Book Club

The Nature Fix

As we gathered at the trailhead before setting out on our backpack adventure, I encouraged everyone to take time to look, feel and smell as we walk. I told them to pay attention to how the wind feels on your skin, listen to the birds. I told them that I love them all, but I am a true introvert and being social drains my energy. Being alone is what really fuels me. I know I’m not the only one. I told them to take time for themselves if they need it – and lets all respect each other’s needs.

We were embarking on a session of nature immersion for the weekend with an overnight backpack trip to Ingalls Creek. Our June book club pick, The Nature Fix, highlights research that shows the benefits of being in the woods. It’s amazing that you only need to be outside about 5 hours a month to reap the benefits: lower heart rate, lower stress levels, lower blood pressure, heightened cognitive ability, and even increased empathy for others. We were putting the research to the test. From the beginning of the hike, I could immediately tell this one was different. We all slowed down, we stopped to take more photos, we inspected and smelled flowers and trees.

The trail wanders along the creek and was teeming with a rainbow of wildflowers. We spied the usual orange of the tiger lily, red of the columbine and paintbrush, pink of the wild roses, along with some more unusual sightings: white Cat’s Ears, yellow paintbrush, blue penstemon, and the elusive Mountain Lady’s Slipper. It was my first sighting of the delicate orchid and we all squeezed together on the trail for a look.

As we progressed on the trail, we noticed that the flora was changing. The beginning of the trail traversed an old burn, still recovering with sun-loving plants dominating. Later we entered a more mature forest with huge ponderosa pine trees. We gave them hugs and smelled them. We discussed the best way to go about it and decided that it was to find a tree exposed to the sun and then get your nose into the deepest fissure in the bark you can find. Close your eyes and take a deep breath. Ponderosa pines have the delightful scent of the most luxurious vanilla you’ve ever smelled. Brenda told me it reminds her of creme brulee. We immediately got hungry and proceeded to plot a way to bring and/or make backcountry creme brulee.

We found a large camping spot in the trees to fit our group and set up camp. Some of the group continued up the trail a ways for lunch. Others stayed and cooked up lunch and made some tea at the campsite. For Mala, who we lovingly call our trail mama, this backpacking trip was a first. She went out and bought all new backpacking gear (she willingly commits to anything the book club does) and when we showed her our camp stoves and cookware she cracked up at how tiny it all was. She is used to cooking in large batches, whether for her family or while taking over our book club camp meals, and said she felt like a kid playing with cooking toys. She giggled the whole way through each meal and it made all of us smile.

Laura and I lazed along the riverside for a while and caught up on life. While we chatted a butterfly came to visit me. It sat on the rock beside me for a long time, giving me a sense of ease and comfort. I studied its colors and patterns. The others made their way down to the riverside as well. There we sat for a long time. We talked, napped, read, with no agenda, no expectations. Brenda studied for an upcoming statistics exam, one she was worried about passing (later she told us that she aced her exam and chalked it up to our nature fix). As the sun tracked above our heads and grew warmer, we all dipped our toes into the chill of the snow-fed creek.

As dinner time was nearing, I went and gathered some things around the forest and had everyone sit in a circle. I told them to pick an item- moss, sticks, pine cones, etc. I had them describe what they noticed during our hike on the trail and what they noticed about their items as they studied them. I welcomed everyone to take off their shoes and put their feet in the dirt (it felt so good!) for grounding and we did a short meditation together. Closing our eyes, relaxing our bodies, being in the moment.

We cooked our dinners (with Mala chuckles) and had our book discussion. One of the things that struck most of the group was that its not just adults who need to get into nature more, but our kids. Its hard to argue that time outside helps kids to focus and keeps them active and healthy. I especially enjoyed the chapters toward the end that talk about how being outside increases our sense of community and purpose in the world. And how just listening to birdsong, whether outside or through your headphones, gives us a sense of calm and peace. Birds only sing when they are safe and when all is right in the world.

I felt compelled, though, to share that I don’t think that nature is a “fix” for everyone. No one should feel that being outside will magically solve all of life’s problems. I prefer to call it the nature “assist.” Being outside can help to reduce anxiety and depression, but I don’t believe that it should replace medication and most importantly, no one should feel bad about themselves if nature is not a “fix” for them.

