In one day I read two articles that struck me. On Sunday July 11^th I came across an LA Time article headlined, “Unrecognizable.” Lake Mead, a lifeline for water in Los Angeles and the west, tips toward crisis. Five minutes after finishing “Unrecognizable” I stopped on a BBC article headlined, Virgin Galactic: Sir Richard Branson rockets to the edge of space. 

The LA Times piece describes that the west is in such a destructive drought that Lake Mead’s coast line has become unrecognizable to those who have lived and recreated on the lake for decades. The water has been depleted by natural and human hands for decades and has now become so low, authorities are discussing the need to reduce water supplies to hundreds of thousands of people in the next few years. My feeble mind can not begin to comprehend the effect this will have on individual people let alone to the agricultural systems that have come (right or wrong) to rely on that water source. 

Humans have been terraforming earth since civilization began. The complex terracing and drain systems the Nabataeans engineered so as to live and thrive in the deserts of Jordan, the ancient Egyptians and the utilization of the flooding of the Nile River, the use of dams to redirect waters all over the world. The Nabataeans, the Egyptians, the small individual farmers throughout the world were but the beginning. The US has mastered agriculture on an industrial scale. Not without its hiccups, or warnings depending on how you view it, the dust bowl anyone, anyone? We have rerouted entire rivers in the name of growing crops (or mining? Just saying not always as noble as growing food for the masses, humans have redirected rivers in the search for shiny little pieces of metal) According to the LA Time piece, by 2023 California had better be figuring out how to do without all that water the Colorado River has so generously supplied, as the supply is running out. 

On to the BBC article. One easily chucked aside as a billionaire playing with his toys. I am all for space exploration. I moved from smoggy SoCal to Big Sky Country and often ponder that if I grew up under this sky, would I have become an Astronomer? The sky really is that magnificent here. For anyone that was following the civilian space race, Sir Richard Branson vs. Amazon’s founder Jeff Bezos, who would build and get into (kind of-Sir Richard Branson skirted the edge of space) space first? Yes, if we could harness this type of air travel we could get around our small planet much faster. And whomever “commercializes” that type of travel first will amass millions of dollars (more if you are already a billionaire). 

Lake Mead, arguably one of the most important water sources for America’s west, is drying up, but its ok billionaires are skirting space in a new “airplane”. Famine and drought have already ravaged North Africa, causing hundreds of thousands of people to flee their homes out of desperation. 

Coming across these two articles side by side struck me as, wrong. Not wrong, like stealing a candy bar or punching your little brother wrong, but wrong in that these two things seem so starkly different. The second emotion I had towards these two examples of humanity, Fermi had it right – civilizations will accidentally self destruct destroying the planet they inhabit before they posses the ability to truly escape to a neighboring space rock.  

The 50’s through to the late 70’s early 80’s scientists thought it would be humans that destroyed the planet with nuclear bombs. Can’t blame them for thinking this, we were in the heart of a Cold War between two trigger happy nuclear powers. (MAD = Mutually Assured Destruction…) Then one power collapsed, and Chernobyl introduced the idea that humans could accidentally destroy the planet with nuclear power. Then Fukushima happened, the idea that a natural disaster combined with humans playing with fire could cause the destruction of the earth. Reality is far more deceptive. The industrial revolution began dumping millions of tons of CO2 and Methane into a closed system. Earth’s atmosphere, though massive, is a closed system. There is a tipping point, scientists think we are reaching that point. The drying up of the West, massive fires in the Amazon Rainforest, the droughts and famines of North Africa, the dislocation of coastal communities as the oceans rise, these are just the precursors. Instead of humans deliberately killing off the planet, or an accidental nuclear meltdown doing it for us, now we see that humans simply, being human are the destructive force behind the slow death of a planet. 

Fermi asked the question, where is everyone? Humans can attempt to break this apparent universal cycle of lost civilizations or succumb to it.

Hiking with a toddler – yes it is totally doable:

Taking little humans on adventures can be an adventure in it of itself. Taking our infants or toddlers or both out into the wilds can be a fun, rewarding, exciting, hair pulling out good time. How best to accomplish this is as both easy and as difficult as you can imagine. The rewards, endless.

Starting young is the trick. My son was born early October so by spring, in Montana so mid April ish, he was ready to go. My first adventure back out into the woods with him was amazing. When they are that small, chuck them a baby carrier (my favorite was the BabyBjorn as it could be worn in multiple body positions) and go. When he was old enough and weighed enough (around 8-9 months of age) he fit into a full frame kid carrier. These things are amazing ( see links here deuter / osprey) the kiddo is front facing and can look out over everything. Most will come with or you can purchase separately the little cover to protect your little one from the sun. Starting kiddos out this early really gets them at minimum used to it and best case scenario in love with it. 

Not to be dissuaded, you can start hiking with kids at any age. The best way to prevent the hair pulling out scenario is to properly set expectations. Kids are kids. They are temperamental, can be fussy, and lets be honest the little ones rule the show. Going into this with no expectation of distance or how many hours you will be on the trail go a long way to preventing your own frustrations. I have had plenty of non-starter hikes. Hikes where the minute my son gets out of the car he is ready to get back in and go home and there is no amount of bribing that will get that kid out onto the trail. Other times you get ¾ a mile in you a celebrating in your mind of how great this is going to be only for the little one to make friends with a tree they obsess over and your distance goals go out the window. 

