Nomadic Musings

Canadian Mountains

 

 

Mt. Baker In the Background

 

Making our way up the steep slopes

 

  Friday Bernie and I went up to the Mt. Baker area and did an 8 mile snowshoe hike through the snow. We got wonderful views of the mountains miandering off through Canada to the north. Mt. Shuksan was to the east of us, and Mt. Baker was to the South of us. It was beautiful all around us. A sunny warm day in spring. These are pictures taken with Bernies new Canon Rebel XT digital camera. Its been fun playing around with the new camera. Much more to learn about this one than the simple cameras we have been using.

staceyandbern at 3:14:04 PM EDT Permalink | Blog about this entry |  Add to del.icio.us |  digg this This entry has 1 comments: Show Recent | Add your own

  This entry is dedicated to the memory of my Moms very loved Standard Poodle "Leisha". Leisha has been with us for 15 great years. Today she passed away, and has definitely left a hole in the Family. You will not find a better dog in the world. She behaved almost all the time except when it came to extremely yummy foods like croissants, then she would break her perfect behavior rule to nab one or two from the counter, or the grocery bag in the back of the car. She made sure to live up to her nick name "Princess" at all times.

  Leisha, we will all miss you, and we hope you are enjoying your 24hour service up their in heaven, croissants, and McDonalds Cheeseburgers any time you want them. We Love you Leisha!

staceyandbern at 9:50:41 PM EDT Permalink | Blog about this entry |  Add to del.icio.us |  digg this This entry has 1 comments: Show Recent | Add your own

  Well everyone, the nomads are actually getting ready to rent a place. We are moving to Winthrop Washington. It feels a little wierd in some ways, after spending a couple of years hiking around the US. But the Winthrop area is so beautiful, I cant wait to explore everywhere around that area.

  Winthrop is surrounded by wilderness areas that are packed with hiking trails, so even though we are settling down in a house, we arent leaving our hiking life behind. The Pasayten Wilderness is one of the most beautiful areas I have hiked through (we hiked through it on the Pacific Northwest Trail).

  We are renting a little place that is right next to state land, so we can wakl out our front door and hike though all this state land. How fun!! I really cant wait until we get to move in, the place doesnt become available until May 15th, so currently we are staying at my parents place gathering up furniture and other household items until we are able to move into our new home. It is strange for Bernie and I to gather up material possesions when we have made it a point to carry around as few possesions as possible.

  I will most definatly be posting pictures in this journal of our new home and all the wonderful hikes we go on. Bernie is buying us a very very nice camera, and we are going to possibly delve into the professional grade photography circle. It will be a blast to play around with.

  I will try to keep you up to date with our new adventure!! I hope everyone is enjoying their spring!

staceyandbern at 1:23:56 PM EDT Permalink | Blog about this entry |  Add to del.icio.us |  digg this This entry has 0 comments: Add your own

  So this is an interesting web site that I came across. I get endlessly tired of all those movies that are just filled with violence and effects for the hell of it. No meaning at all to them othat than some T&A. I am always in search for movies with meaning, information that actually makes me feel like I have contributed to my life by watching it. And here is the web page for that.

http://www.spiritualcinemacircle.com/

staceyandbern at 4:47:56 PM EST Permalink | Blog about this entry |  Add to del.icio.us |  digg this This entry has 0 comments: Add your own

  Greetings everyone! Here we are in Santa Cruz. We did a nice side trip up in the Santa Cruz mountains, and then spent a couple nights in a hotel here. This morning we are off to the bus stop to take a ride around the bay to Monterey where we left off on the California Coastal Trail last time.

  The weather was beautiful when we got down here. It did rain a little bit yesterday, but now its dry (a tad cloudy) and we are off to the trail again. There are plants blooming, which is always wonderful to see! So far we have gotten some wonderful pictures, and I am looking forward to all the ones we will take over the next few months.

