Misadventures Issue 5 by Misadventures

THE LANDFALL ISSUE BETWEEN BEARS EARS: RAISING AWARENESS ABOUT PUBLIC LANDS THE MONARCHS OF MICHOACÁN SEA KAYAKING THE SAN JUANS CHOOSING A SUNSCREEN, AND OTHER CHALLENGES ISSUE 5 // SUMMER 2018

Live Durable™

CORDURA x Mountain Hardwear ®

Kyra Condie is the definition of a durable woman. Originally from Minnesota, Kyra has been a professional rock climber for 10 years, spending her formative years scaling the artificial features at the playground and summiting the refrigerator in her kitchen. A decade later, Kyra has her eye on the Olympics with six USA Climbing Nationals wins under her belt. Just like the CORDURA® brand, Kyra chooses to work hard and Live Durable™ every chance she gets. Between contests, you can catch her training at the Women’s Climbing Festival with the Flash Foxy Crew in the Eastern Sierras of Buttermilk country.

Whether putting up big, technical climbs or solving a complicated route while bouldering, Kyra needs clothing that meets the needs of her rigorous routine and Mountain Hardwear’s new Hardwear Denim — built with CORDURA® Denim fabric — is exactly what she’s been waiting for. Based on an intimate blend of cotton and nylon, CORDURA® Denim fabric retains the authentic look and feel of cotton denim, but with added abrasion resistance and toughness.

Photo Credits: Angela Payne

“I need apparel that can keep up with me and it’s really important to have a durable fabric that holds up against rocks.” “As a Mountain Hardwear athlete, I was so excited to hear they partnered with CORDURA® to make these jeans that are so durable and so easy to climb in. Plus, I can go from the crag to dinner and feel good in them.” Not only are these jeans tough — four times tougher to be exact!* — than traditional 100% cotton denim, but they also have a softer side thanks to CORDURA® brand’s commitment to innovation. They offer enhanced comfort, stretch and breathability while remaining as durable as ever. So if you’re interested in climbing like Kyra Condie with confidence, style and ease, head over to CORDURA.com/50years to learn more about Mountain Hardwear’s Hardwear Denim that’s built to last with CORDURA® brand technology.

cordura.com

*Martindale testing based on 13.75 oz denim fabric.

“To Live Durable™ means I have the confidence to do what I love everyday. Even if that includes overcoming the elements to get outside. It means I can push myself harder, so I can climb higher and reach the goals I’ve set for myself.”

YOSEMITE NATIONAL PARK. NEPAL. ICELAND’S TUNDRA AND GLACIERS. THE WASATCH MOUNTAINS. MACCHU PICCHU. THE APPALACHIAN TRAIL. ZION NATIONAL PARK. THE SCOTTISH HIGHLANDS. LISBON…

WHERE WILL YOU GO

IN YOUR LOWAs? Introducing the new Locarno GTX® Lo Ws, a lightweight outdoor and adventure travel shoe for women. It features a rugged yet low-profile outsole for secure footing, our exclusive lasted GORE-TEX® lining for a wrinkle-free fit and our DuraPU™ MONOWRAP® midsole for durability and support. The result: Long-lasting comfort and versatile performance, for trail, town or your next trip. It’s details like these that go into every LOWA, so you can get the most out of your adventures. Leave your footprint

#LOWABOOTS

(your pix could be in our next ad....)

Misadventures Issue 5

Issue 5, 4, Summer 2018

EXPLORING IN HAWAII

On Molokai Where preserving the land means preserving the culture OF HAWAI’I’S ESTIMATED 8.8 million visitors in 2016, fewer than 60,000 came to Molokai. The fifth largest and third oldest of the Hawaiian chain, "The Friendly Isle" has the highest percentage of residents of native Hawaiian heritage. It also remains the least commercially developed of the islands accessible to tourists, lacking stoplights and buildings taller than three stories. This absence of development is by design—Molokai also boasts such natural features as Hawai'i’s longest beach, more than 40,000 acres of protected land, and the most expansive continuous reef in the United States. But for the local community, it’s not just about conserving land, it’s about preserving culture. To understand the community's efforts to invite visitors while still maintaining their way of life, we met with three locals: Greg Kawaimaka Solotario, 51st generation native Hawaiian and cultural practitioner of Hālawa Valley; Julie Bicoy, director of the Molokai Visitors Bureau; and Penny Rawlins Martin, education specialist and one of two women of the inaugural Hōkūle'a crew to voyage from Tahiti to Hawai'i using ancient navigation methods in 1976. BY CELESTE NOCHE

Misadventures Issue 5

"My culture is sacred, not secret." –Gregory Kawaimaka Solatorio

PHOTOS, L-R The Hālawa Valley falls are only accessible via cultural tour with the Solatorio family. During the visit, guests learn and practice the traditional protocol of asking permission to enter someone else's land—communicating via conch shell. He emphasizes going back to the source, or the people, to verify and share cultural information. Greg holds a photo of his grandmother who, among other kupunas (elders), verified names and facts during an archaeological project in 1970.

HĀLAWA VALLEY IS THE oldest known Hawaiian settlement, tracing its earliest artifacts to the year 650 AD. It's been inhabited since and functioned as a small village up until a 1946 tsunami. Today it has transformed into a rainforest, lush with plants growing over remnants of the village that once was. The only way to hike in and visit the famed Mo'oula Falls is through a culture tour with the Solotario family—50th and 51st generation native Hawaiians.

Although they've closed the valley to public access, the Solatorio family works with the other private land owners of Hālawa to create an experience that provides both an historic and a cultural introduction to the valley. "To learn culture is within our homes. Nobody gets the education now because everything is commercialized. I ask people if they're coming for the Hawai'i experience, or the Hawaiian experience," says Greg.

STACKED PHOTOS Julie teaches writer and visitor Brooke Obie the tradition of scattering flowers out to the ocean, honoring loved ones who have passed. While there's no name for the ritual, it's a common practice to send a loved one off in peace to the next world. There is no word for "goodbye" in Hawaiian, only "a hui hou" which translates to, "until we meet again."

Misadventures Issue 5

"Molokai is not for everyone. But if you're willing to learn, we have a lot to say." â&#x20AC;&#x201C;Julie Bicoy

MOLOKAI CONTINUES TO WELCOME more and more visitors, but it's not for everyoneâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;it prioritizes community over commercialization. In her work as the director of the Molokai tourism bureau, Julie partners with local businesses to plan experiences that immerse visitors in their setting. "Everything I do is a lot more spiritually driven. I don't look at things lightly; I look at all of the elements around me." Julie's process reflects Molokai's values and continued drive to educate others about the island. "Molokai choses everyone who comes here. If you're here, it's for a reason."

IN 1976, PENNY WAS part of the inaugural crew of the Hōkūle'a voyage, a performanceaccurate journey recreating the voyage between Tahiti and Hawai'i in a double-hulled canoe, navigated only with ancient Polynesian techniques. The voyage was intended to explore the theory that native Hawaiians are descendants of seafaring Polynesians. It took Penny's crew 21 days to return Hōkūle'a from Tahiti to Hawai'i, but she says her voyage has taken 42 years. "We were standing at in the feet of our ancestors and seeing [Hawai'i] from their eyes. It was like seeing it for the first time."

Misadventures Issue 5

Today Penny works as an education specialist for Papahana Kuao, teaching the Molokai community about the land and Hawaiian culture through the mo'olelo (storytelling) tradition. She says her Hōkūle'a voyage inspired her to teach about cultural and land preservation. "'He wa'a he moku, he moku he wa'a' or, 'your canoe is like an island, your island is like a canoe.' The canoe is surrounded by water and you have limited resources. Everyone needs to work together. We use the canoe to share these stories so we can all be better."

BEYOND MOANA The 1976 Hōkūle'a voyage from Hawai’i to Tahiti and back again showed that ancient navigation techniques passed down through oral tradition could successfully guide such a voyage, disputing the accidental settlement hypothesis.

Navigation icon by il Capitano

PHOTOS Today Penny is part of Molokai's Waâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;akapaemua Canoe Club. This summer, she's returning to Tahiti for the first time in 42 years to compete.

"He wa'a he moku, he moku he wa'a" (your canoe is like an island, your island is like a canoe) â&#x20AC;&#x201C;Penny Rawlins Martin

YOUR COMPASS

THE GUIDEBOOK

2 On Molokai "He wa'a he moku, he moku he wa'a." Your canoe is like an island, your island is like a canoe. BY CELESTE NOCHE

THE LANDFALL ISSUE LANDFALL: DEFINED AS AN arrival or a collapse, but perhaps itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s both: the collapse of self and place at the moment of arrival into one thing: a current of anticipation.

Misadventures Issue 5

20 How To: Survive & Thrive This Summer Easy solutions to most of summer's problems. 20 Ford a River 20 Make Shoes From Cattails 20 Fix Your Ingrown Nail

21 21 21 22 22 22 23 23

Calm Your Jellyfish Sting Concoct Bug Spray Spot A Trail Hear The Ocean (Experts Only) Make Matcha Mochi Pops Make Kefir Brew Sarsaparailla Blend Immortality Smoothie

66 Landfall to a Sailor Landfall, to a seafarer, isn't the moment she steps on land; it's the moment she sights it.

15 Misadventures

Summer Guide

Hot tips for the hottest times.

BY ELLEN MASSEY LEONARD

70 Home Is Where The Boat Is

38 My New Office Is A Forest

“Whenever I find myself growing grim about the mouth; whenever it is a damp, drizzly November in my soul [...] then, I account it high time to get to sea as soon as I can.” BY KATHLEEN MORTON

16 Campfire Bibimbap A Korean staple goes to camp. BY AIMEE TRUDEAU, EMILY NIELSON AND MAI-YAN KWAN

24 Let Me Count the Rays

The path of the second-career park ranger.

On the contentious and competitive world of sunscreen.

BY KORRIN L. BISHOP

BY KATY SIMS

46 Up in the Air Women pilots share the challenges, joys, and freedoms of flight. (Overcoming gravity is the least of their worries.) BY ERICA ZAZO

77 In the Weeds The next chapter in the long history of getting stoned. BY JEN ORTIZ

26 Kayaking in the San Juan Islands A guide to paddling the archipelago.

50 The Messengers

A group of runners step up to fight for national monuments. BY JOHNIE GALL

86 Of Birds and Beau A tale of hunting while black. BY TRACEY L. COMPTON

90 Butterflies Live! In which our hero makes a pilgrimage to the monarch migration. BY PAIGE FULTON

60 Step by Step On the Inca Trail and its first women guides.

95 Starstruck Behold! A smattering of gear.

BY CHARLOTTE AUSTIN PHOTOS BY KAT CARNEY

34 Candyman Tastes Paletas Don't even try to stop him! BY JULIENNE ALEXANDER

36 Adventure Grapes: A Worldwide Book Club Books for beach readers, bus riders, train hoppers, trail boppers, and poolside philosophers. BY CHARLOTTE AUSTIN

BY EMILY HOPCIAN

LANDFALL

EDITORS’ LETTER OR THIS ISSUE OF Misadventures, we had a twofold agenda. One, we wanted to focus on a fleeting feeling in travel and adventure: the sort of love-at-first-sight, hold-your-breath moment of arriving someplace. It’s complex: there’s fear, anticipation, excitement, regret, accomplishment, peace, turmoil, uncanniness, poignancy. It’s a lasting feeling, but one that evades description. It pulls us out of the passive sensing of everyday and hits us, all at once, like a wave. We tried to gather pieces that capture that, whether it be at the moment of making landfall after a long sea voyage, the instant the wheels leave the runway and impossibly rise, or the first glimpse of a migration of butterflies after imagining their landing and falling for so long. We also wanted to feature another kind of landfall: lands that are at risk of falling to economic, political, and environmental pressures. For many, parks and public lands were the gateway to a love of the outdoors. They are a glimpse into a different world—a world without us; and yet it’s become apparent that they won’t survive without our protection. They are precious plots in an increasingly developed landscape, and we aimed to spotlight a few of them as they are now, as well as report on the fight for their survival.

What better way to be reminded of the strange beauty of this world, and our place in it

We admit that reading about landfall and distant lands is a poor substitute for looking out on an unfamiliar horizon, but what better way to be reminded of the strange beauty of this world, and our place in it—a simple notion that’s all too easy to forget.

Yours in misadventure, Zoë Balaconis, Editor-in-Chief

Misadventures Issue 5

MISADVENTURES TEAM Zoë Balaconis EDITOR-IN-CHIEF

Marybeth Campeau CREATIVE DIRECTOR

F I R ST G L I M PS E

The lawn is a tall mess of clover and buttercups. Inside, there is a tunnel of wood paneling and you are hit by the smell of mold and ghosts. – Paige Fulton

Sarah Connette OPERATIONS DIRECTOR

ILLUSTRATOR Julienne Alexander CONTRIBUTORS Kat Carney, Emily Hopcian, Korrin Bishop, Celeste Noche, Ellen Massey, Johnie Gall, Tracey L. Compton, Jen Ortiz, Katy Sims, Erica Zazo, Paige Fulton, Charlotte Austin, Aimee Trudeau, Emily Nielson, Mai-Yan Kwan, Ellen Massey Leonard, Kathleen Morton

F I R ST G L I M PS E

This is what a rotisserie chicken must feel like—I was in Austin, Texas. In July. Thank the travel gods for breezy bike rides, Barton Springs, and cold beer. – Jen Ortiz

WITH THANKS TO Jessica Malordy, Lila Allen, The Awesome Foundation, Karen Beattie, Eddie Brawner, Camber Outdoors, Candyman, Chris Catanese, Suzanne Churchill, Davidson College, Maria Fackler, Shane Gibson, Katie Ives, Darren Josey, Laura Zulliger, Zoran Kuzmanovich, Hannah Levinson, Mark Meunier, Moon, Tim Morin, Walter Olin Nisbet III, Marian Nisbet, Walter Olin “Chip” Nisbet IV, William McGowan Nisbet, Obie, Alan Michael Parker, Jeanine Pesce, Kate Reutersward, Allison Dulin Salisbury, Peter Scorcia, Scout, Rebecca Sgouros, Claire Smiley, Liz Song, Jon Springfield, Matt Stirn, Ross Saldarini, Gale Straub, Teresa Walkup, Wedge, Emmett Weindruch, Mark Williams, Matt Wingo, moms and dads everywhere

F I R ST G L I M P S E

A glimpse of Tower Bridge rising out of the London fog on my first solo trip abroad still resonates. – Tracey Compton

COVER PHOTO BY Mara Whitehead

M E M O R A B L E A R R IVA L

Sighting my first South Pacific island after a month at sea! – Ellen Massey Leonard

F I R ST G L I M PS E

My first glimpse of the National Parks changed me—“Tunnel View" in Yosemite. I’ll never forget that moment of emerging from complete darkness to the embrace of Half Dome, El Cap and the sprawling Valley below. – Erica Zazo

“I snapped this shot at midnight north of the Arctic Circle in the Lofoten Islands of Norway. The journey to these islands is a landfall itself, requiring travel by plane, then two more planes, then a four-hour ferry across the open Norwegian Sea. Here, the sun never sets in the summer. When I was unable to sleep, I would hike through all hours of the night. Right as I reached the peak of Ryten, I watched the clouds roll over the shores where land meets ocean below. I could hear the sounds of the storm brewing. But being on higher-grounds, I was protected, soaking up the rays of the midnight sun. The air was still, the earth was firm beneath my feet, and all felt at peace.” ADVERTISING INQUIRIES: advertise@misadventuresmag.com

M E M O R A B L E A R R IVA L

My first time backpacking in Big Sur—I was so tired and laser-focused on trying to keep up with my friend that when we got to the top, I almost missed the coast glowing gold as the sun set. – Celeste Noche

PRESS INQUIRIES: hello@misadventuresmag.com

DUAL LAYER TECHNOLOGY

Customize your comfort with two separate layers of high-density air cells that inflate independently. Two separate chambers also means built-in redundancy; if one layer gets a puncture, the other still performs

AIR SPRUNG CELL

SLEEPING MATS

COMFORT ON A CELLULAR LEVEL

Delivering the best night’s sleep you can have…that’s what we set out to do in creating our range of air mats. The

MULTI-FUNCTION VALVE

Provides easy inflation, fine tuning, and super fast deflation

matrix of individual air chambers called Air Sprung Cells™ make these mats incredibly stable, supportive

and luxuriously comfortable.

Misadventures Issue 5

seatosummit.com

AIR SPRUNG CELLSTM

A matrix of individual air chambers that evenly absorb pressure and movement

Award Winning Comfort Plus Mat

THE MISADVENTURES

SUMMER GUIDE W E ' V E G O T H O T T I P S O N S U N S C R E E N, W E ' V E G O T C A M P F I R E B I B I M B A P, W E ' V E G O T S U R V I VA L H O W-T O S , A N D W E E V E N T H R E W I N A PA L E TA S F L AV O R G U I D E , B E C A U S E W H Y N O T, I T ' S S U M M E R . L I V E A L I T T E .

