anewmexico

sometimes it only takes a day's travel to get back to where your heart belongs. lately my mind has been in a place of oddity [for me at least], a place where people annoy me, time can't stop for even a few minutes and joy is mostly found when alone or around a 'few'.

do you ever think you find yourself in that the dilemma of desire is too much to live with, and so we abandon and disown our desire?

last weekend i flew down to albuquerque and got the chance to spend some time with my grandmother. i know i have been told more than once and by more than one that i ask A LOT of questions. do i? the majority of conversation with her was no different as i was enamored with her life and the smallest of details that got her to where she is today. her's is such a journey to be appreciated and so amazingly well remembered that i was left pondering past years and realizing that what i could remember did mean the most to me. funny how that works out.

i went for a trail run in the sandia mountains and couldn't have felt better about getting out in the southwest desert heat, jumping over boulders and running up the sand of a trail. i didn't see another person on the trek which was fine by me and i somehow managed to get terribly lost in the thicket of cactus country. awesome.

[sandia mtns.]

intothesun

oh my, montana is one overlooked state! i can't believe how many older people [whatever that means] said that they had never been there. a few drive throughs, even less visits, no live theres and plenty of never beens. i felt privileged. the destination was just shy of the canadian border and the plans were to beat ourselves up with bikes, trails, rivers, rafts, fishing rods, tents or no tents, and the most of which beauty.

Our experience of beauty transcends our ability to speak about it, for its magic lies beyond the power of words. Perhaps that is why it is so healing—beauty is pure gift

there is so much that we adventured i could write a short story on the trip and i'm sure still leave something out. we were mostly flying by the seat of our pants but one sure thing we planned was a bike ride from the west end of glacier national park to the east side. for the most part each national park has a designated road that winds you throughout giving unapologetic views of its pleasing landscape. most who travel this route do so in the comfort of their vehicle and hopefully at least with windows down. we had something else in mind and thought what better way than to experience glacier on bicycles. grand idea, right? well, currently my max mileage has not quite hit the double digits since i so wonderfully live 4 miles from work. needless to say, ready i was not. however, 32 enduring yet beautiful miles later we made it up to the 6,646 ft. pass and luckily oxygen was on our side since we live in the mile high city. it was such a heighten sense of accomplishment that we passed out for two hours right off the foot traffic of so many visitors at logan's pass. once refreshed we began the descent. i can barely explain the rush and feeling that surged though me when i flew down the other side of the pass. definitely a little scared at times but tried my best to not hold the brakes and keep my eyes on the road and off the beauty for fear of the most epic fall of my lifetime. a significant less amount of time it took us to crawl up glacier and 17 close calls later we exited the east side of the park. to my surprise the atmosphere on one end was drastically different than the other; we entered in density and exited on expanse, though both stunning in its own respect. we then proceeded to hitchhike....with our bikes.... but that's another story.

coloradosummer

oh sweet summer season, i have been anticipating your arrival.
to me summer is a time for days at the pool, grilling, riding bikes, fireworks, lake trips, camp, lazy afternoons, spontaneous nights, chicken salad, swings, all things fruit, playing tennis, bare feet, playing tennis while barefoot and dad getting mad, though this is just naming a few.

i remember when i was living in rome and other people i was studying with would dash off for single weekends at a time to other countries. and i'm not talking just the next country over. i'm talking like far across europe. it was cool and i'm sure they had a blast but i suppose i was more interested in what italy had to offer and what was just a bus a train and a jump away from rome.
as much as i wish i was still in school for the summer vacation and all that has to offer; i really can't complain too much. living in colorado is currently enough satisfaction. so, this summer i really want to traverse through this state finding little towns perfectly situated in the mountains, climbing to summits that lets me see for miles and even exploring more of denver. though most importantly, hoping to be constantly consumed by the beauty of colorado. so come on, work with me weekends.

let's go here:

steamboat springs
lumpy ridge
denver public library
durango
put my foot on the four corners
buffalo exchange on 13th avenue
black canyon of the gunnison n.p.
botanical gardens
summit of mt. of the holy cross
oh, and plenty of garage sales.