  I hope everyone has a wonderful spring, and I will try to get updates in here every once and a while!

staceyandbern at 12:31:59 PM EST Permalink | Blog about this entry |  Add to del.icio.us |  digg this This entry has 0 comments: Add your own

  Alright, I failed misserably at putting any entries in my journal while I have been up here in Washington. My time up here has been pretty good, I have had a chance to spend time with my parents, and earn some money while I have been here. I have gotten to expierience some snow, and some wonderful weather for this time of year in this area.

  Bernie drove up from California last Tue, and we are taking a plane down to Oakland tomorrow. Then a couple of bus rides and we will be back out at the coast. We are doing another section of the Cailfornia Coastal Trail. This time around we are starting up in the hills north of Monteray Bay and making our way south down to LA. When we hit LA we will jump on Amtrak, and ride over to Arizona, once we get there we will be making our way down to the Mexican border and starting a 800 mile hike up through Arizona, it should be amazing! And then, if that wasnt enough traveling around, we will make our way up to Idaho most likely and we will be doing a 1200 mile hike that runs the length of Idaho, called the Idaho State Centennial Trail.

  The Idaho Trail is the one that I am looking forward to the most. I know I will have a wonderful time on all the trails, and they will all be amazing. But Idaho has really been calling me, so it is definatly time to go explore. Bernie and I even talk about perhaps finding an area in Idaho that we both like to settle down in some day (maybe even sometime soon? It all depends)

  I originally was only going to spend a month up here in WA, and it has been almost exactly 2 months. I have enjoyed the time here, but I am getting restless to get out and hike some more. My parents enjoyed a great trip to the San Juan Islands last weekend. We had amazing weather. It was cloudy, but it only rained 1 of the 3 days and it was 50 to 60 degrees the whole time. It was quite the enjoyable trip.

  Perhaps I will get the chance to do journal updates once and a while from the trail, although I have done such a bad job of it while I have been here, I am not sure if that will work out. I hope all of you have been having a great winter, and I hope spring brings you many wonderful surprises!

staceyandbern at 1:43:29 PM EST Permalink | Blog about this entry |  Add to del.icio.us |  digg this This entry has 1 comments: Show Recent | Add your own

  Alright, I know everyone has one of those days. Well I have had a couple now. I am back up here in Washington state, just got back a week ago, and the plan was to do stained glass and work for my dad to earn money. So I started on stained glass two days ago, I am working on a native american salmon design, something that I altered from an intricate design to more simple. The first one went ok, its a little small, and a couple tiny mistakes most people wouldnt see. Then I enlarged the pattern to a size that people would buy.

  The fish that I worked on yesterday, I got it almost done, as I was soldering it together I burned myself with a drop of solder and dropped the fish about 4 inches and broke a couple of pieces. That made me mad, but I decided to not let it get the best of me and jump right back on that horse and try again.

  So today, I stalled for a bit, I wasnt real eager to get back out there after last nights disaster. But I finally made it out to the shop and started on 3 fish at the same time. I got all the pieces cut for 2 of them, got them all foiled. I went back out to the shop to solder them together and half way through one a crack splits through a piece from heat fracture. When you solder with a hot iron on cold glass the glass goes into shock and fractures. So then I took each piece of the next one and held it in front of the woodstove until it heated up to the point it wouldnt fracture. Learn from your mistakes right? Wrong. The next one fractured too, and I have no idea why. The glass should have been plenty warm, it was warm to the touch. So out of 2 days of work, I have a pile of 3 broken fish to show for it, and no possibility of those ones being able to go to a store.

  This would all be fine if I had money, but I am literally broke right now. I need the money from this stained glass, and now that I have spent 2 days not working for dad I have made nothing. I only plan on spending a month here in WA, and a week already into it I am not looking too good. So tomorrow I try a new pattern, and if that breaks on me I am going to give up and work for dad, and try to make as much money as I can that way. I am so frustrated right now, and I needed a place to vent, what better place than a journal right?

