...in the Florida Keys. My course in the Everglades was postponed till January 31, so now I'm wiling away the hours snorkeling, camping on the beach, sipping fruity drinks in my hammock, and making occasional forays into that den of inequity, Key West. Life has its challenges, but it's important to face them with a swashbuckler's flair, no? So these days, I ask myself, what would Erol Flynn do? (have another fruity drink... dive off a bowsprit... swing about in the rigging with some kidnapped maiden...)

Currently reading : Everglades River of Grass 60th Anniversary Edition By Marjory Stoneman Douglas Release

Current mood: content

We went hiking in the Cataloochee Valley of Smoky Mountain National Park. There was a light dusting of snow on the ground, which contrasted nicely with the mossy greens and fallen leaves. They have re-released elk in the Smokies! We saw this 11-pointer (5x6) along with several doe. At lunch time I surprised my friends with the reason my pack was so heavy - I was hiking with smoked wild salmon, free range prime rib, and a 6-pack of Dogfish Head's Raison D'Etre ("deep, mahogany ale brewed with beet sugar, green raisins, and Belgian-style yeast"). It was a good day. Capped it off with a bottle of Yeti Oak-aged Imperial Stout while soaking in the hostel hot tub with new friends Amber and Sarah. I love Asheville.

Currently listening : Tradition Masters By Odetta Releas

In Asheville tonight.  Downed a few pints of Green Man porter at the Jack o' the Wood pub, where it was mountain music jam night.  Tomorrow I'm headed up into the mountains on a day hike with some friends from the hostel.  Life is good, when you let it be!

Currently listening : Live In Dublin By Bruce Springsteen with the Sessions Band Release

Just finished back-to-back Outward Bound courses for adjudicated boys, and that brings my season to a close. Another year, another roller coaster ride - students storming and performing, students cussing me out, students threatening me, students apologizing and thanking me sincerely for not giving up on them, making my own mistakes, doing some things right, being featured in a front page news story by my favorite hometown reporter, being put on double secret probation after some near-miss I/Rs... and now this, bouncing back after a long break to run two quiet courses, two smooth, successful, little-noticed courses crossing the sea of craziness (student assaults, arrests, and transfers) back at base right now... and committing myself to do it all again, and again, for at least another two years.

Pat (our staffing coordinator) tells me it will have to be two years, to fit in everything I want to do. She is scheduling me to work in South Africa next winter; I will still be taking time off this summer to return to the survival school. And right now, I am trying to decide whether to bring in the new year by sailing in the Florida Keys, rock climbing in Joshua Tree, or sea kayaking in Costa Rica...

Meanwhile, I am going to meet my freedom need. I've rented a car and will be 'on the road' by 12 - Savanah? Charleston? Asheville? Who knows where I'm headed next. Certainly not me (that's the fun of it). What I do know is that I will start, as usual, at the Hostel in the Forest, my Rivendell, and stage my adventure from there this weekend. Stay tuned!

~^^^^^^^^~

The Burning Man
towers o'er my dreams
and calls to me at night
He beckons from
the far horizon
fiery bright
'gainst starry sky

I don't know what he wants from me
I only know that I must go
My destined metamorphosis
waits beneath his pyric glow

The vision haunts
my waking hours
and will not fade or wan
'til I'm absorbed in how to make
this pilgrimage
my muse demands

What sacrifices will I make?
What parts of me will perish?
but ohhhh....
the self I might become -
the vision that I cherish

~^^^^^^^^~

I wrote those words seven years ago, in anticipation of my first pilgrimage to Burning Man. Transformed I was, in ways barely conceived at the time. I connected with artwork borrowed from my Moundbuilder ancestors, and was inspired to visit my cousins on the reservation, finally truly exploring that side of my heritage. I was gifted with my first flute, and for the first time began thinking of myself as someone who could make music. Perhaps most importantly, I was surrounded for the first time with people who were *living* their lives, with "radical self-expression", "participants only", and all the other mantras Burning Man is famous for.

Black Rock City they call it. For one week each year, it becomes the 3rd largest city in Nevada. Within a month or so after the event, the BLM will sign off saying they can find no trace it ever happened. I like to think of it as the Ephemeral City, the world's largest intentional community, which only manifests on this plane of existence for seven magical days at the end of every summer.

And how could I not go this year? When they have issued me an official summons? The Green Man has been called, and he will answer. I am going to have sooo much fun dancing around all body painted and playing my flutes this week!

I'm posting this from Ashland, OR (if you're ever in Ashland, I highly recommend Evo's Coffee Lounge: http://www.evoscoffee.com/), 20 miles from the California border. This afternoon I will pick up a friend at the airport in Reno, and we will spend the rest of the weekend at Pyramid Lake. Come midnight Sunday night, however, we're going to Burning Man

Currently reading : The Green Man: Tales from the Mythic Forest By Terri Windling Re

I'm often asked, "where do you live?"

Recently I've started answering, "I don't have a home so much as a migration route." Most of the year I am in the old south, leading courses for Outward Bound along the bayous, rivers, mangrove and cypress swamps, or in the Appalachian foothills. In spring I make some time to return to the pacific NW, where (among other things) I work as a deckhand/environmental educator on the 1913 schooner Adventuress. Summers I explore canyon country (southern Utah), developing my primitive skills with the Boulder Outdoor Survival School. Along the way I visit 'families' at the various Outward Bound bases, at the Hostel in the Forest, on the Adventuress, at BOSS, in Black Rock City... and of course my own sweet mom in Alabama. It means a lot to know there are hugs waiting for me all along my route, from good people as happy to see me as I am to see them.

It's taken some getting used to, this nomadic lifestyle. It runs counter-culture to what I was raised with. But in another sense it may be precisely what evolution prepared us for. It feels right, and oh so rich, at this time in my life. And it is turning out to be surprisingly sustainable. With no fixed expenses (other than my cell phone and a storage unit), I am free to spend my income on what I truly love - food and travel.

Just finished my stay in Boulder, UT. For this year. I will see those good folks again next May, in time for the primitive skills gathering at Slickrock. Right now I am back in Olympia, looking out the coffee shop window at drizzly gray skies... Very nostalgic for the last time I had a fixed home, the three years I lived here going to school at Evergreen. Friday I leave again for Black Rock City, the Ephemeral City, that world's largest intentional community that only manifests on this plane of existence for one week each year - Burning Man.

I feel like a character from Bruce Chatwin's "Songlines", singing up the horizon and merging my wanderings - my life - into a growing opus. Maybe I need an ipod

Meanwhile, the sleepy fellow above visited me on Boulder Mountain down in Utah. He was up waaay past his bedtime. It had been a cold night, and maybe he just wanted to bask in some morning sun before turning in. He eventually wandered on. Me too.

Happy Trails!

Currently reading : The Songlines By Bruce Chatwin Release date: 01 June, 1988