but first, an enterprise to montana.

passdeindependence

colorado has approximately 53 mountain passes. dang! that's a lot. this is just one:


as i was skimming through them i was trying to think back on which passes i had previously been to, though sadly couldn't recall more than about 5.
the pass of a mountain can often be compared to a saddle point and is almost always at alpine tundra, the point where there is no tree growth because of the high altitude. were talking high, at least like 8,000 feet sky high. here's a reference point--san antonio sits at a mere 650 feet above sea level. and well, who doesn't like to get up real high? hope i'm not being too much of a biased climber.
Q: why does one climb?
A: to get on top of something and all the gratifying emotions that comes with that.

i recently went to independence pass, at 12, 095 feet, located in between leadville and aspen colorado. [i sure thought the rocky mountains would be a little rockier than this] this place is b-e-autiful and beyond any doubt deserves a trip back to. this pass is colorado's highest paved road sitting in the sawatch mountain range. we totally lucked out and got to go the "short way" since the pass had just reopened memorial day weekend. apparently this area gets a hefty amount of snow and is only open from late may until early november. the intentions for the trip was to climb, nothing new there but i can't help but rant and rave that the places climbing take you to are worth the journey on its own. you get to camp on the arkansas river, you are perpetually effected by the elements [this is a soul awakening good thing], sit by a fire and drink p.b.r. oh, and look at sights such as this:

perhaps from here on out i'll pay more attention to the passes i'm driving on and stop to soak it up.

roadtrippin'

oh what a spontaneous road trip offers! no expectations, no real road map, no specific time frame. heighten senses emerging around each corner, abnormal amounts of cd listening, all that good stuff. the reason for the trip was to climb, simply climb. oh, and the destination was arkansas.

after some fast decisions, there was no turning back and we set off probably too late but who cares right? there was somewhere to be gettin' to. nothing, not darkness, not sleep deprivation, not even a pitcher of long island ice tea was going to hold us back. i was traveling with a person i could talk to for the 12 hour drive and still have more to talk about after arriving. remarkable i must say. i came to realize a lot of things about traveling and more specifically road-tripping that had previously crossed my mind but never made it to words. life on the road is quite a capricious lifestyle and nothing i have fully experienced. i can tell however it breathes new life into ones soul. i suppose the closest i have come to this is living in rome, but funny enough didn't operate a vehicle for 6 months so no road tripping, just train tripping.

i had never made this drive before so even though the majority was what some would say "the most boring drive in the US" across the flat midwest, i didn't mind it one bit. we caught the sliver of a moon and an uncommonly pink sunrise. pulling into fayetteville and more specifically driving around the university was so odd. just plain odd. it made me happy, sad, nostalgic and maybe a few other things. i should have taken a few hours and walked around campus but choose a nap instead.

the crazy thing about this trip was that i was going back to a very familiar place to do something i had never done there before. we left for horseshoe canyon ranch in the morning and spent 2 days there. we climbed, we climbed in the rain, we made new friends, we watched the rain soak into sandstone and tried not to get too upset about the predicament. even though weather conditions hurt the climbing situation it was still great to get out of the city life and into a slower pace. isn't part of the program in spontaneous action to be accepting of change whether you prefer it or not?
step 1: assess the situation.
step 2: do what you can/want.
step 3: be happy.
if you can't do these things i believe life on the road is not for you. but what do i know? i haven't been there.

citybythebay

did you know that 1/4 of the homeless population alone lives in san francisco? jeepers, i didn't. new news to me. in fact, i learned tons of new things this past weekend. the starting conversation for traveling to san francisco was for an architecture convention, real cool, i know. though at the root of the trip was so much more. a time to check out a new city, meet up and frolic with great friends, surround ourselves with thousands of others in our profession, a three day work week, and to be near the ocean [feeling a little land-locked in colorado].