  I love the pattern that I was doing, but it must be a major weekspot that keeps breaking, its not even the most narrow spot, I really dont understand it. But aparently that pattern just doesnt work for me.

staceyandbern at 3:53:16 AM EST Permalink | Blog about this entry |  Add to del.icio.us |  digg this This entry has 1 comments: Show Recent | Add your own

  I finally got around to putting pictures up! This is just a small selection of all the pictures we took along the trip. Perhaps I will even get a few more online a little later. I hope you all enjoy them!

 

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  I am sure everyone has the holidays on their minds, tis that time of year. I was looking through a magazine called the Vegetarian Times, and they have an article on some good groups to donate money to. So I looked at a few, and I thought I would share some in here, since it is the season of giving.

http://www.sustainableharvest.org/  Provides farmers in Central America with alternatives to slash and burn agriculture. Donations help to teach the farmers how to farm sustainably and buys seeds.

http://www.farmshare.org/  Recovers, sorts, packages and delivers nutritional food to those in need.

http://www.growinggardens.org  Focused on creating a sustainable community.

http://www.wasatchgardens.org/  Another one trying to provide healthy organic produce to the population, and to teach urban youth about responsibility, cooperation and ecological awareness.

http://www.dghonline.org/  Dedicated to improve health and foster other human rights for those most in need.

http://www.foodlifeline.org/  A non profit food distribution center in Western Washington. Providing more nutritious food to hungry low income people.

http://www.breadandjams.org/  Provides help for the homeless through food, health care, and help. They provide dinner each sunday for the homeless with live music for entertainment. Thus the jams part of bread and jams.

http://www.plenty.org/  Helping those in need through many programs.

http://ecologyfund.com/  Making a difference in nature!

  Well this is just a few of the many groups out there trying to make a difference. Perhaps one of them will move you enough that you feel you want to help them in your own unique way. Even though at the moment I dont have any money to donate, I love to look through these pages, they are a great inspiration to me, and it warms my heart to know that there are people out there trying to make a difference in their own way. Keep up the great work everyone!

staceyandbern at 3:51:14 AM EST Permalink | Blog about this entry |  Add to del.icio.us |  digg this This entry has 0 comments: Add your own

  Bernie spent this evening writing a wonderful story/article about our California Coastal hike. I would like to share this beautifully writen piece with you.

 

The California Coastal Trail: San Francisco to the Oregon Border

  Like an addiction, the urge to merge and exchange the very essence of our being with our surroundings became the guiding force that propelled us out our front door and into the classroom of life.  A few weeks in a box to contemplate and bring to the surface the lessons learned from the Tahoe Rim Trail was enough time to elevate ourselves to a higher and greater overall view of our life and  to appreciate our unique point of existence.   Having achieved and fused with a new idea, we were suddenly able to let go of what was, and essentially empty our Selves once again. It was time to fill up the Self with something entirely new.

  The California Coastal Trail book had been collecting dust for several years now waiting patiently for its time to provide usefulness in our lives.  The plan was for us to walk out the door and take one step at a time till we reached the Oregon border adjusting with the Moment and with whatever obstacles it presented for us at the immediate time.  From our previous travels we had learned that there was never a need to worry and that everything and every situation worked its self out.  From the Continental Divide Trail we had learned that nothing ever goes as planned.  We had found that the point of traveling was to explore what was unknown to us and to make it known to the core of our being.  How can one ever plan for what is unknown?  If everything in a trip is controlled, then how can anything be learned?  Letting go of our expectations and exposing our fears, we were suddenly able to take a step and evaluate each moment and how it effected us.  Aware of the action, we were suddenly able to decide what our next step in life was to be.  Each step in itself was a journey and adventure, trusting that no matter where the ride took us, we would still exist and be the better for it.  This was our ultimate Freedom!  This was our choice!  This is our life.

