Tuesday November 19, 2013
21:14

It’s hard to believe it’s only been a month since I posted in here. Living out here at SCBI, there’s so much to do that time seems to pass much faster than normal. A couple of weeks ago I had the chance to road trip with Laurie to Boone, NC to visit her friend, Danielle, at Appalachian State University. Hands down, it was one of the best weekend road trips I’ve ever taken. App State is a beautiful school filled with beautiful people. To describe the campus in a nutshell I would say that it was like walking through a ski town (not ski resort, the small towns built into the mountains leading up to the resort - big difference) filled with little mom and pop eateries and outfitters surrounded by mountains and REI magazine models. The women and men were all rough and tumble looking, the air was crisp and you could see the mountains around you. Now there are plenty of schools near mountains but there always manages to be people that don’t care for the outdoors. One of the first things that stuck out to me during out little campus tour was Danielle saying, “Campus is empty because its the weekend and everyone is out camping”. I was pretty much wet and sold at that point. App State was one of the schools I wished I had applied to towards my last years at GMU during my phase of complete regret and depression at my current emotional, physical and educational state. After the campus tour we went for a quick hike up the Hawksbill Mountain Trail. The trail was easy for the most part with a steep incline at the last 50 meter stretch. What was interesting about the hike was the massive amount of Rhododendron aka “Rhododoodoo” lining the path. At the summit we were blown away by a fantastic view of the Blue Ridge spreading endlessly before us. In terms of effort put in vs. summit gained, I haven’t found a hike that can beat this one. The three of us spent easily an hour up there looking at the tree covered mountains and talking to the trail crew. While the girls went off to take selfies by the edges I had the fortune of meeting and talking to Bill Hodge, the director of the Southern Appalachian Wilderness Stewards, while he waited for the rest of his trail crew to reach the summit. We talked about the geography and history of the Linville Gorge Wilderness, native species of Hawksbill Mountain, his career with SAWS and the invasive species monitoring programs SAWS has been working on with the Forest Service. He was a kind, hard working man that I could tell was passionate about his work with the service. The fact that he was also wearing a buff (the PCT map one) made it even easier to connect with him as we talked about my life and work at SCBI this semester. Before we began our descent I made sure to get a card and a firm hand shake from from Bill. We ate lunch at a fantastic burrito joint and spent the rest of the day relaxing in Danielle’s apartment until it was dark enough to emerge into the outdoor, hipster-but-actually-outdoorsy-hipster, craft-beer-fueled college town that is Boone. It was fantastic. The trip culminated in an attempt at an early sunday morning, Cook-Out, a sweet gear consignment shop (i got a patagucci fleece for 40 dolla) and a tight hug from a new friend. It was only a weekend but I was already sad to be leaving Boone. Danielle was a out-of-this-world host and a wonderful person. I’m glad to have met Laurie just to have met Danielle and her future husband, “bearded GIS”. 

This past weekend was a non-stop flurry of colliding worlds and special people. A world of special people colliding if you will. In the spirit of getting things finally off of my bucket list, I collaborated with my good friends Sean Lacey and Mason to set up a car camping trip/ Front Royal/ SCBI tour with all of my NOVA friends. We chose the beautiful Shenandoah River State Park as our destination. It would be the first time a lot of my friends from home have been camping and, considering the time crunch us SMSC guys were on (we were driving back from the National Conservation Training Center in WV), it was a perfect choice. We couldn’t have asked for a better camp site. Gravel floor, big metal fire pit, bathrooms, stream-side view and unlimited pre-packaged firewood!? This was basically glamping. Gathered around the fire that night I couldn’t help but feel this sense of gratitude. Nearly 10 months ago I was sitting alone in my room applying endlessly to USAJOBS, hope dripping out of my fingertips endlessly onto my keyboard. But here, 10 months later I was sitting besides a warm fire (and my schmoking hot lady friend, Laurie) as my closest friends, coworker and classmates shared stories of their lives. It was the collision of three very big parts of my world. In a sudden rush of realization and gratitude I understood how good life for me had become. I understood how important this seemingly simple moment was. How important all of these people were to me. The morning after camping we hiked a quick 5 miles on the Bear Bottom Trail it was a wide, easy hike through a sprawling oak forest. Near the 3 mile mark or so we came across a fantastic view down a deep, long valley. The hike gave me time to catch up with my NOVA friends, show them some trees and explain what life has been like here these 4 short months. I also discovered that my friend Quin is a terrible hiker (haha sorry Quin), you can’t just drop a city boy into a forest. After the hike I took my friends on the grand tour of Front Royal and SCBI. I showed them the town’s historic district, the fantastic Apple House, my dorm at SCBI, some animals, the SI-GEO plot that I work in, the NEON tower and the vistas from Longhill and Race Track Hill. I felt like a SCBI tour guide and have to admit that I loved it. I never realized how much I had learned about the facility and my practicum until I had to condense it all down to be explained to first time visitors. Watching my friends walk through SCBI 1 and 2 was eerie to me at first. These were the people that I grew up with walking through the trees I have come to know and love. So different were the worlds they represented - so strangely did I feel like I was part of both. 

