Flying Solo
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The Mount Baker Experience
As the weekend crowds poured into Birch Bay State Park, I drove up to the Mount Baker area to see if I could find a camp spot. I wasn’t worried because I could just pick up a permit at the Ranger’s station and park anywhere, but finding a camp spot where I can set up camp is much nicer. I drove into a campground a few miles out of the small mountain town of Glacier and found a great spot up on the higher level looking over the rest of the campground. I decided to stay a few days and set up my camp, including my Canopy, which is difficult for me to set up by myself.
That evening the camp host came along and told me that I had to be out of the spot tomorrow as it was reserved for the weekend. I was so bummed. I was all settled in for the weekend (It was a Thursday evening) and seriously bummed I had to not only move, but find out if I could even get another camp spot. The host said after she makes her rounds she would come back and tell me what would be opening up the next day. It took her quite a long time but she came back, as she said she would, and told me there were three sites that she knew of opening up and she gave me the numbers. She said that there was a nice one right on the river opening up but it was a first come, first serve site and she didn’t know when they were leaving.
The next morning, when I woke up, I made coffee and decided to take a walk to check out the three sites. The one on the river was already vacated at 8am, so I took my shawl out and threw it over the picnic table and put my coffee cup on it. I then ran back to my campsite and grabbed my camp chair and actual table cloth and took it to my new camp site.Life upgraded me to a beautiful space right on the rushing river. It was inconvenient to have to move, yes, but well worth it.
My journey up to Mount Baker was beautiful. I hiked the Chain Lakes trail to the summit and hit the snow so decided to go back down the way I came rather than try to navigate all the snow banks ahead. The views from the summit were incredible and it was just as beautiful hiking back down the Mountain as going up. It was a tough, up hill hike, but well worth the journey.
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You Look the Same!
Today I ran into a man I worked with when I was only thirty years old. At the time we worked together he was twenty six and I thought I was old. The interesting thing about running into this old friend, is that we instantly recognized each other. Usually after 25 years have passed it might be difficult to recognize someone so immediately. I was getting out of my van going into a coffee house and he asked me if I was who he thought I was. When he said his name, I remembered exactly who he was. We made small talk for just a few moments and he said “you look the same.” I genuinely had to say “so do you.” I meant it. He had also taken very good care of himself over the years and had not appeared to have been a victim of wrong living. It felt good to have been so immediately recognized by someone I had just worked with for a couple years.He had to run off to his daughters birthday party so we didn’t talk long. I imagined he would be about fifty years old, but he was fit. I imagined he married later in life, once he got established financially, which he was well on his way to doing at the age of 26.
Running into an old friend made me take a walk down memory lane and a part of me envied this man’s obvious stability and what I imagined to be a happy family life. I had already divorced when I went to work with him and was a young, single Mother. I was filled with hope and the promise that one day everything would fall into place. I would meet the right guy and build a stable life for myself. I never did meet the right guy, and I’ve lived more a life of a Gypsy than one where I stayed in the same place for decades at a time. And now, here I am, traveling months at a time in a mini-van, flying solo.
Ernest Holmes, the founder of “Religious Science,” not to be mistaken for Scientology, says that comparison is the cause of all unhappiness. We each have our path to walk and when we find ourselves comparing our path to someone else’s path we only cause ourselves pain. There are so many people who tell me they would love nothing more then to do what I am doing, to be so free, to work from anywhere. I am truly blessed this way. Even if sometimes, I feel it would be really nice to have someone to share the journey with.
I suppose I can’t expect that the dark side of “flying solo” won’t emerge from time to time. It gives me the opportunity to go deeper into the feelings that would somehow hold me back from truly embracing my freedom in a way I never have.
Sometimes stability is a trap. People find themselves in a good, stable, well paying job, a great house, a great mortgage to go along with it, an unsatisfying relationship and a feeling of being trapped in the life they have created. Some people are afraid to walk away from their comfortable, stable lives and embrace the call of their spirit. They fear life won’t support them. They fear losing their comfort and stability. They fear losing the prestige and ego trappings that make them feel accomplished and successful.
