Saturday, February 12th, 2011
Here it is. We finally begin a fantastic new life chapter. And we launch a website to reach people and spread the word about the importance of getting outdoors and saving something natural, wild, and free for the future–all chronicled in the pages of www.remotefootprints.org. I let out a huge sigh just then. Rebecca and I are proud, excited, and terrified at the prospect of completely starting anew. In that order. It is all we have dreamed about lately. It is all we want to accomplish. That, and being the best parents to our 2-year old daughter Skyla that we can be. And NOT in that order.
I have lived a life close to nature as the son of a wildlife ecologist, and so I have a leg up on most people in regards to having a close relationship to the outdoors. I am one of the lucky people who always knew what he wanted to do in life since childhood. My parents encouraged me in any direction that I went, but I was raised in the outdoors, and so I logically took an interest in all that was natural, wild, and free. I have never looked back.
Now that I am thirty-something, I actually am looking back a bit…because it helps me look forward. When I look back, I see a couple of biological science degrees, a long list of outdoor excursions all over the world, and a fifteen year career as a conservation biologist. The greatest feelings I have had in my life other than family time were when I was doing outdoor expeditions and living simply, outside.
Being immersed in wilderness has always been my number one feel-good situation. My parents provided me with boku opportunities to do wilderness excursions when I was young, and I have been doing them even more frequently as an adult. When I go outside either alone or with like-minded people, I get an amazing feeling of elation.
For some unknown reason, however, just being in the wilderness is no longer enough. I have spent the last two years searching my feelings and have determined that, for me, in addition to having numerous wilderness excursions for my own well-being, I must also give something of these experiences back to others who may be in need of the same kind of wilderness healing that I derive from the outdoors.
One of my greatest life-friends and fellow biologist, Hank Timm, along with his phenomenal wife, Mary, and their kids–Jeb, Jacob, and Molly–gave me some incredible outdoor experiences in Alaska all throughout the 1990′s. Hank, Mary, and I worked together as biologists on the Tetlin National Wildlife Refuge near Tok, AK. They took me in as one of their own and showed me the endless grandeur and inspiration that is the Alaskan wilderness.
Years later, Hank came up with a term that rings throughout my head frequently. In August, 2009 while visiting the Timm family before and after completing a 150-mile wilderness trek through the Wrangell-St. Elias National Park and Tetlin National Wildlife Refuge, Hank had described the high, alpine route that we would take as being wide open tundra grassland where one could easily reach what he referred to as ”Wilderness Nirvana.” This term has stuck with me. It is with great pleasure that I name this blog–”Wilderness Nirvana”–to honor Hank and his creative idea. Hank, this one’s for you, buddy.
In my interpretation, Wilderness Nirvana is something that is reached by a person who has developed a closer relationship with the natural world and derives great pleasure, satisfaction, and in many cases healing from the relationship. I try to reach this place on a daily basis in my life. It can be reached in small daily doses or large, longer ones. The benefits of reaching it increase with the dosage size.
This is not some crazy granola-crunching mind vision thingy, even though I do frequently eat granola! This is real and amazing stuff. The stress reduction and other benefits to the mind and body that outdoor experiences give to people are well-doccumented scientifically.
This blog will be a journal chronicling the ways in which I continually strive to reach Wilderness Nirvana with the hope that readers will gain inspiration and knowledge about how to reach this enlightened, outdoor-derived feeling frequently in their own lives. I’ll talk about all the little and big things in life that I do, and that we can do, to continually reach this enlightening outdoor based existence. I will discuss my outdoor fitness program. I’ll talk about what I do as a wildlife ecologist. My upcomming outdoor excursions and simple life choices also will be shared. Choices that we can make as parents to increase outdoor exposure for our children will be discussed. And I’ll frequently speak of my ongoing battle with mild to moderate anxiety disorder that I have developed later in life. The “pill” that heals my stress and anxiety comes in the form of abundant excercise and outdoor forays. If I miss taking a few “pills,” my anxiety rears its ugly head more frequently.
It is not as if I have reached my penultimate state of wilderness nirvana my own self yet. Hardly. I have a vision of how I would like to be living with my family off the grid in a simple, efficient cabin somewheres out west adjoining a giant wilderness where I could set out on foot each time in a different direction for a week long foray solo or with others…I’m not there yet. But I will get there. In the meantime, there are plenty of things we can do to subsist with frequent smaller doses of Wilderness Nirvana as we strive for a longer term outdoor based existence. Maybe we can all help each other to get there.
Not only should we go outdoors frequently, but we must also make choices that will help to ensure that plenty of wilderness and ecological diversity is conserved for the future. I’ll talk about those choices in the days, weeks and months ahead. Gotta go for now and take my daughter on one of my weighted training hikes on a local hiking trail. She provides the perfect ballast for a hike and we are both outside at the same time. I’ll let you know how it went. Over and out for now…Ryan
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