MAKE

HIKING IN, EATING OUT

Misadventures Issue 5

Campfire Bibimbap

All the things you love in one flame-licked bowl

PHOTO CREDIT Dirty Gourmet

BY AIMEE TRUDEAU, EMILY NIELSON AND MAI-YAN KWAN

HERE AT DIRTY GOURMET, we are excited about how popular our national parks are these days, especially since that means more people falling in love with the outdoors. On the other hand, it’s become really difficult to get a campsite. So we’ve gotten into the habit of reserving sites, sometimes up to six months in advance. A lot of times we’ll forget about our reservations and suddenly realize there’s a “surprise planned” camping trip. Not complaining about that part! On one of these trips, we experimented with a paella recipe, and discovered how effective Dutch ovens are for cooking rice. That got us thinking about bibimbap, a Korean rice dish cooked in a hot stone pot that creates a glorious layer of crispy rice at the bottom. The rice is then topped with a variety of fresh and cooked ingredients, and then tossed with gochujang, an addictive sweet and spicy fermented chili sauce. The hotter the fire, the faster the rice will cook, so load up the lid with as many coals as will fit in one layer. If you can get the water to a boil, you will be rewarded with fluffier rice. If you don’t, the rice will still cook, but it may turn out a little softer and stickier. – MAI-YAN KWAN

MAKE

HIKING IN, EATING OUT

CAMPFIRE BIBIMBAP Yield: 6 to 8 servings Prep Time: 10 minutes Cook Time: 20 minutes

YOU WILL NEED Ingredients: • 3 cups medium grain rice • 4 cups water • 2 cups sliced mushrooms • 2 cups spinach, roughly chopped • 1 cup bean sprouts • 1 cup kimchi • 1 cup julienned carrots

For the mushrooms: • ¼ cup soy sauce • 2 Tbsp. rice vinegar • 4 tsp. brown sugar

For the chili sauce: • ¼ cup gochujang

• 1 Tbsp. plus 1 tsp. brown sugar • 1 Tbsp. sesame seeds • 1 Tbsp. rice vinegar • 2 tsp. sesame oil • 2 tsp. soy sauce For serving: •Sesame seeds

Tools: • Car Camping Base Kit • 12-inch Dutch oven • Lid lifter • 10-inch cast iron skillet • Small mixing bowl • Heatproof gloves

Misadventures Issue 5

DIRECTIONS AT HOME:

1. Prepare the mushroom sauce: in a small leakproof container, combine soy sauce, rice vinegar, and brown sugar. Prepare the chili sauce: in a small leakproof container, combine gochujang, brown sugar, sesame seeds, rice vinegar, sesame oil, and soy sauce. AT CAMP:

2. In the Dutch oven, mix rice and water together. Place the Dutch oven over a bed of about 10 coals and cover. Place about 14 to 18 coals on top of the lid. Cook until rice has absorbed the water, about 15 to 20 minutes. Check on the rice after 10 minutes, and then every 5 minutes until cooked through. When done, remove the lid and place the Dutch oven on the grate of the campfire over medium heat. 3. Meanwhile, add the mushrooms to a cast iron skillet on the grate of the campfire. Add the prepared mushroom sauce, stirring occasionally until the mushrooms have absorbed all the liquid. Set aside. 4. Directly into the Dutch oven, spoon the mushrooms, spinach, bean sprouts, kimchi, and carrots into piles around the top of the rice. Pour the prepared chili sauce in the center of it all. Garnish with sesame seeds. 5. Gather everyone around to ooh and ah at the beauty, and then stir the whole thing together. 6. Serve (or eat) straight from the Dutch oven, scraping the bottom each time to include some crispy rice in each serving. Keep the Dutch oven heating on the grate so that second servings will have even more crispy rice. Excerpted with permission from Dirty Gourmet: Food For Your Outdoor Adventures (Skipstone, April 2018) by Aimee Trudeau, Emily Nielson, and Mai-Yan Kwan.

Want to spice up your camp cooking game?

PHOTO CREDIT Dirty Gourmet

Check out the full cookbook, Dirty Gourmet: Food For Your Outdoor Adventures, where you can find gems like Shiitake Rice Balls, Dutch Oven Sticky Buns, Lentil Farro Salad, Moroccan Stew with Couscous, Pecan Praline Fondue, and Lemongrass Lime Sake Cocktail. These dishes are simple, often vegetarian, and packed with flavor. This cookbook will elevate your camp cooking experience.

MAKE

HOW TO SURVIVE

Ford a River and Become Closer to Your Friends Than You Ever Thought Possible Sometimes life gives you lemons; sometimes life gives you a raging, roiling river. YOU WILL NEED

• At least two friends • A tall stick or branch or trekking pole • Secure shoes • An indomitable spirit

DIRECTIONS

1. One second you and your buds are walking along a lovely riparian path when, all of a sudden, the only thing between you and your destination is the unstoppable force of mother nature. Do you go around or do you ford the river? Consult the map. 2. If going around is out of the question, assess your friends and your footwear. Are you wearing Crocs? Bad. Are you wearing secure sneakers or hiking boots? Good. Are you wearing Chacos? Okay… Do you have at least two friends with you? Are they game to get wet? Yes? Very good. 3. You don’t want to get in over your head out there. This method should not be used with very wide, fast-moving rivers because you will get swept away and end up at the South Pole. The ford-worthy river is one where you can stand up and keep above water the whole way across. Check the depth with a pole as far out as you can.

4. Sounds like you’re ready to get in there. Cinch your packs on tight and check those shoelaces, people. Wade out in the water up to your ankles, then get in a circle, holding each other around the shoulders, like a three-way hug. Don’t let go until you’re across! 5. You’ll be moving one at a time, with the other two friends standing steady and firm. 6. One person will take some steps (it may be slippery and rocky, and the current may be strong), then, when they are steady on their feet, they say, “Set!” 7. Then, another person will step, while the remaining two are steady. Continue this method of setting and moving all the way to the bank. If someone begins to slip, be sure to hold them up firmly and give them time to find their footing before moving again. 8. When you make it across, rest and celebrate. You’re soaked, but you made it.

Outgrow a Nail

For the sartorial survivalist. YOU WILL NEED

• A good supply of cattails, yucca, or stringy bark • A small knife • A little twine or string would be helpful, but if you don’t have it, you don’t have it!

DIRECTIONS

1. Your shoes are gone and you need shoes. Don’t beat yourself up about it. These things happen! 2. Find your cattail thicket. If you can’t see any straightaway, walk downhill or towards the sound of water. They grow in marshland. (Yucca and bark will also work as weaving materials.) 3. Next, cut down some cattails at the base and slice or tear them vertically into strips. This should result in some strong, fibrous strips.

Misadventures Issue 5

4. Have you ever woven a basket? Hope so! This next step is Basket Weaving 101. Cut 10 strips to the length of your foot. Lay them down side by side. They should be about the width of your foot. This will be the sole of your shoe. 5. Take a long, skinnier piece of cattail and, starting at one end, weave it alternatingly over and under each sole piece. At the end of a row, don’t cut the skinny piece, just go back in the other direction below the previous row. If your skinny piece ends, tie a new one to it and continue weaving until the entire sole is bound. 6. Now you can start to get creative. Take a long and skinny cattail strip and twist it. This will be the piece that attaches the sole to your foot. You can string it through the sole so it comes up in a V under your big toe, which can then criss-cross your foot and ankle, or you can weave it through the sides of the shoe across your foot. Slide style. Experiment! 7. Repeat for the other foot. If you are on rough terrain or covering a lot of ground, you’ll have to make adjustments and perhaps even make a new sole, so stock up on cattail bits for the long and lonely road.

YOU WILL NEED •Dental floss

DIRECTIONS

1. Get a piece of dental floss an inch or so long. Don’t use mint-flavored, but waxed or unwaxed will do. 2. Wiggle the dental floss between the nail and nail bed. 3. Leave it there for as long as it lasts. Replace as necessary until the nail grows over the bed and it is no longer painful when pressure is applied. 4. If it gets nasty, remove the floss! 5. If pus comes out when you squish it, see a doctor ASAP.

ILLUSTRATIONS by Julienne Alexander

Make Shoes Out of Cattails

Maybe it’s just time we both went our separate ways. It’s not that you’re a revolting ingrown nail that has been making my living hours a fresh hell, it’s me.

Summer Spritzer (for the Bugs) Nothing turns off bugs like a good spritz. YOU WILL NEED

• 4 Tbsp. of distilled water • 2 tsp. vodka • 5-6 drops of your favorite essential oils (good ones for this are rosemary, lavender, eucalyptus, lemongrass, mint, tea tree)

DIRECTIONS

1. Combine all the ingredients in a tiny spritzer bottle. Cute. 2. Shake well for at least one minute. 3. Spritz thyself liberally. 4. Bask in buglessness.

Calm a Jellyfish Sting You’ve just been stung by a jellyfish (and betrayed by the sea) so I assume you’re calmly consulting this magazine for medical advice. YOU WILL NEED

• Vinegar (optional) • Baking soda (optional) • Hot water (optional) • A credit card (cha-ching)

DIRECTIONS

1. Get out of the water. Get out of the water!! Assess the situation. If you are in a tropical area and/or you have been stung by a large jellyfish and/or are experiencing any anaphylaxis, skip all of the following steps and get thyself to a hospital with great haste. 2. No? Please proceed.

attached to a jellyfish anymore, they are still stingy, believe it or not! Splash them off. 4. Use a credit card, sandcastle shovel, or some other hard-edged object to scrape the area free of any remaining tentacle cells. Pretend that you are shaving yourself. Of tentacles. 5. If you have the means, rinse the area with vinegar or a baking soda solution for one minute. (If anyone has a water bottle, mix up the solution with that, then poke a hole in the bottle or bottle cap and spritz yourself with the mix.) At this point you may be wondering whether there’s any credence to the claim that you should pee on the sting. Well, peeing on it can actually make it worse. Anyone who insists otherwise probably just wants to pee on you. Act accordingly. 6. As soon as possible, either soak the area in hot water for twenty minutes or take a long hot shower. 7. Finally, squint suspiciously at the ocean from a safe distance. ORIGINAL RECIPE FROM The Herbal Academy.

3. First, wash the affected area with seawater to get off the tentacles. Try not to touch them with your hands. Even if they are not

ORIGINAL RECIPE FROM The Herbal Academy.

Spot A Trail Sometimes you lose the thread of reality; here’s how to regain your footing and get back on track. YOU WILL NEED

• Sturdy shoes • Water • Calm nerves • Even breathing • A compass (optional) • A map (optional)

DIRECTIONS

1. Trails peter out—it happens! They also grow faint, or disappear, or maybe you were never on a real trail at all! Maybe you were heading toward a dead end all along! Call me an optimist, but the way I see it, there are no dead ends. First, if you’re panicking, do not take another step. Calm down—sit down if you have to. Take a sip of water. Do not go running off wildly in any one direction. When you’re panicked, the woods all start to look the same. So, stay where you are and collect yourself. 2. Look up at the sky or down at your watch and assess how much daylight you have

left. You do not want to be looking for a trail aimlessly in the dark, trust me. It was terrible. If daylight is fading, consider either retracing your steps to where you last knew you were on the trail or making camp for the night. 3. Plenty of daylight? Proceed! If you have any p-cord (or a bandanna or a shirt), tie it around a nearby tree, rock, or just put it on the ground. Use a stick (or stones) to draw an arrow pointing from that marker to the direction you came from. 4. Next, choose one direction away from where you came from and walk about fifty feet in as straight a line as you can. Walk slowly and look for 1) blazes 2) human footprints that aren’t your own 3) compressed dirt or leaves 4) broken branches or twigs on trees or on the ground 5) cairns (stacks of stones). Listen for clues. Turn back often to assure yourself that you know where your marker is. 5. If you do not find the trail on that foray, go back to the marker and repeat in another direction. 6. Repeat in all possible directions, even backwards. If you feel confident in the terrain, you may venture further, but be sure you can get back to the “hub.” 7. If your search is fruitless, do not despair. Return to your marker and retrace your steps using the same methods (follow your

footprints, look for compressed ground material), until you find either 1) when you were last on the trail or 2) where you began. 8. At any point, if you have a map, compass, GPS, phone, consult them. Even if you do not know how to orienteer, you can use basic directions and notations to help you. According to the map, is the trail on a ridge? Does the trail go downhill? Uphill? If you head due East, will you eventually hit it? Use your map and assess your probable location. Based on that, how can you get to where you want to go? 9. If all of the above fails, make for some high ground and try to call for help. Finally, as a reminder, it’s a good practice to always tell someone where you are going, even for a day hike—just in case.

MAKE

HOW TO THRIVE

Make Kefir

Matcha Mochi Pops

This summer, get a regular dose of probiotics to make sure you’re at max health. Plus, making kefir is so much cheaper than buying it. What’s kefir, you ask? What isn’t kefir! Before becoming hip, the superfood was an old classic of the Caucasus Mountains known for its nearly magical benefits to the human tum.

Because popsicles should pack a punch. The ol’ 1-2. Give ‘em the classic tea-candy combo. YOU WILL NEED

• 1 c. heavy cream • ½ c. nonfat plain greek yogurt • ½ c. granulated sugar • 2 tsp. matcha powder • 1 package of mochi pieces • A fork

DIRECTIONS

1. Add all ingredients but the mochi to your blender and blend ’til smooth as your dance moves (if in doubt, go smoother). 2. Fill your popsicle molds ¾ full. 3. Add 10-12 mochi pieces into each one. Make it rain. 4. Spread out your mochi pieces with your fork. Easy now.

5. Bang the bottom of your molds against the table or counter to shake it out. No air bubbles, you see. 6. Add popsicle sticks. 7. Freeze overnight. 8. It’s pop time. RECIPE COURTESY OF Kirbie’s Cravings.

YOU WILL NEED

• A clean glass jar (quart size is good) • A jar lid • A nylon/plastic strainer (preferable to metal)

DIRECTIONS

1. This is a cultured food (as in, bacteria, not, like, “well, good day good sir”) meaning that the first step is buying or bumming some kefir grains from a friend to get your colonies started. You don’t need many! A small mound the size of a ping-pong ball is good. 2. Put the grains in your clean jar. 3. Pour whole milk over your grains into the jar, leaving a few centimeters of room. Or else. 4. Cover the jar securely with a lid, and put it in a warm-ish place in your kitchen. Depending on where and how you live, maybe just the counter?

Properly Hear The Ocean In a Shell (Experts Only) For all the adrenaline junkies out there. YOU WILL NEED

• A spiral shell (palm-sized or larger is good) • An ear • A swift breeze, salt gale, or approaching squall

Misadventures Issue 5

DIRECTIONS

5. After 12 hours, start checking up on your little experiment. Is it firming up? Separating? What, really, is going on in there? It could take up to a full day to get your kefir up to your liking. Don’t be afraid to open the jar periodically to give it a smell and a stir. If it’s firmed up and yeasty, yes. You’ve done it.

2. Take the shell in your non-dominant hand and hold it firmly, with the opening toward you, up to your ear. Hot tip: leave a little space between your ear and the shell.

6. Put your strainer over another container, then slowly pour the kefir and kefir grains atop. Use a spoon to gently work the kefir through the strainer, capturing all the grains.

1. Look out at a large expanse. The ocean works well, but it could also be a field, moor, vast canyon, deep valley, or the sea of your own imagination.

3. Close your eyes. 4. You should hear the rush of waves. Some say this is due to the blood circulating in your ear, but we prefer to chalk it up to some ancient shell magic. Shells, as we all know, work in mysterious ways.

7. Put the grains back in your jar, pour more milk over and start again! 8. Use your smoothed kefir in a smoothie, with granola and fruit, with a sprinkle of salt, or drink it straight. Your tum-tum will thank you.

and right mittens, three-finger, and standard leaf shape (thumb), just to be clear. 2. Seek out saplings and pull them up at the base. The root should come up pretty easily. If not, break out the trowel! 3. Scrub the roots clean and chop them into ½ inch pieces. 4. Put the roots in a pot with 4 cups of water and the cinnamon stick. Bring it to a boil, then simmer for 25 minutes.

YOU WILL NEED

Brew a Fine Sarsaparilla Purists will say this isn’t a true sarsaparilla—that this is more like a sassafras soda. Let them talk!

Blend an Immortality Smoothie Is there a blender-based path to living forever? Join our club (re: cult) where we take delicious things and ruin them with healthy things.

