Category: Uncategorized

My last days in Alaska went by quickly. I spent a lot of time with an amazing guy I met on tinder earlier that month, Erik. 

One of the places he took me was Crystal lake over at Crow pass. It was a lovely hike. At the end was a glacier fed lake.

The weekend before I left back home, was filled with a couple of adventures. First we headed out to a friend’s cabin on a lake in Chickaloon. We stopped by a quaint cafe on the way that had a big selection of gluten-free pastries! We went kayaking the following morning. 

Sometime during the last few days, I was able to witness Erik’s Queen of the night blossom. These flowers bloom at most twice a year for only a few hours. That was cool.

We also headed out to Seward, a picturesque town by the sea, a few hours south of anchorage. We had lunch on the Rocky beach.
After we headed on Caines Head trail, through the northernmost rainforest in the world. We were able to see lots of salmon swimming upstream.

My last day was spent cleaning up my apartment. I managed to put all the plastic waste I had consumed during my 6 weeks in Alaska into 5 eco-bricks! I think it is so important that we take responsibility for what we consume for as much of the time as is possible. To learn more about eco-bricks and how you can take responsibility for the harmful plastics you consume, check out my tutorial here.

Erik took me to South, for my last dinner. Decent food with amazing company. He took my Alaska experience to a new level.

Alaska was really amazing. I was also happy to get back home. On the way home, I had learned that a good friend had passed away. That tinged the homecoming experience.

The teaching of the four reminders comes to mind:

1. The preciousness of life and how fortunate I am to practice and study the Dharma 2. Death comes suddenly without warning 3. The entrapment of karma 4. The intensity and inevitability of suffering of all beings everywhere

Rest in Peace Jannette.

I went to Denali this past weekend! Accompanying me was my roommate Moon, his friend Brian, and Brian’s friend, Albert. 
So just to make something clear, Denali is in Denali National park. 90 miles south of that and across the street is Denali State Park. That is where we did our hike.

Denali National Park has a variety of obstacles that make it somewhat difficult to enjoy, so we decided to just go to the state park and enjoy the panoramic views of Denali mountain, which are said to be better from the state park anyway.
Our first stops were at the Denali view south and Denali view north, about 90 miles south of Denali, opposite the state park . Our camping spot was at the north view point. 

Denali State Park is basically one big route in a figure “3”. It has three trailheads. The north trailhead is Little Coal Creek. The middle trailhead is Ermine hill. The next one down is the Alaska Veterans Memorial/ Byers lake. There’s actually another trailhead south of Byers lake, but we won’t talk about that in this story.
Denali is the tallest mountain in North America. I wasn’t able to get any clear photos of it due to clouds but I did get plenty of the mountain range.
That first evening, we had dinner and checked out the to Northern trailheads. I made a plan for the next day to hike up the northernmost trailhead, hike along the ridge, and then return back the same way went up once we got tired. The distance between the northernmost trailhead and the second one down, is 20 miles, so I didn’t think that was a viable option for us.

The next morning we got up. Brian wanted to get breakfast at a restaurant down the street. It had rained a little bit that night. Moon and I convinced him that we should make the meals that we had brought along. After breakfast, we began our hike up the Little Coal Creek trailhead.

It was a steep hike, but we reached the ridge in an hour. We rested for a little bit. Brian said that he wanted to return back down to the car and find another place to go hike. I couldn’t understand this point of view. I contested and said we should continue enjoying the scenery where we were at and continue on the trail. Brian and Albert went back down to the car anyway. Moon and I told them that we would catch up later. Moon and I continued to hike up a little bit more to see a creek that was in sight. As we continued to hike, Moon said why don’t we just hike the whole thing. I was apprehensive. Moon said he was going to go regardless of my choice and started to hike along. I wouldn’t say that I was forced to go along with him, but I was in an awkward situation. I just wanted to hike along until I got tired and then return back. I reluctantly followed behind Moon. I can only estimate that the hike we were going to complete would be around 20 miles. The maps of the area were not very detailed. In addition, the route really didn’t have any labeled landmarks or signs.
I messaged Brian to let him know that we were going to hike to Ermine hill trailhead and that I would text him when we arrived. I kept the message short because I really didn’t have any information other than that. The signal on my phone wasn’t good. Moon’s phone was just about dead.
We continued along. We saw some epic views of the mountain range, along with some pretty creeks. We drank cold water from the creek.