What I have learned is that true success is feeling I am free to live my life, true to myself, following the call of spirit, following my bliss and knowing that I would never settle for a life that didn’t suit me. Now I can say, that I am following my bliss and I am learning to really trust that my path will lead me to the greatest happiness I have ever experienced. Yes, perhaps I am a late bloomer, in some ways. But it is better to bloom late and live true to ones self, then to bloom early and lose your petals early.
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Leaving the Past in my Rear View Mirror
Ahhh, I’m in the mountains. In the beautiful North Cascades. I drove from Kettle Falls, through some
very beautiful Country and decided to stop at a campground I like that is still very much on the Eastern, Washington side of the mountains. I took a hike about a mile straight up. There were some beautiful forests and views of snow capped peaks. It felt good to be here.
I felt a letting go; a releasing happening as if I was leaving the past in my rear-view mirror and driving into a new reality; one that embraced a higher level of love, acceptance for “what is” and a deeper forgiveness. I had been holding onto some anger, hurt and resentment. It wasn’t serving me to continue to carry it around with me. Traveling in a mini-van, I couldn’t carry around a lot of excess baggage, so I had to stop the van and let it out.
Heading through one of the most beautiful mountain passes I’ve been through, and taking my time on my way to the West Coast, I felt a happier, freer energy. Although I had no idea what awaited me or what would unfold, I was going someplace very dear to my heart. It would either embrace me or send me on down the road. Either way, its part of a higher plan, one that is not in my control; one I have had to surrender to.
Traveling over a mountain pass like this felt very symbolic to me. It was as if everything I was letting go of stayed on the East side of the mountains, and as I drove down the mountain to the West side, I was tasting a new kind of freedom!
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The Fertile Lands of Kettle Falls
I Left Sandpoint in my rear view mirror and as I drove away, the energy shifted much like a dark cloud lifting. The heaviness I had been feeling gave way to a lighter, happier feeling.
View from Doug’s Property My next stop was Kettle Falls, Washington where I lived a year after my husband disappeared, back in 2011. Even though I was processing through a lot of emotional and physical pain at this time, as I was also in recovery from Lyme Disease, I experienced the community as being very healing and nurturing. Returning there always reminded me of why I came to live here in the first place. It’s very beautiful, with the Columbia River, Lake Roosevelt running through the area. There is a part of my spirit that always
feels “home” here.I spent two days with a friend who is a bee keeper and lives in the nearby town of Marcus. His place is perched above the river with views of the Columbia filtering through the trees. The weather was perfect and the gardens and orchards were in bloom. It was the heart of summer!
My van was parked in Doug’s driveway under a tree and it was a truly beautiful campsite, with a truly beautiful friend.
Doug is a 67 year old man who bikes some 500 miles at a time in Spain every Winter on trails such as the Camino De Santiago, and some less traveled, less popular trails. He also goes to Bee Keeping events all over the world in places like Ethiopia and Nicaragua. He is a Master bee keeper and has bees located all over the Kettle Falls and Colville area pollinating the orchards and producing an abundance of honey. He grows a beautiful organic garden and cooks the most delicious plant based meals. I always learn a little about Bee Keeping when I am there. It is much more complex then I had realized. Quite an art, actually. I have such a profound respect for the bees.
While in the area, Doug took me to visit a friend of his who produces Hydrosols out of distilled herbs. Hydrosol is the water created from the herbs that are commonly used in skin care products. Essential oils are a bi-product. The day I was there he and his wife were distilling lavender in three very large copper pots and it smelled so wonderful. Their process was very pure and dedicated to a very high-quality product. It was an educational opportunity.
There is a bald Eagle in the center of this tree, to the upper right of the trunk. Can you see it? Next, we went to a very large Game Reserve in the mountains and drove the long gravel road through the most beautiful Country. We didn’t see much game, other than deer, but saw the most beautiful nature, lakes, ponds and valleys. We found a camp spot perched above a lake in the mountains with lush green valleys and tall pine trees and there wasn’t a soul there. There was a bald Eagle perched up on a tree branch next to the lake and as we were observing it, it spread its expansive wings and lifted into the sky, soaring across the valley.