This past Sunday I woke up early and headed to Harper’s Ferry with the Herps to do some stream surveys around Tyler’s farm. We weren’t doing it for any particular reason at all, we were doing it simply to get outside and see what we would find. I love my conservation friends. I’m not sure how long we waded through that chilly stream but just when we thought it was a bust Elliot pulled out this amazing snapping turtle! He/She was too cold to snap at us so we were able to get a lot of good pictures of it. The poor thing had leeches attached to its head. We thought of removing them but knew better than to get that close to its mouth, cold or not it would probably get a finger or two. Our survey took place near a big power line clearing. On the way back to Tyler’s farm I couldn’t help but take a few pictures of the beautiful lines they created between the farm and forest patch habitats. Tyler’s farm is near damn perfect. He has three dogs, several heads of cattle, some sheep, two goats, some rabbits and I’m not even sure what else. I can see why he’s such an early riser as well as why he has such a strong work ethic. I don’t know anyone my age with the kind of hands on (hard ass hell farm work) work ethic, family values, good-hearted kindness (to people he respects) and dedication to science as Tyler (and Elliot). He (they) is (are) certainly one (two) of a kind and I am so grateful to have met him (hims) this semester. At the farm we helped him feed his hoofstock and got to meet his new ram. Who we learned is now finally starting to mate with the sheep. We also got to meet some of his family as well at watch him feed his three dogs. Those three dogs were so well-behaved and eager to be handled that I couldn’t help but kneel down and pet big armfuls of all three of them at once! He has a german shepard, boxer and golden retriever. I only remember the name of the shepard, Babe, because she was a princess and was clearly the matriarch of the trio. 

Things are quickly coming to an end here at SCBI. It’s hard to believe that 4 months could go by so quickly. It’s even harder to believe how close everyone has become to one another. It’s downright unfair to have us all separate so soon, but such is the way of life. Personally, I have been dealing with this moment with a bit of growing anxiety. The whole thing has been amplified with my forcing myself to update my CV and start applying to internships. It’s certainly funny how time, place and people work. So quickly can people attach to one another. So quickly can a certain place be home to so many good moments. I’ve had to deal with moving on many times in my life, I have struggled with it each time. But something that I learned being here this semester (I know this is premature I still have little under a month left) is that we are all part of a ever moving picture. So quickly we are moving across the painted shapes of our earth, from state to state and country to country - we are moving. Be it work, family or school we run into each other for brief moments of time during our lives and then separate again. What I have learned is that, no matter how many times we meet and separate and meet and separate we are always able to hold onto the people that we cannot live without. The world is only so big, the mountains so high and the oceans so vast. To the adventure hearted there is nothing to stop us. When my friends visited me this weekend we took a group picture on top of Longhill that I knew was going to be one of the most important pictures I ever took. Though they lived only an hour away, it represented the power of good friends coming together. In the picture, Longhill represented all of the people that I have met here at SCBI and their collision with my old world. Never before have I been at the edge of such potential as I have been here. Within the next few months I could be anywhere in the world interning. The uncertainty kills me just as my irrational connection to people and places pulls at my heart. But looking at that picture I know that the world isn’t quite so big as I think. I know that if I want to hold onto these people - there isn’t a damn thing that can stop me. 

Here’s to growing, living and loving.