At some point we came to this magical area. It may have been called the “lunar field.” There was a lake there. The ground was covered with soft grass. There were boulders scattered about. The boulders had quartz in them and lichen of various colors. I believe this was the highlight of the trip. It’s a shame we weren’t able to stop and soak in the vibe longer. By this time it was around 6:00 p.m. We had to keep hiking because we had no idea how long it would take to reach the trailhead. 

I had received a message from Brian, or rather several of them. He seemed somewhat panicked. He asked where we were and suggested that we turn around. He wanted me to call him immediately. I decided not to call him or to respond. I had no new information that would help to clarify when we would arrive at the trailhead, and we weren’t about to turn around. So we continued to trod along.

Eventually we made it to the trailhead at around 10:00 p.m. We met Brian there, who was not in the best of moods. He said we ruined his day. He had gone to the liquor store, and then proceeded to spend the rest of the day traveling between the two trailheads and the campground. He “wasn’t even able to drink” that much because he was driving. He had called the state trooper to report us. In total Moon and I had hiked 11 hours. Only about an hour of that was spent resting. We could barely walk.
When we got back to the campground, Moon and I prepared dinner. We had a huge dinner because the other two didn’t eat. I had to throw a large part of the dinner away. Bryan stayed in the car, drinking, and listening to some emo music, Lincoln park, Nickelback, etc… Albert went straight to bed.

 When we were done with dinner, Moon went to bed as well. Brian surprisingly came out to help me clean up. He told me he was going to go park the car a little bit further down from where we had pitched the tents so that he would not disturb us with his music and from the lights in the car.
Brian, Albert, and I were sharing a tent. Moon has his own tent. I went to bed and woke up at around 3:30 a.m. to find that Brian still hadn’t gone to bed. It was cold and I didn’t want to leave my tent in fear of whatever catastrophe I might possibly witness once I stepped out. I just wanted to remain in blissful ignorance until the morning sun, but I had to go to the bathroom. I saw that Brian’s car was still parked out there with the lights on. I snuck around behind his car to the restrooms. On my way back, I turned on the flashlight on my phone and proceeded to walk back to the tent along the sidewalk. I guess this startled him because when I stepped out of the restroom, he moved his car over to another part of the parking lot where there were campers and RVs. I continued to walk along the sidewalk back toward the tents. He honked his horn and then proceeded to shine his lights on me and drive towards me. He came back and parked at the spot he had just left from. He rolled down the window. I don’t think I’ve seen a face more dazed and intoxicated.

“You scared the s*** out of me man”.  “Oh, sorry I had to go to the restroom.” “I was about to go to bed and then I saw a light come out of the restroom.” “Oh yeah that was me. (pause) You should drink some water.”

I went back to the tent. A few minutes later, Brian came in and was rustling about in his sleeping bag for several minutes. After a while he sits straight up, looks at me, and in a normal room volume voice says,

“Let’s just go. It’s only a 4-hour drive back.” “I don’t think that’s a good idea. I’m super tired.” “Don’t worry about it, I can drive.” “Shh, everyone else is still asleep, we should wait until the morning.” “Okay, we’ll sleep until 4:00 a.m., and then we’ll go.”

He closed his eyes. There were a few moments of silence. Albert starts to speak.

“Yo man, my heart is beating out of my chest. That 5-hour energy drink is freaking me out. Give me the keys to the car.” No response from Brian. “Hey man give me the keys to the car.” Again there was no response.

In the matter of about  2 minutes, Brian managed to pass out in an unresponsive stupor. Albert withdrew his attempts at communicating with Brian, thankfully.

We went to bed, and woke up at 10:00 a.m. Brian wanted to leave immediately. I surrendered plans to make the breakfast we had brought with us. We listened to “Mariposa Traicionera” (Brian’s playlist). We ate breakfast at the restaurant down the road on our way back home. Brian called the state trooper to tell them that his friends had shown up. The trip was a comedy of errors with plenty of bumps in the road, but the “lunar field” made it worth it. I can’t stop thinking about it.

I’ve been on a few more hikes since being in Anchorage. This past week and I went to an abandoned mining town, Independence mine, at hatcher pass. Parts of it look like an amusement park theme ride, with cascades running down the side of the mountain, along with antique mining debris scattered everywhere.

I’ve had a lot of time to explore the city. It’s kind of charming, for an American city. I like the bike paths in the neighborhoods that go between the houses. Wild raspberries grow like weeds on the sides of the road. 

