Quite Literally One Of The Most Beautiful Places I’ve Been

Sutton Mine Trail

[05|28|16]

So I did the majority of this hike! Lol. There is a theme to my earlier hiking experiences. This blog post from Box Canyon Ouray explains in detail the hike and what to expect. This post from 5280 was helpful too.  I was blown away. It was early springtime, especially for the mountains, and everything was a little extra marshy and wet, which was beautiful. Another hiker on the trail had her two dogs who were just diving into the little pools that would collect here and there from the melted snow. There was plenty of that. Melted and unmelted. First, the overlook is gorgeous and worth the what feels like an incline that should take you directly into the sky. Apparently it’s a popular overlook for postcards for Ouray. Then you enter magical marshy and meadowlands, leading to great views of the million dollar highway and the distinct Mt. Abrams. I am eager to finish the hike next season to see Neosho Mine wish is the final point on the trail. The weather got a little dreary after I passed the Bear Creek overlook so I essentially hauled ass after that omen from nature. And made it back to the car safely!

Salvage the Bones by Jesmyn Ward is a sweeping and harsh tale of a family in the days leading up to a hurricane that Esch’s often-drunk father is certain will be the big one. He wants to prepare, but Esch and her brothers are worried about other things—Randall is preoccupied about basketball camp this summer, and Junior follows his siblings around as Skeetah frets over prized fighting pitbull China and her new puppies, and Esch tries to hide her pregnancy from her family and from Manny, the father.  

Salvage the Bones is a difficult and harsh novel. When I was reading it, I had the vague sense that I didn’t like it—it has a slow start—and yet when it was done, I felt the novel and its characters hanging on me like humidity, like a mist of sweat holding onto my skin. The twelve days leading to Katrina are full of a pregnant, heavy anticipation that doesn’t actually much heed the hurricane—until the final days, only Esch’s father is worried about what is to come. The National Book Award–winning novel exposes Katrina’s horrors by making us fall in love with the poverty-stricken, motherless family that is haunted by its past; by letting us grow accustomed to Skeetah’s stubborn obsession with his dogs and Esch’s stubborn and strong persistence. The drama of the tale seems to weigh most on Esch’s pregnancy or the health of Skeetah’s puppies, and in precisely that way does the novel catch the real point of the hurricane striking: no one was ready, even those who wanted to be ready. We know the hurricane that is coming, and we know what it will do as readers, and yet we too are so caught up in the drama that we aren’t ready for Katrina when she arrives. I have my nitpicks with this novel, but it has stuck with me, and kept me thinking days after I finished it. 

A stunning hike through the Thorpe Creek Valley and Hurwal Divide 

Wallowa Mountains

Oregon

1972

Careers in Social Work

I got an ask about what you can do with an MSW besides being a therapist.  It is a very broad degree and this is a list of common areas social workers work in.  

Great idea but would use different cheese!!

Grilled Cheese Bread Bowl 

Recipe under the cut!

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Red Mountains, from Corkscrew Gulch

Oh lord, to see a light, but fail in strength to follow

Sometimes it's hard to let it go

Oh lord, to fail in heart, and each day grow more hollow

Sometimes I just don't wanna know

But the road that led me here, it's begun to disappear

Sometimes I wonder where I am

Oh lord, to hear a voice, but let it fade and wallow

Sometimes it's hard to let it to

Oh lord, to find the words, but keep them in and swallow

One day the top is gonna blow

But the road that left me here, it's begun to disappear

Sometimes I wonder who I am

Oh lord, to stumble blind, for years without knowing

Sunrise has burned my eyes again

Oh lord, to crumble quiet, watching from the silence

Sunrise has burned my eyes again

It's a seven-story mountain. It's a long, long life we live. Got to find a light and fill my heart again

It's a seven-story mountain. It's a long, long life ahead. Got to find a voice and fill my throat again

-Railroad Earth’s “Seven Story Mountain”

When I’m told I need to find another available clinician to take over a crisis walk-in if the session is taking longer and begins to extend into the time I’m supposed to meet with my scheduled client, I’m just like…

Gunnison Gorge, Colorado