• An eagle-eye for sassafras • A trowel or good diggin’ paws • About a cup of ¼ inch sassafras roots, chopped • 4 c. water • 2 quarts soda water • 1 cinnamon stick • ¼ cup molasses • 1 cup sugar

DIRECTIONS

1. When you go out to forage for sassafras, make sure it’s sassafras you’re pulling up. The leaves are famously in a mitten shape. They have three different kinds of leaves—left

• 2 Tbsp. amla powder (via reputable Internet source) • Up to 3 Tbsp. total of trendy ingredients like cacao nibs, chia seeds, maca powder, chaga mushroom powder, white tea leaves, etc. • Greens, like kale or spinach • Plant-based milk • Ziploc bags • Disposable gloves • Cutting board • Vegetable peeler • Sharp knife • A large jar • A powerful blender

YOU WILL NEED

• A whole bunch of bananas • A whole bunch of berries • A whole bunch of pineapple, peach, or mango (whatever’s on hand/on sale) • A whole bunch of dates • Handfuls and handfuls of turmeric roots • Handfuls and handfuls of ginger roots • 1 c. chopped walnuts • 1 c. ground flaxseed • ½ c. pepitas • 2 Tbsp. old fashioned oats

DIRECTIONS

1. Peel bananas, and break into thirds. De-stem berries. Peel and chop your scavenged fruit. Freeze in Ziploc bags. 2. Time to set up your root station. Put on those disposable gloves for protection against yellowed hands from turmeric. Peel off the skins of all your turmeric and ginger, taking care to get into all the gnarly nooks and crannies. Caution: this will take forever, BUT you’ve got

5. Pour in the molasses, then simmer for another five minutes. 6. Strain the brew through cheesecloth or a fine sieve into another pot. 7. Add in the sugar and heat and stir until the sugar is dissolved. Then, remove it from heat and let it sit to cool. Relax. 8. To finish, put the syrup in a glass with ice, then mix in soda water. You can dilute it according to your taste (from subtle to hummingbird food), but one part syrup, two part soda water is a good place to start. 9. Sip. Repeat.

all the time in the world, remember? Chop turmeric into ¼ tsp. portions. Chop ginger into ½ tsp. portions. Dump each into a designated small Ziploc bag and deposit into freezer. 3. Next, fill up your large jar with the walnuts, pepitas, flaxseed, oats, amla powder, and any other trendy ingredient bits. Live a little, you know? Give it a shake and store in fridge. This should last for a couple of weeks or a couple of days, depending on the strength of your newfound smoothie-based religious fervor. 4. Consider whether you want to live with the burden of immortality. Vampires don’t seem super happy. Proceed with warranted trepidation. 5. Retrieve banana bit, ½ cup berries, ¼ cup other fruit, 1 turmeric bit, and 1 ginger bit from the freezer and throw into blender. Add ¼ cup scoop of dry ingredients from jar. Throw in a handful of leafy greens. Add in a date, why not. Splash in some plant-based milk, pour some water in there to fill it out, and let ‘er rip. Voila, Immortality Smoothie for one. 6. Welcome to the cult...er...club.

DISCOVER

SLATHER FOR SAFETY

Let Me Count the Rays How to choose a perfect sunscreen, and other impossible tasks BY KATY SIMS

EVERYDAY

YOU KNOW YOU NEED to lather up, but which sunscreen do you choose? We've enlisted Katy Sims, sunscreen expert (by way of fair skin) who has done the deep dive for you on ingredients, international chemical import laws, and the U.S. sunscreen lobby (yes it's real, look it up). She's condensed the hundreds of options down to her top eleven. Ten wouldn't do it.

BEACH/OUTDOORS SPECIAL FORMULA INTERNATIONAL $-$$$

PRICE PER OUNCE

THE BEST OF THE BEST

BARE REPUBLIC $

Mineral and chemical sunscreens available through Target in spray and lotion. Inexpensive, environmentally friendly.

BIORE WATERY ESSENCE $

Best seller for Japanese sunscreen on Amazon and most recommended sunscreen on skincare websites. Has alcohol base so can be drying but very easy to re-apply, no scent, very light serum-like texture, no white residue. Small package size but not very expensive. Good for daily face and hands. Very waterproof and moisturizing.

BLUE LIZARD $$

Australian sunscreen that is intense. You’ll never get burnt with this. The baby version is easier to rub in than the adult. You do have to reapply frequently (every 40 minutes), but it’s hypoallergenic.

ELTA MD $$

Both tinted and non-tinted, mineral based face sunscreen great for everyday use. They also have a larger size that I’ve used on my face with no ill effects. My derm recommends this.

LA ROCHE POSAY $$$

One of the few sunscreens that has European ingredients (Anthelios) available in the US. Face sunscreen

Misadventures Issue 5

is more expensive, body sunscreen is easy to apply. Face sunscreen can be tough on sensitive skin (made me break out after a few uses so I stopped using it), but ingredients are superior to US in terms of broad-spectrum. I did rash through their sunscreen as well.

PAULA’S CHOICE $

Multiple sunscreen types, and they offer samples to patch test. Great for sensitive skin. Has both mineral and chemical sunscreens offered as part of skincare lines as well. I like their redness relief and moisture boost.

SHISEIDO $

This is my most ordered sunscreen. I never rash through it, it’s never made me break out. It does have

alcohol in it, so if you have dry skin, either moisturize before applying it or go with a different screen. I currently have three bottles in my bookbag. It’s a smaller size, but a bottle that I use on hands, face, and neck/ chest lasts for about a month of with 4-hour applications.

SUNBUM $$

Great for water sports, very water resistant, good for sensitive skin. Available in spray, stick, lip screen, and lotion. In general, I don’t recommend stick sunscreen because it’s easy to miss spots in application.

SUPERGOOP $$

I love Supergoop. Their face mineral

stuff made my face super dry—like it made it crack—but my sister was able to do it. Their city serum is really nice but hard to re-apply because it pills. They have a foam and an oil, which are really easy to re-apply when you’re at the beach and have sand all over your bod or whatever. Their hand lotion is awesome. I keep it in my car. Their spray is also awesome...and their lip gloss... and their make up. They even have this great quiz on their website to tell you what to buy. I don’t get any rashes through their stuff which is rare for me.

TARGET $

I also like Target’s Up and Up spray sunscreen. It’s cheap and blocks well and is easy

to reapply, and you can buy a family-sized bottle at the end of the season for like three bucks.

WALGREENS $

First off, they sell a travel-sized spray sunscreen that I love. Second off, they sell travel-sized other sunscreen that I also love. I love this one the best, and it doesn’t leave a white cast, and you can apply it to your hands and then your car and not take the paint off. I used it on my face for a week and didn’t break out but wouldn’t really recommend it for everyday use in place of a face-specific formula. I’ve used all of their formulations and honestly am in love but whatever.

Choose Better ALBA

Gets chunky quickly. Not necessarily bad but also smells like sunscreen.

BADGER

Good if you’re going for the white-nosed lifeguard look. It’s thick and chunky and impossible to rub in and smells weird.

NEUTROGENA

Leaves white residue on everything.

CVS

I just hate CVS in general.

Hot Tips START SLATHERING. Remember—bad sunscreen is better than no sunscreen! Even with sunscreen, you should still use a hat, sunglasses, and UPF clothing. CLOTHING DOESN'T CUT IT. Cotton only has a UPF of 8-10, less when wet. Merino wool has an UPF of about 30, and companies such as Patagonia, Toad&Co, UnderArmour, Prana, Athleta have clothing that is UPF-rated. You can also purchase Sun Guard ($) to UPF proof clothing. Linen also has a low UPF due to weave. Nylon has the highest UPF. Hats should also be UPF rated and sunglasses should be UVA/UVB blocking. WATER WATER EVERYWHERE. If you’re around water, sunlight reflects up as well so you’ll need even more sunscreen to apply every hour (or more frequently depending on sunscreen). GET THE FACTS. Finally, the EWG sunscreen ingredient database is NOT an accurate reflection of ingredient danger—they’re using amounts of the ingredients that no human would ever be in touch with on animals for most of their data. Use with caution.

How To Sunscreen

Sunscreen should be applied in small areas to ensure full coverage.

Face requires at least a quarter sized amount of sunscreen to provide full coverage.

Apply to each cheek individually, forehead, nose, and ears.

Remember to apply to neck and chest and hands, as these are the most exposed areas.

DISCOVER

TRAVEL GUIDE

EXPLORING BY SEA

Kayaking in the San Juan Islands Island hopping in the Pacific Northwest BY CHARLOTTE AUSTIN PHOTOS BY KAT CARNEY

A GLOSSY BLACK HEAD pokes curiously out of the ocean as I paddle hard into the surf. The seal ducks beneath a wave, sending a spray of sea mist up into the autumn sky. On the horizon I can see the jagged crystal outlines of the North Cascade mountain range, and with every stroke I am closer to shore. Our home for the night is a tiny atoll in the San Juan Islands, nestled deep in the northwest corner of Washington State. After three days of camping in this archipelago, I never want to leave. The San Juans are an island chain known for pastoral landscapes, breathtaking wildlife encounters, and some of the best organic bakeries around. Roughly a hundred miles northwest of Seattle, the archipelago includes 172 named islands and reefs in San Juan County. They’re all accessible by seaplane or boat, but only four are served by the state-operated ferry system: San Juan, Shaw, Lopez, and Orcas. In the autumn of 2017, I was part of a team that spent a week on horseshoe-shaped Orcas Island, one of the biggest in the chain. The island is home to 4,500-odd residents who live on tiny lavender farms, waterfront homes, and the occasional yurt. The only town is Eastsound, and the east side of the island is dominated by Moran State Park’s old-growth forest and Mount Constitution (2,398’). Everywhere you turn, the glistening Pacific flashes light through the trees. People come to hike, to explore, to relax, and— in our case—to kayak. Our goal: Sucia Island.

Misadventures Issue 5

Paddling away from Doe Bay on Orcas Island on Day 1 toward Lawrence Point.

DISCOVER

TRAVEL GUIDE

Paddling away from Lawrence Point after stretching our legs on a short hike with a great view.

Misadventures Issue 5

GO ON THIS ADVENTURE

Boat Icon by Dinosoft Labs. Map image courtesy of USGS.

SUCIA ISLAND Directly north of Orcas Island is Sucia, a tiny atoll that boasts a 564-acre marine park with 77,700 feet of shoreline. The island is considered the crown jewel of Washington State’s marine park system, and is consistently ranked as one of the top boating destinations in the world. Orcas, sea lions, and curious seals frequent the island’s coastline. Visitors can hunt for fossils, scour tide pools for colorful sea life, and explore more than ten miles of hiking trails. It’s an easy day trip from Orcas, and for visitors who want to spend the night, there are plenty of beachfront campsites ($12/night). There’s even running water to refill bottles during the summer months (though it’s worth calling a local kayaking shop to confirm.) It’s only accessible by water, but with a free weekend, a sense of adventure, and a sea kayak (or other vessel), Sucia Island is yours to explore. IF YOU’RE NOT UP FOR SUCIA, CHECK OUT…DOE ISLAND A leisurely two-hour paddle from the southeast corner of Orcas, Doe Island is a six-acre islet with more than 2,000 feet of shore. There are designated campsites, a pit toilet, and solitude here, all just a quarter-mile offshore of Orcas. The only access is by kayak or small boat. During some winters, the sole dock gets washed away in storms, so for now, paddlers prepared for a shore landing are the only visitors.

GETTING THERE From Seattle, Washington, drive two hours north to the Anacortes ferry terminal, where you can either walk or drive onto a boat to Orcas Island (reservations are recommended). The scenic ride takes roughly an hour, and you’ll disembark on the west side of the island. Drive or catch a ride to Eastsound, then hit the local organic food co-op or Brown Bear Baking for lunch. KAYAKS If you’ve brought your own boat, make sure it’s a sea kayak (not a river-specific model) with a spray skirt, bilge pump, and paddle float for self-rescue. If you’re BILGE PUMP? The bilge is the lowest part of a vessel’s hull. When water collects in the bilge, a bilge pump can help you stay afloat.

renting a boat, try Outer Island Expeditions, who will hook you up with a Necky kayak—and while you’re there, go ahead and schedule your water taxi to Sucia Island ($45/person.) Intrepid kayakers sometimes paddle across the 2.5-mile channel, but currents and tides can be unpredictable. Don’t try it unless you’re an experienced paddler. WHAT TO BRING In your kayak, you’ll want plenty of fresh water, snacks, sunscreen, lip balm with SPF, a wide-brimmed hat, rain gear, and plenty of warm layers. If you camp on Sucia, prepare to be self-sufficient for as long as you’ll be on the island. And don’t forget your camera!

DISCOVER

TRAVEL GUIDE

CLOCKWISE FROM TOP LEFT 1. Charlotte checking out the charts before our paddle and chatting with Fred about currents. 2. Charlotte paddling in Echo Bay off of Sucia Island. 3. The crew making a delicious meal of savory pancakes and curry on Sucia Island. 4. Brooke paddles between rocks along Sucia Island.

Misadventures Issue 5

Sea Icon by Oksana Latysheva . Other icons By Made by Made

"AFTER THREE DAYS OF CAMPING IN THIS ARCHIPELAGO, I NEVER WANT TO LEAVE."

LUMMI NATION The San Juan Islands have long been a hot spot for human habitation and culture. Dive into the history of the Lummi, the People of the Sea, and more at the National Park Serviceâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s San Juan Island website.

DISCOVER

TRAVEL GUIDE

"EVERYWHERE YOU TURN, THE GLISTENING PACIFIC FLASHES LIGHT THROUGH THE TREES."

Misadventures Issue 5

CLOCKWISE FROM TOP LEFT: 1. Charlotte paddling away from the Doe Bay campground, our home base during the trip, during sunrise. 2. A view of Doe Bay campground under a full moon at night. There are cabins and a hot spring on the property, as well as camp spots, and a community kitchen, bathrooms, and showers. 3. Charlotte and Merrill portaging the kayaks across Sucia Island. When we arrived, one side of the island was windy with choppy waters, and the other side, a short portage away, was calm and beautiful. We moved the kayaks and made food on Echo Bay. 4. The crew around the campfire in Doe Bay. 5. A yurt under the stars on Doe Bay's property.

WHERE TO STAY ON ORCAS There are a variety of lodging options on Orcas Island. The best is Doe Bay Resort, a 38-acre waterfront retreat that offers campsites, yurts, and cabins. Amenities include a saltwater beach, a cafĂŠ whose menu features locally grown ingredients and freshly caught fish, and clothing-optional saltwater hot pools.

SUMMER SNACKING NEAPOLITAN A dirty pudding flavor, like maybe it has protein powder in it? Even so, not interested.

TA S

PA L

TA S

DISCOVER

OREO That may be, but what they didn’t tell you is that there’s cinnamon in here, too. Purists, look out!

LET'S SEE, WHAT DO WE HAVE HERE? A lovely little paleta shop, featuring Michoacán delights in a frozen format. There are 60 flavors here and I have a near melt-down (!) trying to decide. One thing I regret not ordering was the curdled milk flavor, but it’s summer and regret’s for other seasons. AND WITH WHOM DO I HAVE THE HONOR OF SWEETING TODAY? Okay, yes, there are a lot of children, but also a lot of couples doing that mall-walk thing where one person holds the waist of the other, and a few genuine olds out for a walk. A beautiful sliver of humanity. AND, IF I HAD TO SAY, WHAT WERE THE HIGHLIGHTS? I was pretty moved by all the real fruit flavors—especially the kiwi and guava, both of which had big chunks of fruit (and now-rock-hard seeds). Also, they all seemed to have a lot of lime and sugar added, which in my book, can only help bring out the best sides of things. WHICH ONES WOULDN'T I EAT REGULARLY? I got pressured into ordering that cotton candy one by a bunch of kids “all doing it” but one bite and I knew I was too old to be eating anything with that color profile. Also I never thought I cared so much for the integrity of true banana flavor, but I know now and won’t be returning for a repeat licking (so to speak). ONE OTHER THING: I did a bit of digging and it turns out that kiwis do have high levels of serotonin, which might be why, according to a 2011 study at the Taipei Medical University, they may help you sleep. Seems like a beautiful excuse to indulge regularly in those green cuties.

Misadventures Issue 5

CANTELOPE Tastes like breakfast to me.

KIWI Better than the real thing with none of that hairy casing mess. As a sidenote, it did make me a bit drowsy, so it could work as a sedative for your enemies or cousins.

COTTON CANDY Tastes like it must be very pretty to look at. VERY pretty!

MANGO CHILI A very salty, limey saliva-maker. Do not feed to elderly adults: their systems may fail.

BANANA Describe a banana’s flavor to E.T. and have him recreate it as best he can. Et voilà.

CHILI + LIME Would be excellent dipped in tequila, but beer would also do the trick.

GUAVA Look, you either think this is a delicious flowery fruit snack (with some rocky seeds in it), or you don't.

is as woman who loves sweets named Julienne Alexander.

MIXED-FRUIT CHILI Not really dessert in the end.

COFFEE A very sophisticated popsicle indeed. Like a dry cappucino you ordered with a straight face before the opera.

MYSTERY DOUBLE Not actually a mystery: it’s cough syrup on top, and cream soda on the bottom. Maybe it’s just what you wanted.

MINT + CHOCO-CHIP Actually, it’s frozen mouthwash with a chocolate reward for believing in its color enough to try a bite. You live, you learn.

MAMEY Not sure I’d trust anyone who said they could tell me exactly what this fruit really is. COCONUT What a chill dude. A fiber-rich, island vibe waiting naked for you in your cabana.

