Durango Kids

Erika Berglund playing her Native American Flute for the guided meditation, as the kids become one with nature. “The Native American flute creates a healing vibration that travels directly into our being." Photo by Benjamin Carrier

Energy Aware Kids

It's all about the journey

by Joy Martin

With backpacks cinched over tiny shoulders, water bottles sloshing, and shoelaces tied just tightly enough, six kids gather around their guide, Erika Berglund, on a sunny Monday. It’s Berglund’s weekly Nature Days class, where a loose itinerary typically unfolds along trails in Falls Creek or Sailing Hawks, two of Durango’s most prized open spaces. But first, these Energy Aware Kids come together at the trailhead to make an Intention Stew.

“Standing in a circle, we imagine that we have a big pot in the center, and then we pour or shake our intention for our day into our stew: laughter, happiness, dragons, fairies, water play, yummy food,” says Berglund. “And then we stir our stew, scoop it up, take a sip, and then release it to the sky, letting it rain down upon us.”

In 2009, Berglund started guiding children in energy awareness & yoga. With two decades of practice in mind/body medicine, meditation, self-inquiry, yoga, sound healing, and other energetic modalities, Berglund says her Nature Days classes are designed to “inspire children to connect to the spirit of nature.” Instead of having a summit or physical end goal directing these outings, Berglund encourages the kids to explore the world around them, investigate what is calling to them, slow down and smell the trees, listen to the silence, and ultimately root into the present moment.

“Nature is medicine,” says Berglund. “It can regulate and calm our nervous systems and rebalance our brains. If children learn to deeply connect with nature at a young age, this beautiful relationship will always be available to nurture, soothe, and connect them to who they really are.”

After Intention Stew, the excited bevy of six- to 10-year-olds votes on where to go first, moseying to Magic Meadow or Dragon Rock or another sacred space amongst the Gambel oaks or wavy grass. As the children rove and their questions transpire, Berglund weaves in her knowledge as a hydrogeologist, asking the children to consider where the water in the creek comes from or why there is sand on the path.

“I’m vocal about what I notice, or what is calling me, and then open the door for them,” she says. “When that door opens, they discover five colors of lichen on a rock, for instance, or the taste of wild mint, or a moment spent talking with a tree.”

Avery Diehl

One go-to activity is Animal Tag, which involves each child choosing an animal to imitate. Whether they’re tiptoeing sideways like a crab or hopping like a kangaroo, Berglund says these unique movements not only serve to help the kids bond with one another but to also regulate both sides of the brain, so that whether a child is feeling tired or hyperactive, the nervous system can find balance.

As they move on to the next adventure, conversation often shifts to the kids’ emotions and how they handle their sadness or anger in the real world. Berglund says the kids will share how they incorporate their newfound energy tools to help them stay balanced.

“I have found that kids often do not know what to do with the huge rollercoaster of emotions we can all experience,” says Berglund. “The energy tools I teach can help the kids to become aware of how they are feeling and learn to work with what is arising.”

While the kids dictate most of the day’s wanderings, Berglund always has a place in mind for a final meditation. As each explorer finds a special spot to relax on the pockmarked rocks or along a creek, Berglund pulls out her Native American flute, which she’s been playing since 1998. She says she encourages the kids to close their eyes and imagine they have roots reaching all the way into the center of the earth. She’ll then lead them on a guided meditation, inviting them to listen to the surrounding sounds, notice smells, and feel the sun on their skin. Then the airy notes begin.

“The Native American flute creates a healing vibration that travels directly into our being,” Berglund says. “It’s grounding and soothing, and even kids who have a hard time calming their systems can often sink right in when they hear the flute. To close the meditation, we find the peaceful energy in our bodies, wherever it may be, breathing into it and allowing it to expand and fill our being.”

After four hours of movement, discovery, snacks, surprises, and this final meditation to integrate their experience, Berglund and her Energy Aware crew start their return to the trailhead.

“What I’m offering is not a camp, forest school, yoga, or meditation class; my intention is to provide an environment that reflects their true nature back to them,” says Berglund. “But I’m reminded that I’m not in control and that these little beings, no matter how big or small they are, have their own things going on. All I can do is encourage them to release energy they no longer need and then bring up energy from the earth. When they seem to get it, that to me is like gold.”

Nature Days are offered exclusively outdoors weekly or bi-weekly for kids ages 6-12. Learn about other offerings, like Mama & Littles weekly class for ages 2-6+, at Energy Awareness & Yoga for Kids at energyawarekids.com.

Expect smiling faces for seventh annual Animas Valley Balloon Rally

by John Peel

Yvonne Lashment

Heed this warning should you attend the Animas Valley Balloon Rally: get too close, and you might catch the hot-air-balloon bug. The enthusiasm is extremely infectious.

