Liberation

One and a half weeks ago I sold my Jeep and didn’t purchase a replacement vehicle. My wife and I don’t have any other car, which means we’re carless. We don’t plan on purchasing another vehicle for a few months down the road for various reasons. One reason is because I wanted to experiment. Fortunately I live close enough to my workplace that I could walk if I really needed to, but I have found other methods of transportation that function almost as effectively as driving myself (i.e. biking, carpooling). Since my wife has quit her job to stay at home with our baby, she is also less dependent on a vehicle.

The carless experiment will be instrumental in illustrating how much money we can save each month by cutting out expenses related to a vehicle. And anyone with children knows that every cent counts. If we are really able to save any money, it will probably go toward a down payment for our next vehicle. Or if the car is priced low enough, we could simply pay for it.

This experiment will also test the limits of our wanderlust. We enjoy driving to places just to drive there, whether it’s Park City or Antelope Island or even Las Vegas. This experiment will challenge us to find points of interest in our immediate vicinity. We will become much more familiar with our neighborhood and the surrounding areas and perhaps appreciate them more. It’s been fun so far noting how close 7-Eleven is (for a Slurpee) and how long it takes our baby to fall asleep in his jogger-stroller. We have already discovered that nature is easily within walking distance and there are a few places that we will frequent in order to feel like we’re able to “get away” without driving hundreds of miles.

The last point of the carless experiment I want to address is the dependence on oil. My Jeep was a gas-guzzler by today’s standards, only getting 16 miles per gallon. While I will still be at the mercy of the oil industry in many ways, I, as an individual, do not feel that I am impacting the environment as negatively as when I had a vehicle. This last year was an eye-opener in terms of how quickly oil can ruin an ecosystem, both in the Gulf of Mexico and right here in our own backyards. With much of the global discourse focused on environmental issues, it seems to make sense to try this experiment out now. I am sure that my wife and I will create some habits that will keep us from feeling the need to hop in our vehicle and drive around aimlessly, so when we do purchase another vehicle, we use it responsibly.

I wouldn’t recommend trying the carless experiment unless you have plenty of alternate methods of transportation. If you are in a position to try it out, though, it could be fun and informative. It may sound oxymoronic, but going carless has been a liberating experience so far. Some extra planning is necessary, but it’s ultimately doable. Anyone headed to Vegas in the near future?

Treasure Hunting

I recently received a navigational device as a gift from my wife (which would have come in handy six months ago on my Salt Lake-Seattle-San Francisco road trip). Not only does it tell me every little turn I need to take during my vehicular travels, it also browses the Internet, plays music, and keeps all of my contacts organized. But that’s not all; I can download GPS coordinates from the Internet and go geocaching.
Geocaching is a modern way to go treasure hunting. Instead of using a map that was tattooed onto a pirate’s scalp, a person can find the locations online to items that have been hidden and use those items’ specific GPS coordinates to help in his or her quest for that item. The purpose of a geocache is simply to be found. Think of it as a high-tech game of hide-and-go-seek. The reward inside the cache is secondary. Sometimes it’s a sticker; other times it might be a toy or cool trinket; very rarely it could be money. After finding the reward, a person should always leave something of his or her own behind if he or she takes something from the cache. Many geocaches include a logbook; thus all finders of the cache can prove that they found it. Most geocaching websites also have some sort of log for people to document their findings.
Since I had a day off Monday, I decided to finally try my hand at treasure hunting. I’ve always had a suspicion that I’d be good at it, but one never knows until one tries, right? After downloading the coordinates to three different geocaches into my navigational device, I set out on foot with my wife, baby, and two dogs. Quite the entourage, but I figured my wife would be useful as another set of eyes, and my dogs would be invaluable should we need to dig any small holes or scare competitors off. The baby had to come along because it is considered neglect to leave a small child home alone. He was completely ineffectual as part of my treasure hunting team. Perhaps in a few years he will prove his mettle and aid me in future searches.
So off we went, with stars in our eyes and a spring in our step. The first geocaching location was only two blocks away from our house. The navigational unit told me to “drive” (despite the fact that I set it for pedestrian mode) 0.3 miles north in an annoying, nagging voice, then it directed us to turn right and then walk 300 feet east, and finally told us to turn left and that we had arrived at our destination. I looked around. My wife looked around. The dogs milled about. The baby slept. No geocache. Three minutes is my treasure-searching limit, so after they passed we set off for the next location.
We had more luck with the second set of GPS coordinates, finding a cylindrical container with a wood-wallpaper pattern on the outside so it would blend in with its surroundings. The items inside were hardly worth taking, so we signed the little logbook and left a Bahamian penny behind. The next person to find that geocache is in for a nice surprise. The third location stumped us yet again, but I practiced more patience and searched for at least five minutes, if not six. There were a lot of bushes in the area and I wasn’t about to go searching each and every one of them.
Unfortunately I discovered that I am not as good at treasure hunting as I had always presumed I would be, but on the other hand I now have some actual experience under my belt and will look forward to my next GPS coordinate adventure. The walk was nice and the weather wasn’t too cold, so it turned out to be a good adventure despite the 1-out-of-3 rating I currently hold.
If you are a geocacher, I wish you continued success in your future searches. If you have a navigational system and have never tried geocaching, try it out and see if you like it. There’s something for everybody out there and your hunt for treasures could take you into the backwoods of the Uintahs or the back alley of a side street downtown. Have fun and keep your eye out for my Bahamian penny!

