Mt. Rainier, Mt. St Helens, Crater Lake, Burning Man 2004, San Francisco, Canyonlands National Park
No matter how much I try to hold onto the present it always seems to slip off into the future. It’s hard to imagine that it’s been three months since my last update. I suppose when I decided to take a break from working on my book all other writing got left behind as well. Even my journal has been void of thoughts lately. Lots of things have happened in these past three months – let me catch you up.
I left Canada and headed south back into the continental United States. My first stop of note was Mt. Rainier National Park and its snow capped peak rising majestically out of 
the misty forests of the Pacific Northwest. This was my first visit to Rainier and when I came around a bend in the road and saw the mountain for the first time I was awe struck. I pulled over and sat awhile picking over its rocky crags and flowing glaciers with my eyes and allowing its form to settle into my mind like the face of a new friend. With the dog banned from the trails, I explored as much as I could from the road; the visit was well worth it but it only whetted my appetite for more.
Moving south through the Cascade Range I encountered Rainer’s fiery sister Mt. St. Helens which has since been capturing headlines by once again turning grumpy. But while I was there the sun was shining and all was calm as the wild flowers bloomed amongst withering stumps of blown down trees. I remember clearly all the photos and videos taken of the mountain when it erupted in 1980. But none of it had prepared me for the immensity and scale of the eruption that became apparent when looking upon the mountain in the flesh. Seeing that gaping massive hole and measuring the slopes
with my eyes to create an imaginary peak, I understood the full power of the explosion that had reshaped the mountain. I was humbled by the massive destructive power of nature, but in all that devastation the mother also planted the seeds of life. Forming new lakes which at first stunk of sulfur and other noxious chemicals released from the ground, but after only three short years were able to support life, and after five were indistinguishable from lakes that had existed for thousands of years. The healing power of the earth is amazing, and when humans leave it to its own devices it has the power to right even the most devastating of wrongs. That gives me hope for the future of the planet.
A few more hours in the van brought me to yet another example of volcanism in the Cascade Range driving home the point of how alive this mountain range really is. Crater 
>Lake is what remains of Mount Mazama, a 12,000 foot volcano that erupted over 7,000 years ago spewing ash over eight states and three Canadian provinces in an eruption 150 times as large as the one at Mount St. Helens in 1980. Framed by two thousand foot cliffs and five miles wide the lake is an impressive site. At 1,943 feet deep Crater Lake is the deepest fresh waster lake in the United States. Due to the depth it shines the most vivid blue making it indistinguishable from the color of the sky and creating for me, an odd vertigo so that when I looked down into the water it felt as if I was looking up into the sky – not a great feeling to have while standing at the edge of a two-thousand foot cliff.
From Crater Lake I headed back to San Francisco where I reconnected with my friends and set about preparing for my annual pilgrimage to Burning Man. This year’s art project was a lighted Shinto Gate that I built together with my friends Jeff and Elizabeth in the weeks
leading up to the event. It was great fun but the weather did turn a little nasty this year with sixty mile-an-hour winds that blew over the Shinto Gate and pretty much destroyed a large portion of our camp. I took a fall from about ten feet up when one of our structures tipped over, I landed on my head and went into a roll banging my ribs in the process. I was a little shaken up but the fall didn’t stop me from going out every night and dancing the night away. We had over thirty people in our group this year and it was great to see all my friends and make a few new ones. My side still hurt when I got home so I went to the doctor and was surprised to learn I had two broken ribs. Oh well, they didn’t do anyway other then give me a fist full of pain killers and send me on my way.
Arriving back in the Bay Area after Burning Man, I set about trying to find a place to live. Traveling in the van has been good fun, but I am ready to be stationary for a little while. I want to reconnect with friends and have people in my life that are there for more than a day. I found an apartment in San Francisco with a kitchen, living room, dining room, bedroom and bathroom – it’s also on the ground floor with a garden out back which is great for doggie pee breaks. It’s smaller then my townhouse and I have to go through all my stuff once again and shed a few more things – a good process, but one that is consuming a lot of time. I feel like it’s easy to get lost in the world of places and things and I am working hard to guard against delusion and keep the freedom of the road in my mind even while I relax into my new home.
I just came back from Utah where I met up with a group of guys for a three day hundred mile mountain bike adventure through Canyonlands National Park. We rode the white-
rim trail which meanders along the edge of a deep canyon, framed by towering red rock spires which rise above the Green River near it’s confluence with the Colorado River. The natural beauty of this area was amazing and the weather perfect – dry and in the eighties during the day and growing colder at night as we camped out under a star filled sky. It was a tough ride with twenty miles on the first and third day and sixty miles on the second. I didn’t have much time to train due to the broken ribs, but I managed to ride all hundred miles in a respectable amount of time. It felt good to work my body and be out in nature after dealing with the minutia of the apartment.
Lots of people are asking me if I plan to get a job now that I am back; for now the answer is no. I want to take some time to finish my book – probably through the end of the year and then try to sell it. After that – who knows? I will just have to play it by ear. I wouldn’t mind having a job for a little while, but I want one that is on my terms, not someone else’s. I fear that I have grown accustomed to this flexible lifestyle and shiver at the thought of going back to the old nine-to-five grind. I am just going to take things as they come and be open to whatever the world sets in front of me.
Until the next update – peace to all…