Category Archives: seasons

The End of a Season

Last November, prior to the start of the 2014-2015 ski season, I attended a screening of Warren Miller’s No Turning Back. The main part of this film is broken up into eight segments, each one featuring a different location around the world, and each one containing footage of extreme skiing or snowboarding interwoven into a storyline that describes the people and the culture around snow sports in that location. This film’s primary impact is to get skiers and snowboarders excited about the upcoming season. However, the introduction to this film actually contained a reminder that every ski season comes to an inevitable end. A time lapse of a ski resort becoming progressively more green over time (during springtime) is shown while the narrator (of the introduction) compares skiing and ski season to “falling in love with someone you know is going to leave you in four months.”

Well, here in Colorado, that four month expiration date appears to be rapidly approaching. On Friday (3/27), Vail ski resort, the largest in the state, was still being patronized by a significant number of snow sport enthusiasts. However, signs everywhere are pointing towards the inevitable decline in the quality of the skiing that accompanies the transition from winter into spring. Not the only recent day to feature temperatures exceeding 50F, sections of bare ground can be seen not only on the horizon, but also on many of the slopes themselves, particularly slopes that feature bumps on Vail’s back side.

Increasingly, trails are either being signed to caution skiers of this variable terrain, or being closed off altogether.

Conditions like these are often labelled “spring conditions”, a label that is both descript and non-discript at the same time. Labels like “powder” and “groomed” are commonly used to describe the snow conditions on any given slope. These two labels, amongst the most commonly used, provide a clear indication of what kind of snow a skier or snowboarder can expect to encounter. When conditions are labeled as “spring conditions”, they are often quite variable.

Over the course of the day on Friday, I encountered all sorts of snow conditions. There were parts with large clumps of snow, parts with hard packed snow, parts that were quite icy, and, of course parts that were very slushy. I even managed to find a couple of spots with untouched new snow in the trees (I am not calling it “powder” as the snow is wet in variety, much like the snow one would regularly see in New York City). I often encountered a significant variety of snow conditions while traversing a single ski trail. Transitioning, often from hard packed to icy, and then to slushy, would cause sudden shifts in my weight distribution. Being jerked, both forwards and backwards while skiing down the mountain almost made me feel as if I were at a rodeo. Only, instead of being jerked around by a bull, angry that his reproductive region had been recently violated, I was being jerked around by what is labeled “spring conditions”.

Regardless of whether we ski, partake in some other form of activity, or just enjoy warmer weather, spring, and the conditions associated with it, do often jerk us around, much in the same way I was at Vail. Springtime is not a slow and steady transition from winter’s chill to warmer weather. It is often chaotic with wildly variant weather patterns that people in Oklahoma are unfortunately all too familiar with.

Sometimes, as is the case in the Northeastern U.S. this year, winter just seems to keep on going, maintaining it’s grip far longer than expected. Those who eagerly anticipate spring’s warmth have a rough time with years like this one, as it almost feels as if nature is trying to torment them. Other years are far more choppy. In many parts of the country, this time of year can feature weeks that include both summer-like warmth, and snow, sometimes even within a day or two of each other. It is not unheard of for an early spring warm period to trigger some to plant outdoors, only to have these plants killed by an unexpected hard freeze later in the year.

Much like all other aspects of life, at the end of one season comes another one. And, while the season to play in the snow is coming to an end, spring brings with it a whole new set of opportunities. For those whose one and only love is skiing or snowboarding, the end of winter can feel very much like the narrator of No Turning Back described it; as having a feeling similar to having lost a love after four months. However, for those who are fortunate enough to have found an appreciation for all of life’s seasons, the end of winter, and the transition to spring, while an ending in one sort, is also a beginning, with spring bringing with it a new set of opportunities.

