A Wild Hair Crazy Idea

It all started with a simple walk in the woods.

 

Having moved to the Rockies in the dead of winter 2015, the coming spring tantalized my thirst to explore. Four months staring out my front window at the snow-laced mountains surrounding my new home was more than I could bare. As soon as the snowpack relented and the bitter snarling wind lost its bite, I found myself trekking through the forest nearest my doorstep, the Santa Fe National Forest to be exact.

 

As the days lengthened and warmed, my adventures began and what lay over each crested horizon was truly awe-inspiring. I laid witness to sites I've only ever dreamed about, from glorious sunsets in aspen-filled draws to unworldly geologic formations that defied explanation. 

 

It was refreshingly quiet throughout my travels yet my thoughts were deafening. My mental ramblings usually varied with each and every destination, save one, a thought that never escaped the back of my mind. It was a constant recurring whisper in that all-too familiar voice, my own. Regardless of how many times I brushed it aside, I kept thinking to myself… "If only people could see what I see."

 

Then I asked a simple question, "Why in the world can't they?"

 

And a wild-hair crazy idea was born.

 

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Not long after paying homage to one of my favorite locales, a rock formation I call the cathedral, I decided enough was enough. Later that day, as I bounced along homeward bound in my trusty old Jeep, I stared at the bars on my cell phone waiting for that "3G" symbol to appear, the signal that so many people now consider their lifeline. Folks like me however, also look for that signal, but often in the inverse, for it is when those bars finally disappear that we know we have ultimately "arrived" at our sought-after destination. But this was different, I was actually seeking to speak to someone. I needed those bars. The secrets of my travels were simply too glorious to hoard, especially from others of my own ilk.

 

The moment I had full cell-service I called a good friend of mine, Robert Brewer, a college professor from back east who lives and works within eyesight of the rugged and timeless Appalachian mountains. Though beautiful in their own right, the Appalachians are simply incomparable to my new found playground. A professor of wildlife biology, Robert would know exactly what it means to behold amazing new country. I just had to share with him my fervor for my new found home. The call was simple.

 

"Robert, I don't know how but you gotta come out here. It's simply beyond description and far beyond anything I have ever seen in East Tennessee. You and your students would be completely blown away if only you could see what I see."

 

The passion and excitement in my voice undoubtedly carried through.

 

There was a slight pause. And then...

 

"Let's do it!" was his simple but perfect response.

 

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Over the next eight months the talks of a "western" trip for Robert and his dozen or so wildlife students continued but it soon sounded like the ramblings of young teens fantasizing about their wildest dreams. At least to me it did. As wonderful of an idea as it was to potentially take kids on a trip-of-a-lifetime, the reality of it was sobering. How did we expect young, inexperienced college kids to come up with the money to travel almost completely across the continent? There was no way we could ask that of them. After all, it was a good bet a majority of them were already struggling to begin with trying to simply pay for their college education in the first place.

 

This time it was a call from Robert to me that caught me off guard.

 

"You know how you've been wanting me and my students to head out your way and see all those sites you keep telling us about?"

 

"Yeah," I said nervously, awaiting the day the dream was officially aborted due to reality.

 

"Well... We're on!" He said, with an excited twinge in his voice.

 

"My cultural department at the college is going to fund the student's transportation costs so we better start planning."

 

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Within a matter of weeks, that wild-hair, crazy dream was fast becoming a reality. Amazing folks began coming out of the woodwork to help. Not just the transportation side of things either but lodging, meals, field trips, you name it...almost everything is being covered by incredibly gracious and generous souls. My faith in humanity is not completely lost.

 

And the Student Wildlands Adventure Program was born. In just over two months I will be cresting a rise in the trail and instead a wishing others could see what I could see, I'll be standing there smiling as I see the wonderment in the eyes and hearts.

Gotta love crazy dreams.