Trek On,

Chris

09/15/13

Week 3 here at SMSC has ended and I feel like I am finally getting a bearing on the pace of things. It’s been overwhelming trying to figure out how to partition my time here simply because there is so much to do. That being said, I still haven’t gone hiking or camping with any of my classmates here. That needs to change. I remember how I would plan a day hike with my friends for weeks in advance and all day at work I would just itch and itch and itch to hit the road and get back out here in the mountains. Now I wake up and barely notice them as I walk to breakfast. Convenience breeds depreciation. On a different note, I am still managing to barely get my school work done and I have fallen behind in running - this must also change. As a last aside, I am trying to make my entries here much more regular. For what purpose I don’t know. As a catalog of my adventures and as a place to put my pictures I suppose. I don’t know exactly how long tumblr will suffice either. Perhaps once I begin truly traveling and living on my own I will invest in a more independent website. But alas, that’s a long ways away from now. More and more I am learning the value of just going with the flow. Not everything needs to be photographed, not everything needs to be shared. Simple really, but believe it or not I have a problem with it. Ok. This past week.

Week 3 wasn’t a very field-heavy week, we went out into the field only once and it was to Blandy Experimental Farm in Boyce, VA to do grassland ecosystem data collection for the Northern Bobwhite Quail. It was an overcast, humid day but something about staring across that flat grassland and trees reminded me of the encroaching fall and how much I was ready for my comfort season. Cold days, hot coffee and hotter fires - I miss them. We were able to fit in an insane amount of activity into this weekend however. Friday night we attended a post-WWI air show complete with vintage planes, cars and lively lindy-hop dance floor. It was something that one simply had to be at. The whole thing took place at Front Royal - Warren County Airport where a full swing band played music to a warehouse full of lively, retirees dressed in full lindy-hop attire. There was a strong presence of respect for our servicemen and there were a fair amount of retirees wearing their old uniforms. What was even more touching was a certain Navy couple who tore up the dance floor. To be honest the experience kind of rekindled an old dream of mine to serve straight out of high school. I didn’t know what branch or what position I wanted to do but I do know that I did, and still do, want to serve my country somehow. There is a deep resonating respect in my heart for the men and women who serve our country. On a lighter note, I was prompted by my classmates to step out of my comfort zone. And by step out of I mean skydive out of my comfort zone. I was pulled a couple times onto the dance floor - one of which the woman singing singled out our entire class out onto the dance floor introducing our school to the crowd and forcing us to dance. I don’t think I’ve ever seen so many of my classmates be pulled away by so many dapper grandpa’s. The look of terror on their faces were legendary. More and more I am starting to love this eclectic bunch of ruffians I call my classmates.

The next morning a determined handful of us woke up bright and early and volunteered at The Farm at Sunnyside harvesting mint, paw paws and spice bush berries. There’s something special about waking up and getting out into the field. Getting your hands and knees dirty knowing that what you’re doing is helping out another person. Volunteerism, basically. It was an especially cool day so walking through the dense spice bushes as the fresh mountain air blew through its leaves created a peace I didn’t want to wake up from. This farm grows everything organically and once a week will send some of it’s produce to the farmer’s market in DuPont Circle, DC. One of these Sundays I plan to help them out from farm to market. There is so much to learn and experience in life and anyone can be a teacher. And I’ve been trying toembrace every chance I get.

Finally, today we woke up and helped The Friends of the Shenandoah River State Park with their river clean up. We rowed down 3.1 miles of the river picking up trash along the banks wherever we could find it. Many times I simply jumped out of the canoe and walked across the shallow river bed. The water was clear, cold and gentle and it took the all of me to not just lay back and soak my legs. There were a number of rapids and, though they were harmlessly small, they were dangerously easy to get caught on. The mossy rocks at these rapids are so uneven and slippery that it was easy to suddenly slip into a deeper part of the river. There was one point where Danny and I were coasting and as I took in the sounds of the river and his (amazing) voice singing Misty Mountains (yes, from the hobbit) I saw out of the corner of my eye a completely incompetent Laurie trying to pull her canoe free.

As the days go by I think more and more about how I wish this will never end. I remember during my prospective student tour nearly half a year ago, a student in the class we were visiting told us that he wished that he could stay here forever - while I don’t necessarily want to stay here forever, I now understand what he meant. SCBI, and Front Royal for that matter, is an amazing place to learn and live. The Shenandoah Valley already holds a special place in my heart and this small town has definitely changed my perspective on what’s important and what’s not. Good people, early days, simple pleasures and cold beers - that’s all I need. I’m still getting used to these weekly postings and I can promise you the posts will get shorter, less sappier and more informative - just hang in there.

Here’s to living and learning whenever you can.

Chris