The event in the wide valley north of Durango is celebrating its seventh year October 14-16. It’s small, with a maximum of 30 balloons taking to the skies, but it can make a big impression. If you wander around the open field, where balloonists are setting up next to the highway, many unexpected things could happen: you might find yourself making friends among the ebullient balloonists as you enjoy a crisp morning. You might find time has slipped away while you’re admiring the many oddly shaped and colorful flying devices as they rise from the fall golds and greens below to take their place against the brick red Hermosa Cliffs and the blue, cloud-dotted southwest Colorado sky.

If the fever really takes hold, you may find yourself working on a crew. Balloonists are always seeking volunteers to set up, hold tethers, ride in the chase truck, and help with myriad other tasks during this nonprofit event.

Feeling extra adventurous? C’mon and take a free ride!

The guy who spreads the most enthusiasm and good cheer for the festival is Doug Lenberg. He’s the so-called “balloon meister” – it says so on his official shirt – for this and several other balloon rallies in the Four Corners states. He first climbed into a balloon in 1986, and soon was addicted. He became a pilot. When he moved to Durango in 1998 Lenberg got involved with the Snowdown Balloon Rally and moved it from town to the more expansive Animas Valley.

“I found out I had a passion for sharing it,” Lenberg says during an interview in the cozy lobby of the General Palmer Hotel, one of the festival’s main sponsors. “It wasn’t about what I could do with a hot air balloon. … Sharing it with people and explaining how it works is what gives me the greatest joy.”

Another major festival sponsor is the Durango & Silverton Narrow Gauge Railroad. The train’s owner, Allen Harper, unknowingly played a big role in getting the Animas Valley rally off the ground. One early February during Snowdown, Lenberg asked Harper if he would join them for the morning mass balloon ascension. Harper replied, “No, it’s too cold. Why don’t you do it when it’s nice out there?” Lenberg countered that if Harper was willing to help sponsor it, he’d put together a fall rally. Deal.

Before too long, Lenberg had used his goodwill to gather sponsors, convince hotels to kick in rooms for pilots, and involve other local businesses. The Cottonwoods Homeowners Association came through by providing access to 15 acres of open space off Hermosa Meadows Road. Lenberg rounded up community-minded pilot friends from around the country who were willing to provide free rides and share their love and knowledge of ballooning. The first rally in 2016 brought a thousand or more to Rio Grande land for the evening Downtown Durango Balloon Glow.

“We love it,” says Tim Walsworth, executive director of the Durango Business Improvement District. The influx of people has made a once-average business night a big one. “It was a hit from the get-go.” Kids love a chance to stand in a balloon basket and pull the burners to make the gas flames go shooting skyward.

Doug Lenberg at the Animas Valley Balloon Rally

Yvonne Lashment

Dave Eichorn at the Animas Valley Balloon Rally

The General Palmer Hotel was an inaugural sponsor and became the festival’s official host hotel. Moreover, it now hosts one of the country’s treasures, the “Western Spirit” balloon. Of twelve original hand-painted balloons, it is one of four still flying. Owned by Dave Eichhorn of Albuquerque, it’ll be at the General Palmer during the festival’s evening glows, when balloons are filled on a two-block stretch of south Main and shimmer like flickering light bulbs.

Imagining someone hand-painting this 90-foot-high nylon contraption is not far from envisioning Michelangelo at the Sistine Chapel. In Western Spirit’s larger-than-life tableau, riders on horseback gallop across an intricately painted sagebrush landscape.

General Palmer owner Amy Jackson stops by as Lenberg discusses the rally. Asked why she got involved with the festival and agreed to host Western Spirit, she jabs a thumb toward Lenberg. “This man right here,” Jackson says, and commends the whole gang of balloonists. “You know what? That’s a really fantastic group of people. I figure any time people get to do what they love to do, it brings out the best in them.

Lenberg explained to Jackson when she originally signed on as sponsor that one of her perks was a balloon ride. “No way,” she responded, but finally relented about three years ago. “I just fell in love with it,” Jackson says. “I started to understand how safe it is.”

Lenberg, unfortunately, had to give up piloting after a 2014 heart attack and ensuing surgeries left him with eight heart stents. But that enthusiasm hasn’t stopped flowing. The balloon meister involves any person or business that is at all interested in this community-minded event: “It’s my passion to bring people together and watch the smiling faces.”

The 2022 event promises to bring many more smiling faces.

SEVENTH ANNUAL Animas Valley Balloon Rally Events free to public

FRIDAY, OCT. 14:

Media Day, evening balloon glow downtown

SATURDAY, OCT. 15:

Morning mass ascension, evening balloon glow downtown (tentative)

SUNDAY, OCT. 16:

Morning mass ascension

MORE INFO: AnimasValleyBalloonRally.com