Where Water Buffalo Roam

Salmon Run: exploring the Elwha River Valley January 2017 By Andrew Fast There was a time when we were cowboys, sailors, and natives living in a world of vastness that started at the edge of my driveway. The great density of adventure lingering like a low hanging fog on the bay behind my grandparents house on the Puget Sound or as palpable as wind on the tent wall of our family camping trips.  Loading up an aluminum flat bottom boat with snacks and abecedarian spears made of grandma’s old silverware on the end of a broom handle, we’d point the nose upstream against an outgoing tide.  Shirts tied around our heads, one man standing on the bow scouting for fish and the other at the stern.  Tilting the prop to clear the shallows and leaving the blade flaring loud like a long tail boat in Southeast Asia. It was our Mekong River. That was back when folks gave boys of eight or nine as much freedom as they could take.  So we would take it all.  And late...

     Is it sitting on the ledge of a high mountain: looking down at treetops thousands of feet below, while a gusty wind thumps your chest and a condor carves a bank turn up a thermal draft towards the sun? Is it lying on your back and feeling the weight of perspective when stars of Milky Way are close enough to touch? Is awe that feeling of bewilderment and fascination that comes from witnessing new life or death; the taste of a vanilla milk shake with a dash of rum after being in the saddle all day; A mad talented street performer; or dawn patrol surf with dolphins? Perhaps I will start with what it is not.      Nintendo can’t package it and a person won’t find it on Facebook.   According psychologist Dacher Keltner who heads the University of California, Berkeley’s Social Interaction Lab. “Awe is the feeling of being in the presence of something vast or beyond human scale that transcends our current understanding of things.”  It is ...

The photo sequence below is from a recent bike and run along the Elwah River.  Headed up river from the National Park entrance we did our best to emulate a Salmon's experience, only we didn't swim or lay eggs.  After the largest dam removal in US history, all five species of Salmon are no longer banging their head against a wall.  We didn't see any fish, got lost, and had a hell of a good time running wild in the mountains. 

Up in La Sal Mountains. Watchin' the clouds roll in and we'll watch 'em roll away again. Truckee Trails Nasty grade. Good views. You're awake. You're alive. Live like it. Opening day at Whitmore Pool. Really good to catch up with some amazing folks. First big day in Moab.  Came out of the pool around 7am and it was 75 degrees; started out on the La Sal loop with the Moab Fondo. By 12noon there'd been rain, then hail, then sun, then crazy winds on the decent back into the valley.  Feeling that weather worked and heading out for a run off the bike along the Colorado river. Best part of about the mountains? They're not predictable. Canyon Lands Salad mixed in a bag for dinner again? Time for an ice float. Mountain Dew in Mammoth. Giant TCR = heightened experience  Time for a snow melt shower.  June Lake June Lake Alpenglow. Fashion and sanity go down hill the lo...