In early May, I felt the itch for a long backcountry trip far away from cell reception and computers. My slowly-healing broken ankle had kept me out of the mountains for any sustained period of time, and I needed the simplicity of slow coffee mornings, trails, and long sunsets. I wanted to wake up with no one around for miles. Continue reading
The Aftermath
Yesterday, I strapped on my ski boot for the first time since I broke my ankle. I gingerly stuffed my foot into the plastic, buckled it loosely, and leaned forward, waiting for the pain to come screaming up my leg. It didn’t, so I thought, “Damn, I think can do this.” Continue reading
Lessons in Forced Stillness
I haven’t stopped moving in two years. In 2015 I hopped on a plane for New Zealand, where I lived in the back of my beloved little station wagon for the summer and skied my way through the mountains in winter. When I returned stateside late that year, I didn’t spend two weeks straight in one place. Continue reading
Saying Goodbye
I said goodbye to my girl yesterday, eight years after we met in the Missoula pound. She was three years old then, and huge. Her papers listed her as a lab/husky/shepherd/pointer, which is pound-speak for “giant mutt.” I’m convinced she was part wolf. Continue reading
Burning Away the Haze
They say bad things happen in threes. It was a week full of loss.
It began with the loss of a love, and I’m drowning in my decision to let this one go. It was followed on its heels by the loss of my faith in the underlying ultimate goodness of this country.
But it was the last one that rocked me, that leveled us all like a blast. Continue reading
One Year Later
Almost exactly one year after I left New Zealand, I landed back in Wanaka. I went for a hike with a long lost friend, and as the sun set over those familiar mountains across the lake, it felt like coming home.
I braced for a repeat of tearing myself away from this place again in mid-September, caught in a surreal emotional loop. Continue reading
Welcome to Montana
In Montana, a three-day weekend at the start of a long awaited (long awaited) summer is the most coveted time to get outside. But not the kind of outside where you grab your sunscreen and head to a lawn chair. A long weekend here is grounds for serious adventure, western-style. Continue reading
In Search of Simplicity
My latest life resolution was conceived during an atypical women’s retreat that involved dance parties, whiskey, naked mid-day saunas, and three other women very dear to my heart. Continue reading
