Post 1

I have left home a few times.  I don’t mean going to the grocery store or going on vacation or something like that.  I mean leaving with the intention of not coming back until you have achieved something.  That achievement can be almost anything, but it cannot be nothing.  You must have a purpose and a drive if you are going to leave home successfully.  If you do not set your sights on the horizon, you will constantly be looking in your rearview mirror, so to speak.  Journeys are not about where you came from.  I am moving somewhere that is famously beautiful and filled to the brim with outdoor adventures.  I have opted to live in a firefighters barracks instead of renting a room in town, and which means that I will be living somewhere in the bush with no Internet or television.  This may seem trivial to the reader, but consider that you are reading this blog on the Internet.  I am looking forward to being removed from the electronic society and possibly experiencing my Walden Pond moment. 

I started my journey to Lake Tahoe two days ago when I left my hometown of Issaquah for my fourth great adventure.  Issaquah is near Seattle and I have always felt a deep connection with the landscape and nature of the Pacific Northwest.  The multitude of green shaded hills and dark blue waters were wonderful places to grow up in and explore.  If the whole world were covered in the Douglas firs and Big Leaf Maples of my youth then perhaps I would not feel the pull of further exploration.  But, fortunately for the enemies of monotony and uniformity, the world is mosaic’d with diversity.  The draw of the unknown is ever increasing in pressure like the flow of a river upon a set of locks.  The pressure increases the longer there is no new experience or information to be ingested.  If ignored, the stagnation and building emptiness of familiarity can become intoxicating; lamentable that intoxication is not good for you.  Hark!  Behind the routine, opportunity always hides. 

I guess I should spend some more time describing the actual trip rather than abstract personal musings.  Truckee, California is where I am stationed for my MobilizeGreen internship and is located about 20 miles north of Lake Tahoe, or 100 miles East of Sacramento.  After merging onto I-80 heading East towards Truckee I began to notice a rapid change in scenery.  The areas around Sacramento were mostly composed of flat agricultural fields that seemed drier than the crops would prefer.  I began to climb in altitude and the trees seemed to become closer around the highway.  The ground was a dry brown red covered in needles dropped by the dominant pine trees.  After what seemed like a couple thousand feet of climbing the left side of the road opened to a range of mountains and valleys that stretched far into the distance, as mountain ranges tend to do.  I had reached the northwestern peaks of the Sierra Nevada mountain range.  Snow spotted the landscape among the carpet of pine trees.  This was my first introduction to the ecosystem that I was going to work in.

I reached the exit for Truckee and upon driving through the mile or so that makes up town I realized that the town is a mixture of culture.  The underlying architecture is made up of the classic old western US logging or mining town.  The main street is in a line and faces the old rail tracks and is made of old wooden buildings dating back to the 1800’s.  But, that seems to be the only evidence of the old economy since new buildings and restorations have sprouted among the old that suggest the recent boom in vacation attractions.  I can tell that Truckee has grown much bigger in the past decades.  Modern restaurants and boutique shops have replaced liveries and general stores of old.  The people seem perfectly happy with the change, and who can blame them?  Snow farming, or making an economy off of ski vacationers, is much more lucrative than natural resource production.  Unfortunately, the combination of being in a rural area and a vacation spot makes living here expensive.  A gallon of gas in town was $4.50.  Now I know gas prices are most likely going to keep going up, but for reference a gallon of gas in Sacramento was $4.15.  Truckee definitely wins my approval when it comes to the surrounding views, however.  The town is surrounded by snow-covered mountains that seem to encircle the area, almost protecting it from the outside world and any previous hesitancy I had about arriving. 

I have yet to start work with the Truckee Ranger District, but I am excited to see what is in store for me.  Adjusting to a completely new lifestyle definitely does take some time and so I am excited to see where this trip takes me.  Something my father told me before I left has stuck with me and given me strength when I have felt overwhelmed: With any new adventure comes adversity.  It would not be an adventure if there was no challenge or change.  This sentiment matches another pearl of wisdom that a Forest Service employee told all of the interns in DC: If you are completely comfortable with what you are doing, then you are doing something wrong.  Accomplishment comes at the result of overcoming obstacles. 

I try to end all of my writings with a quote that is related to the piece.  Here is one from one of my favourite books, A Sand County Almanac, by Aldo Leopold:

“We all strive for safety, prosperity, comfort, long life, and dullness.”