When you eliminate the expectations of how far you get, it’s ok that you get stuck standing next to a tree counting leaves. It’s not about how far you go, just that you go at all. Second big one, bring the snacks. All the snacks. I am a health nut so I would pack apple slices, crackers, granola bars and for the older non nursing little ones, there very own water bottle. I find that my toddler takes the concept of hangry to a new level, and a simple apple sauce will settle him all the way down and give his brain the juice needed to focus for five seconds instead of two. 

Once those expectations safely thrown away, simply enjoy being outside with your little humans. Get down explore from their point of view. Bring the snacks, kid binoculars, butterfly catcher, and whatever else you want and enjoy.

Over the course of the last year battles between heroes and villains have flooded our social media feeds, filled the 24hr news cycles that are CNN and FOX News, and throughout our own neighborhoods. A virus escalated to a pandemic infecting millions, killing hundreds of thousands, violence that overwhelms our senses, and a hatred stomping around in the open that has not been lurking beneath the surface for decades. Villains, death, destruction, hatred sensationalized all in the name of getting the clicks that social media and news organizations crave.

Everyday acts of heroism go almost unnoticed, considered not noteworthy even. The first responders, ER personnel, home health professionals, group home care givers, front line workers, etc. Heroes are defined by extraordinary efforts performed, jobs that call a human into action at every turn.

Quietly a single woman adopted a pair of twins. Born as Montana entered lockdown as the influx of COVID-19 pummeled the state. She was present at the hospital for their birth, and then overnight, became a single mother of twins. 

Everyday decisions, hidden behind the walls of private homes buried in communities are where heroes are born. This is rarely heard about, almost never reported on, and in many cases deemed mundane. This type of action does not garner the volume of clicks desired by voracious news and social media feeds. These decisions though, are what make humans great.

For a brief few weeks in early spring the road from West Yellowstone, Montana, is open through Madison Junction and up north through the Norris Geyser Basin onto the north entrance entrance of the park. The road is plowed, and open to cyclists. Base layers, wind/waterproof jacket, gloves, and a beanie are a must. Once happily ensconced in weather attire, with your bear spray in an easily reached location happiness can ensue.

Cycling through the park in this unique and little known time is a must do experience for outdoor enthusiasts. There are only maintenance vehicles and park employees on the Is equals only coming across a handful of vehicles in several hours of the park. There are more wildlife encounters than people encounters. For a park that receives upwards of 4 million visitors a year, April 1st ish through April 15th ish are some of the quietest human free days in the park.

For a handful of days in the valley I reside frozen fog settles in. More often then not by mid morning the fog has burned off, rarely sticking around all day. This last weekend, however, the fog hung around providing some amazing opportunities for good photos.

Flood information pathways to the point of overflowing and lies become truth, and truth becomes obscured. Then add a dash of ultra-competitiveness and you end up with polarization. Once polarized incite anger, for a person in an enraged state becomes single minded, focused, and lacks perspective. Now you have a mailable population, blind and irreverent.

Sound or look familiar? A brief glance at modern history and we see this recipe deployed over and over again. (Hitler, Stalin, Hussein, Assad – Rohingya and Uyghur people) Humanity has shown we fail at learning from our past. (Refusing to take lessons from the 1918 flu pandemic an appropriately applying them to Covid-19) For this recipe is unfurled with variable success frequently. Then every few hundred or so years it is disseminated with catastrophic results. WWII and the gas chambers being the most notable amongst westerners.

We currently exist in the Information Age. Each individual posses the power to search for and decipher information, yet this recipe is playing out in our midst again. Even award winning novels “1984”, “A Brave New World”, and more recently “The Hunger Games” appear to lack the impact necessary to curtail the cycle, again.

What do our social media feeds say about us? If we were sitting in a courtroom, not charged with anything, but simply a judge perusing our posts and comments (even the ones deleted), what kind of opinion would that judge form? We hide behind the false comfort of our keyboards slamming letters that turn into words that we believe the world would be better off if we shared. In this country we experience extraordinary rights, we can literally post what we want. (Though, the positives and negatives of that very act are playing out in the US Congress as I type.) We can, in the short term, generate a false sense of social media identity. However, over time the falsity becomes harder and harder to maintain as our true selves overtake our feeds. If our weekly shares and posts and comments were blasted in a public square with us standing right next to them facing the people we were commenting about, to, and opinions laid bare would we still hit send? Many a proverb is dedicated to the use of words. They mostly sum up to; use many words you reveal yourself a fool, use fewer and you are wise. How many of our social media feeds reveal ourselves wise?

Pandemic chaos, work insecurities, and the overall anxieties surrounding a trip to the grocery store demands the necessity of unplugging. Out of cell service, away from crowds, and surrounded by green things, nature is free and a spectacular refuge.

Outside Magazine: “Science’s Newest Miracle Drug Is Free” | “The Doctors Prescribing Nature”

For a laugh | Nature Rx Part 1