January 2019 – Travel・Surf・Yoga

Into the Tundra: Part Eight

January 28, 2019 Leigh Leigh, Travel

The following is an account of day eight of our trip to the Arctic Circle. If you missed day seven, you can catch up in quick fashion with a recap found here.

Thursday, day eight of our trip, was our last day in the field. Or so we’d planned. It was cloudy and rainy again when we woke up, and we were a little hesitant to crawl out of the tent. At 8:30 we used our Garmin inReach to send a text to our outfitter, giving them the weather report. The micro-climates of the Arctic Circle can vary greatly, so just because it was sunny with no wind at our camp, didn’t mean it would be the same at the base. The reply came that the odds of flying were marginal at best, and that we should text again at noon.

We didn’t want to break camp prematurely, especially in the rain, so we took some time for candy and a little more rest. The camp supplies included plenty of sweets to keep our blood sugar spiking, and we made a dent in the remaining stash while we avoided the rain for a bit.

Rain not pictured. Please enjoy this view from the tent on a nicer day.

Properly wired, we ducked out of the tent to glass for a while, but didn’t see any animals. At noon we texted with another weather update: light drizzle, no wind, clouds breaking up. This time the reply said to check again in 45 minutes. We glassed again, and decided to do a little more fishing while the wind was down. I could have gone for another hot lunch, but the fish only teased us with some showboat splashy moves, and no bites. Then came the text. Our pilot was taking off and would be at camp in a hour. That didn’t seem like quite enough time to get back to camp and break everything down into bags and tubs, but we surprised ourselves with how quickly we packed our dry bags, chairs, broke down cots and stuffed sleeping bags back into their sacks. We waited until we heard the plane’s engine to pull out the poles and fold up the tent.

All our gear had to be loaded into nooks and crannies on the float plane. We kept our waders on as we delivered our bags and gear to the pilot. Edgar even had to split his antlers so they’d fit on board.

It was a smooth 90 minute ride back to “civilization”. We saw two bull moose and a muskox from the air. Mike the pilot said most of the camps on the river saw bears that week, but camps on the lake (like ours) did not. We landed on the water “runway” in Kotzbue and unpacked the van. We took some time to cut up the meat back at base camp; anything we didn’t plan to take, we donated to the locals. Even the scraps were set aside as food for the sled dogs. We took the sections we wanted back to the hotel, where they agreed to freeze them for us overnight. Back at the hotel, we took everything out of our bags and reorganized for the flight home. I took my hair out of the braids I’d had for a week… it was time to lather, rinse and repeat.

The hotel had a restaurant that was a little pricey, but we were in no mood to bargain shop. We enjoyed a meal with a view and revisited the highlights of our trip. We’d conquered the tundra, taken a bull caribou, fed the locals and enjoyed the beauty of the Alaskan landscape. It was an adventure like no other, and we were grateful to have experienced it.

Into the Tundra: Part Seven

January 16, 2019 Leigh Leigh, Travel

The following is an account of day seven of our trip to the Arctic Circle. If you missed day six, you can catch up in quick fashion with a recap found here.

Day seven began with our now standard mochas – that Swiss Miss really hit the spot. After taking note of the grey sky, we shimmied into rain gear once again. Breakfast was granola bars, with an option of chewy or crunchy, and then we packed up for our last full day of hunting.

We made our way east along the lake and then up the valley where we knew the flat area thinned and created a funnel for the caribou to travel right by us. They were not so accommodating. Hour after hour we glassed and listened. We stopped for a snack with the wind at our backs, then moved on to cross a boggy “bottleneck” toward the Double Spire. When you look out over the land, it looks grassy, with scattered tussocks, and barren areas that look orange from the dirt beneath. But when you step, water shows up out of no where and oozes up over your boot. I nearly lost mine a few times when I sank deeper in the muck, but always managed to come out with it.

Afternoon came, and still it rained, and still no caribou. We hiked to the top of a ridge deeper into the valley. The thought was always, if we can’t see beyond that ridge, we should just go there. Maybe there are tons of caribou on the other side. But in this case there weren’t tons… just two small ones huddled up together. Edgar made a noise like a momma caribou, and they got up and came toward us for a moment, before spooking. They looked too young to be alone, and I hoped they would find their herd again soon.

We took the long way back toward camp, picking our way along the bend where we had seen the limping bull and the others the day before. The sun made a brief showing so we leaned against our packs and feasted on almonds and the rest of the beef jerky. No caribou appeared, but this rainbow made a lovely showing.

We slowly headed “home”… swapping stories and singing songs. Back at the tent we built a fire, and cooked over our little two-burner stove. Dinner was potatoes and onions, and fresh caribou. Not long after dinner we were ready to turn in. We had walked 8-10 miles in the rain and wind, and were looking forward to our warm, dry bags.

Day eight was our last day in the field, or so we’d planned. But our outfitter warned us we should be ready to stay longer based on the weather. Keeping that in mind… we drifted off to sleep.

Effort and Ease

January 7, 2019 Leigh Yoga

I’m teaching at a new gym, and sometimes potential students ask me if the yoga classes I teach are hard. That’s a difficult question to answer.

Depending on your flexibility, and the way your body is structured, some poses that are hard for me, will be easy for you, and vice versa. There’s no set level of difficulty in any given posture.

To add to the complication, some poses that look cool in photos, aren’t typically all that “hard”. Take 8-angle for example. You’ll see a lot of yogis using this one in profile pictures and such, because it looks really cool. But if you have the flexibility it takes for the first step of the pose, the rest of the journey there is pretty easy.

It’s practically a law to post a photo of yourself here if you live in or visit Houston.

Baby grasshopper is another one. The tricky part is grabbing your extended leg. If you’ve got that part down, you just have to shift your weight on to your planted foot and… voila!

This was taken at a surf break in Mexico. Edgar is somewhere in that water behind me.

Meanwhile, poses like happy baby, that don’t really…. uh… photograph all that well, can be really really hard. I inserted this pose into a sequence for a long hold recently, and had second thoughts when I was rehearsing it myself. I decided to leave it in, but made sure to give students the option of coming out of it mid-way through the set time. It’s no joke.

Other poses are “hard” for other reasons… especially if you’re someone with a long to-do list, that’s not getting “ta-done” while you’re on your mat. It can be hard to sink into child’s pose, or surrender to savasana if your mind won’t slow down. I struggle with this, and tend to give myself permission to think these thoughts when they come at me for three breaths. The idea stays for three long breaths in and out, and on the third one I exhale it away.