  With the blink of an eye we found ourselves traveling through a tunnel across the Bay to emerge into the light of the shoreline of San Francisco.  Once upon a time the fear of the unknown within the vast wild places of North America plagued our constricting minds.  In time, we identified the wilderness as our true home where we could experience who we were without the countless rules and regulations and limitations and chaos imposed by the nature of our society.  However, now we were to travel along the coastline, a metaphorical border between the symbolic nature of wilderness and civilization.  The route was not only to be a trail or a sandy beach as those found in the Golden Gate National Recreation Area, but also the ever-busy Highway One with little or no shoulder to buffer ourselves from the world that travels at light speed.  Our potential worries now came from the unpredictable and chaotic actions of human beings.  Our test was to integrate our movements in relationship to the restrictions and constraints of societies collective mind and to blend in with what we once considered unnatural.  But with an attitude acquired along the trails of life that all things and all energy is equal, we could no longer hold bias towards pavement, an extra wide trail, and the ghostly machines that haunt these pathways along the integrated web of all life. Like deer grazing and moving freely at the side of the road, we quietly and respectfully appeared and disappeared into the fabric of the landscape invisible to those who chose not to open their eyes. 

  Occasionally, cheers from the honking of a car horn bolstered our energy while the coca cola can from a disgruntled youth thrown at our heals from a speeding car told us the story of a polarized nation and a world of opposites.  Conflict is apparently Natural in a world where everything feeds and exchanges energy with everything else.  The red fox weaving its way through a herd of cows and the bobcat patiently stalking rodents on a dairy farm showed us that two very different worlds can, however, co-exist.

  We were constantly reminded that beauty exists in all things.  Celebrations seen in waves of harmony crashed upon our shores as Coyotes serenaded us in islands of dunes, where micro-wildernesses flourished alongthe ever-shifting sands.  Each grain is indeed truly a sacred world to be marveled upon.  Worlds upon worlds, mingling and interacting with other worlds, is a miracle to be witness to.

  Have you ever seen Sanderling’s dancing to the rhythm of the waves between two great giants colliding with one another?  Along the transforming shoreline, surf scoters rode the waves and free dove for their invertebrate meals while the brown pelicans plunged into a sea of mystery and diversity.  Can you hear the sea lions barking?  Do they speak to you?

  In finding the Lost Coast of  California, we found a world that we could easily make more sense of.  A recently weaned black bear momentarily walked the same path in life as we did, popping tanoak acorns in its mouth as it brushed on by us.  For a moment we all saw the earth with the same eyes.  The elk chewed its cud and watched us curiously as if eating dinner in front of a television.  If only we could all act so relaxed in a world that is sometimes so tense.  Why can’t we all watch and learn from each other?

  How many times did we talk with the birds as we stared deeply into each others souls?  They spoke to us and we spoke to them with a deep awareness, and a wanting to share a moment in time together.  Flowering plants and trees spoke to us too.  Along our route, the Douglas firs, Cypress‘s, Shore pines, Bishop pines, and eventually Sitka spruce each took their turn lining the coastline occupying a specialized home that has molded it into what it has become.

  Then there are, of course, the majestic Redwoods.  These are the tallest trees in the world;  Well, at least the five remaining percent of Old Growth that have survived since the great slaughter.  It is truly hard for us to imagine what state of mind it actually takes to disrespect such an awe inspiring creature and habitat.

  Disrespect seems to be manifested through our fears.  Therefore, walking one step at a time on a pilgrimage through nature allows one to envision the rhythms of how our neighbors mold and shape us and how allthings are interconnected.  Looking closely at Nature allows us to look closely at our selves and to dispel our fears.  It is a mirror that brings to the surface the reasons for our behavior and our very being.

  A hike along the California Coast brought to us a wide range of emotions and showed us that beauty can be found in any situation.  A hike through Nature, no matter how impacted by civilization, will provide for each of us the wisdom that each of us seeks as we journey away from home in search for growth and the answers to the questions we long to discover in life.

  May each step you take, be a home away from home, and one of self discovery.  Enjoy what is here and Now along the shores of your very heart and soul.

By: Bernie Krausse

staceyandbern at 3:54:06 AM EST Permalink | Blog about this entry |  Add to del.icio.us |  digg this This entry has 3 comments: Show Recent | Add your own