i do not care what the population of san francisco is, but i relish in the fact that it is the second most dense city in the united states. to be exact 17, 323 people/sq.mile. for some reference new york city has 27,147 yankees /sq.mile and not to hate on texas, i am one myself, and their obsession with sprawling, dallas has 1,391 texans/sq.mile.

san francisco california did not capture me like other u.s. cities i have spent time in and was a little surprised by this. sometimes i think other circumstances can affect our initial feelings and lingering feelings on a particular place. maybe it was the constant mist in my face that was not so desirable, sadly weather and the like can change our outlook on a city, just as i don't have the fondest memory of chicago because of the constant freeze numb feeling that was on my body any and all times i was outdoors [92% of the time]. but as, to me, the best reminder of travel is that it "in fact doesn't matter where we go, but who are with that really counts" and this speaks right to my soul. i was in s.f. with two awesome girls and in chicago with 30 of my closest architecture peers. i could write a short novel on the memories.

obligatory bridge picture

don't get me wrong, i liked s.f., just not madly loved. maybe i wasn't able to grasp the city as a whole and that frustrated me. though a few things i thought were just great was: the public transportation, golden gate park, cultural influence and FOOD. i suppose with a good authentic mix of culture there is bound to be tasty food. we ate food that we choose from a menu written in chinese resulting in a lot of pointing and head nods in china town, bubble tea in japantown and so much more. if i were to ever move to s.f. i would affix my residence in close proximity to golden gate park. when you are in the park you get lost in it and can barely feel that a metropolis is near. this is a huge urban park and lets you escape the city life and play under the dense landscape. american public transportation is trying. in a few cities it works, really works and i believe s.f. is one of them. it was super easy to comprehend and not once did we get lost or turned around, um well maybe once. as a whole the bus system works well with the metro or b.a.r.t. as it is called there and i'm sure this is much appreciated but the san franciscan commuter. maybe i should think about taking public transportation more or even just once in denver. well, as stereotypical as california can be i didn't get that vibe in san francisco and truly admire the city for it's authenticity.

academy of the sciences | renzo piano

webike

today i biked to work. never done it before and now probably never gonna stop.
one of the best things about riding a bike is that you're out in the open. the windows are always down and you can easily roll through 'optional' stop signs at your discretion.

sidewalk, road, sidewalk, bike lane, someones driveway, jump a curb, park trials, road.
wherever you wish, you can go. i'm in a state of liberation when i'm moving on a bike. not only will i be starting my day with exercise and a daily dose of sunshine but i will save some money on gas and even more thrilling, opportunities to explore new places my car won't take me. and there are countless ways to get to work. today i took the "don't really pay attention to street names and just head in the general southeast direction to work" and this panned out great. i passed an inviting little park that i will have to stop and spend some time in soon. i'm sure next time i ride to work the course will be different and hopefully lead me to something alluring.

i hope to bike to work as much as possible since the weather is so accommodating and blissful this time of year. everyday is not realistic since there will have to be days for appointments, days of rain, days of meeting friends for lunch and of course days of friday happy hours with no desire to obtain a BUI. until i learn to fix a flat i will be commuting on my hybrid but really relish the day when i can get my 1975 trek rolling smooth. just a few tune ups and maybe even a fresh paint job should do the trick.

trueinspiration

i recently had the opportunity to hear erik weihenmayer speak and wasn't going to miss it. truly inspiring. on top of this, i was excited about the location: historic east high school at city park in denver. yes, i am a dork who takes such interest in local architecture.
just in august 2008 he completed his voyage to climb the seven summits- reaching the highest mountain on each of the seven continents.

[in no order]
mt. kilimanjaro | africa
mt. mckinley | north america
vinson massif | antarctica
elbrus | europe
kosciuszko | australia
carstensz pyramid | austral-asia
[when in the hoo-hah did we get a new continent?]
everest | asia
aconcagua | south america

fewer than 100 mountaineers have accomplished this triumph.


