Blue Jeans in the Sky with Diamonds

I guess the first cool, crisp fall days in south Louisiana will do it to you. This week, the need to do something with at least a small dash of adventure was running high. I had recently written a list of things I like doing - one of which was watching the sun rise. One thing led to another and I somehow came up with the idea of riding my bike out to Lake Martin to see the sun come up.

The night before, I pumped up my tires, got out a water bottle, found my bike shoes and helmet and set the alarm clock. In the morning, I stumbled downstairs, ate a little breakfast, and headed out. As I rolled down Pinhook in the dark (I do have a flashing tail light and headlight), I realized how chilly it was. The air bit into my windshirt and froze my fingertips.

It took 30 minutes of riding before I started enjoying what was going on around me and quit indulging myself in the worry that was wallowing around in my head. I started to notice how white the light was that was coming from the stars set onto the nearly-black indigo sky made them look like clear white diamonds. The trees that line the road were black, with the texture of their shape morphing to a smooth line in the distance. As I rode, the orange to indigo fade on the horizon warmed to a hue of tangerine fading into the color of some well-faded jeans. About the time I started thinking that maybe I missed the turnoff to the lake, the bright green "Lake Martin - Bird Sanctuary" sign came into view.

I rode the gravel down to my favorite spot along the lake, threw the bike down and laid on the grass for a few minutes. Twenty minutes till sunrise. The birds were already busy - with everything from the "T-T-T-T" of the little birds to the squawking of the bigger birds. I thought (as I do on every trip) that I REALLY need to study and learn the sounds of birds. The cypress emerged from the black to take on their colors of green brown and grey. The sky had become a kaliedoscope of turquoise to orange to tinted blue to the steel blue of the old jeans.

I noticed that even in this serene setting, that I could hear the noise of Lafayette in the distance as we all participated in taking part in our American duty of creating "progress". I wondered how long it would be before this jewel was overtaken by the city.

Small sparrow-like birds flew overhead (I really DO need to learn my birds) in huge bunches. They swooped inches over the water collecting their insect breakfasts with their aerial maneuvers. As the sun began to finally make its entrance, I realized that the magic of it all was already gone. The transition to daylight had long since taken place when the sun came over the horizon like a shining silver platter.

As I got back on my bike for the long trek home, I tried to sort out my feelings from the morning. I had seen an amazing show of the world coming to life for the day. I felt glad for what I had witnessed. It connected me again with the feeling of wilderness and adventure - all within 15 miles of my house.

At the same time, I felt strangely disconnected - almost as if I were a spectator instead of a participant in it all. Maybe that's what city living does to you over time. Maybe this feeling is telling me that the months of re-construction at the shop has cost me that frequency it takes to feel "connected" when I am in the outdoors. At the same time, I felt so grateful that it's all out there, just waiting for me. I am so looking forward to fall and winter - my favorite time of year here in the south, and getting my frequency in the outdoors where I want it to be.....

Keep the faith folks. I'll see you out there!

Wow - What a Night!

In case you missed it, our opening night in the new room was fantastic. In this blog, I am going to let the pictures speak for the evening. I will narrate as I show you some shots of the building:

This is a photo of how the room looks in daylight with some random slides of trips we've taken, the construction process and some group shots of Pack & Paddle trips from this year. This was during the open house and folks were able to mill around and check out the new space.


These are some pictures of Becky and I with Matt and Amy. We had a wonderful time with family, staff and tons of friends that showed up to give our new space a great send off.


Around 7, I spoke about the things we've been through as a staff and a family in the construction of this new space. I talked about the shared journey that we have taken together and how it relates to the outdoor experience.



Here's a picture that is real special to me (right). It shows me speaking to the crowd with my parents (founders of Pack & Paddle) in the background.

Around 7:15, it was time for Nate to make his entrance. The crowd was very fired up and amazingly loud. It felt almost like a rock concert. This picture shows Nate walking out of the back room towards the stage. I can say that for me, this was a really exciting moment. We had visualized the idea of this venue months ago, and watching it come together in that moment was very satisfying.


This photo (right) shows a view of the room with some of the crowd. You can see Nate reflected in the windows. Everyone commented on the feeling and "vibe" of the room. In retrospect, after months of work, I can say that the feeling of the love that we put into the design and building of this space comes through.


The photo on the left is a great shot of Nate performing. He showed slides of his historic walk of the West Coast while inspiring us with his music on the guitar and banjo.

One of the things I loved about the night is how comfortable the room felt in terms of beauty and grace. Everything just fits together perfectly to create an intimate and cool feeling for an event like this.




Here's a picture of how everything looked from outside the shop. We love our window wall!!!

Well, the opening night has come and gone. It was more exciting and satisfying than I could have imagined. To see a dream become reality is a fantastic feeling. To be able to share it with friends, family and most importantly, all of our wonderful customers that have meant so much to us over the years. This venue has always felt like it would be a gift to our community. The special evening we had Saturday was only the first of many wonderful evenings to come. We so much enjoyed sharing our venue with you and look forward to many more great nights together in the future!

Special Thanks To:

The nearly 200 outdoor folks that came to experience our initial event. It was a blast!!!

All of our staff, friends and family that worked on this project with us. Your help was critical and appreciated.

Our lead carpenter - Pops a.k.a. Gerald Istre.

Catherine Schoeffler - for glazing all of our old windows.

Great Harvest Bakery for all the great breads and sweets.

Mountain Khakis, Patagonia and Chaco for their generous donations of product for us to give away.

Ed Boustany and his scout troop for coming out to help us with the parking.