The Outdoors Decade

Last year I facetiously dubbed 2010 the “Year of the Outdoors.” Well, I’ve decided to extend that dubbing and now 2011 will join 2010 and eight of its future friends in the “Decade of the Outdoors.” A colleague suggested simply blanketing the whole century, but I thought that was a bit much. Besides, in 10 years the outdoors probably won’t even exist anymore…so enjoy nature this decade before it disappears behind a cloud of gases or is destroyed by an apocalyptic event of epic proportions or (more likely) is sued by a disgruntled hiker for an exorbitant amount of money and can’t stay in business anymore.

I’m convinced that Utah will always be able to offer an amazing outdoors experience, whether it’s skiing in January or hiking in April or rafting in July or hunting in October. And the fact of the matter is that those activities will continue to be available whether you yourself go out and do them or not (barring any apocalyptic events of epic proportions), mostly because there are so many other people in this state and from around the world who truly enjoy Utah’s outdoors year-round. As a resident of Utah you are fortunate to literally have hundreds of outdoor activities at your fingertips.

For the most part, people who live in the Heber Valley are exposed to a higher level of outdoors on a daily basis than people who live in metropolitan areas. Many of you are able to fish in your backyard. Some of you can easily walk to a nearby trailhead. It’s not uncommon to narrowly miss hitting a deer with your wicked slice on Hole 6 at the golf course. Because there is constant access to the outdoors in this valley, it is hard to imagine not being able to do those things.

But the world’s population continues to increase and nature’s domain is shrinking as time goes on. Trails are slowly disappearing under concrete and asphalt; bit by bit ski resorts are buried under houses; streams gradually become irrigation ditches; people from New York City (or Salt Lake City for that matter) have to visit places like the Wasatch Mountains in order to believe that such pristine, untouched beauty still exists in the world.

I’m not trying to be a doomsayer, but if we don’t use the outdoors, somebody else will, and that person may end up building a theme park on the hillside that we always admired. I am thankful that our government has had the foresight to reserve places of beauty, such as the national parks, and protect them from becoming anything but natural. Unfortunately there are other, smaller, bastions of splendor that are not protected, and without some humans to appreciate them and defend them from civilization they are slowly vanishing.

So get off the couch, pack some snacks and fight for your right to do outdoorsy stuff. You don’t have to be an activist or a “tree hugger” to defend nature and your ability to easily access it. Nature is like your brain: use it or lose it. Do the smart thing and use both.

Weaving Words

What is one of the most important skills to have, whether you are camping or horseback riding or sitting over a freezing hole waiting for a fish to bite? The ability to fend off zombies is a good answer, but it’s hardly practical. Try again. Give up yet? Good. Then let me tell you, it’s storytelling. It’s amazingly helpful in any number of outdoor activities, but the applications don’t stop there. Weaving words into tales is useful at the office, at home, at church, at the bar, at the bus stop…well, you get the idea.
We are all storytellers in one way or another. Some are better than others. A few people out there can’t properly insert a punch line into a humorous anecdote. Others are able to captivate the attention of thousands and then lose it all with one disappointing turn of events. Many use exaggerations and embellishments to draw attention to their story. Numerous people tell the same story over and over and over as long as there is someone to listen to it, even if that person has heard the same story over and over and over. And several people can’t tell a story without boring others to death. Despite how well a person can tell a tale, though, the fact of the matter is that to be human is to be a storyteller.
My specialty is ghost stories. I have to remember when I am with my 5-year-old niece that she may still believe in creatures like the boogeyman and vampires, so my scary stories generally consist of a ghost that visits a child and then ends up becoming a friendly ghost. Last week she begged me for a scarier story, and I knew anything scarier than I had already told her would end up in a phone call from her mother at 3 am and I would have to explain why I told her the story about the scarecrow that steals little children and eats their bellybuttons. My younger sister still can’t sleep on her back, because when she was 9 or 10 I told her a story that involved a skeleton finger and a little girl with her name. When I relate a ghost story, I try to give myself the creeps, and as a result my audience is freaked out. Needless to say, my wife has banned me from telling her any more ghost stories.
Here are some tips for excellent storytelling. First, try to relate your story to your audience; for example, hunters will most likely want to hear hunting stories. Second, if you’re relating a personal story and your aim is to entertain, don’t drag your audience into a pit of despair. No one likes to listen to a story with no end in sight. Make it short and sweet and avoid tangents. Third, be as descriptive as possible. Use words that involve all five senses, not just sight. Fourth, allow others to tell stories too. Story hogs are no fun. And lastly, don’t tell stories to “one-up” someone. If your friend finished telling a story about how he won the high school basketball game, you probably shouldn’t relate your story about your amazing skills during a church ball game.
May your New Year be full of exciting stories and captive audiences!