Bluebird Day: Days Off

I always experience an interesting feeling during the summer, particularly in late July and in August (these are what I think of as the “dog days” of summer). At times, the days seem to stretch on and are full of potential, even in the lull of late afternoon. I love the feeling of having enough daylight to be outdoors for a while, and I’ve barely used my headlamp this summer, although that’s also because I usually fall asleep by 9 pm when I’m in the field! After weeks of the wonderful feeling of having lots of time, the middle of August confronts me with the startling realization that the summer is coming to an end. Between eight day long hitches in the backcountry and many adventures on my days off, this summer has been a whirlwind of unpacking and repacking. It has certainly gone quickly, but I think I have packed a lot into it, and have been able to enjoy my time off.

I’m writing one blog post to encompass all of my days off. My schedule for the summer typically was an eight-day hitch in the backcountry followed by 4-6 days off. These large chunks of time lent themselves well to adventures, and I tried to maintain the difficult balance of exploring new places and also relaxing.

After my first hitch back in June, I had five days off, and I ended up going on a somewhat spontaneous solo trip to Seattle (how’s that for alliteration?). I had been to Seattle once before in middle school, and I was excited to explore the city after spending time in the backcountry. I arrived in Seattle without much of a plan, but after a couple hours, I secured a bed in a beautiful, clean, and affordable hostel only two blocks from downtown. I spent two nights there, and filled my days with visiting the Space Needle, leisurely wandering through the stalls of Pike Place Market, and eating delicious food. Although finding free parking in Seattle was a little stressful, once I left the car, I enjoyed navigating the city by foot. It was fun to see people from all over the world at the hostel, including France, the UK, and Japan.

Several weeks ago, one of the other interns, Kristina, and I decided to spend a few days camping at Tin Cup Lake, which is in the Bitterroot National Forest portion of the Selway-Bitterroot wilderness. We never work in this district, so it was fun to check out a new area. We hiked in 11 miles and set up camp on the shore of the lake. The next two days were a combination of reading an entire book (Indian Creek Chronicles, which I read in preparation for my upcoming semester in Idaho’s Frank Church-River of No Return wilderness), eating lots of fruits and vegetables, and picking huckleberries. This short trip did me a world of good, because I remembered how much I enjoyed recreational backpacking, rather than just doing it as part of trail work. We had a lot of fun once we realized that we could eat lunch whenever we wanted to, stop for a swim break, and have a completely unstructured schedule. On the last night, we began to see a smoke column from behind the mountains that framed the lake. The smoke gradually turned to be a simultaneously beautiful yet eerie color of orange. I should also mention that we were completely safe, since the fire was far away.

For my most recent days off, I drove to Bozeman, Montana, to visit with a high school friend and her sister and brother-in-law. It was great fun to stay in their beautiful apartment and to wander around downtown Bozeman, and just catch up with a dear friend who I haven’t spent much with during the past two years. As much as I have loved spending the majority of the summer sleeping in a tent and eternally covered in a layer of grime, I equally enjoyed being clean and dressing up when we went out to dinner. I was also fortunate enough to be able to meet up with my high school science teacher who was in town. Reconnecting with people from my past was exactly what I needed to unwind.

I think that I tend to always look at adventures as being 100% fun, and glossing over the part that is challenging. Coming out west to work in the largest area of wilderness in the lower 48 was certainly an adventure with huge challenges, but also contained the sweetest rewards imaginable, including complete solitude, sunsets, sunrises, swimming holes, laughter, and happiness. Through long days of hiking in sweltering heat, sometimes struggling to find a water source, and fighting off seemingly inevitable blisters, the summer was much more mentally challenging than I thought it would be. But from these challenges, friendships, insight, and a huge amount of self-awareness have arisen. I have gained a ton of backpacking experience, and a type of self-confidence that will transcend my life, even when I’m back in school. In my opinion, the most important part about adventures is that the highlights outweigh the challenges. Hiking for 14.5 hours straight or digging check steps for eight days actually end up making really great stories, and the moments of connection to the landscape and the people around me are the most important things I remember from this experience. I have been so fortunate to see such a remote area of the country, and to have indescribable feelings of peace and pure relaxation.