STRAWBERRY + CHEESE A jammy little buddy that just might smooth over any troubles you thought you had. Run over your neighbor’s cat? Summertime broken heart? Not anymore.

READ

SUMMER READING LIST

Adventure Grapes: A Worldwide Book Club

(And you're invited!) BY CHARLOTTE AUSTIN

AS A MOUNTAIN GUIDE and adventure writer, I love to read about the wilderness—but because my travel schedule keeps me on the road for more than six months each year, it’s almost impossible to join a local book club. So in 2016 I started Adventure Grapes, an online book club where members from all over the world read and discuss one book each month. There’s no money, no hard obligations, nothing but good feelings. All interactions are respectful, friendly, and real. We’re mainly women, and we read a lot of books written by and about strong women, but anyone is welcome. I choose our monthly books (with lots of input from group members), and I look for narratives that explore all different kinds of experiences in and relating to the natural world. We read a range of nonfiction, novels, and poetry about adventure, the outdoors, travel, and natural history. Here are five recent favorites:

TO JOIN THE CLUB, visit goo.gl/8YD1Wr. To see a complete list of the club’s past reads, check out http://amzn.to/2Fbh4fL. FOR MORE INFORMATION, check out episode 56 of the She Explores podcast, called “An (Adventure) Book Club For the 21st Century.”

Misadventures Issue 5

UPSTREAM:

SELECTED ESSAYS Mary Oliver Penguin, 2016

“In the beginning I was so young and such a stranger to myself I hardly existed. I had to go out into the world and see it and hear it and react to it, before I knew at all who I was, what I was, what I wanted to be.” So begins Upstream, a New York Times bestselling collection of essays in which revered poet Mary Oliver reflects on her willingness, as a young child and as an adult, to lose herself within the beauty and mysteries of both the natural world and the world of literature. “I could not be a poet without the natural world,” she writes. “Someone else could. But not me. For me the door to the woods is the door to the temple.”

EVERYTHING IS TEETH Evie Wyld Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group, 2016

When she was a little girl passing her summers in the heat of coastal Australia, award-winning author Evie Wyld was captivated by sharks—their innate ruthlessness, stealth, and immeasurable power—and they have never released their hold on her imagination. This darkly poetic graphic memoir is about family, love, loss, and the irresistible forces that, like sharks, course through life unseen, ready to emerge at any moment. It may be illustrated, but it’s very much adult.

NO PICNIC ON MOUNT KENYA: A DARING ESCAPE, A PERILOUS CLIMB

Felice Benuzzi first published in 1953, reprinted most recently by Quercus in 2017 In 1943, Felice Benuzzi and two Italian compatriots escaped from a British POW camp in equatorial East Africa with only one goal in mind: to climb the dangerous Mount Kenya (17,057’). They hoarded rations, crafted crampons out of barbed wire, and set out into the jungle using a picture they’d stolen from the top of a sardine can as their only map of the area around the mountain. It’s a true story written with self-deprecating humor and a European dignity, and it’s on the top five list of almost every well-read mountaineer.

PURE LAND:

A TRUE STORY OF THREE LIVES, THREE CULTURES, AND THE SEARCH FOR HEAVEN ON EARTH Annette McGivney Aquarius Press, 2017

On May 8, 2006, a Japanese woman named Tomomi Hanamure was stabbed 29 times as she hiked the trail to Havasu Falls on the Havasupai Indian Reservation at the bottom of the Grand Canyon. Equal parts true crime, Native American history, and exploration of how McGivney's quest to investigate the victim's life and death wound up guiding the author through her own life-threatening crisis, Pure Land is reminiscent of Krakauer and McPhee—terrifying, informative, and with a meaty story that will stick with you for years.

STATION ELEVEN Emily St. John Mandel

Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group, 2015 This science fiction novel starts with the genre’s classic drama: a devastating global flu pandemic that sweeps the globe, wiping out the majority of the world’s population. Rather than linger on the gory bits, though, this tale explores a different theme: that “survival is insufficient.” Taken from a Star Trek episode, the phrase is the motto of the Traveling Symphony, a ragtag band of musicians and actors who roam what's left of the Midwest, playing classical music and performing Shakespeare. The ability to create and appreciate art, they believe, is essential to our humanity. As the story follows the members of the Symphony, it’s impossible not to ask yourself: if everything I know disappeared tomorrow, what parts of humanity would I hold most tightly? Gritty and fast-paced, Station Eleven was a finalist for both the National Book Award and the PEN/Faulkner award for good reason: it’s impossible to put down.

MOVERS AND SHAKERS

Misadventures Issue 54

MY MY NEW NEW OFFICE OFFICE IS A IS A FOREST FOREST THE RISE OF RANGER RETIREES

By KORRIN L. BISHOP

MOVERS AND SHAKERS

T H AT D AY, EVERY THING UNFOLDED LIKE A M Y S T E R Y. The twenty-mile drive on Oregon’s Highway 46 East would dead-end at their new home. Their first impressions of the unfamiliar terrain were clouded by nerves and anticipation— stretches of farmland gave way to forested riverbanks, and as they drove farther, the road began a steep climb into the Siskiyou Mountains. Hairpin turns hugged deep ravines. At the end of the road, Trinh Tran, 54, and Doug Henson, 57, parked their car and were greeted by one of their new coworkers, Kat Gans, 25. They had arrived at Oregon Caves National Monument and Preserve. IN GREEK MYTHOLOGY, STYX is the goddess of the river boundary between earth and the underworld—the line between life and death. At Oregon Caves, she’s also the namesake of the park’s underground river. While President William Howard Taft established the park’s cave as a 480-acre national monument in 1909, it wasn’t until 2014 that Congress designated the River Styx as the first subterranean national wild and scenic river. With this

Misadventures Issue 5

designation also came protection for the 4,070 acres of the river’s watershed as a national preserve. High up in the park’s preserve are subalpine meadows and lily-padded lakes that burst with wildflowers and whir with the urgency of hummingbirds’ flights. Old-growth Douglas fir trees tower in the dense forest pitched across the mountainside. Below, a dark, cold hollow in the side of the rock dares visitors to enter. Oregon Caves is home to 15,000 feet of labyrinthine passageways in what’s called a “solution cave.” They form when water and acid dissolve rock while passing through underground pores and fissures. The park’s cave system is home to more single-cave endemics than any other cave in the western United States—meaning several of the insect species in the cave are found nowhere else in the world. It was in this dark, bug-filled underworld ominously called the River Styx that Trinh and Doug had chosen to spend their summer. “That very first day, Kat welcomed us, took us to our room, and,” Trinh pauses,

CAVE CAST Want to learn more about Oregon Caves from Kat Gans herself, as well as the park’s superintendent and a local artist? Check out Episode 46 of the She Explores Podcast!

looks at Doug, and laughs, “I think I started to cry!” “She did. Trinh did,” Doug says. OREGON CAVES WAS A long way from the desert climate of Scottsdale, Arizona where Trinh and Doug had started a family and built their careers over the past 30 years. In Scottsdale, Trinh had been doing healthcare data analytics for a pharmaceutical benefit management company, while Doug worked as a healthcare executive in physician practice management. Doug had become increasingly disillusioned with his job. Trinh was still enjoying hers, but was working herself to the bone. “She was doing 60 to 80 hours per week, staying up well past midnight,” Doug remembers. “It was not healthy.” “I think I was averaging four hours of sleep per day.” With Trinh’s permission, Doug began submitting applications for them to seasonal positions with the National Park Service. “I’d been applying because I’d made the decision that I was going to quit. I wasn’t enjoying myself. I was trying

PHOTOS COURTESY OF Doug Henson and Trinh Tran. Dog Icon by Steve Laing. Microphone icon by Yoshi

to convince Trinh that life is short and we don’t know what’s going to happen.” “Because I was working all the time, I was just like, sure, sure, sure, whatever,” Trinh says, thinking of the time before she realized she’d have to make a decision. Several years earlier, Trinh and Doug had taken their two children on a nearly three-week trip through Yellowstone and Glacier National Parks. While walking a trail in Glacier, they came across a couple in their early sixties wearing park service uniforms. Trinh and Doug began chatting with the couple and learned that they had retired from fields unrelated to the park service, but had now been doing seasonal work as park rangers for a few years. “I was so inspired,” Trinh remembers. “I told them, ‘I want to be just like you when I grow up!’ It was always in the back of my mind that I wasn’t going to work until I was 65. My father died at the age of 63. Doug’s father died at the age of 65, and his mother died at the age of 69.” In 2010, Trinh was diagnosed with breast cancer. After undergoing surgery and radiation therapy, doctors put her on a drug called tamoxifen. The drug aims to prevent a recurrence of breast cancer, but comes with an increased risk of uterine cancer. Every year since beginning the prescription, Trinh went in for a pelvic ultrasound to make sure everything was normal. In 2016, she had just started a new position within her company around the time of her scheduled annual exam. “I was just really, really busy,” says Trinh. “My appointment came up and I couldn’t make it, and then I never rescheduled.” DOUBLE DOG DARE The cave’s first recorded discoverer was Elijah Davidson in 1874 when he followed his dog, Bruno, who had chased a bear into the cave.

ABOVE Doug and Trinh in their park service uniforms just outside the entrance to the cave where they spent their summer leading tours.

MOVERS AND SHAKERS

TRINH BEGAN HER R E S I G N AT I O N LETTER LIKE THIS: “NO ONE ON THEIR D E AT H B E D E V E R S AY S , ‘ I WISH I HAD WORKED MORE.’” 42

Misadventures Issue 5

Ranger Patch Icon by Made

ABOVE Doug and Trinh on a backpacking trip to Yosemite just after they finished their first season as park rangers. They often explore surrounding parks on the weekends.

When her 2017 appointment eventually came around, Trinh’s exam flagged an abnormality. The dilation and curettage that followed, which removed her uterine lining for testing, fortunately showed no signs of cancer. “It came out fine,” Trinh says with relief. “But after that, I was like, really? I skipped my annual exam for a job?” A week after getting her results back, Trinh and Doug got a call from George Herring, Chief of Interpretation at Oregon Caves National Monument and Preserve. He wanted to offer them both a position as interpretive rangers for the park’s upcoming summer season. Trinh and Doug agreed that the odds of them both being offered a position at the same park had been small. That reality, coupled with Trinh’s processing of her recent health scare, made them decide to finally take the leap together into an adventurous early retirement.

CAVE IN Oregon Caves offers standard discovery tours of the cave, candlelit tours, and off-trail tours. Learn more and reserve a spot for the upcoming season at nps.gov/orca

Trinh began her resignation letter like this: “No one on their deathbed ever says, ‘I wish I had worked more.’” “Then I explained that’s why I needed more time to do what I needed to do.” TUCKED NEAR THE CAVE’S entrance is a collection of century-old structures some might call ‘rustic.’ One of these bark-clad buildings, dubbed the Chalet, houses the park’s visitor center, a few offices, and the dorm room that brought Trinh to tears. “George said it the most diplomatically,” Doug recalls, thinking of how to describe the seasonal park staff’s living quarters. “He said it really is a dorm environment with all the good and bad that conveys. On the good side, you get to know people really well and many develop lifelong friendships from those relationships. But, it can also be a challenge sharing a small space.”

Trinh wiped her eyes, and after the initial shock of the transition, she and Doug spent their first day in the park vacuuming and cleaning. “We made it our own room.” TRINH AND DOUG MET nearly 35 years ago when they literally bumped into each other on the Wolf River in northern Wisconsin. Both were whitewater-rafting with friends. “I’d seen her signing up for the trip,” Doug recalls. “But I didn’t have the guts to talk to her. However, a short time later, she and her friends came floating by in their two rafts, and drove right into ours. I said something sarcastic like, ‘you’re really trying too hard’—is that what I said?” “Yes, that’s what you said,” Trinh replies. “And I kind of rolled my eyes and under my breath said, ‘Jesus, it’s going to be one of those days!’” As the day went on, they kept bumping into each other.

MOVERS AND SHAKERS

IN HER MOST RECENT position before retirement, Trinh was busy learning the details of the job, the department, and her responsibilities. “I remember telling my coworkers, this will

ABOVE Trinh and some of her fellow rangers join visitors to Oregon Caves in viewing the 2017 Solar Eclipse, which had about 93% coverage at that location.

be my last job. I will not learn another job. And then I retired— and had to learn another job!” In their first season as interpretive park rangers, Trinh and Doug were responsible for connecting visitors to the park’s resources, leading cave tours, roving the trails, and conducting the occasional junior ranger swear-in. The visitors to the park ranged from having lots of caving experience and a

background in geology, to being underground for the first time. “At first, it was challenging,” Trinh admits. “We got hired and were working with a bunch of new grads with science backgrounds. We had to learn Geology 101 in a week! In my old job, it was more of a programming position and I had to look at a computer screen 12 hours a day. As a park ranger, I had to talk to

“ PA R T O F O U R D E C I S I O N T O D O T H I S AT T H I S T I M E I N O U R L I V E S WA S D U E T O O U R R E C O G N I T I O N O F M O R TA L I T Y,” D O U G S H A R E S . “ W E ’ R E P R O B A B LY N O T G O I N G T O B E O N T H E L O N G E N D O F L O N G E V I T Y.” 44

Misadventures Issue 5

PRO TIP Heading to Oregon Caves? Do not miss getting one of the park’s hand-scooped milkshakes available in the historic Chateau diner. Seriously, don’t.

Milkshake Icon by Marianna Rossi

“I’d never done it before!” says Trinh. “That was my first time camping!” Trinh moved with her family from Vietnam to Wisconsin after the war ended in 1975. She was eleven years old at the time, and while she remembers being something of a tomboy compared to her sisters, she didn’t have a very “outdoorsy” upbringing. “I don’t even remember us taking a vacation. We didn’t have the money. So, we never did.” At some point during the day, Doug shared some of his trail mix with Trinh. “She warmed up to me when I shared my food with her. Trinh didn’t like me.” “It’s not that I didn’t like him,” says Trinh. “It’s that it was a girls’ trip.” The two groups ended up camping in the same spot that night. Doug made a fire and shared more food—meat, potatoes, and carrots all wrapped in foil and cooked over the blaze— with Trinh who had planned a much simpler meal: “Hot dogs and marshmallows—that’s all we brought! Not even buns!”

people; so it was quite a change! But, it was a welcome one.” Beyond their official park training, Trinh and Doug also had a chance to learn from the other seasonal rangers about much more than caving—one of those perks of tight living quarters. With many of their colleagues being the same age as their own children, Trinh and Doug affectionately, and perhaps unconsciously, refer to them as “the kids.” “All of these kids, we learn so much from them!” Trinh exclaims. “Kat and her bread baking and worldview, Paul and his bad jokes—though, neck and neck with Brett. Ethan and all of his adventures. The stories that they tell, it’s just—wow. They’re so carefree! One even lived nine years out of a bus!”

“A bus with no bathroom!” Doug looks stricken. “It was very different than the social circles we had in Scottsdale.” THE STORY GOES THAT Achilles’ mother dipped him into the River Styx to give him the power of invulnerability. But, the reality is that we’re all vulnerable. Eventually, with time, our bones get fragile, our joints begin to ache, and we’re faced with the fact that our bodies won’t last forever. Achilles’ mother tried her best to protect her son, but even he had a weak heel. “Part of our decision to do this at this time in our lives was due to our recognition of mortality,” Doug shares. “We’re probably not going to be on the long end of longevity.”

Trinh and Doug’s path took planning. They had to navigate concerns about income, release the ego that tries to define a person by her job status, and find ways to continue to be challenged outside of the office. But now, they get to spend their summer seasons exploring and advocating for the parks they view as true national treasures. They spend those weekends traveling to other park sites, hiking trails, as they put it, “while [their] knees still allow it.” Rather than run from them, Trinh and Doug have embraced the changes that come with age and are living life on this side of the River Styx, as best as they can, just as they want, for as long as they’re able.

SUPPORTING OUR NATIONAL PARKS APPAREL WITH PURPOSE

“We the people” own 84 million acres of pristine park wilderness that need our attention, action, & funding. Passionate pioneers fought to protect America’s greatest landscapes & most awe-inspiring views. Parks Project was 45 created to make sure we don’t forget. Visit www.parksproject.us and use code MISADVENTURES15 for 15% off your first order. Join us @parksproject.