The main advantage to living somewhere with seasons, as opposed to somewhere with consistent weather, is the variety that comes along with these cyclical changes. In places like these, each season is distinct from the last. At different times of year, we go to different places, and do different things, and even incorporate periods of rest and renewal into the cycle. It provides life with a clear breaking point that distinguishes one year from another; something that many lack beyond college and graduate school. I will most likely be back at Vail ski resort, to once again enjoy some of the world’s best skiing, before the end of 2015. When that occurs, it will certainly have the look and feel of a completely new ski season distinct from the one that just ended. Until then, the time has come to go and explore different places, maybe chase some storms, take some longer bike rides, or visit some places that are much more easily reached without the threat of a blizzard interrupting travel. The coming months will certainly feature some amazing experiences that I cannot wait to have, enjoy, and share.

A Weekend to Recharge

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It’s a day we all experience at some point in the winter season- some of us more than others. A thick layer of low clouds blanket the sky in a manner that states in no uncertain terms that you will not be experiencing a single ray of sunshine for the entire day. Temperatures hover somewhere in the 30s. There is a cold, damp feeling to everything that makes anyone outside feel as if some kind of very light precipitation is falling. But, nobody can really tell. In fact, not only are we unsure whether precipitation is actually falling, we are not even sure what type of precipitation (rain, snow, other) we believe might be falling. And, to be honest, it really doesn’t matter. Because, the mood is already set, and that is one of a persistent cold, damp, and raw. It is as if the world around you is telling you that you that today is going to be more subdued than most. That today will not be the day you go on some kind of life changing adventure, achieve something major, or even make significant progress towards something.

There is a half a century old folk song whose lyrics go something like “a time for war, a time for peace, a time to laugh, a time to cry”. I am not really 100% certain what they actually say in the song, but I know the entire song kind of discusses the cycles and sub-cycles of life in that sort of manner. And, it advocates the recognition that certain actions, activities, emotions, etc. have their time and place, regardless of which ones we prefer, which ones we enjoy, or which ones we feel are more beneficial.

I have always been one to periodically look for ways to get the maximum utility out of one of the most precious resources we all have- time. Implied in many initiatives we take to better our lives, including the goals I made for 2015 at the start of the month, is a better use of our time, commonly in the form of trying to select in favor of behaviors we consider a good use of our time and against behaviors that we consider a poor use of our time. However, one thing I often fail to consider is that not every minute of every day can be spent doing something that we feel is significant. Just as the cycles of life often take us to the next exciting adventures in our lives, the cycles of life will also tell us when it is time to slow down and recharge our batteries. And, although I consider myself to be in the top quartile for energy levels in my age group, even those of us with high energy levels can run into times when it is depleted. A time to rage, a time to mellow.

Sometimes it is hard for an energetic person to realize that the time to “mellow” has come. For energetic people, this portion of the cycle of life can be frustrating, and, during down-times, I often find myself restlessly looking at bike routes and new travel destinations to consider in the near future. However, this particular weekend, the time had come in no uncertain terms. And, the weather, so raw, cold, and lifeless, only reinforces this fact. It amplifies the mood.

Emotion and anxiety is a much more significant energy drain than many people realize. In fact, I have found that at times emotions and anxiety can drain energy far more efficiently than strenuous physical and/or mental work. There are plenty of times I remember bicycling 50+ miles, staying out partying well past midnight, or working hard to meet some kind of deadline, and still having an energy level the next day fairly close to normal. However, I do recall several recent scenarios where drama, uncertainty, or allowing that part of your brain that worries about all things that can go wrong to stress me out about something have made me quite sleepy.

Along with the dull weather pattern, multiple emotional events over the past few weeks contributed to my need to take a weekend to recharge. One of the hardest things to do is to say goodbye to a boss that you actually enjoy working for. Two weeks ago, I found out that my supervisor, the man who hired me, has believed in me every step of the way, and genuinely respects me and my ideas, is departing. This is hard to find in the workplace.

Work is not typically the most exciting thing people do in their lives. There is a reason that movies rarely show a person manipulating data in a spreadsheet. And, there is a reason I write a travel blog and not a work blog. I’ve even seen some people that achieve the dream job they had set out to do from a young age, and still get burned out on it. But, with good people around you and a good environment, the time that we spend at work can periodically be enjoyable and fulfilling, which is the most we can really ask for.