I would like to say thanks to our friend Jason Cohen who took all these photos. He's a talented professional photographer. He does incredible work on weddings and other photography jobs. You can link to his site at http://www.jasoncohenphoto.com/

Food Drying

We had a really fun seminar last night. Karla Coriel came over from Baton Rouge to lead a workshop on food dehydrating. She showed everyone how to prepare their own dried foods at home. These foods are great not only for camping trips but also for hurricane foods.

Karla started off showing basic things like a 1 lb bag of broccoli dried into a small ziploc weighing less than 4 ounces. She did the same for spinach and several other vegetables. Karla then rehydrated a couple of types of cole slaw. She then moved into fruits, passing around dried apples, fruit leathers and other delicious goodies. Then Karla rehydrated several meals including red beans and rice, ham broccoli rice, and an amazing meal that used noodle ramen as a base and added in dehydrated ground beef, tomatoes, and several veggies. They were awesome!

Everyone loved the seminar and took tons of notes. We very much appreciate the trouble Karla went to in preparing for and doing this seminar. What a treat!

This seminar marks the last time we use our current small space for an event. Starting only a week and a half from now, we'll be moving our events into the very cool new space that we've been working on this summer. Looking forward to seeing ya'll at P&P soon!

When Nature Whispers

Update on entry one year later:
Here's an update on my little piece of nature in Lafayette. As the song goes: "Pave paradise, put up a parkin lot". I took this photo to show you what's become of this little piece of green in Lafayette. Obviously progress is important, and everyone has the right to do what they want with their property. I don't know any solutions, other than to look for opportunities to preserve greenspace for future generations when they appear. Things like the Horsefarm park and the Atakapas Ishak trail must be supported to keep greenspace a vital part of Lafayette.


Original Entry - September 18th, 2007:
I always get a little surprise while riding home on my bike on these slightly cooler days. When we come up Pinhook between Chili's and Kaliste Saloom, we ride near some patches of forest. Each time, you're just riding along, traffic whizzing by and then all of a sudden you hit a nice pocket of cool air. It's like a silent little treat from nature on the otherwise thankless concrete of Pinhook.

Folks, we need to fight to maintain green spaces in our city. I won't preach to you about why. We all know the myriad of reasons. But - somehow in our busy urban lives we seem to forget. Riding through these cool pockets of air is nature whispering it's reminder to us that trees and green space make the difference between a town that's unique and beautiful and one that's a clone of the strip-mall America that we're careening toward.

Why Tha Wookie?

I've had friends asking about the event we have coming up on the 29th with Nate "Tha Wookie" Olive. I thought it might be a good idea to give you some background and tell you a little about the event and what we are hoping for.

Early in the summer, we were looking for a speaker that we could bring in that could embody what we envision for our new room. Becky sometimes looks through online journals of thru-hikers to read their experiences. She was looking through Trail Journals (www.trailjournals.com) when she came across Tha Wookies journal. A side note: Tha Wookie is a "Trail Name" or nickname that hikers give each other when they are doing thru-hikes of long distance trails. Anyway - she started reading Tha Wookies journals.

We were taken with his writing skills and insights into life on and off the trail. We did a little more research and found his site (www.thawookie.com) and read about his historic hike of the American West Coast Trail. His pictures were so phenomenal, and his writing so inspiring, we decided to ask Nate if he would come to Lafayette to speak.

At first, he was hesitant. Nate is pursuing a doctorate in forestry and wasn't sure if he would have the time to do a program in Lafayette. We kept pursuing him, plying him with tales of great food and great people. He finally relented and agreed to come.

To me, Nate is the perfect speaker for our facility because he embodies everything we dream of in a program: His program focuses on outdoor adventure. He brings beautiful photography that will inspire us. He's an interesting speaker that will challenge our thinking on the outdoors and life. He will be combining original live music (banjo and guitar) with his presentation that will bring a beautiful artistic flair to the whole event.

So - that's the story of how the Wookie is headed to Lafayette. We are very excited and hope that you'll attend.

Reaching into the Future

I can remember being a 11 year old boy scout at Camp Thistlewaite. A counselor took a red external frame Kelty pack out of his tent and showed it to us. Then he described hiking in the mountains. We were HOOKED! A year or 2 later, my experiences in hiking New Mexico, Wyoming, Montana with my scout leaders Dr. John Meriwether, Ken Roy and John Sullivan helped to shape much of the rest of my life.

This week, I gave presentations at two groups outside the shop. One was a group of local scout leaders and the other was a school group that has a great outings program.

Being at these meetings brought me back to the days when Becky and I led a high school outings group for four years. I remembered the tremendous time commitment it took to organize and run a group like this. From this experience, as well as looking at the thread of my own life, I know first hand the effect wilderness can have on the lives of kids. It can build character, confidence and even give a sense of direction that you just can't find in the city.

With this blog post, I just really want to say thank you to the volunteers that take the time to invest their outdoor experiences into the next generation. What you do is essential and critical. Your effort and leadership has effects on people that reach far into the future.

Eagle Rock Trip Report

Our intrepid band of 9 hikers headed to Arkansas to hike on the Eagle Rock Loop. Known as the most beautiful loop trail in the state, we were treated to tall mountains, beautiful creeks and nice trail.

We hiked in around midnight on Friday, and set up camp. The night was cooler than I expected. I had brought a thin sleeping bag liner and woke up freezing! I put on my raingear and then later had to wrap up in my bug net to try to keep warm. Definitely not what I expected. Ironically the next day one of our group was affected badly by the heat - followed by another member on Sunday.

With a couple of route modifications, we arrived at Winding Stairs on Sunday night and enjoyed an evening of swimming in the cold creek and then laying out on the sun-warmed rocks. A good time was had by all!