MOVERS AND SHAKERS

UP IN THE AIR Pilots soar above the glass ceiling By ERICA ZAZO

Misadventures Issue 5

Astronaut Icon by Luis Prado

IT’S 6:00 A.M. AND A CRISP BREEZE BITES YOUR CHEEKS. You circle the plane and run through your pre-flight inspection. Your hand glides along the propeller checking for knicks or scratches. Lifting the handle and opening the cockpit door, you slide onto the pilot’s seat. After placing a headset over your ears, the humming of the engine goes mute. You scan the dashboard and check the engine gauges' glow. Pushing forward on the throttle, you roll onto the runway. Your concentration builds and whirs along with the prop’s rotations. You push the throttle further. Eight thousand feet of illuminated centerline starts to disappear beneath you. Acceleration. You extend your arm to full throttle. Full speed. The pressure pushes you against the back of your seat. You take in a deep breath. Squeezing the yoke towards you, the nose of the plane starts to lift. You’re airborne. You’re weightless. The ground shrinks below you and sunlight pierces the windshield. You’re free. It only took Vicky Kuo two trips up in the air in a tiny, four-seater airplane to make up her mind: “I’m switching careers.” Kuo realized that becoming a

pilot was the passion she’d been looking for all along. In Kuo’s previous life, she conducted medical research and managed a laboratory at a hospital in Rhode Island. It had been 20 years since she last sat in a classroom or took an exam, let alone picked up a textbook. But at the age of 40, Kuo traded in her lab coat for an aviation headset and took off on the demanding path to becoming a pilot.

successful in a career I knew almost nothing about.” Kuo never looked back and never regretted her decision. She’s now Chief Flight Instructor for three flight schools on the east coast. There are nearly 585,000 pilots in the US. Of that number, a mere 6.7 percent are women. Aviatresses, female pilots, airwomen... call them what you want. Above all, they’re an elite group of 39,000+ women with a passion for flying. A look back at history uncovers a roster of female aviators who’ve paved the runway for women like Kuo: including the French “Baroness” Raymonde de Laroche, the first woman to receive her pilot’s license in 1910; Bessie Coleman, the first woman of African-American and Native American descent to become a pilot; and Niloofar

AT THE AGE OF 40, KUO TRADED IN HER LAB COAT FOR AN AVIATION HEADSET AND TOOK OFF ON THE DEMANDING PATH TO BECOMING A PILOT. “The day I scheduled my third flight, I was already on track to getting my pilot’s license,” recalls Kuo. “I took a leap of faith and gave my boss a one-year notice that I’d be leaving my job. I had the confidence that I would do whatever it’d take to be

THE GREAT BEYOND At the peak of the Space Race, in 1961, a group of women pilots were undergoing secret training and testing in the hopes of becoming the first women in space. Unsurprisingly, the program was shut down by NASA and Congress. The gripping, inspiring, heartbreaking documentary Mercury 13 tells the story.

Rahmani, the Afghani Air Force’s first-ever female pilot. Yet regardless of the many barriers these women faced when breaking into an industry controlled (and still dominated) by men, a number of other hurdles require jumping for modern-day airwomen.

MOVERS AND SHAKERS

For starters, there’s finances. “The average flight student needs about $12,000 to cover the 55 to 75 hours of private lessons, books, and equipment it takes to get your private pilot’s license,” says Jen Cermak, a flight student at Kuo’s flight school in Warwick, RI. “That’s no pocket change.” Fortunately, Cermak landed a job out of college at Cessna, the company that builds more training aircraft than any other manufacturer in the world. She found out her company would reimburse the $300 ground-training class, and on top of that, pay half her flight lesson fees. That

Misadventures Issue 5

financial support alone piqued Cermak’s interest in flying. “It’s a pretty big deal I was able to get a discount when lessons cost so much money,” she admits. “I feel lucky to have had that privilege many don’t.” If you’re interested in piloting, Cermak recommends first taking an introductory flight—a trip in the sky with an instructor pilot—to feel out if going for your license is the right fit. “If you’re passionate from there, you should do everything you can to try and pursue it.” Then, there’s commitment. Erin Shireman, a “pilot prodigy” who grew up shadowing

her parents with tenure at NASA and aerospace-giant Boeing, always had big aspirations. But her passion and commitment to flying was even bigger. “As long as I can remember, I’ve wanted to be a Division 1 student athlete and go on to become an astronaut,” says Shireman. “A lot of people have had those same dreams, but realized the brains for math and science, and the persistence required to push themselves, isn't their thing. Thankfully for me, it was.” Shireman landed a scholarship playing softball for the University of Texas and climbed the ranks as one of the

UL." F E C A E P NG IS I H T Y R E V ALL. E M S S I G N I RYTH E V E , E R E UP TH E R ’ U O Y "WHEN

university’s most academically-decorated student athletes. “I was one of a handful of females studying aerospace engineering…not to mention, the first UT softball player to graduate with an engineering degree.” Picking up flight hours in the off-season and pulling late-night study sessions, she managed to earn her private pilot’s license and land a job post-graduation with global aerospace company Lockheed Martin—all before the age of 23. “I’d encourage any woman with an interest in flying to go try it out,” she says. “It’s not going to be easy. It’s not going

to be cheap. But you’ll have some of the most amazing experiences in the sky and meet some of the most amazing people along the way.” Despite the barriers, there’s one thing Kuo, Cermak, and Shireman all agree on: piloting gives you a new perspective. “When you’re up there [in the sky], everything is small. Everything is peaceful,” says Shireman. “One of my favorite quotes says it best, ‘A mile of highway will take you a mile. A mile of runway will take you anywhere.’” The same is true for Kuo, who is working on new ways

to introduce women—particularly young girls—to flying. “Up until now, I haven’t been actively engaged in pushing women to get passionate about flying,” she says. But this year is different. Kuo is moving forward on two new initiatives: a mentorship program for Girl Scouts to learn about flying and a program for financially disadvantaged communities that exchanges hours worked on plane restoration for flight hours at one of her schools. “Whenever I feel good, I always reach out for something else,” says Kuo. “I love what I do, but could I do it better? Yes.”

The Messengers Running between Bears Ears and Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monuments By JOHNIE GALL

Misadventures Issue 5

SOUND CARRIES IN THE dark. Even at 2AM, we could tell the runner was approaching our outpost on the side of a winding canyon road by the distant thud of sneakers hitting dirt. It was early January, 2018, and we were cold, tired, and halfway through a two-day, 250-mile run bridging Bears Ears and Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monuments. Writer Andy Cochrane, filmmaker Greg Balkin, and I had gathered 17 of our friends from all over the country to run six-mile legs, relay style, across both tracts of land in Southeastern Utah. We were there because of President Trump’s December 2017 order to shrink both national monuments in the largest elimination of federally protected land in American history. He’d made his decision without ever stepping foot in either place, so we decided we’d

go for ourselves and see what would be left unprotected.

THE NAVAJO PEOPLE— THEY’VE LONG called the area home before its national monument status—have traditionally used runners as conduits for communication for thousands of years. Known as “messengers,” these individuals would sometimes cover hundreds of miles by foot to share a message. We would do just that, and despite our varied level of interest in running, our group did have one thing in common: a connection to public lands. And those public lands were being threatened. For less than a year, Utah’s Bears Ears National Monument was a 1.3-million-acre expanse of land set aside by President Barack Obama at the urging of the five indigenous tribes of the

MOVERS AND SHAKERS

ABOVE, LEFT "I may be slow, but I picked up a water bottle while I was running, so I did my good deed for the planet today!" says public lands advocate Katie Boué. Photo by Johnie Gall

Bears Ears Inter-Tribal Coalition. Filled with crumbling purple canyons, conifer forests, windswept mesas, and the highest density of ancient native artifacts in the country, it’s a place as defined by its cultural significance as it is by natural beauty. Last December, by order of President Donald Trump on the recommendation of Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke, the area was replaced by two new monuments a combined 85 percent smaller than the original

Misadventures Issue 5

designation. The remaining area reverted to BLM land or U.S. Forest Service land, making it eligible for extractive industry and road development. Nearby Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument was reduced by about half its size. Trump’s rollback is unprecedented and faces some serious legal challenges, but as of early February, the land was officially open for business. The debate over Trump’s hastily-made THE BETTER TO HEAR YOU Bears Ears is named for the pair of twin buttes that rise thousands of feet above the Colorado Plateau, like a pair of perked ears.

decision is heated, in part because the National Monument status never changed the land’s existing grazing, logging, hunting, drilling, mining, or off-road vehicle use. Instead, it protected against future development, demanded stronger punishments for looters destroying native archaeological sites, and encouraged the development of a local tourism industry. While public lands have enjoyed a long history of

Bear Icon by Vladimir Belochkin

ABOVE, RIGHT Without a budget, Brianna Madia does some creative "campaigning" on the window of her husband's truck. Photo by Johnie Gall

bipartisan support, what makes National Monuments so controversial is their range. Since national monuments came into actuality under the Antiquities Act of 1906, Western lawmakers have argued for more local control and for limiting federal jurisdiction to much smaller areas of “specific cultural importance.” They want tighter boundaries around what land can actually be federally protected.

When President Theodore Roosevelt created the Grand Canyon National Monument, he was berated with the same congressional grousing about the potential hit Arizona’s economy would take due to the loss of mining opportunities. But here’s the catch with the whole “hit to the American economy” argument: 90 percent of BLM land is already open for energy development—not to mention that in 2016, Congress recognized for

the first time the outdoor industry’s $887 billion contribution to the GDP as part of the REC Act. Faced with lawsuits from native groups and private industry, the courts will decide if Trump’s changes to the national monuments will stand, and thereby set a precedent for the power of the sitting president to undo land protections enacted by his predecessors. While lawmakers split hairs on the issue, one thing has become

Dinosaur Icon by Saeful Muslim

MOVERS AND SHAKERS

Misadventures Issue 5

DINOS It may look like a desert now, but 76 million years ago, this area was a dense rainforest full of life. So far, scientists have found 25 different species of dinosaur fossilized the rock layers of Grand StaircaseEscalante, and theyâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;re still on the hunt.

BY ROW, FROM TOP, L-R 1 Len Necefer leads the group in a traditional Navajo prayer ceremony at Newspaper Rock. 2 Magda Boulet and Alice Baker warm up over breakfast. 3 Brianna Madia catches what little sleep she can between runs. 4 The crew celebrates as Patagonia trail runner Clare Gallagher brings it home. 5 Sunrise near Indian Creek campground on day one of the run. It's a cold one. 6 Brianna Madia takes her navigation roll very seriously. 7 Carolyn Morse warms up after her first run. 8 The morale support team: Dagwood, Bucket, and Bea. 9 Running allows you to slow down and experience even the smallest details of a place. 10 Patagonia athlete Clare Gallagher accepts the eagle-feather-and-sage "baton" hand off from Len Strnad. 11 The Messengers celebrate completing 250 miles with some stretching and a bag of candy. THE MESSENGERS Magda Boulet, Len Necefer, Jorge Moreno, Katie BouĂŠ, Alice Baker, Craig Prendergast, Keith Madia, Wyatt Roscoe, Sheyenne Lewis, Clare Gallagher, Gil Levy, Carolyn Morse, Lenny Strnad, Brianna Madia, Maggie George, Daniel McLaughlin, Greg Balkin, Johnie Gall, Andy Cochrane, Dagwood, Bucket, Bea, Chaco, and Gizmo.

Misadventures Issue 5

We run because even in the darkest of times, the sound of even a single footstep still carries.

MOVERS AND SHAKERS

abundantly clear: The majority of Americans don’t want to lose their publicly-owned land, showing overwhelming support when nearly three million people spoke up in favor of keeping the monuments intact during a public commenting period. Those comments—in addition to massive rallies, protests and petitions—went largely ignored by the President and Zinke. IT’S THIS PART OF this puzzle which spurred our own grassroots project: How could we raise a cacophony in support of public lands? We took audit of the tools at our disposal: We were well connected in the outdoor industry, we knew how to make films, and we were adept at organizing relay-style runs (Andy had

previously helmed these types of just-for-fun, hundred-plus mile relays in California and Hawaii). Within hours of sketching a rough plan, we’d convinced friends from all corners of the country to meet us at Indian Creek campground in early January. It was to be an experiment in using something as simple and accessible as running as a form of advocacy for something bigger. Just before dawn on the first morning of our run, Natives Outdoors founder Len Necefer (whose family originated in the area and whose parents would later join us to run a leg) led us in a traditional Navajo prayer as we stood in reverent silence behind the petroglyphs at Newspaper Rock. Some of us were friends and others still strangers, some

sponsored athletes and others running for the first time in years. Public lands advocate Katie Boué and Latino Outdoors volunteer Jorge Moreno stood next to Olympic athlete Magda Boulet and Patagonia runner Clare Gallagher. Navajo runner Sheyenne Lewis passed her eagle-feather-and-sage “baton” to writer Brianna Madia and her husband Keith—eagles are messengers between humans and Diyin Dine’é (Navajo Holy People). “I’ve been very active in the federal assaults on our public lands in the past year, so running a relay in the ground zero of this fight was a no brainer,” says Patagonia trail runner Clare Gallagher. “But the experience was way more moving than I anticipated. I learned more about

Misadventures Issue 45

BUILTBYSWIFT.COM

MAKING BICYCLE BAGS FOR WANDERING SOULS SINCE 2008

Share Icon by Aya Sofya

ABOVE Runner Alice Baker is overcome with emotion after finishing her last six-mile leg just after sunrise. Photo by Johnie Gall

the Native history of this land than I could ever have from a book or class. This land is Native land and we’re lucky to be able to share it as outdoor enthusiasts.” We spent the next two days passing this ceremonial baton to one another over snowy roads and mud-caked trails, eating soup from cans and keeping each other motivated in the stark cold of the desert, slowly chipping away at 250 miles together. It became apparent then and as we edited our short documentary film later that the run was never really about running at all. It was about slowing down, understanding the importance

of a place by exploring it with our own feet, and, above all, finding commonalities in the midst of this divisive political landscape. It was about standing in coalescence—athletes, tribal members, activists, rock climbers fresh out of Goodwill with $5 sneakers—and finding a stronger collective voice than any one of us had on our own. “It was about taking the time to slow things down,” says Lewis, who also participated in a 1,400-mile relay run to protest the construction of the Dakota Access Pipeline in North Dakota last October. “We must accept a shared responsibility and understanding.”

SHARED LAND Bears Ears National Monument is managed by the United States Forest Service, the Bureau of Land Management, and a coalition between the Hopi, the Pueblo of Zuni, the Navajo Nation, the Ute Mountain Ute, and the Ute Indian Tribe of the Uintah and Ouray Reservation.

PART OF THAT SHARED responsibility is voting in the upcoming midterm election this November, as the decisions made there will affect the future of our public lands and planet. Encouraged by the response to our first run and resulting short film, “Messengers,” we’re hoping to take our idea right to the steps of the White House, running from Bears Ears to Washington, D.C. over the course of two weeks this October to raise awareness about the fight for our public lands. We run because it’s what we know how to do, and because even in the darkest of times, the sound of even a single footstep still carries.

MOVERS AND SHAKERS

Misadventures Issue 5

Step by Step The women at work on the Inca Trail By EMILY HOPCIAN

THE PERUVIAN ANDES ARE a land of layers— mountains, valleys, and jungles crossed by rivers and shadowed by low-hanging clouds. Archaeological layers date back as far as 1,000 B.C. They tell the rich, puzzling, tragic tales of civilizations that rose and fell, waves of victors and oppressed, empires revered and reviled, the sudden surge of the Spanish conquest, and Peru’s eventual independence. In some cases, those layers are as literal as conquistadors razing Inca structures to the foundations and building new churches over them. Peru’s mountain towns and trails are home to layers of language, too, from Quechua to Spanish to English to the countless languages spoken by the tourists who come from around the world. These altogether constant and evolving layers are perhaps most visible on the Inca Trail, which tens of thousands of people hike every year, most famously between Cusco and Machu Picchu. In Peru, where dance clubs might share a wall with a colonial church or an ancient city barricade, it’s hard to miss the contrast and sometimes conflict between native and foreign; old and new; known and unknown. It’s clear

MOVERS AND SHAKERS

the country is changing; what isn’t clear is what traditions will survive and what will be left behind. The Inca Trail was constructed roughly 600 years ago during the Inca Empire. Back then, the network of trails was primarily used by messengers, priests, and armies on the move. Between the fall of the Inca Empire nearly 500 years ago and today, the trails continued to be used by locals but, over time, fell into disuse and disrepair. As such, the more recent history of trekking in Peru is a story of an ongoing tourism boom. While the gender divide for travelers on the Inca Trail is nearly equal at 49% female and 51% male, the local presence on the trail—that is, those working in the tourism industry—is almost 100% male. In 2017, 98% of guides and 99.8% of porters were male, meaning 2% of guides and a mere 0.02% of porters were female. “Women are considered inferior and weak,” says Amelia Ruth Huaraya Palomino, human resources manager at Evolution Treks Peru, a trekking co-op based in Cusco. “And by law, female porters and minors can only carry up to 15 kilograms of weight, whereas male porters can carry up to 20 kilograms. So from the point of view of the tourism companies, it’s easier and more convenient to hire men because they can carry more for the same cost. Fundamentally, women do not generate money for companies.”