We got a flat tire, driving on all the gravel roads but made it back to town to get it repaired at Les Schwabs. We walked the little town of Colville while waiting for the repair and then headed over to another friends orchard where she was harvesting organic apricots. Kristine was a beautiful young woman of 28 and as vibrant and energetic as anyone I’ve met. She bought the orchard a year ago without any real knowledge or experience, but a strong passion to learn. The orchard didn’t have working irrigation and hadn’t been watered in years. Upon purchasing the orchard Kristine contacted Doug to see if he would bring some bees out to the orchard. This was part of Doug’s business as the bees pollinate the orchard helping it to produce an abundant crop. She then asked Doug if he would mentor her in the art of bee keeping. With the bees, and hand watering, the crops were thriving. She had apricots, peaches, cherries, pears and apples, but it was apricot season and the apricots were delicious. I got to take some with me. As we were there, U-pick customers stopped by filling their bags for fifty cents a pound. Kristine and her Mom were busily picking apricots for the Saturday markets the following day. What beautiful, ambitious people. I really enjoyed meeting them.
Lake Roosevelt / Columbia River One thing I long ago realized about the Kettle Falls area. The world could go to hell in a handbasket and these people would not only survive but likely thrive. They were hard workers and produced a lot of food and products. It was an amazing experience to be here again, to visit old and new friends and enjoy the harvest.
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Welcome to Sandpoint
I found my way to Sandpoint, Idaho, one of my favorite places in the world, with tall mountains and a very large deep water lake that makes me think more of a Bay than a lake. Some of the best hiking is in this area with tall pine forests and beautiful expansive views of Lake Ponderay. I was hiking between 5.5 and 6 miles a day, sometimes straight up hill.
I’ve lived near Sandpoint for many years and in some ways it is “like home” to me but it also brings up a lot of emotional energy that is coming to the surface to be healed and released. I was very near old memories and wounds and yet I was drawn here for a reason. To heal! Ironically, I have an appointment with my Lyme Disease Doctor while here. He specializes in the alternative diagnosis and treatment of Lyme Disease and was my “miracle doctor” when I was in the worse pain of my life. Now and then I have relapses and he helps me kick the healing back in.A series of events led me to delve a little deeper into my own emotional ups and downs and a deeper understanding of myself. I knew that this trip/journey was a spiritual journey for my own growth and expansion, but I wasn’t sure what I needed to expand in myself. Life seemed to bring a lot of lessons that had me learning how to roll with the punches and accept whatever happens on an external level. But my journey was becoming much less “external” and much more “internal” as the time passed by.
I haven’t had any further issues with my van since leaving Colorado. That was the first phase of my journey where there were a lot of external challenges. Ironically even as I was leaving Colorado, I lost my credit card at a gas station. I was hesitant to report it missing at first, thinking it might show up somewhere in my van, but it never did. I had this card attached to all the auto deductions for my business, and it would be a pain to replace, especially while traveling. Eventually I found my card. It wasn’t in my van. It was with someone who was planning on having a spending spree in Vegas. Fortunately, I get notified by email whenever there is a purchase on my card and I happened to be Online when the notification came in, so I immediately reported the card stolen and it closed my account down. Another “out there” experience.
The external issues began falling away and in its place the deeper emotional healing was on the table. As I walked miles in nature, everything would just flood to the surface and I experienced a lot of emotional highs and lows. I ended up having a psychic reading from a psychic medium who was visiting the area for a day. One of the first things he told me was that my deceased Father was a powerful guide in my life and traveling right along with me. His was the loudest voice of all my guides as he had an important message for me. The message had to do with some choices I needed to make for my well-being and highest good at this time. Ironically I had already made “the right choice” and my Father’s words were validation that I was listening.The psychic was actually very accurate and described my Father’s appearance and his approximate age, his love for water and even the way he died. My father also wanted me to know that he had a sense of adventure like I do.
Since this phase of my journey took me deeper into loneliness and a feeling of isolation, knowing I had an invisible traveling companion was helpful. The other validation I received in the reading was that this journey was indeed for my spiritual growth and there was a lot of emotional healing happening. There always seems to be a lot of emotional healing on the table. It has been my life path to embrace healing and to facilitate it. I learned long ago that a therapist can only take a client as deep as he/she has gone herself. The more we are able to face our own core wounds and develop the awareness of what lies deep beneath the surface, the more we can “see” the wounds in others and help them to heal.
