From GOOD collaborator Frank Chimero’s blog, http://blog.frankchimero.com/

“One final paragraph of advice: do not burn yourselves out. Be as I am — a reluctant enthusiast… a part-time crusader, a half-hearted fanatic. Save the other half of yourselves and your lives for pleasure and adventure. It is not enough to fight for the land; it is even more important to enjoy it. While you can. While it’s still here. So get out there and hunt and fish and mess around with your friends, ramble out yonder and explore the forests, climb the mountains, bag the peaks, run the rivers, breathe deep of that yet sweet and lucid air, sit quietly for a while and contemplate the precious stillness, the lovely, mysterious, and awesome space. Enjoy yourselves, keep your brain in your head and your head firmly attached to the body, the body active and alive, and I promise you this much; I promise you this one sweet victory over our enemies, over those desk-bound men and women with their hearts in a safe deposit box, and their eyes hypnotized by desk calculators. I promise you this; You will outlive the bastards.”

From a speech to environmentalists in Missoula, Montana in 1978 and in Colorado, which was published in High Country News in the 1970s or early 1980s under the title “Joy, Shipmates, Joy.”, as quoted in Saving Nature’s Legacy : Protecting and Restoring Biodiversity (1994) by Reed F. Noss, Allen Y. Cooperrider, and Rodger Schlickeisen, p. 338.

This quote speaks to me when I think of what I want to do in the future, what I’m doing now, how i enjoy the things around me, how i interact with the people around me. I’m in a unique position where I have limited time in the place that I’m comfortable at, where the people speak the same language and where I’m familiar with most of the gems I’d like to uncover before I leave. It’s moments like this where I am able to look past what NEEDS to be done right now (bills, homework, planning) and realize that those things will be taken care of eventually but I still manage to become so entangled in that train of thought. Must. produce. results. Adventure calls! Where are we going?!

Failed attempt at a staged adventure (beautiful runs along the reservoir are highly recommended though!)

Taking a breather in nature's chair (don't get mad at me for posting this, Ms. C!)