New priorities EVOLUTION TREKS PERU WAS founded in November 2016 by Cusco locals who realized that in order to create a healthy, sustainable future for the area’s tourism industry, something had to change. They set two main tenets for their employeeowned business: they would empower, train, and employ women who wanted to work as guides and porters (something no other trekking company in the area had ever done), and they would provide all porters with good working conditions and fair wages. Today, a whopping 40% of Evolution Treks Peru’s employees are women. Shandira Arque Lucana, 30, is one of their guides. Born and raised in Cusco, Lucana is the third of three children. Her grandparents lived in the mountains, and she recalls spending time there as a young girl. “What I like most is to be in contact with nature,” Lucana says, “and in contact with people who keep my culture alive. It keeps me alive. I am intrigued by the mys-

Misadventures Issue 5

ABOVE Nelly takes a break on the trail. Photo by Marco Simola. RIGHT Shandira and Nelly at work. Photo by Marco Simola.

teries of nature, the parts I can discover while walking outside, including discovering myself.” At college in Cusco, Lucana studied tourism and administration and learned a little about guiding. She went on to work with local hotels and travel companies. In 2016, she began a job as an assistant guide with an agency and, in the process, learned more about working in the mountains. At first, Lucana says her family didn’t know what to make of her unconventional career choice. “In the beginning, they were very surprised,” she says. “When I explained it to them, they considered that it would be very hard for me—hiking in the mountains, exposing my life to many difficulties.” With time, though, Lucana’s family came around. “They understand that I finally was happy,” she says, “that it was changing my life. They understand that I was able to do it, that I am able to do it.” In 2017, Lucana learned about Evolution Treks Peru through a friend. Today, she works there as a lead guide. “For me, to stay in touch with the outdoors is to stay in touch with my original home,” she says. “I want to truthfully share knowledge about my country and origins. I want to teach people to protect the world, to protect nature, our cultures, and to be passionate with our activities.”

PLAN AHEAD To reduce trail erosion, only a certain number of people are allowed on the Inca Trail per day. Book in advance, and know that the trail is closed every February for maintenance.

Map Icon by Mariah Gardziola

â&#x20AC;&#x153;What I like most is to be in contact with nature, and in contact with people who keep my culture alive. It keeps me alive."

MOVERS AND SHAKERS

Like Lucana, Nelly Hancco Tucta, 23, met the team at Evolution Treks Peru through a friend. Born and raised in Ccorccor—a pueblo roughly two hours from Cusco—Tucta is studying tourism and works with Evolution Treks Peru as a porter on the Huchuy Qosqo trek. Tucta says the mountains have always been a part of her life. “When I was a little girl, we would always go there [to the Huchuy Qosqo trek],” she says. “At times, we would go to collect the droppings of the llamas to use as fuel. Now, the walk with tourists is more fun because you laugh, try to talk, and learn from each other.” In addition to her studies and work as a porter, Tucta leads a collective of women ages 16 to 60 in Ccorccor. Their goal is to bring tourists to their hometown—to introduce them to the local culture, to hike the Huchuy Qosqo trek, and to support the local economy. Tucta, one of seven children, says that only her father works. Her mother makes fabrics but needed help working with tourists to sell them. That’s where Tucta came in. Once she started helping her mother, she expanded her work to help other women in the community because, as she says, “I want them to realize that they can also earn money just like men.” As part of her work with the collective, Tucta is encouraging more women from Ccorccor to work as porters with Evolution Treks Peru and other trekking companies. She wants to inspire her neighbors and show them that they can have a different life. Of her first time trekking with the other women porters, she says, “It was a bit difficult, but we managed to do it. The good thing was that they all [the women] were happy to have worked and to have earned a little money on their own.”

Overcoming doubt FOR MOST, WORKING AS a woman in the male-dominated trekking industry is a twofold challenge. The trails they’re traversing are not for the faint-hearted or thin-skinned. It’s hard work and a tough crowd. “People think that it could be a hard job for girls,” Lucana says, “but we are not being forced to be guides. We decided to be guides. We decided to do this because we like it and because we are able to do it. Many of the girls that I know, they are very, very fit girls who also have the attitude to do this.”

Misadventures Issue 5

In Cusco, Evolution Treks Peru recently took a group of 16 women to a local training for porters. There are more than 6,000 porters registered to work on the Inca Trail. Miguel Angel Gongora, director at Evolution Treks Peru, says it was the first time women attended the event. “There were 140 porters, and then there was us,” he says. “Just imagine the looks that they were getting. We were seeing these sarcastic smiles, belittling them. But we are here to prove them wrong. It’s going to be a history-changing situation.” Tucta says the presence of women on the trail is welcomed by some and mocked by others. She recalls finishing a trek in Lamay and causing a stir among the other porters. “They looked at us with much interest,” she says. “Some came to see us and greet us. Others wanted to know how much we were carrying and lifted our bags to know the weight. They then realized we were carrying a lot. Some asked if we would only be porters on the Huchuy Qosqo trek or if we would also go to the Inca Trail. Some laughed and said we could not do it. Some said we could and that women could also work as porters. There are different opinions. I think it’s because of the culture: women are always in the house, and men are always porters.” Both Lucana and Tucta also mentor girls and women who wish to become guides and porters. Tucta says, “I just tell them to think about their future. Some girls are afraid of not being able to do this work, but then they look at us carrying these bags and it motivates them.”

Thoughtful tourism WHILE THE PUSH TO create a more inclusive, equal, and fair tourism industry in Peru must come from the men, women, and companies based there, it is, of course, also influenced by where tourists choose to spend their money. “My belief is that tourists are like bees, they’re like pollinators,” Gongora says. “They travel all over the world. They’re absorbing cultures and ideas, and it’s a privilege. And if they receive the right pollen, the right ideas, the right concepts, then they have the potential for change there.” With the local tourism industry increasing every year, work opportunities, especially for guides, increase as well. Lucana says, “When we include women in this type of work, we give them the opportunity to access better information regarding the important role of women in

MOUNTAIN HOME Machu Picchu was constructed in the 15th century, most likely as a royal estate. The site remained a secret from Spanish Conquistadors who arrived to the area in the 16th century. Though many other sites were destroyed or damaged in the conquest, Machu Picchu was safe.

ABOVE Shandira briefs her group. Photo by Marco Simola RIGHT The porters of Evolution Treks Peru. Photo by Marco Simola

families and to know the capacity they have to perform different jobs—beyond staying at home. With an income, they also have access to a better education, either for themselves or their children, or to stay active as entrepreneurs.” Everyone, locals and tourists alike, must play a role in creating an industry where upholding equal rights for men and women is of value. “The positive side is that, despite a lot of those people who put up obstacles, there are some who want to work and support us,” Tucta says. “So we continue with the work because we cannot turn back.”

Machu Pichhu Icon by icon 54

Always forward IN THE FUTURE, GONGORA says, “I want to change the way the travel industry works. I would love that other people copy our business model—not only here, but everywhere. I want to see a world where we treat our planet, people, and workers fairly. We can’t compromise that. We have to keep moving forward and improving ourselves every day.”

Tucta dreams of transitioning from being a porter to being a lead guide. She also wants to continue working with the women of Ccorccor, encouraging them to pursue their goals, whatever those may be. Lucana doesn’t see herself working as a guide beyond the next few years, but no matter where the future finds her, she remains committed to helping women step onto the trails, whether it be for the first or the hundredth time. This is only the latest layer of complexity for the Inca Trail, and though the area has transformed radically with the influx of adventure travelers, there is a growing cadre of people working to ensure that change happens on their terms.

LAND HO

APPROACHING PAVLOV VOLCANO, ALASKA “A mariner who makes a mountainous landfall will watch the peak appear to grow out of the sea for another day's sailing before she reaches it.” Photo by Ellen Massey Leonard

Misadventures Issue 5

Landfall To A Sailor Sightings, squalls, and sea legs

Mermaid Icon by Denis Sazhin.

By ELLEN MASSEY LEONARD

TAKEN ABACK, BY AND large, hand over fist: so many of our words and expressions come from the world of ships and sailing. A wide berth, a loose cannon, chock-a-block, hard and fast. Launch. Landfall. Landfall, to a seafarer, is the moment she sights land. Not the moment she sets foot on land, but the moment—after months, weeks, or days with nothing but water on all sides—that the first solid speck appears on the horizon. It might be the summit of a tall mountain, visible 100 miles away as something a little darker and firmer than a cloud. A mariner who makes a mountainous landfall like this will watch the peak appear to grow taller out of the sea for another 24 hours' sailing before she reaches it. Or landfall might be a light green line on the horizon, the promise of the feathery tops of palm trees on an atoll just barely above sea level. Such a green line could first be

seen only about 15 miles away because of the low elevation of that land. Our sailor would have only about three hours to watch the palm trees appear to grow taller and more distinct before she's anchored next to them. Since humankind first ventured out on the ocean, landfall has had a magical quality. For the first seafarers—everyone from the Polynesians to the Chinese to the ancients of the Mediterranean to the Europeans—landfall was especially magical because they did not necessarily know when, where, or even if they would find it. Even after the world was charted, mariners continued to navigate by the stars and sun, a skill on which their lives literally depended. It could be argued that today's navigation technology, while providing much more accuracy and therefore security, has taken the wonder out of landfall. And perhaps it has; it's certainly made navigation more boring.

MORE THAN MERMAIDS Womens' maritime history has long been overlooked, but thankfully resources such as the Women & The Sea Exhibit at the Mariners’ Museum in Newport News, VA exist to celebrate the many roles and relationships of women with the sea.

It has also created a certain complacency that's produced a new set of accidents and problems. But that's a separate issue. To me at least, even with GPS, the magic of landfall remains. The ocean, and sailing, have defined me since before I knew what that meant. As an 8-year-old, solo-sailing the tiny boat my parents had given me, I daydreamed about the big, wide open ocean beyond the bay that was my permitted sailing grounds. The vast Pacific, stretching all the way to Japan. What would it be like to sail out there, well beyond the land, and be all alone on the heaving blue swells, all alone with nothing but wind, water, canvas, and wood? Fast forward thirteen years and there I was, out in the middle of the Pacific Ocean on a small, old sailboat. I wasn't alone: by age 21, my 8-year-old's romantic vision of solitude had been replaced by a romantic vision of male companionship,

LAND HO

and my boyfriend Seth and I were sailing together. On the other hand, we were very much alone. We were alone together, just the two of us, 1700 miles from the nearest land. For the last two weeks, and for the next two weeks, we talked with no one other than each other. Although the year was 2007, we had no communications equipment other than a VHF radio that could broadcast only 25 miles. On the route we were sailing, it was unlikely in the extreme that another vessel would come within 25 miles of us during our whole month at sea. And finally, each of us was entirely alone for most of every day, sailing the boat while the other slept. IN ORDER TO GET enough sleep, we had devised a watch rotation of 6-hour and 4-hour segments. I stood watch from midnight to 4am, then slept while Seth stood watch from 4am to 10am. Then we'd have four hours together to talk, eat lunch, take saltwater bucket showers, do any repairs or chores, and trade stories of our night watches before Seth went to sleep for his 6-hour rest between 2pm and 8pm. After a quick dinner together, I'd go below to sleep until my watch at midnight. And so it went, day after day after day for an entire month. Each day defined by the rhythm of sunrise and sunset, each night defined by the phase of the moon. Every evening, I'd sit on the foredeck as the boat sailed herself downwind towards Polynesia and I'd watch the sky and sea flare orange, scarlet, rose, and purple as the sun sank into the waves to leeward. Almost every night, the sun seemed to scream a note of defiance just before it disappeared, leaving a

Misadventures Issue 5

searing green light right at the horizon for a brief but brilliant instant. The night that followed was always cool and refreshing, sometimes too refreshing when a squall ripped across the black swells and kicked up wind, spray, and horizontal rain. But more often night was quiet and spangled with phosphorescence in our wake and stars above crisper and more numerous than anything I'd seen ashore. The days were blue and bright, the wind-ripples sparkling

Once we'd gained our land legs again, we still couldn't walk ten paces without marvelingâ&#x20AC;Ś with sunlight and our bodies baking in the heat by midday. Several times a day, we'd duck below to the navigation table where our chart of the Eastern Pacific lay spread out, ready for the next pencil cross of our position on our watery planet. A tiny black-and-white early GPS unit mounted above the chart displayed our latitude and longitude; every few hours, one of us would take a protractor and pencil and make sense of those numbers by marking our

OFF THE CHARTS In need of sea-rious inspiration? We recommend Maidentrip, a documentary and coming-of-age story about 14-year-old Laura Dekker on her quest to become the youngest person to sail solo around the world.

exact spot on the chart. Every few hours, those crosses got further and further from the Galapagos Islands and closer and closer to the Polynesian archipelagos of the South Pacific. Despite that visual evidence of our progress, landfall never felt like a tangible possibility until it actually happened. There's something eternal about being surrounded entirely by ocean. The horizon never changes: it is always the same line of blue sky meeting blue sea, or gray sky meeting gray sea in unpleasant weather, or occasionally, terrifyingly, white sky meeting white sea in extreme weather. Life becomes circular as you repeat the same actions at the same times each day. Life at sea is thus, for me, the ultimate form of meditation, of living in the present moment, of living in cyclical time instead of linear time. The moment land appears, the moment you make landfall, the circle breaks and time becomes linear once more. There is a destination, a mountain or island or coastline towards which you are sailing, by whose bulk and height you can gauge your progress very tangibly. Always, this is a bittersweet moment. Yet it is always a thrilling moment: all those pencil crosses really meant something; all those hours I spent adjusting the wheel to stay on course to an imaginary destination produced something; all the little puncture wounds I suffered stitching ripped sails back together thousands of miles offshore were worth it. My mind races ahead to all the things I'll see and do ashore in this new land: what will Australia, or Fiji, or South Africa, or Alaska be like? What new interesting people will I meet, what new birds and plants and

Sailboat Icon by Richard Zeid

There's something eternal about being surrounded entirely by ocean. animals will I see? What new food will I try or fish will I catch? But then there's an underlying, conflicting current of trepidation, too. Emails I'll have to respond to after weeks of a blissful lack of connectivity; a bank balance lower than it was thanks to autopaid bills, or, worse, a (virtual) pile of notices for unpaid, overdue bills. Fears, irrational or rational, over Customs and Immigration officials in a new country. The knowledge that land usually means hardware stores and marine parts and so, as soon as the passage ends and the anchor is down, that never-ending list of boat maintenance projects must begin again. Landfall after this first ocean crossing, however, wasn't like that. I didn't have time for all those thoughts. We sighted land when we were practically on top of it, just after sunrise on a rainy, misty day. Darkness, and then the low, heavy clouds and sheets of fine rain had hidden the island from us until we were within just a few miles of its sheer cliffs and green mountains. One moment we were at sea in a gray, misty, purely oceanic world, and the next, we were there, close to land for the first time in a month. Verdant peaks towered into the shifting clouds and the pungent smell of wet, tropical earth wafted over the waves. The air was suddenly warmer, coming to us from the heat sink that is land.

THIS WAS THE LANDFALL that made the strongest impression on me among all the landfalls I've made over the dozen years I've spent sailing offshore. It is the one that has stayed with me, that I picture in my saddest moments. My heart sank and soared all at once. I'd crossed the Pacific Ocean. I'd sailed all the way across the biggest ocean on Earth, on my own tiny old dilapidated sailboat. I'd turned a dream into a reality. And I'd done it with my best friend, the person I'd fallen in love with. But now it was over. Those magical days of stolen time, of circular time, of life in the present, were gone. Land, with all its joys and sorrows, goals and failures, people and expectations, lay ahead. The challenges of the sea are, to me, more straightforward: the physical challenges of sailing the boat, dealing with all the elements Neptune can throw at you, the mental challenges of solitude and isolation, and the requirements of complete self-reliance in what is perhaps our planet's most wild wilderness, utterly devoid of outside help. We reached the anchorage, furled our sails, set the anchor, and the boat was suddenly still. Quiet, calm, unmoving, after a month of constant motion. In the sudden quiet came new sounds. The songs

of land birds, the rustling of trees in the wind, the rattling of palm fronds, the lap of small waves on a sand beach. Laughter. Laughter from a human voice that was not my own and not Seth's. WE LAUNCHED OUR DINGHY that had been lashed down on deck for a month, and rowed into shore. As soon as I stepped out into the shallow water, I fell over backwards, so unaccustomed was I to an unmoving surface under my feet. We had only a mile to walk to the village where we'd clear Immigration at the police station, but that mile took us over an hour. Once we'd gained our land legs again, we still couldn't walk ten paces without marveling at the abundance of color, smells, and sights. Hibiscus blossoms, allamanda flowers, an immense banyan tree, a grove of bananas with stalks of ripe fruit hanging among the huge, green leaves. Myna birds, a ubiquitous small brown bird of the tropics, but so very different from the white and gray seabirds we'd grown used to. The red, fertile earth between our toes. Moss and rocks and mangoes. It was joyous and overwhelming. Subsequent landfalls have been glorious tooâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;the glaciated peaks of Alaska's Aleutian Range, dusted golden pink in a sunrise alpenglow, Atlantic puffins fluttering around the bare boulders of Matinicus Rock in Maine, the rugged Diomede Islands, Russian and American, hunched side-by-side in the Bering Straitâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;but that first South Pacific landfall will always hold a special place in my memory, crystallizing as it does, so well, the magic a sailor feels upon sighting land.

