It's easy to paint life as one adventure to the next and skip over the hard stuff, the boring stuff, and the every day stuff. But that's not life, and as unglamorous as it may be, sometimes the best lessons in life comes from the moments in between each adventure. The day-to-day of work has been wearing on me more than I care to admit, and sometimes, I wonder if being "grown up" is worth it... but then I also struggle with what to do when I have too much time on my hands. David and I often talk about the hamster wheel of life and how to find balance in it all.
Summer is the time when I start to wear myself out with adventure after adventure. There is a pressure folks in this corner of the world put on themselves of needing to explore all the places and taking advantage of all the good weather, lest we somehow miss out on living. I'm beginning to realize that August should really just be my month of rest. It's too hot, too dry, too smoky, and more often than not, I'm nursing a neglected injury. This is exactly the time when I should be able to give myself permission to practice capoeira music, make art, and resurrect all the food projects I love. Fall will bring another frenzy of needing to get out just one last time before the snow flies.
But I digress, this all started when my big all ladies bikepacking trip to Montana got postponed due to the fires and smoke that blanketed Canada and basically everything west of Colorado. I was bummed. I had been looking forward to taking a break from work and gave up an opportunity to go backpacking to make sure I could be prepared for the trip. Rather than try to just power through the work week, I desperately checked the AQI maps for anywhere within a seven hour drive that had decent air. The Wallawas were pretty close to normal, so I hatched a last minute plan to do an overnight bikepacking trip and some dayhiking.
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| Oh beautiful blue skies! So much promise as I was driving out towards the Wallawas. |
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| A quick stop at the adorable indie bookstore in Enterprise to grab a new book for the weekend since I had left my other book at home. A tiny rustic version of Dudley's, my hometown indie bookstore. |
As I pulled onto Hurricane Creek road and the mountains came into view, I knew I had made the right decision. Blue skies and perfect dispersed camping greeted me as I popped open a beer and set up camp. I had the most glorious smoke-free afternoon and evening reading in my hammock and writing in my journal. Then I drifted off to sleep with the babbling creek as my gentle lullaby for a good night's sleep.
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| It doesn't get much better than this. |
The next morning, everything that could go wrong, did go wrong. Well, except for breakfast. I had the loveliest breakfast by the creek. After I had loaded up all my gear, I started rolling down the road... and then it happened. Both of my tires slowly went flat. I tried to pump both of them, but the goo for my tubeless set up had dried and neither would hold air. I only had one spare tube, so I tried to asses my options. There was a small bike shop, I thought, in Joseph, but it was really just part of a hardware store and was not sure they could service a tubeless set up. The next nearest full service shop was in La Grande, over an hour away. Well, maybe I could day hike! Except that I had accidentally left my hiking shoes at home, so all I had were cycling shoes and flip flops.
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| What is wrong with this picture? |
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| A closer inspection reveals dried up goo. |
The final straw was looking back towards my mountain view that had been so clear the night before only to see that the smoke was back and obscured my views. I sat down for a bit to think about my options. Even if I did get my bike fixed, did I really want to bike through the smoke? The air quality deteriorated drastically as I sat in camp and I decided it wasn't too late to head home and have a staycation. I had dozens of little things on my "to do" list that had fallen by the wayside in the bustle of summer, and when was the last time I had over 3 days at home with no plans?
It was decided, I would save my longs and head home. By the time I packed up and left, the air quality was hazardous and I felt lucky not to be biking in that. Sure, I could chase the green dots on the AQI map in the valley, but with no functional bike and no hiking shoes, there wasn't much to do anyway.
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| Same view from my campsite, where did the mountain go? |
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| On my way out... ick. |
When I got back home, the smoke was thicker in the air than when I left. For the first time this summer, I actually put all of my gear away into my gear tubs instead of leaving it half staged for a last minute trip. My cupboards have been cleaned and re-organized, homemade hot sauce made, sprouts started, art projects are swirling in my mind, and I've set everything up to do my fall planting in my garden. As always, in the back of my head is a scheme for another time,
a bike tour in this area...