"people get trapped into thinking about just one way of doing things"
-erik weihenmayer, blind rock climber

yes, you read that correctly. he, in fact, is blind. making this feat all the more unbelievable and astounding. his words touched me deeply in my passion for seeing more of this world and climbing to the summit of life's many pursuits.

desertclimbing

only a white-out blizzard could come close to stopping me from getting into a car and driving straight west into the rocky mountains. but with great coincidence a spring snow sprung on denver early thursday morning and apparently this was even uncommon for denver. AWESOME, not. not awesome. do you know when you have something on your mind that is heavenly and soon to be happening and you will learn to do a triple back flip over night to bring it to fruition if need be? well, going to moab was that. once the idea is instilled in the brain even 12" of non-plowed snow roads won't hold you back. and it didn't. so maybe against out better judgment we set out.


our destination was moab, utah and this place turned out to be even more entrancing than i had imagined. nothing is better than topping your expectations. we set up camp on the colorado river and strategically located ourselves near the only bouldering around and just a short drive from the crag. the city of moab itself caters to the outdoor enthused souls and is sprinkled with the everyday tourist here and there. though mostly around town are avid mountain bikers, off-roaders, hikers and even ballsy base jumpers [one of which we saw].oh, and of course trad|sport|boulder climbing lovers. you can feel the energy and the passion that each collection of people has for their respected extreme sport.

we climbed slab, we climbed cracks, we traversed on flakes, we took the wind head-on and reached the top of the most pleasant multi-pitch climb i've encountered so far and all the while rejoiced in the fact that we were of the few denverits who were not treading through countless inches of snow. yee haw! however, one thing i do recall missing a sight of: a sunset, unforgettable or just the same as any third tuesday dusk of the month, i didn't see one. well, there it is, i've got to go back and see a sunset and of course check out more of what moab has to offer. if you are close you should not pass up this treasure in our country.

picture skills: pat harris :)

lunch funSchlessman

who says you can't have an adventure on your lunch break?
I simply can NOT stand going to the hangout/break room, grabbing my lunch and plopping back down at my desk to stare yet again into the oversize monitor. which by the way does not lend itself to being discrete enough to watch humorous you-tube videos or anything else as equally inappropriate in this office. and plus, I'm on a busy corner that gets a lot of foot traffic, yeah as opposed to bikes or scooters..just sad.
so usually, when the weather permits and it most often does in colorado, i venture into Lowry. formerly the lowry air force base but permanently closed in 1994 and just missing the awful developer's suburbia sprawl that leaves me with a bad taste in my mouth. lowry has truly been well executed as an urban development neighborhood and i like it. the feel, the flow, the functionality, the uhhhh aged flora. okay that was a stretch. but there are many aspects of this denver tract that i admire. and i work here, so bonus.
one place i go often, say a couple times a week especially in the winter is the public library. this is just a small branch of the mondo size dowtown hub library and i believe is designed with the reader in mind. i usually drive there which i am a little ashamed of but yesterday walked for the first time. i guess i value the library time a little more than the stroll to get there and plus i can't be taking 2.5 hour lunches, unless i fall asleep in the park, then its more than okay [which has been accomplished many a time]. so the Schlessman library is always packed with all sorts of folk. the lowry up scale type, border line homeless, small cute children, elderly, business men and women on lunch breaks, nannies with 6 kiddos and i'm sure many more stereotypes if you observed enough. essentially all the combinations of people in such a small well flowing place is an attractive atmosphere. It makes sense that "in a complex social fabric, human relations are inevitably subtle. it is essential that each person feels free to make connections or not, to move or not, to talk or not, to change the situation or not, according to his judgenment."[pattern language:the flow through rooms]
even just an hour of my day spent diving into books on foreign countries, religion, wine and|or magazines on climbing, improving physique or revamping and making the most my hall linen closet makes me love life a little more. and as taking the place of a top favorite pastime of 'going to barnes and noble to read books and scan through magazines' you can now leave debt free with books [i think like 15] in hand. well, i have accumulated a few small late charges. eeeeeee.