LAND HO

Home Is Where The Boat Is Taking #vanlife one step further Words and Photos by KATHLEEN MORTON

Misadventures Issue 5

MOVING LAND HOOFFLINE

SQUARE FEET: 180 But it's actually a little less than that. The boat is 30-feet long but our interior space is probably around 20-feet long. CURRENTLY LIVING: UNITED KINGDOM We’re currently living in the canal network of the United Kingdom, and at the moment in the Midlands. It’s been wonderful to witness all the seasons from the view of the water: ducklings in the spring and frost in the winter. MAKE, MODEL, YEAR: 1991 SPRINGER CRUISER Our home is called Bertha! With boats, it’s deemed bad luck to rename them unless they’re of out the water, so Bertha has stuck. MONTHS LIVING MOBILE: 14

Misadventures Issue 5

MEET THEO + BEE. Theo is a professional filmmaker/photographer and Bee is an animal conservationist. Back in 2014, they were traveling Europe in their converted VW T4 LWB van. They lived this way for two years before moving onto a floating cabin. Having more space on a boat compared to a van has made room for more luxuries like showering, craft making and a bigger library. They can't imagine living in a "normal" home again. What was life like before the boat? Before we moved into the boat, we were living for a year and a half in our VWT4 LWB van. Why live mobile? We were getting bogged down with the standard 9-to-5 lifestyle and were not really enjoying it. The possibility to escape whilst we literally had nothing holding us back was enticing. So, we sold pretty much all our belongings and hit the road. What's it been like going from a van to a boat? It was pretty straightforward, and it felt a lot easier than buying our van. With narrowboats, there’s no real registered owner—which is a bit crazy—so we just had to change the yearly license to our name once we’d paid for her. We bought Bertha from a guy who practiced Buddhism full-time and lived on the boat for five years. He was moving to a small homestead in Romania to create a Buddhist retreat and had to let go of Bertha. Luckily for us, it was at the time we started looking for a boat. Do you work in the boat? It’s the perfect space for us to work from and, even though it’s small, we both have our own spaces to sit and work. With laptops, we have the freedom to move around the boat and chill on our bed or comfy chairs, or even the roof if the weather is decent. How do you get Internet? We have unlimited Internet data on our mobile phones which works pretty much most of the time, and we also have a MiFi device which gives us 30GB of data each month. So all in all, we have more than enough to stay connected, which was one of our biggest concerns when moving into the boat. It’s not like in our van, where we could park outside a McDonald's and pick up their Wi-Fi; here we are completely remote.

MOVING LAND HOOFFLINE

"Traveling had been our way of escaping for a couple of weeks at a time, so the reality that we could now travel for as long as we wanted was pretty surreal."

Misadventures Issue 5

What are your top go-to items? Solar Panels: They allow us to be completely off the grid. Woodburner: Another off-grid amenity we could not live without. It is our only source of heating and adds a special element to our tiny home. Candles: Our main source of lighting (even though we do have 12V lights) because they produce such a cozy glow. Why live this way? The ability to focus on what you really need in your personal space. For me, it's books and for Theo, I would say it’s his camera gear. We don’t have much else. In our small space, they take up a lot of room. Are there challenges? Not having an endless supply of running water or a flushing toilet that takes care of itself. These are honestly not even that challenging. Certain times of year, the taps where we fill up for the boat can freeze. This can be a bit of a challenge for us as we then miss out on having water in our boat until the taps are working again. Emptying a toilet is never fun, but it’s really not a big deal. Has traveling as a couple affected you for better or worse? We've been together since we were 16. Traveling doesn't make our relationship worse as some people might think. We get asked regularly how we get on in such a small space. If anything, it makes us stronger.

MOVING LAND HOOFFLINE

"In reality, it's our possessions and fears that hold us back." What would you tell someone who wants to try tiny living? Just do it! If you really want to do it, then there’s always the option to try it out first. Rent a van, rent a small home for a night or spend a day on the canals. This will give you a taste and really help you decide. I think the small space can really put people off because it’s

Misadventures Issue 5

hard to imagine yourself living in a drastically small environment. But in reality, it’s our possessions and fears that hold us back. At the moment, we can’t imagine going back to our previous way of living. There are so many options for off-the-grid, alternative living that we can’t see ourselves living how we used to anytime soon.

JOINT EFFORT

In the Weeds

Women and the world of marijuana tourism By JEN ORTIZ

JOINT EFFORT

PICTURE A PLACE in the forest where there are women—only women—everywhere. In tents. Around the fire pit. Feasting from a limitless bounty of snacks. Doing yoga, belly dancing, and hula hooping. Making flower crowns, wreaths, and paintings. Talking about affirmations, sexuality, and body positivity. The phrase “good vibes only” isn’t a cliché here; it’s law. That’s what a weekend at a Ganja Goddess Getaway, a three-day-long camping retreat with a choose-as-you-go series of fitness workshops, craft projects, and panel talks, attended by 200 or so women from all over the planet looks like. Oh right, and there’s

Misadventures Issue 5

an all-you-can-handle cannabis bar with flower, dabs, joints, bongs, and vaporizers. Think a cross between the mythical, no-men-allowed island of Themyscira that created Wonder Woman, an all-girls summer camp, and an episode of Broad City.

PREVIOUS PAGE Shay exhales at Ganja Goddess Getaway. ABOVE Ganja Goddess Getaway's idyllic setting. All photos by Ciera Lagges

Ganja Goddess Getaway is part of the booming marijuana tourism industry in states like California, Oregon, and Colorado where recreational marijuana is legal. The legal cannabis industry, according to Arcview, a cannabis market research firm, raked in $6.7 billion in 2016 and is estimated to become a $22.6 billion market by 2021. But, for many women, it’s more than just a vacation. It is how, and where, they seek self-care. The act of getting high while in bucolic surroundings has become part of wellness-inspired routines, providing women a way to reconnect with themselves, to be present, to recover from the stresses of real-life. According to findings from a survey of 1,530 North American women conducted by the female-centric cannabis lifestyle company Van der Pop and released earlier this year, consumption of cannabis, for women, is most often for wellness-related reasons: pain alleviation, relaxation, stress relief, and anxiety reduction. Retreats like Ganja Goddess Getaway promise all of that in the form of an opportunity to immerse yourself in nature, sisterhood, and unlimited weed smoke. Similar events range from the more practical, like Cannabliss Retreats (guests stay at scenic estates where they get lessons in cannabis and cannabinoid medicine, including history, cultivation, and cooking); to the more woo-woo like the women’s-only cannabis yoga retreats hosted by Ganjasana Yoga studio in Boulder,

Colorado (“we use the tools of yoga, meditation, and mindfulness to learn how to deeply connect with the cannabis plant spirit. It’s a very hands-on experience,” explains founder Rachael Carlevale); and Twisted Sister Yoga (“we incorporate the ganja into the yoga classes,” says owner Shelly Jenkins, “to explore your Dharma, your purpose. Cannabis allows you to be less inhibited and see limitless potential”). “There's less pressure when you're outside because we're not in a public place, we're not sharing space with anybody else,” explains Ganja Goddess Getaway co-founder, Deidra Bagdasarian who created the retreat series in 2016. “It allows intimacy when you get to connect with nature. Humans have been gathering by the fireside forever, telling our stories and bonding and there is something about that experience that's tribal in nature and that causes you to let your guard down.” The cannabis helps, too. For many women, the all-natural setting (and high) creates “transformative experiences” that resonate through their lives. “It’s not just a weekend weed fest,” Bagdasarian says. “It's like, I’m having lasting repercussions from having sincere connections and authentic experiences.” IF THE WORD STONER makes you think of some aimless, too-chill dude out of Half Baked, then you don’t know Jen B. Jen, 44, is a busy meeting planner from Berkeley, California, whose work for a tech company takes her to far-flung

JOINT EFFORT

places like Dubai and Malaysia. She’s also a competitive open water swimmer, competing in the Pacific Northwest as part of the United States Masters Swimming Association. And, for the last five years, a medical marijuana user. For Jen, fitness plays an essential role in how she incorporates cannabis in her pursuit of wellness in the wilderness. Before races and swim practices, Jen takes a small “kind of mint or Smartie” from local dispensary Berkeley Patients Group that’s a blend of THC and CBD. Tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) and cannabidiol (CBD) are the two main cannabinoids, or chemical compounds, found in marijuana. THC is psychoactive and delivers that heady high. CBD is non-psychoactive and works as an anti-inflammatory and antidepressant—basically helps you feel good and chill. “It really helps my muscles relax—I can be really tense and it helps me to set my intention a little bit better,” she says. Cannabis also helps her manage post-workout pain and soreness. “I don't take Advil or Tylenol or any of those things; that's just off the agenda.” Same goes if she’s doing some sort of outdoorsy activity like, say, hiking. “It enhances my experience and my enjoyment because, you know, my back

isn't hurting and I'm not taking an Advil, which would make my stomach hurt and so now I don’t have to take something else because my stomach hurts—this is just much more holistic.” Jim McAlpine, founder of 420 Games (a cannabis-friendly outdoor athletic event series) blames “the propaganda and the stigma that's been built up from the Prohibition era,” and movies like Dude, Where’s My Car?, for the “stupid dumb stoner stereotype.” “It’s not true,” McAlpine says. “It would be analogous to be like, ‘Anybody that drinks wine is a drunk.’” McAlpine, who describes himself as “a high-level athlete” and lifelong cannabis user, founded 420 Games to try to change that perception. The series, which hosts events in cities like Los Angeles, San Francisco, and Denver, looks like your average wellness festival: yoga, massages, food trucks, a Lagunitas beer garden, and, naturally, a 4.20 mile run that kicks off the day. There’s also an expo featuring dozens of cannabis companies. Participants aren’t exactly encouraged to smoke—it’s a family-friendly event—but self-medication isn’t frowned upon. IT’S WORTH NOTING THAT cannabis doesn’t magically transform you into a professional

Think a cross between the mythical, no-men-allowed island of Themyscira that created Wonder Woman, an all-girls summer camp, and an episode of Broad City.

Misadventures Issue 5

PHOTO CREDIT Ciera Lagges

JOINT EFFORT

athlete. According to a 2017 Sports Medicine Australia report that examined 15 published studies on the effects of THC and exercise on the body, “none showed any improvement in aerobic performance.” There were some potential downsides like chest pain and reduced strength. But the ways in which we respond to cannabis isn’t the same for everyone. “The effects that cannabis has on individuals is really heterogeneous,” explains Dr. Ryan Gregory Vandrey, an associate professor of psychiatry and behavioral sciences at Johns Hopkins University whose research focuses on the behavioral pharmacology of cannabis. “It depends on the individual and the dose, and there's some accumulating evidence that it might depend on the product that they're using.” One of the most reliable side effects of THC, Vandrey says, is the body’s cardiovascular response. “It increases heart rate, and not BELOW AND RIGHT Another afternoon at Ganja Goddess Getaway. Photo by Ciera Lagges

Misadventures Issue 5

PHOTO CREDIT Ciera Lagges

ABOVE A relaxing moment at Ganja Goddess Getaway. Photo by Ciera Lagges

just a little bit—we see increases of 30 to 40 beats per minute,” he explains. “So if you have somebody who has a heart condition and they're taking a drug that's substantially increasing their heart rate and then you add vigorous exercise on top of that, you could be putting people at risk for a cardiac event.” For Jen, however, cannabis calms the lingering adrenaline rush that follows a swim. “Practice is from 7 p.m. to 8 p.m., so my adrenaline is still going at 9 p.m. or 10 p.m. because I’ve just exerted a lot of energy.” Cannabis calms her down enough to fall asleep. Cannabis helps Dahlia Martens, the 42-year-old founder of Mary Jane’s Medicinals, a cannabis-infused skincare company

Misadventures Issue 5

in Telluride, Colorado, to “quiet down” in an energizing way. It heightens her senses and her experience of the outdoors: “You tend to notice and appreciate things a little bit more. Smell might be a bit richer, colors might be a bit richer, it enhances my hearing. I hear the rustle in the trees a little bit more.” “When we have these moments in nature, it is really important to take that time to be present. And cannabis helps with that,” continues Martens, who enjoys hiking, camping, paddleboarding, and skiing while high. Each day after work, Martens smokes sativa (an energizing strain of marijuana)—she prefers smoking the flower with vape pens or vaporizers, like the Volcano, a device that

The thing about stigma is it doesn't go away quickly.

resembles some sort of tiny rocket launcher that turns marijuana smoke into a cool, easier-onthe-lungs steam—to help get her out the door on a long walk with her dog. “It’s uplifting,” she explains, “so it makes me want to power walk after a long day of work. It gives me a little bit of a boost to get out there and walk further, a little faster. And enjoy it a little bit more.” “Marijuana, for many people, can really help unlock what's called ‘flow state,’” McAlpine says. “The zone where your mind and your body become one and you're just kind of flowing, and as an athlete that's when you're performing at your peak.” Cannabis can help you stay attentive to your environment, so much so in fact that you might push yourself to go harder or further in your workout. “In a less scientific sense,” McAlpine continues, “it just makes things fun.” AS WITH MANY THINGS, there is a weed gender gap. In a study released in July 2016 by Headset, a cannabis industry intelligence and analytics firm, data suggested nearly 70 percent of cannabis users are men. (Researchers looked at the makeup of customer loyalty program memberships at dispensaries to estimate.) One reason, perhaps, is lingering stigma associated with the drug: 70 percent of the women surveyed in Van der Pop’s 2018 report believe that cannabis consumption carries a stigma and 66 percent say they hide their usage.

“The thing about stigma is it doesn't go away quickly,” explains Sheigla Murphy, the San Francisco-based director of the Center for Substance Abuse Studies at Institute for Scientific Analysis. “Women in particular, for example, if they're in the midst of raising young children, are pretty reticent to talk about their marijuana use even though it is legal.” Murphy points out that anxieties surrounding being open about cannabis use also differs by class and race. The War on Drugs has disproportionately affected people of color and fed into harmful stereotypes of criminality and delinquency, so non-white smokers still have reason to fear getting caught, legal or not. That said, Murphy says, “in general, I think that there's a softening.” It’s perhaps no surprise then that women of all ages, ethnicities, and abilities are turning to the outdoors—away from judgement, not to mention to-do lists and breaking news alerts—to take cannabis for themselves, as a form of relief, escape, and exploration. “When you're in nature you can align more quickly to your truth and your center, and get more inspired,” says Melissa Jones, a freelance publicist from Los Angeles who currently works with Cannabliss Retreats. Before joining the team, Jones attended a retreat in Joshua Tree, California. “My big joke was I left the event feeling like I had joined a new cult,” Jones says. “I had a new guru and her name was cannabis.”

