.

Acceptance...agape love...unconditional support. Wait, are we talking about a marriage?

As many of you may know, we are speaking of a marriage. All I've described above has indeed occurred on a larger scale, but only because we took the time to ensure it occurred on a smaller one. The concentrated version of the peace I've been writing about has a face: It's the one smiling in the engagement photo below.  




On Christmas Day, atop a ski-lift at Cataloochie Mountain, NC, Amanda agreed to be my wife. She accepted a ring that I had created for her by a craftsman in Israel who read our story before he began his work. The entire process, from the carving of a wax mold to the final setting of the diamond I chose for my wife, was undertaken with Amanda in the thoughts of the ring's creator. You can find pictures of Doron Merav's beautiful craftsmanship below, or visit his shop, Here! Doron is an alchemist who (rather than turning objects into gold) turns gold into lifelong promise. The only thing better than his craftsmanship is his level of customer service. I asked him to document his creation so Amanda could see that it came from nothing and was meant for her alone, and he provided me with the pictures below.














And here is a picture of the final product that I took upon its arrival: 



It's no secret that Amanda and I both individually had a rough few years before we met each other. It's also no secret that we both got out of relationships that weren't meant for us before we found one another. It's not a secret that we both distanced from the people in our lives while we focused on some important things that many people NEVER find the time to focus on: Who we are, how that has changed based on our life experiences, and just what it is that we want and need moving forward. What we want to contribute to the world in our lifetimes. We both found it at the same time, and we found it together.

"And so rock bottom became the foundation on which I built my life." - J.K. Rowling

I couldn't wait to marry her. Couldn't wait a year...not a month, even. I saw what the world was supposed to be and we, together, made it happen. Apart, we were survivors...together, we are conquerors. Our best mutual friend - a man largely responsible for our introduction - got ordained for us, and we were married on 1/13/2019. (Thanks, Steven!)



There's always been noise in my head, and a desperation to make it stop. I've constantly set my mind on some unachievable task or another. These days, and with Amanda by my side, I still have a mission, but it isn't a noise. There are no screaming voices that only I can hear. There's no desperation.

I still have things that I (myself) must contribute to the world - mostly through writing. My mission in life is to give the collective human perception a few "nudges" which, combined with similar nudges from a thousand idealists, will redirect the course of human thought. 

We will encourage authenticity, self-care, and the pursuit of knowledge. We will defy dated perceptions that our lives must be lived out according to some societal mold, or that God is a tyrannical character that's full of vengeance and destruction. We will learn to accept and love our truest selves, and in doing so, will be better equipped to find the person who completes such a love. 

In time, I will nudge. 

But for now, I exist in this moment. I treasure this feeling. And with the support of a human that I will live and die with, I rest and recover from a world that has exhausted me, and I learn that the world doesn't have to be as cruel a place as I have always imagined it to be. 

Pictures from the month's other adventures can be found below - it was really far too much to write about in one sitting. We spent time on a friend's beautiful farm. We taught my brother to snowboard and celebrated Christmas and New Years with our family and close friends. We went mud-bogging until around midnight, and very nearly got stuck. We spent time with the most precious little toddler on the planet. I started a new job where I have my own space and my efforts are appreciated - the first position I've held in my adult life where I don't wear a uniform. We expanded our start-up business. I nearly completed my memoir - just a few edits and expansions to go until my next book is completed.

Too much, indeed, to fully describe. Much love, humanity. Talk soon. ;) 










-The Bard