Last week my roommates and I went up to flat top mountain. We saw a moose on the trail. There was a man in front of us who was trying to shoo the moose away. I’m glad he didn’t get hurt. I saw its nostrils flaring. The hike was good. I got to see some eagles! It’s cool to see them in nature. They were hanging out by the American flag that was planted on top of the mountain. There was an air of patriotism about. There were two girls that we met while hiking. One of them was a nurse in the air force. She was telling me about the substandard working conditions she had to deal with because of the priority of budget going towards military warcrafts. She said any contrary feedback toward the condition of how day-to-day operations persist, were punished. The priority had to be being the world power in the air.
My thoughts on the interaction:
One way to define ignorance, in the Buddhist lineage I study is the act of ignoring. It is regarded as the most dangerous of the three poisons of mind (passion and aggression being the other 2), because with this particular poison, it is not in the realm of awareness. Needless to say, there are consequential implications. Administrative governances are more often than not designed, built, and maintained with ignorance weaved through.

One evening, my roommate made some moose. We had moose tacos. That was fun! It’s lean and tastes similar to beef. It is subtly different and hard to articulate. I’ve heard it described it as “tasting like willowbuds smell in the spring”.

On another hike, I met up with Jonathan, a local couch surfer. We went hiking at North Face at Alyeska (resort).We drove South along the Turnagain arm. I guess you can call it a fjord. It has one of the highest rise tides in the world, with a tidal range of 40 ft.

I arrived here last Wednesday, a bit apprehensive. I still hadn’t secured a place to stay. I slept in the airport that evening and set out the following morning to follow up on a few places. Fortunately I was able to get a place by the afternoon.

I’ve got 2 roommates, Moon and Tran. Affordable accommodations sell out quickly here.

Initial impressions:
The bus drivers are friendly.
The air is clean, cool, and penetrating. It reminds me of the air in Antarctica, intoxicating.
The sun sets at midnight!
The ground is soft, the grass is lush and also soft.
It feels great to be outside. Mid 60s most days, 50s at night.
It is easy to see mountain ranges in the not so far distance.

There seems to be a fair number of homeless indigenous people, perhaps with mental health afflictions, or perhaps with an uncensored way of acting toward each other. One approached me at the downtown visitor center.
He said, “I’m sad, and blue.”
I said, “I think most people can relate to that.”
He paused but continued to maintain eye contact, as though he were looking straight into my soul, like a conversation you would have with dear friend who was revealing the depth of their suffering, “You have a good heart.”

A few yards away from me, another indigenous man who looked somewhat sedated approached and chatted with a tourist teenage girl sitting with her younger brother by a reindeer hotdog stand. The man backed away from the girl and yelled out, “F** B**, you are a mean person.” The hotdog vender scolded the man who then walked away.

I felt like there was theater 360 degrees around me.

The following day was dedicated to getting my food/ water situation sorted. Like last year’s trip to Ohio, I was surprised how few people opt to buy purified water in bulk from refill stations. My roommates drink the tap, but it tastes like the chlorinated, fluorinated tap water back home. I tried to drink it but would get a distinct headache that localized around my pineal gland. I eventual found a refill station.

Food/ water is on average 2-4x higher here than in south Texas.

Yesterday, my roommate, Moon, took me on hike at the Chugach State Park. He told me you shouldn’t go hiking alone and you shouldn’t go without a gun or bear mace. Moon is in the military. We were joined by his military friend, Bryan. Moon said small guns aren’t effective, so they took rifles, both of them.
We arrive at the trail head. I said I’d carry the backpack, as I wouldn’t know what to do with a gun. As we hiked up the trail, I saw few people with guns and no one else with a rifle. I did see many unsettled faces on hikers coming down the mountain. One man with a gun of his own commented, “You look like you mean business.”
Moon and I hiked a bit faster than Bryan. At some point we were quite a ways ahead. We waited for him to catch up. When he did, we noticed he was joined by another fellow hiker, who also had a gun, but it wasn’t a rifle.
We had to speed hike up the mountain because Bryan had a part time work shift to get to. We eventually made it to the summit where we were rewarded with views of a lake and enlivening breezes. We sped back down the mountain in what paradoxically seemed to take a longer time than going up.
My butt and legs are sore, a familiar recollection of travels past. Vitality somewhat restored. South Texas has its comforts, but its nice to step out of stagnated monotony again.

Listening to:

Beautiful- Moby