After dinner Laura got out her gorgeous Tarot cards and did readings for us. Laura and I shared our fascination with Tarot a while back and decided we should do readings while backpacking. I thought we might scare off our book club members, but everyone was pretty into it. After that we filtered off to bed. Rebecca and I lingered for a bit. She wasn’t tired and she didn’t have a book to read, her phone was dead, and we didn’t have any paper for her to write or draw. I smirked a little and gave her a challenge to just relax and enjoy being in the woods.

The next morning as we made breakfast and tea, Rebecca showed us the mountain that she whittled out of wood. My jaw dropped. She showed us all of the little things she made out of wood while we slept. They were beautiful and we passed them around and took photos. I turned to her, “you’re not the kind of person who can easily relax are you?” She replied, “no, definitely not.” We laughed. I guess some of us need a longer nature fix than others.

photo courtesy of Mala Giri
The Nature Fix by Florence Williams

Book Ends

Book Club Archive

Book Club

Animal Dialogues

My worn paperback copy of The Animal Dialogues lives on the “dad” shelf of my living room bookshelves. Most of the spines happen to be black, brown, or gold (dad colors, right?) and have either been given to me from my dad or remind me of him. Some I picked up on our road trip through Alaska ten years ago, others are his old bird identification books, their covers tattered from use. Most are about wildlife, adventure, or nature in some way, books I’ve read and loved and sent him for his birthday or Fathers Day so he could read them too. A simply framed box, given to me on my 28th birthday, holds four sharply cut arrowheads found by my dad or my grandfather and rests on a pile of books in the center of the shelf. A carefully detailed account of when and where each was found tucked behind the casing. Other little items that my dad has passed onto me through the years are carefully placed between the books like one of his high school report cards (his best grade was in Biology) and an old engineer’s handbooks from the 1940’s. My grandfather was a train engineer and I love flipping through the delicate blueprints of steam locomotive systems that fold out of the books. One could learn much about my dad and his interests from this shelf, and consequently, much about myself and the traits I get from him and my grandfather.

So needless to say,  I was thrilled when mountain guide and adventure writer, Charlotte Austin, recommended reading this book and collaborating with her online book club, Adventure Grapes. I first read this book about a decade ago and I could immediately and vividly recall the Raven and Mountain Lion chapters. I was excited to revisit it and since Craig grew up in Arizona and many of his stories are set there, it would pair nicely with an upcoming road trip to his home state. We planned our May book club outing to Icicle Ridge, a nice early season hike near Leavenworth. Laura invited us to camp at her family’s nearby cabin so I brought the whole family- my husband, Evie, and doggie Nali. It’s been awhile since we’ve all been out on an adventure together.

We were greeted at the cabin with hugs and bug spray. I was secretly hoping that we would have some epic wildlife encounters over the weekend and I was encouraged when I spotted a coyote trotting down the railroad tracks next to highway 2 on our drive to the cabin. BUT, as the saying goes, be careful what you wish for. We did have an epic encounter with an animal highlighted in the book. Unfortunately, it was with a less desirable species: the mosquito. I played it cool for awhile and nonchalantly swatted the bugs while I listened intently to my friends, concentrating on making eye contact and nodding in agreement, uh-huh (slap, slap). This lasted a little while until I couldn’t take it anymore. I  jumped up and really sprayed myself with bug spray this time, hovering the bottle for a long time over my limbs and head. I felt like Craig’s friend who had gone crazy from the mosquitoes in Alaska. We had been at the cabin for approximately 30 minutes. Ugh.

Laura and I and some others who had arrived decided to take refuge in the car and head over to Lake Wenatchee for a short hike while the sun was beginning to set. We lingered along the shoreline, basking in the fresh and bug-free air until we got too hungry and headed back to the cabin for dinner. As we drove, it started unexpectedly raining. Then it rained harder. Our husbands had stayed behind to keep a fire going and we found them huddled on the porch out of the rain. The fire still burned and they found round pieces of bark to place on the fire grate that made perfect little houses to cook our sausages. The rain dispersed the bugs, the porch kept us dry, and we ate via lantern light as we told our own scary wildlife encounters. This was after hearing the news that someone had been killed by a mountain lion that morning in an area where we all regularly hike. It was the first fatal attack by a mountain lion in Washington in nearly 100 years. Sadly, the victim had done everything they were supposed to do. It was a sobering reminder that we too have a place in nature’s food chain.