This weekend, I am not just anxious about the uncertainty that comes with any change, but I am genuinely sad to see the man go. And, while it is tough for an adventure-seeking extrovert like me to swallow a weekend of resting, and focusing on other areas of my life, there is a time for my focuses to remain within a 5 mile radius of home, and that time is now. I am certain that 2015 will produce some amazing adventures, some of which I already have planned and look forward to. But for now, all I can do is appreciate the opportunities I have received and do my best to make sure I continue advancing my career forwards without giving up on the most precious resource I have- who I am.

Happy New Years

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This is going to be my year! This is going to be the year I land my dream job, meet all the right people, have that once-in-a-lifetime epic experience, save tons of money, buy a new house, become a better person, and lose all of the unnecessary fat in my body! All I have to do is change the following five or six behaviors…

Well, that is quite the tall order for a year that actually started out like this…

With the primary memory of the first hour being this…

Which really isn’t too terribly different from how any of the last seven years began for me! And, based on the number of bars that offer $75 packages that include all you can drink and get sold out weeks before Christmas, this is the way a good number of people will begin their year.

Yet, today many of us will put together a list of resolutions that we plan to begin acting upon tomorrow when all of our hangovers subside. Of course, there are those among us that will buck this trend- either choosing to skip the New Years resolution thing, or looking in depth into last year’s resolutions and trying to assess what is realistic in some kind of way. But many of us do follow the pattern that is way more common in the political world than everywhere else; over-promise like the statements that began this post, and then under-deliver. Only, in this case, we are not cheating anyone other than ourselves in this process.

That being said, and even knowing that I am not completely immune to this cycle of over-promising and under-developing, I still made a New Years plan. In fact, it is quite in-depth, and involves six over-arching goals, with sub-goals falling into each category. That is quite in-depth for someone who is now dreading how crowded the gym will be for the next three weeks with people who made New Years resolutions that will last approximately three weeks.

However, the process of reflecting on our lives, and pondering making changes is the entire point of New Years. Without this process, New Years Eve is functionally the equivalent of Blackout Wednesday (the day before Thanksgiving). Tomorrow is a day off, so let’s go out and get drunk. And, tomorrow we can be kind of lazy.

One of my favorite people, and one of the inspirations behind my writing style is David Byrne. While with his band The Talking Heads, he wrote a song titled Once in a Lifetime, one of the deepest songs of all time. And, while the lyrics can be confusing, David Byrne describes the song as being about living life on auto-pilot and never questioning or examining the direction it is taking.

Unfortunately, inertia is a pretty powerful (apparent) force in our society. And, nearly all of us slip into a routine where we just operate our day-to-day lives from time to time. In those periods of our lives, that inertia will simply carry our lives in a specific direction. Sometimes that direction is good, but sometimes that direction is less than ideal.

This is why we build into our schedules times like this, where we reflect on the direction our lives are taking, and, often times, come up with plans to make changes. The fact that many of these plans do not pan out over the course of the next few months should not discourage us from taking this time to reflect on our lives and determine what needs to be changed. And, while over-promising and under-delivering is cheating ourselves, never making those promises is even worse. If over-promising and under-delivering equates to our Republican form of government in it’s current state, never making promises, and never asking questions equates to a totalitarian dictatorship. I certainly hope that most would agree that no matter what we have to say about the current state of our country, it is way better than a dictatorship.

I won’t bore you with the specifics of my intricate set of New Years goals and sub-goals. But within this entire plan lies one over-arching resolution that relates to New Years itself, and that is to avoid the kind of “defaulting” that leads people into ruts, and routines, and allows them to simply be carried through life exactly the way David Byrne describes it in his song. By this I mean doing the same things over and over again, watching the same shows over and over again, going to the same websites over and over again, and never even considering trying something new.

