I always come back to it, lately. The Ascent Gully. As a climber, a Descent Gully is a path or scramble down after topping out on a lead-climbing route that for some reason you do not rappel (descend using ropes). Working with some amazing recreational therapists in the Adirondack Park, I often went up these routes to rig belays and top ropes for new climbing groups. There is a super-obvious, super-intimidating one that I have yet to travel in either direction that has started looming in my morning dreams, a thing of personal myth and legend with a shadowy awesome picturesque goal concealed in the heights above. My wish, prediction, and resolution for the year will be reaching that height.
The longest journey begins at your own front door, an axiom for any task: groceries, a gnarly portage into distant lakes, planning the weekly date-night. The Adirondack Adventure is no exception, and the journey is frequently a tangential one, feeling like a circling around your intent instead of a Point A-B-C progression. Clients have a goal: Guiding is filling in the ephemera around goals to facilitate them. Guide, Guide Yourself! (te ipsum dirige)
The header picture is my partner Natty B as we ascend toward the Wildhorse Tank in Arizona. It was a distraction, embarked upon as a whim, a tangent to the nebulous goal of communing with the saguaro and breakfast burritos in a favorite national park, and it turned into the goal of the day. This gully in the West is different, sand versus rock, arid versus moist, early morning bird and coyote song versus… that’s the same, apparently. Sharing that experience makes the experience, too. Most places worth going by my estimation are made better (and safer) in company, and you never know who you’ll run into!
Renee, a new trail friend whom we waylaid to get some information en-route. Noteworthy for our common goal-of-the-day, our mutual desire to ask for directions, and our complete inability to satisfy each other. It turned out that she was from Ithaca NY and hiking to celebrate a Masters of O/T and loves hiking in both the desert AND the Adirondacks, just like us! (I was doing O/T, but samsies?) She reached the Wildhorse Tank and we went off on an intentional tangent and we both reached our goals of desert hiking. It was totally random to meet her, totally fun to hike covalently, and 100% within the open confines of what I’m going on about this year, The Ascent Gully.
This is my unpacking, for the moment. It is leading to plan, train, and execute a dream and a trip. Get Outside, wherever you are!
Now followable on Instagram at ephemeradk. Daily pictures, mostly apposite:)
