Bike Week & Last Week of Santa Cruz

So here I am with only a few days left here in Santa Cruz, CA. I am being relocated to Tahoe for the summer months. I am scheduled to work on road mitigation for two months in the eastern Sierras. I seem not to be able to get away from Mammoth and Tahoe. Gorgeous forests, ATV's, giant trees, campfires, and backpacking in amazing places is what the next couple of months hold for me.

These two months in Santa Cruz, CA have been outrageously perfect. Backpacking adventures to crystal clear rivers, mountain biking along the ocean cliffs, picnicking in giant redwoods, laughing til tears erupt from my eyes, having mind-blowing and life altering conversations, getting to know people worth getting to know and learning more about this world, trail work and myself at a rapid evolution of me. The experiences I have had the chance to experience and the people I am humbled to have met within just a short period of time is insane. I can only imagine what living in the forests of the Sierras with 30 people for two months will produce as well!

In almost a goodbye celebration for me; this week is Bike Week (actually really month) for Santa Cruz. I get to bike with other passionate cyclists, share stories, get tons of free food and gear and experience a biking side of SC that I would not have thought exists. So free breakfasts, ice cream, pizza and beer here I come!

Free breakfast from Staff of Life for Bike Week.

Hiking through the Arboretum redwoods and happened upon this hanging quote.

Natural bridges biking.

Laughing game on the beach.

Chilling by the San Lorenzo river.

West Cliff hiking near the cliff restoration project. 

Natural bridges biking.

Secret spot in SC, PVC pipe leading down the cliff creating a wind tunnel with the waves.

It was such a big wave!

Deciding What Is True

The Invitation

Oriah Mountain Dreamer

It doesn't interest me what you do for a living. I want to know what you ache for and if you dare to dream of meeting your heart's longing.

It doesn't interest me how old you are. I want to know if you will risk looking like a fool for love, for your dream, for the adventure of being alive.

It doesn't interest me what planets are squaring your moon. I want to know if you have touched the centre of your own sorrow, if you have been opened by life's betrayals or have become shrivelled and closed from fear of further pain.

I want to know if you can sit with pain, mine or your own, without moving to hide it, or fade it, or fix it.

I want to know if you can be with joy, mine or your own; if you can dance with wildness and let the ecstasy fill you to the tips of your fingers and toes without cautioning us to be careful, be realistic, remember the limitations of being human.

It doesn't interest me if the story you are telling me is true. I want to know if you can disappoint another to be true to yourself. If you can bear the accusation of betrayal and not betray your own soul. If you can be faithless and therefore trustworthy.

I want to know if you can see Beauty even when it is not pretty every day. And if you can source your own life from its presence.

I want to know if you can live with failure, yours and mine, and still stand at the edge of the lake and shout to the silver of the full moon, 'Yes.'

It doesn't interest me to know where you live or how much money you have. I want to know if you can get up after the night of grief and despair, weary and bruised to the bone and do what needs to be done to feed the children.

It doesn't interest me who you know or how you came to be here. I want to know if you will stand in the centre of the fire with me and not shrink back.

It doesn't interest me where or what or with whom you have studied. I want to know what sustains you from the inside when all else falls away.

I want to know if you can be alone with yourself and if you truly like the company you keep in the empty moments.

Living the Redwood Dream

The first week of training has ended here in Santa Cruz. We are staying in Mount Hermon while learning about the slough, berm, upsloping and outsloping of a trail. What a beautiful place to be with such amazing young adults. They sure did a great job picking people out for this internship. Every single one of the people in my group are constantly challenging and inspiring me. The conversation we hold as a group and during one-to-one are intelligent, thought-provoking discussions. I have learned and grown so much already. Where will I be in another week? Month? Full term?

They say that there are signs directed towards you pushing, prodding and whispering you to the place you are suppose to be. I was not sure if this was it at first but there have been too many signs since this thought. I am meant to be here, with these people, doing this work.

So I lay here in a hammock writing this blog post. Tonight I go to a concert. Tomorrow is filled with beach BBQ's and sunshine. How lucky am I?

Keep Santa Cruz Weird

After rolling into Santa Cruz after being on the bus from 8AM to 12AM, rain coming down in buckets on me as I stood at the bus station and stupidly forgetting to pack food (who eats turkey sandwiches out of a vending machine? Not this girl...) I found a place to crash on a friend of a friend's couch. I fell asleep wondering if I had done the right thing: loneliness and just being outright scared of the new challenges present in front of me had sunk in...

When I woke up this morning I still had some lingering doubts and a foggy mind (no coffee yet). Ironically one of the roommate asked me to drive her to her morning class and of course I said yes! I got lost for an hour on the way home, my phone lost service (along with the ability to GPS my ass out of there) and I was still wearing my PJs when I asked a cop where I was going. What I discovered on this adventure was the hills of Santa Cruz; where people run and bike on established trails, trees drip with the morning fog, redwoods gleam in the rising sun and music streams out of the open windows as the sun begins to light up my face. So I woke up this morning feeling unsure about my decision to leave  Mammoth and my routine there and begin something brand new here. But after that car ride I began to understand why I had come here...

So why in the world did I leave my skiing season early at Mammoth, travel for over 16 hours on a bus with all of my belongings to a new city, new job, and new people? I begin my 6 month volunteer work with the AmeriCorp ACE this Sunday. I will 'donate' over 1000 hours of labor cleaning and building trails, working with the community and educating them about conservation and the trail system, and living in the woods frolicking with people just like me while being dirty. Sounds about right for me, doesn't it? Yep, that's why I am here.

Am I making money? Hell no. Am I establishing a career for myself? Nope. Am I doing something I am passionate about? Absolutely. Am I surrounding myself with people and experiences that will push me, build me and allow me to flourish? 100%.

Life comes fast, hard and sometimes absolutely unpleasant. I am not trying to sprint through my life so I can surround myself with objects and money. At the end of the day, year, my life I want to be able to rummage through my memories, scars, photos and friends and relive those years over and over and over...

To view some information about my projects and other's projects go here.