In 2014, I published 26 posts on this site. That means that in that 12 month period, I considered 26 experiences worth writing about. One of the things I am trying to avoid doing is write about the same place multiple times. I know I have a couple of times, and I have reserved that for experiences that are different enough for me to feel that another post would not be redundant. So, in a way, the number of posts I make on this site is related to the amount of new and unique experiences I am having in life. So, if my overarching 2015 goal is achieved, I will have had at least 26 blog-worthy experiences in 2015.

Welcome to Fall

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Although the weather in many places in the country is still quite warm, the fall season is upon us. Along with it comes all of the things associated with fall; shorter days, football games, all sorts of stuff made out of pumpkin, and, of course the fall colors.

For many, fall’s best feature is the colors that arrive as some species of trees make the necessary preparations for the coming winter season. The Aspen trees at higher elevations in the Rocky Mountains are amongst the first to change colors. In fact, at elevations near 10,000′, fall colors can even arrive towards the beginning of September. In the Eastern States, colors will only begin to appear at the end of September in places like Northern Minnesota and the higher terrain in New England. Most places will see their peak colors in October or Early November.

To view some of these Aspen trees, I headed to Rocky Mountain National Park, which actually has more of these trees than I had previously remembered seeing. Of course, I had never been there during the fall before today, and probably did not pay enough attention to the tree types on my summer trips. Like most places in Colorado, there are still more pine trees (and other “evergreen” varieties) than Aspens. But, there are enough to make large patches of yellow and orange stand out while viewing the park.

Also, the colors themselves appeared more vivid here than they did in the places I had previously gone to view fall colors in Colorado. I found out that this is one of the most popular places in Colorado for viewing fall colors. This weekend, Estes Park is holding their annual Autumn Gold Festival, indicating that this is indeed the best time of year to search for fall colors in Rocky Mountain National Park.

The arrival of these fall colors, of course, indicates the changing of the seasons. They remind us (just in case the football and pumpkin flavored everything is not enough) of the transition that is currently occurring, and, of course, of the winter that lies ahead. They also remind us of the cyclical nature of most things on this planet. And, they also remind us that all things on this planet, whether they be as periodic and predictable as an ocean tide, or as complicated as the global economy, undergo periodic transformations.

Those among us currently experiencing a rough period can look to the colors on the trees, and take solace in the fact that nothing is permanent, including situation they are currently in. Just as the season must change, and just as periods of war and peace are inevitable, one’s current situation will eventually transform too, for better or worse. And, at some point, regardless of how any particular person feels about their life’s situation, it will come time to move on to the next phase, or the next “chapter” of their life. We did not chose to enter fall- fall just started. I am sure there are some that would gladly stay in summer for a few more months.

Alongside, each individual’s periodic transformations, society as a whole also undergoes periodic transformations, which often end up intertwined with each person’s individual story. Here in the United States, the 1950s-1970s was a time of great transition in which our society became more inclusive and individualistic. More recently, the proliferation of the internet and later social media transformed the way we communicate.

Of course, with every transition, there is some level of predictability, but also some level of uncertainty with regards to the eventual outcome. Will the coming winter be bitterly cold, or mild? How much snow will we get? Will it be a good ski season?

What can I expect from my new job? Will my marriage work? Will I like the city I chose to move to?

And, of course, the European philosophers that ignited the Age of Enlightenment had no clue that these ideas would lead to a series of revolutions amongst their colonized land in the “New World”. Nor did the global political and economic community know what was to come of these newly established countries until several decades into their existence.

I believe our society is currently undergoing a transition, partly in response to the recent economic collapse, but also partly in response to some of the shortcomings of our current societal structure. Maybe the internet and social media transformation has yet to be completed, and we are still working out how our society is going to incorporate all of these new innovations. In-person interaction was somewhat degraded by the proliferation of social media and smart phones, and there is much talk about periodically “unplugging” from technology. The cause of, and lessons to be taken from, the financial collapse is still very much under debate. But, with the increased competition for both jobs and business, many are taking aim at one of the most destructive aspects of early 21st Century culture; the demand for instant gratification. As is the case with any other transition, there is a lot of uncertainty, and what our society will look like in 10 years is anyone’s guess. But, I am cautiously optimistic about these developments.