THE HUNTERS AND THE HUNTED

Of Birds and Beau The Thrill of the Chase

By Tracey L. Compton

I’M ONE OF THOSE girlfriends. I admit it. I’m capable of metamorphosis when confronted with a new boyfriend’s hobbies. It’s not that I don’t have anything in common with these men or that I don’t have hobbies of my own. I’m just a curious woman, open to new experiences, or so I say. This approach has taken me to some pretty unusual places, but none as far from my moral scope and comfort level as hunting. A skilled hunter of bargains on shoes and expensive handbags, hunting with guns and camo was never a part of my vocabulary growing up on a tidy cul-de-sac in suburban Seattle. My image of a hunter was always a white man, redneck or not, and always country. Although, my mother is quick to remind me

Misadventures Issue 5

that my grandfather hunted for rabbits and squirrels in the Midwest. Regardless, I approached the sport with some trepidation. And yet there I was traipsing behind my latest flame on a cold winter day duck hunting in Eastern Washington. We shared a love of the outdoors; this is true. But for me, to go hunting was bridging a mighty, wide gap. This pastime was very much a part of my boyfriend’s vocabulary growing up in the wilds of Minnesota, where deer hunting is an annual celebration. Being a recent transplant to Seattle, he was still interested in exploring the city and the hunter in him was not apparent to me at first. We started out going hiking, then we went camping. I slowly became aware of his proclivity

for the sport when he went on solo treks into the wilderness to go scouting for the perfect hunting perches. Somewhere in between being curious and wanting to spend time together, I lost my way and decided I’d be up for a hunting adventure. I told myself that we were just being very rustic and hunting down our own Duck à l’Orange. And that’s exactly what I planned to tell any of my friends, should they discover our weekend activities. My embarrassment at being involved with this non-PC ritual was only one aspect of my fear. The other was stepping out into the hunting fields as a black woman behind my white boyfriend without a bulletproof vest. Kevlar, he explained to me, highly amused, was not a part of the

gear. After all, he said, no one is supposed to shoot at each other. Maybe that was logical to him, but certainly not to me. What if some hunters happened upon us and decided to have some fun? What if there was an accident? It seemed like an awful lot to entrust to strangers with guns. Remembering all of this now, I think back to the 2005 incident in Wisconsin, involving a Hmong deer hunter who shot and killed several white men after racial

of scenes from The Good, the Bad and the Ugly. When you get out of your car and start to traverse the paths that crisscross the canyon, you discover hidden ponds, blue as a stone, and burnt-orange crevices that seem to cut straight to the Earth’s core. On this day, the basalt rocks and barren bushes were covered with snow and my vision of Spaghetti Westerns was frozen in ashen sage and a biting wind up from the lakes.

the next stakeout. Whether it was the cold affecting my brain or boredom, I was now actively participating in the hunt. How many bullets can your gun hold, what’s your duck hunting limit, I asked. All aspects of firing a gun and hunting were foreign to me, but the do-it-yourself nostalgia of hunting down your own meal and the power evoked in wielding a gun were becoming oddly compelling. By the close of the day, we’d walk away with

Duck Icon by Aini

A skil led hunter of bargains on shoes and expensive handbags, hunting with guns and camo was never a part of my vocabulary growing up on a tidy cul-de-sac in suburban Seattle. epithets and a stray bullet were fired in his direction. This kind of scenario is what I was sure would befall us. There was also another idea nagging me in the back of my mind: the long legacy of African Americans facing violence from white vigilantes. Was there any etiquette to hunting and what happens when people don’t follow it? Such questions swam in my head as we suited up in the truck. Every relationship requires trust; I had to trust that my boyfriend wasn’t leading me into certain and unnecessary doom. My inhibitions started to fade slightly once we started hiking. It was easy to get lost in the landscape of the Gorge. It’s one of my favorite Washington settings and always reminds

And then it happened. My beau stopped several paces ahead of me and motioned for me to get down. We had just nearly reached the top of a hill that looked down over a pond. It was protected on all sides by a sloping bank. I crouched behind some bushes as he approached the pond, bending at his knees and aiming his shotgun. First, I heard a slight flutter of wings on the surface of the water, and, next, the loud, hollow echo of pellets being sprayed into the air. The two ducks escaped, but in the desolate, snow-cushioned quiet, the sound of bullets was strangely exciting. As the hunt resumed, I picked up my pace and became more engaged in the pursuit, asking questions and eager for

DUCK AND COVER Be sure to look up local regulations and permitting systems before a hunting excursion. In Washington, duck hunting season usually goes from the fall to late January. Not hunting in season and not using the proper equipment and safety rules can result in hefty fines.

an armful of ducks. I would also shoot a gun for the first and last time, a feat I found exhilarating because of the power and scary because of the consequences; I could not reconcile these two feelings. But, curiosity abated, I survived my first hunting experience and would get my Duck à l'Orange after all. With my new tolerance for fowl hunting, we took more opportunities to travel with amusing results. We traveled to the Pend Orielle Spokane area in Eastern Washington to go turkey scouting and wound up at a Bates Motel-looking hunters' lodge, complete with a coin-operated bed—something I found both disgusting and hilarious. We traveled to the Bay of Anacortes for coastal duck hunting for

THE HUNTERS AND THE HUNTED

My ex never fully grasped my fear as an African American woman in the outback.

Misadventures Issue 5

Buffleheads and very narrowly escaped drowning in quicksand. On this trip, I encountered a fellow female hunter at a coffee stand. Standing in front of her, in my camo jacket, with my designer purse juxtaposed at my knees, I was prepared for harassment and discovery at my novice-ness to the sport. To my surprise, she seemed oddly happy at my reported weekend activities and excitedly told me about her new-found love of muzzle-loading. Could it be that women actually enjoy and actively pursue this sport? Some Google-ing led me to a statistic reported in a 2016 article by “NRA Family” that found

in 2001 there were 1.8 million registered female hunters in the U.S. and in 2013 that number doubled to 3.3 million. I’m hardly a fan of that organization, and “NRA” and “Family” in the same sentence seems like a conundrum unto itself, but the fact proved to me that hunting was yet another realm where women are staking a claim. In fact, these forays with my beau were the launchpad for my own security and development in the wild. The five-year relationship with him dissolved for other reasons, but my love for nature remained. Being in the wilderness hunting, camping and fishing with him was

DOGS WITH JOBS For many, duck hunting is an activity to do with your pup. If you have a retriever or retriever mix, you’re in luck; they were made for this—but not without training. The most important thing for them to know is how to wait at your command. Practice before going out into the wild!

Dog Icon by parkjisun

a novelty. I am terribly fond of and forever grateful for those memories. It’s true my parents exposed me to many National Parks and Forests growing up. However, I had never taken the leap to explore the outdoors on my own. I’ll never be a hunter, but since those excursions I have continued to hike and fish on my own. My ex never fully grasped my fear as an African American woman in the outback. And why would he, when there are countless examples of people like him enjoying the great outdoors in ads, movies, and books; of course he can see himself in that environment. It’s not as easy when your right to

be anywhere is challenged, even in urban environments. People of color carry with them the historical legacy of violence from racism and prejudice, as well as present day fears of gun violence and police killings. How doubly scary is it to venture out into the wild expecting to encounter strangers carrying guns? You might consider this a leap in judgement, but I think it speaks to white privilege. When you’re in the majority, there’s no place you can go that people will look at you twice or ponder your reason for being there. All lands are open to you. Groups like Outdoor Afro are showing African Americans they have a

right to be in these environments too and are sharing information about black pioneers of outdoor spaces. On a trek with the Seattle chapter last summer, I learned that the African American army regiments known as the Buffalo Soldiers were among some of the first national park and backcountry rangers patrolling the West. To me, this knowledge and fellowship with others who look like me gives me a firm foundation from which to keep exploring. I was once fearful of the unexpected presented by the wild; I now fiercely pursue the right to the adventures that await in the great outdoors.

MOVING THE MONARCHY OFFLINE

when I decided to go see “the butterflies” in Michoacán with a couple of British strangers I was rooming with. By “the butterflies,” I mean the monarchs that migrate across North America from Canada to Mexico every year. They have a season, late winter,

Misadventures Issue 5

and during this time tourists make pilgrimage to watch them fluttering around the ancient forests of the high country. Besides Butterflies Live!, an exotic butterfly showcase that takes place at the Lewis Ginter Botanical Gardens in Richmond, Virginia, I had never seen more

than three or four butterflies at a time. Butterflies Live! is, truthfully, awesome, but even so, it's a kind of butterfly petting zoo. What would it be like to see so many of them, out there, in the wild? I could only guess. Getting to the butterflies is not easy. We woke up at two in the morning to take the train and transferred twice to get to the station for the only bus to Angangueo

BUTTERFLIES IN ORBIT In 2009, Monarch caterpillars were sent to the International Space Station where Canadian Space Agency astronaut Robert Thirsk observed their complete metamorphosis. More than 173,400 students from all 50 states tuned in to watch the butterflies emerge from their chrysalides into microgravity.

ISS Icon by Kelsey Chisamore. Aztec Icon by Laymik

that morning. Angangueo is a small mining town of about 12,000 residents. More specifically, we were going to El Rosario, a Monarch biosphere and sanctuary perched up in the mountains outside of town. Angangueo is nosebleedingly high in elevation; it’s cold, but the air is fresh. Immediately upon arrival I went to the corner store, ordered a cafe de olla, purchased a few packaged cake snacks, ate a torta on the corner, smoked three cigarettes, and waited silently in the hopes that one of my travel companions had planned the next steps of our journey. An old man dressed like Hunter S. Thompson approached us and first offered, then reduced, his price to take his car service up to El Rosario and back. His name, he told us, was George. My flatmates looked at George skeptically. I could see them weighing the possibility that George's magical promise of a round trip was another scam. We'd all fallen prey to scams throughout our time in Mexico, but I was willing to give George a chance; I sym-

pathize with hustlers. Since I had moved to Mexico City, I’d encountered a horse ride hustle, hammock hustle, fish hustle (pescadilla), tamale hustle, ballpoint pen hustle, roasted peanut hustle, cigar hustle, coconut on a string hustle, spoiled oyster hustle, wooden fish mobile hustle, artisanal hustle, transportation hustle, shell purse hustle, coconut purse hustle, sarong hustle, blanket hustle, mezcalito hustle, flower hustle, michelada hustle, helados hustle, mariachi hustle, gondola hustle, weed hustle, Magic Eye card hustle, doll hustle, stack-of-hats hustle, gold figurine hustle, photo hustle, shoe shine hustle, shaky medical hustle, lollipop/chiclets/candy hustle, didgeridoo hustle (terrible!), circus hustle, full body prostitution hustle, flower crown hustle, bathroom hustle, bookmark/comb hustle, champagne hustle, cotton candy hustle, New Years hat hustle, record hustle, poppers hustle, and a late night cab hustle. This list is by no means exhaustive, and I know that not every hustle is a scam, which is why I supported

STAY AWHILE According to archaeological evidence, people have been living in Michoacán for at least 10,000 years. It was the main territory of the Purépecha Empire, which was known for its fishing industry and rivalry with the Aztecs.

MOVING THE MONARCHY OFFLINE

George's round trip up the mountain and back hustle. Still, in all of our deliberation, suspicion won out and we settled for a one-way cab up to El Rosario—a decision we would later regret. It costs 60 pesos to enter the biosphere—about three dollars. Visitors can hike up to the forest or take horses, and because I was traveling with virtual strangers there was another debate about whether or not to ride horses to the sanctuary, a type of hustle that I do not usually support—but I give in. A little kid named Hector Francesco navigated the trail, walking along the muddy path with me and the horse behind him.

The horse, I forget its name, but I could tell that he didn't want to be there. Hector gently tapped on the horse's butt with a twig as we veered toward the muddy edge of a cliff, and I reminded myself that as much as I didn't want to die, neither did the horse. Still, the ride up provided clues about what was to come; the butterflies clustered around watery mud puddles and wild patches of flowers, fluttering manically as we passed. Later, I learned that this is called puddling, and that they do it to ingest salts from the mud. Butterflies are also known to drink the tears from the watery eyes of turtles and crocodiles. I identify with this.

My miserable horse trudged up to the top of the mountain and dropped me at the pony corral in the middle of a lush meadow where hundreds of tiny flashes of orange and black winged monarchs danced on the edge of the fir forest. Light glinted in the trickling waters of a nearby stream, and the sound was soothing, delicate, just a little bit eerie. The air was crisp and the heat from the sun warmed my face. My travel mates and I laughed together and swapped horse stories. "Did you see the butterflies on the way up?" We were so happy to have have finally made it. Just as we began exploring the meadow, our

You Had Me at Monday. The outdoor industry is seeking professional women with a passion for the outdoors. That’s where you come in. CamberOutdoors.org/jobs

Misadventures Issue 5

guide appears and says, "Follow me; there's more." A group of butterflies is called a kaleidoscope. We followed the guide into the forest and my eyes adjusted to the sudden darkness, the way light was reflecting against trees, how the sky had turned an electric shade of blue. Suddenly it hit me that I was in a cloud of butterflies. The trunks of trees were covered in them, like orange leaves. Thick pine branches swayed heavily under their collective weight, and sometimes a whole limb would snap off a tree and fall to the ground. They were everywhere. All together, this number of monarchs created an ancient hum. A prehistoric, so-worldly-it’s-otherworldly sound. I didn't know butterflies could be this live. The forest floor was littered with old wings and bodies. Our guide told us that we must leave them there undisturbed, that the wings contain a special mineral that helps the monarchs continue to locate the same forest year after year. We practiced standing still so that they would stop to land on us. We tried not to breathe. What we witnessed was the end of the hibernation, or the “overwintering” phase for the monarchs. The entire life cycle for three consecutive generations of monarch butterflies is about 4-6 weeks. The fourth, and last, generation of butterflies goes through a normal life cycle, but instead of dying

in 6 weeks, they fly to the forests of Michoacán to hibernate for about six months. This means that at certain times of year, over 50% of the monarch butterfly population is concentrated at or near the El Rosario sanctuary. When we finally left the butterflies and walked out of the humming forest, the world seemed harsher, more quiet, less colorful, and more complicated in comparison: we didn't have a ride back to town. There were no cabs, and the collectivo wasn't running. Feeling desperate, we almost agreed to hitch a ride with an eccentric grifter gringo type who said he had just driven to Michoacán from Florida nonstop. Deciding that was too risky, we hopped into the back of a van that claimed to be a collectivo, but turned out to be some guys with a van and a scam. They didn't drive us back to Angangueo, but to another town an hour away. We drove down remote, cliffside roads and I remember thinking, “This is how I die.” I thought about the monarchs that followed us out of the forest, to the edge of the sanctuary, flying easily above our human world, before turning back. The van guys took a lot of our money and left us stranded in a bizarro sleepy town where we were not really welcome. I also remember thinking, “If this is how I die at least I got to see the butterflies.” I still think that sometimes.

BEHOLD

Pure Energy

ESSENTIAL SUMMER GEAR

Müesli

Lunch

Just fruit

Apple Sauce, organic

Whole grain, dried fruit and seeds, organic

This free recipe is

Organic

at edenfoods.com

Vegetable Spirals

N 94

Misadventures Issue 45

edenfoods.com

Android App On

STARSTRUCK DESIGNS AND ACCOUTREMENTS THAT DAZZLE

BEHOLD

GEARED UP

10 GSI Outdoors Gourmet Kitchen Set 11 $39.95

8 United By Blue Keegan Axe $165

9 GSI Outdoors Glacier Stainless 14 Cup Percolator $59.95

2 LOWA Sparrow Climbing Shoe, Turquoise/ Orange $140

6 Fjällräven Greenland Half Century Jacket, Frost Green $425 3 Cotopaxi Haraka Tights, Brick/Grass/ Bubble Gum $79.95

5 Sea to Summit X-Pot (1.4 L) $49.95

7 Sea to Summit Aeros Pillow Traveler, Red/Grey $35

1 Swift Industries Sugarloaf Bicycle Basket Bag $160

4 Primus Tupike Stove $140

TELL ME MORE

2 The Sparrow is LOWA’s first performance climbing shoe for women, and we’re ready for more! We’re all about women-specific gear, and these are solid shoes. 3 These tights can kick AND stretch. Seriously comfortable and versatile, Harakas are designed for ladies who seek many kinds of movement. Yoga, running, climbing,

Misadventures Issue 5

prancercising--you name it. Plus Cotopaxi’s rad colorways always read like cutting-edge tasting notes for outdoor gear; here, it’s tones of brick and grass with hints of bubble gum. 4 The Tupike is a two-burner stove that’s lightweight yet hefty enough to hold its own in tough conditions (cue thunderclap and wind machines). The sleek design is impressive, and the non-stick aluminum griddle plate has us already thinking about how good those pancakes will be... 5 X-Pot! We’re hooked on these super compact cooking pots. How can it be both a full-size pot and also pack down to an inch tall disk? Magic. And once you know about X-Pots...we’ll tell you about X-Bowls and X-Mugs. X-cited?

6 For chilly summer nights in the mountains, stretched out under the stars. Fjällräven knows its jackets, and they have an unparalleled ability to combine classic style with technical expertise. Their colorways and designs will have you dreaming about trekking in Sweden in no time. 7 Nothing like a good pillow to make you feel at home enough to get some good sleep on a flight or in the backcountry. The Aeros is so light and packs down into a tiny stuff sack, sooo basically we recommend having this pillow on you at all times. 8 We all need a good axe in our lives. Why not go for one that will last a lifetime? These babies are made in North Carolina by a

STARS—THEY’RE JUST LIKE US This year the Perseids Meteor Shower will peak on the night of August 12, and the best time to see it will be after midnight once the crescent moon sets. This annual spectacular is created by the comet Swift-Tuttle, and never fails to amaze.

family-owned company that’s been doing this for over 120 years. Hand painted? Yes, we’ll take one. 9 Yes, we’ve definitely brewed camp coffee with a paper towel and a spaghetti spoon. Was it pretty? No. Was it painful to watch? Yes. Thankfully, GSI offers a more graceful—and durable—option. The campfire percolator! 10 Somehow most of our camp cooking memories involve rigging up tools to replace the key utensils we forgot at home. This 11-piece kitchen set ensures that you’ll always be prepared for your cooking adventures. Super light, organized, and packable, this puppy is something you’ll want to keep on your leash.

Meteor Icon by sumhi_icon

1 Everything Swift makes is thoughtfully designed and sewn in-house down to the very last seam. The Sugarloaf, in addition to its adorable name, comes with all the pockets, handles, and straps you need for your range of bike adventures and accoutrements. It’s also designed to nest inside the classic Wald 137 bicycle basket.

cut it, stick it, live it

cut it , stick it , live it

Shop our Shred The Patriarchy line at

www.coalitionsnow.com Brought to you by Coalition Snow, the worldâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s first ski and snowboard company owned and operated by women, where everything is designed to desconstruct the status quo.

neoshell

alpha

delta

™

wind pro FR ®

Misadventures Issue 5

Articles inside

On Molokai

Butterflies Live!

Of Birds and Beau

In the Weeds

Home is Where the Boat Is

Landfall To a Sailor

Step by Step

The Messengers

Up in the Air

My New Office Is A Forest

Campfire Bibimbap

Kayaking in the San Juan Islands