The next morning we headed to Leavenworth to fuel up on caffeine at the adorable Argonaut Espresso Bar. We met the rest of our group at the Icicle Ridge trailhead and headed up the trail through a thick stand of green maples. The lushness soon gave way to the typical dusty trail lined by ponderosa pine, lupine, and balsamroot (that magical combination again!). It was warm and getting hotter by the minute on the exposed trail. But the views of the Icicle Valley and the Wenatchee River below were getting better and better. I slogged up the switchbacks, happy to have time to clear my mind. That’s the thing about hiking, you don’t have to make many decisions. You just follow the trail. I thought of the part in the book when Craig yearns to be an animal with no plans, no quarrels, just sticks and stones.

It is the wish to be an animal again, to have the eyes that I have lost. No presuppositions. Just sticks and stones. I want something that is gone, something unacceptable, irrational. Where it is known when to sleep, where to seek food, which direction to turn. Where it is understood, without quarrel or reason. I want to lose my fingers and plans and I want to fly.

We gathered at the top of the ridge in the shade and lingered a while. We marveled at our new view of the Wenatchee River raging through Tumwater Canyon, a stark contrast to the lazy version flowing through town. Waterfalls blazed white on the far reaches of the ridge and carved their way down to the river in impressive ribbons. We all agreed that it seemed early for the amount of snow melt happening already this year. We walked along the ridge through balsamroot to the overlook, Leavenworth spread out below, and asked someone to take our picture. We had sunglasses and hats on, full of mosquito bites and sweat. Ah, it felt like summer.

I wanted to share the discussion questions I came up with for Adventure Grapes, you can see them here. I would love to hear your thoughts on the book. It is one of my favorites and brings up so may fascinating questions about our relationship with wild animals. We can’t possibly know what goes on in an animal’s mind, but I know that we are not the first animals to think, remember, love, and see beauty and we should treat them accordingly. As Robin Wall Kimmerer says in her book, Braiding Sweetgrass, we have so much to learn from these species who have been on the earth much longer than us.

The life of an animal lies outside of conjecture. It is far beyond the scientific papers and the campfire stories. It is as true as breath. It is important as the words of children.

 

The Animal Dialogues by Craig Childs

 

Book Ends
Outdoor Life

But, Where Are All The Men?

Yes, sigh, I was asked this a few weeks ago when I took my lady friends backpacking. We were not in any sort of trouble. We were not lost, injured, hungry, tired or struggling in any way, shape or form. We were just hiking along after a fun and adventurous night in the mountains. No need for men here, we weathered the storm perfectly well on our own, I said. The old man chuckled and I rolled my eyes as I kept on walking. Damsels we most certainly were not, thankyouverymuch.

After a few years of casually mentioning a backpacking trip with my friends, I finally decided to make it happen. I rounded up a few of the adventurous ones and we picked a weekend and a trail: Yellow Aster Butte in August. Some of them hadn’t backpacked since they were younger so we discussed what to bring and what to expect on the trail. I mixed up many dried meals into tiny bags and borrowed a big tent. I pictured group photos at the top of the butte with blue skies and jagged peaks behind us. I could not wait to see their faces as they watched the pink and orange sunset behind Shuksan. Everything was planned. And then I checked the weather.

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The first rain storm was coming after a drought of a summer. I checked the weather everyday that week and every day the prognosis was worse. Chance of showers changed to 60% chance of rain with lows in the 40’s. Ok, fine, we’ll be cold and maybe a little wet. It will be an adventure. By Thursday it was 80% chance of rain and by Friday it was full blown storm’s-a-coming, 3-4 inches of rain and 60 mph winds. And it might even snow. I literally laughed out loud when I saw this. How silly of me to think I had it all planned out.