For those unable to get up to their favorite fall color viewing spot this weekend, there is still time. While many trees have already changed colors, there are some that have yet to “turn”. Those who make it up to Rocky Mountain National Park over the next couple of weeks will still be able to enjoy some fall colors.

Happy Independence Day

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In honor of the holiday today, I decided to write a somewhat different kind of blog than what I usually write. Typically, as is the case with most travel writing, I visit a specific destination (or multiple destinations), and write about the experience. Following the lead of some of my favorite travel writing, I also tend to include my thoughts on the place I visited, the experience I had, or the significance of something related to it.

But last night, I traveled all of 12 blocks to Denver’s Civic Center Park to watch the firework show put on by the City of Denver. Not exactly a major trip- I walked there! However, just as certain places and experiences can lead to significant pondering and revelations, specific events, especially ones of historical significance like this one, can also lead to similar conclusions.

I found myself pondering what it means to be an “American” and whether or not this is something I should be proud of. Over the course of my life I have heard a wide variety of perspectives on this. Many in this country sincerely believe the USA to be the greatest country in the world. Some say this based on blind Patriotism, but some say this based on well though out reasoning. On the other end of the spectrum, we have those that do not place that much pride in their country. They either believe that taking pride in a specific nation is a silly concept, or are ashamed of this country based on something about it that they find foolish.

I grew up being pretty certain of America’s greatness. But, that was at a time, the 1980s and 1990s, when it was quite easy to place a lot of faith in the USA. The new millennium has been a bit rougher for this country. Since the dawn of the new millennium, we’ve had a more shaky economy, more controversial events and political decisions, and some social movements that have angered people on all sides of the spectrum. Nearly every American, from every part of the country, from every sociological, economic, political, or ethnic group, and of nearly any personality type, can point to something that the USA has done since 2000 that has made them feel utterly ashamed of our country.

What I realized while watching the fireworks last night, and pondering the anniversary of our Independence today is that while there are some things about our society and our country that are messed up, unfair, and inefficient, in the grand scheme of things, we are still pretty well off, and we are still a truly great country. Most of us can count on a lot of the basic necessities of life, like clean water. When we speak our minds, about any issue, we worry about being shunned, or dismissed, rather than being imprisoned or executed by those in power. Anybody can make their best effort at being anything, and we are all free to associate with whoever we please. And, while we have a political culture that has become polarized, and verbally vicious, violence between “warring” political factions in the U.S. has been very minimal thus far.

And, we have a variety of different adventures we can pursue right here in the U.S. The breadth of the travel opportunities is quite possibly our greatest asset. Within the borders of the United States, you can find everything from the frozen tundra of Alaska to tropical Hawaii. We have the peaks of Colorado and the Rocky Mountains, as well as the perfectly flat regions of Northern Illinois and Indiana. From the Grand Canyon in Arizona to Isle Royal National Park in Michigan, many different types of natural scenery can be found right here in the United States. From the hustle and bustle of New York City to the quiet ranches of Wyoming, every pace of life can be found. And, nearly every activity, from skiing to sailing can be found in great abundance here. As a matter of fact, I cannot even keep track of the number of places I would like to visit, the list just keeps on getting longer as I hear about more and more great places.

I am not one of those rare people that has absolutely no shame regarding any aspect of my country at this point in time. Like most of the rest of you, I have a list in my head of things I would love to change. I undoubtedly count myself amongst the clear majority of Americans that believe this country is on the wrong track. And, I would genuinely like to see some action taken on certain items to make this a better places to live. However, on this Fourth of July, I would like to show some appreciation for what we do have, and how fortunate we are to have enjoy the freedom and prosperity that we do enjoy. And, while I do not believe there are no other great places to live in this world, I am still proud of the one that I call home.

The Action Story

Learning about the world and about ourselves through travel and experiences

Category Archives: seasons

The End of a Season

A Weekend to Recharge

Happy New Years

Welcome to Fall

Happy Independence Day