As I travel around, camping in various campgrounds, I am constantly exposed to families, couples, and groups of friends, and it makes me feel more a lonely wanderer without a tribe. Most of the time, other than my contact with clients, I spend long hours in the world within, listening to the voices in my head and riding the various waves of emotion that stem from complete “awe” of the beauty that surrounds me, to deep sadness connected to my own isolation.
I picture myself as a monk on a mountain, just sitting in solitude for days, weeks, months and facing the inner demons that find fault with my existence. I suppose it is also like the story of Jesus in the desert, confronting Satan. When we spend a lot of time alone and in isolation, the dark forces see an opening, a weakness that it thinks it can exploit. That voice sometimes tries to convince me that my life isn’t worth living; it has no real purpose, and nobody really loves me or cares about me. I am truly alone!Sometimes it is a choice that I find myself alone in the world. I enjoy long periods of reflection and solitude. But sometimes those long periods seem to extend into eternity and I begin to feel I am an alien. I don’t belong here. I’m not like the “others.” There is no place I really fit in. I’m an outcast.
The one thing I have learned in life that is quite profound is….wherever I go, I’m still here. There is no reason to believe this reality will ever change. Whether I am in this physical body or floating somewhere beyond it, I’m still here! I still exist. The healing journey I am on urges me to find a deeper peace within myself and to foster a deeper sense of love and forgiveness for those who have rejected, hurt and betrayed me. Everybody is doing the best they can, with the level of awareness they are in. The more we face our darkness, the more light that surrounds us. Some people are attracted to the light, others fear it because it exposes the darkness within the Self.
In many ways I have felt more invisible on this leg of the journey. I fly under the radar and feel that I am rarely noticed at all. I’ve even noticed the friends who were contacting me on a consistent basis suddenly dropped out. Not just one friend; all of them. It became very quiet on the inside, although I was surrounded by a lot of activity. I spend my time in campgrounds where everyone is chopping wood, carrying water, busy as beavers going about their business of boating, swimming with the kids, barbecuing and taking their day trips. I am but another camper going about my business. And it may also be, that the deeper I go 
into my personal reflection, the less I notice them. I hear the sounds of boats on the water, children laughing and screaming, the pitter patter of feet, air mattresses being inflated, and vehicles coming and going. I smell the coffee, the fire, and the barbecue. I am aware of life going on around me. But I don’t pay much attention to it.In Colorado there was a lot more human connection. I made friends and enjoyed time with people along the way. I had a feeling of being more “visible” and embraced. But it was time to go. I felt it.
When I first arrived in Sandpoint, I took my van to a car-wash to clean the pitch that fell from the pine trees I was camped under in Whitefish. I was busy washing my van, trying to get the pitch off when a large truck with a boat attached pulled up behind me, waiting for me to finish. When I realized that I hadn’t pushed the right button for the soap, I went and flipped the switch and started scrubbing the area’s that had the pitch with the brush, and the man in the truck yelled out at me “Are you going around again?” I was a bit oblivious to his obvious distress that he was going to have to wait a little longer. I explained that I had pitch on my van and was trying to wash it off, it would be a few more minutes. He angrily jumped back in his truck, backed up and screeched out of the car-wash. Welcome to Sandpoint!
Several times I was returning to my Van and putting things away, getting food out, or whatever and someone pulled up behind me asking me “are you leaving?” Innocent question, I know, but when I explained that I would be a while, I often had the same reaction…”I wish she would just leave!” It was an opportunity for me to NOT take on other people’s intensity. Sandpoint is crazy busy in the summer. With that comes a certain amount of traffic, waiting, parking issues and difficulty finding a campsite. I got lucky with the campsite.
Each area that I travel to has different experiences and lessons to learn. Sandpoint has been the most emotionally challenging for me, so far. Perhaps it is the memories attached with this area, or perhaps it is the accumulation of over six weeks on the road living in my minivan; my little sleeping pod on wheels. But I will be leaving soon, over the Mountains to another place, other experiences. I will be visiting friends and family. That will be a nice break in the isolation.