One out of the group bailed and others seemed hesitant. I wasn’t about to take them into that kind of rain. We would be miserable. I needed a back-up plan. I looked to the drier east side of the mountains. The North Cascades were experiencing unprecedented wildfires and huge areas of National Forest were closed to hikers, so that left few options. It looked like there would be less rain in Leavenworth and I thought maybe we could score a coveted Enchantments permit to some of the lakes in the area. It was a long shot on a weekend but I figured we’d give it a try. My friends were all on board, confident that their leader knew what she doing. They were certainly more confident than I was.

We met up Saturday morning and did last minute prepping. We checked for all the rain gear: jackets, tarp, backpack covers. And warm stuff: hats and fleeces and gloves. Check. We divided up the gear and most importantly, determined how much alcohol we would be sufficient without overloading our packs. We decided, realistically, that we needed very little. Sarah brought us freshly baked blueberry scones to fuel us on the long drive (check out her lovely food blog, Little House Pantry). After all the planning and re-planning, we were finally on our way and I was so excited for my first ever all women backpacking trip! Two hours later we arrived at the Leavenworth ranger station and asked for a permit. They said they only had permits left for Lake Stuart as they eyed us up and down. Have you checked the weather?

The hike started out great. We had sun, rain and clouds all in the first few miles. But we were hardly paying attention as we caught up on what was happening in each others lives. We stopped for a snack and covered our packs when the rain became steadier. Once in a while a big gust of wind would come try to blow us off the trail, reminding us that a storm was brewing. We were stopped by a duo of rangers asking to see our permit. Have you checked the weather? they asked.

We circled the lake until we finally found a camping spot, set up the tent and tarp and devoured a late lunch of turkey and avocado pita sandwiches. It wasn’t raining so we sat by the lake sipping cider with rum and cocoa spiked with peppermint schnapps. Later as it started to get dark we whipped up some backcountry biscuits to warm us up. Then we saw the most spectacular thing. We noticed a strange bright light coming from behind the mountains straight across the lake from us. We were mesmerized by it lighting up the bottom of the clouds. Suddenly the clouds parted just enough to see the top of the super moon cresting over the mountain top. It was so big and bright it felt like you could reach out and touch it.

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It was getting cold so we snuggled up in our sleeping bags. It was quiet and there was still little sign of the forecasted storm. The tent was so bright from the moon that we didn’t need our headlamps. Someone said it was eerie and ominous, like the beginning of a horror movie. But we drifted off to sleep anyway. Later I woke up to the roar of the wind coming up the valley. I waited. One, two, three, four, five…it grew louder and then suddenly slammed into us. My eyes shot open to check the deflection of the tent poles. Then it was completely silent. This repeated a few times until the rain came. It rained and blew off and on all night, but we were cozy in our dry tent, the tarp deflecting the water away.

The next morning we took turns going in and out of the tent between rain showers. The wind died down and the rain came and went. We made oatmeal and ate it as we stood in a circle with our rain jackets on. The low clouds lifted enough to expose the tops of the mountains and they had just a touch of fresh overnight snow. We headed back and grabbed lunch in Leavenworth when we found out that the storms were bad in Seattle and that thousands of homes were without power. I was so glad I chose to go to the east side. But most importantly, we all made it through the storm and I am so proud of my friends. They are badass backpackers. They knew it would be an adventure with the weather but they didn’t back out. I think they even preferred the stormy weather since it makes for a better story. And no, we never once wished we had a man around to do something for us. We were perfectly fine on our own.

Backpacker’s Oatmeal Recipe:

1 packet or 1.5 oz instant oatmeal
2 Tbsp dried blueberries or cherries
1 Tbsp slivered almonds
1 Tbsp powdered milk
1 tsp brown sugar

Mix all ingredients in a ziplock bag (the snack bag size works great). On the trail add about 1/2 cup boiling water. Use less if you like a thicker texture and more if you like it soupy.

 

51UjKlxXZoL._SY344_BO1,204,203,200_Two in the Wild by Susan Fox Rogers

Solo journeys are great and I believe much needed, but sometimes you just want the company of a good friend. This book is a collection of essays about spending our valued outdoor time with others. There are stories of adventures with old friends, new friends, mothers, daughters and even ghosts. There are stories of finding friendship in unlikely places and encouraging each other to be brave. Anyone who has enjoyed the company of others on an outdoor journey will appreciate this book.

 

 

 

 

Hikes featured in this post:
Lake Stuart