Thursday January 9, 2014
0:00

Today was hands down one of my most eventful wednesdays in a long time. It all started off bright and early; dazed, hungry and blinded by the pre-10am light I fumbled out of bed and into my work clothes. I quickly made myself a tumbler of black coffee and a plate of eggs and hotdogs (I am the picture of health). Today I was going to my friend Tyler Robic’s property to help and observe him carry out his morning chores.

His beautiful farm is in Purceville, VA nestled along the beginning ridges of the Blue Ridge Mountains. The land is unique in that it is a perfect marriage between entrepreneurism and just having awesome animals. The cattle and most of the horses on the property belong to other farmer’s and tenants leasing parts of the land from the Robic’s. The chickens, sheep, goats, cats, rabbits and protected forest all belong to his family. For the size of the land - it’s not too shabby. This wasn’t my first time out here; I had visited months ago with some of our SMSC classmates. It’s always a joy to be outside and, to me, there isn’t anything better than being outside and getting work done. Except maybe eating and sleeping. Aside from the property, the Robic household is a handmade marvel. Redone largely by his Uncle, the house features rich wooden floors (fashioned out of repurposed barn walls) and furniture, large cozy rooms, two fireplaces and leather couches and blankets in every room that can fit them. I felt like I was walking through a rustic edition of a Pottery Barn magazine! Due to privacy issues I felt it wouldn’t be right posting any pictures of their rooms, so instead I posted the view outside of his parents room (4th picture above). Impeccable taste, ingenuity and quality make up their home. 

After getting all of the animals fed we ventured out into the grazing fields to do some recon on a dead cow Tyler spotted earlier that morning. Cause of death was impossible to identify without cutting into the carcass which was completely frozen solid. It was clear vultures made it to the body before us because the ears, eyes and udder were missing. That failed we headed out with his German Shepard and Boxer to check out an old rock quarry his father has been researching. But that’s classified. The real adventure began at the base of the Maryland Heights hiking trail. To get to the mountain we needed to navigate our way alongside the Potomac River, through a creepy town made up of buildings with fake props and exhibits inside and across a railroad bridge. From there it was a flat stretch to the trailhead which then immediately transformed into 3 miles of switchbackless, unforgiving, ice covered elevation. Not one to complain, it was a struggle for me to make it up that climb in jeans and a damn miracle Tyler made it up in his Carhartt overalls. However, the view at the overlook was, to say the least, breath taking. Before us stretched out the historic city of Harper’s Ferry. To our left and right branched out the mighty Potomac and Shenandoah Rivers. There was something about the biting, cold air and the crisp, ice covered waters that made the view even more surreal - I felt like I was gazing at a sight similar to ones I will one day experience in the northwest. 

We headed back to the Robic farm for much nourishment and coffee. With a good amount of the day left to burn before the Owl Life History lecture at the Loudon Wildlife Conservancy we decided to break my firearm cherry with a 12-Gauge Remington 870 Shotgun. I must say I severely overestimated the amount of recoil and underestimated the loudness of the discharge. I barely budged but my ears were ringing! We then switched out his shotgun and grabbed a pair of hunting rifles and headed into the woods for some target practice. I used one he was borrowing from one of the animal keepers he volunteers with (the gun I’m firing above). Again I was deafened by the discharge but this time I felt like I had been hit by a flash-bang grenade. My ears were ringing and all I could hear were the muffled vibrations of our laughter. I don’t want to make any statement about whether or not we should be allowed to have our guns - but god damn it if I were to die protecting my family I would want the motherfucker that killed me filled with lead and hurtling towards hell with me. That aside, I have had firearms training on my list of things to do for a very long time. My priority is handgun and shotgun training for home defense and then rifle training for hunting. This was just a wonderful introduction to the shooting world - and I can say I am hooked. 

Hours later and the best damn Chai Tea Latte I have ever had (made by his sister sold out of a wonderful, historic shoemaker building repurposed into a coffee shop) we finally made it to the owl life history lecture. First and foremost, I had no idea it was going to last 2 hours. By the end of it I wanted to scream and kick the shit out of something. I simply cannot sustain concentration in a purely lecture situation for more than an hour. Other than that, I learned so many things about owls I had never known before. I learned that their faces are essentially parabolic satellite dishes, that they had 4 external ear flaps, that they close their eyes and turn their heads away at the last moment before they catch their prey and that can move their heads more than 200 degrees because their eyes can’t shift side to side. The lecture was worth going to. I learned a lot. But, as seen in the last picture, I envisioned an outside class filled with hands on learning. Not a stuffy building, crowded chairs and over 2 hours of slides.

Definitely the most eventful wednesday I’ve had since leaving SCBI. I miss the mountains dearly and I miss my classmates even more. I’m using these last days in NOVA to prepare my gear and my body to head back for my internship. Getting back in shape, fixing my diet and streamlining my gear are my priorities right now. But one can never have too much adventure.

Here’s to being spontaneous and making sure that recoil pad is tight to your shoulder.

Chris 

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

   Nearly a week ago I had the chance to hike Old Rag with some co-workers (quickly turning into friends) and my bud Paul. It was, to say the least, extremely fulfilling for me. As embarrassing as  it may be, it was only the second serious hike I’ve every done. Not coming from a very outdoorsy family, I have been trying to catch up! Even more embarrassing is the sheer amount of people that hike Old Rag. Like I said, playing catch up. We decided to hike the 7.4 mile trail counterclockwise which meant climbing the famous rock scramble rather than descending it. This proved to be much more than I anticipated and, between my ridiculously heavy 40L multi-day pack and my ridiculous fear of heights, I did borderline terrible. There were times where I had to hand my pack up to Zach or Sean and then (poorly) hoist myself up the slippery boulders. The bulk of the weight in my pack was my overstock of food and my heavy DSLR. Both of which I was convinced I needed. But through the sweat and cramps there was laughter, good conversation and a peaceful calm I have never felt before. There is a clarity awarded by hiking a good hike. As we trekked the miles and miles I began to think about where I was. Who I was with and where I was going. Not just on the trail but in this day to day life I live. Since joining REI I have met some of the most amazing people I have ever met, and some of the most humble adventurers I will ever meet. I have learned the value of living a simple, honest and clean life. I learned to work hard and to be strong as an individual and as a team. Probably most of all, I learned that life is just too short to say no (except for sky diving, give me some time for that). I’ve been spending my days off either on adventures or volunteering in the community. Balancing a day for “us” and a day for “them” is something I learned from my good friend, Sean Lacey. I have always been an avid volunteer but not until meeting him did I realize just how many ways there were to serve the community. This is a guy that volunteers on a farm,  then immediately goes to donate blood, refuels and showers at REI and then heads off to spend his evening volunteering at his church…This is Sean Lacey. The beautiful thing about all of this was that I wasn’t sitting in my room late at night thinking myself into oblivion. I was blinking, sweating and aching - I was hiking a mountain surrounded by nothing but trees, mountain air and my brothers. When we reached the summit of Old Rag I could never have anticipated the breath taking view. The wind ripped at us across the treeless summit taking away all sounds. Before us spread the most beautiful sea of clouds and trees I have ever seen. It was as if we were on the edge of the world looking at a view only the gods could have the right to see. The clouds floated endlessly into the distance, the trees stood proudly in their sheer numbers. I felt infinite. I understand that this isn’t in any way the best or most extreme mountain range but to me it was an accomplishment and taste of something I am going to be doing the rest of my life. To say the least, my love for nature, the outdoors and the conservation of the only earth we have was refueled and rebuilt with a hard earned perspective…5 hours or so after entering the trail head we found ourselves sweaty, tired and satisfied enough to head home but first, we needed to see the ponies. I cannot wait for the many adventures to come with my beloved new friends.

Trek On,

Chris So