Matthew Travels

Long Haul -- New Mexico to Oregon May 3 - 6, 2011

I drove from Taos, NM to Monticelo, UT on Tuesday. I slept in the National Forest there. On Wednesday I drove 15 hours from there to a little past Lakeview, OR. It was an incredible drive. I don't think that I felt tired or restless at any point.

Pecos Wilderness Area April 29 - May 1, 2011

On Friday evening Claire, Sommer, and I drove out to NF Rd 207 near Peñasco, NM, to hike into the Pecos Wilderness Area via the Trampas Lakes trail. We camped near the trailhead the first night, having found an excellent location. The weather was pleasant, albeit a bit chilly. The following day we hiked just a few miles up the trail and set up camp at yet another excellent location -- an already established campsite with a rough fire ring built off of a large boulder, acting as a heat reflector. We continued up the trail with daypacks, but group morale began to wane when knee-deep snowdrifts turned to waist-deep snowdrifts. Thus, after a long beautiful day, we turned back for camp to enjoy our plentiful provisions and the warmth of a campfire.

Taos, NM Spring of 2011

I made my arrival in Taos, NM to visit Claire on Monday, April 25th. We went hiking just outside of town on Wednesday. The following photos were taken during that hike.

Vipassana

The 2011 travel season begins! The journey began with my alarm clock sounding at around 5:30 on the morning of April 12th. On the road by a little after 6:00, I made way for Elbert, Colorado, between Denver and Colorado Springs. I spent the night in the town of Elizabeth, about half-an-hour North of Elbert. On the morning of the 13th, I finished the drive and arrived at the Rocky Mountain Vipassana Association's meditation center. I took exactly one photo of the center before the course began. As a student at the course, one agrees to neither use, nor keep any cameras, mp3 players, books, reading/writing materials, instruments, religious trinkets, or any other thing that might distract the mind. For 10 days I woke up at 4:20 am for early morning meditation. Then had breakfast and rested from 6:30-8:00 am. The meditation schedule continued along these lines: 8:00-11:00 am, 1:00-5:00 pm, and 6:00-7:00 pm. The evening would conclude with evening discourse, or "dhamma talk" with S.N. Goenka video recordings, and a brief end-of-the-night meditation.

The organization claims to be a non-sectarian meditation center, and can make reasonable argument to that effect, as no they do not push any ideas of supernatural or divine guidance, powers, dieties, or miracles. I will attempt to sum up in just a few sentences a very long-winded, complicated, philosophy/way-of-life that has been painstakingly studied and elaborated on for thousands of years since the Buddha. The idea is that there are two causes of human suffering -- craving and aversion. For countless generations before the Gautama and after, all the sages and saints had preached that one must do away with craving and aversion, but the Buddha taught that while one might cut off the branches of craving and aversion, suppressing or denying ones urges or negativities, the roots remain, and will inevitably sprout again, even if only at the moment of death. To eradicate suffering at its root, the Buddha taught awareness of sensation -- to become acutely aware of every atom of ones entire body -- to observe each sensation without judgement or reaction. By passing over each part of the body, making note of each sensation, without lingering on pleasant ones or avoiding painful ones, one trains the mind to remain equanimous, observing each sensation objectively. After several hours of sitting without fidgeting, one might feel and itchy spot here or there. One might feel back muscles pinches and/or tightening. The pressure on ones tail-bone may seem to overwhelm the senses. The "old habit-pattern of the mind" is to wiggle, scratch, fidget, etc. in an effort to quickly do away with whatever sensation we find ourselves averse to. Instead, the meditator is to observe the sensation without reacting. At a certain point, after experiencing difficulties in observing the subtle sensations that always encompass the entire body, inside and out, the meditator may even crave these strong "painful" sensations, but to crave is to fall back into the old habit-pattern. Likewise, one may find themselves unable to detect subtle sensations on certain portions of the body and as the mind shifts its focus here, the meditator begins to crave sensation. The more one craves sensation, the duller the mind becomes, until it is almost impossible to detect. Thus, one develops a sort of patience mixed with detachment. Hour after hour, day after day, week after week, and so on for the rest of a persons life, through meditation, they nurture this quality of detachment and equanimity, dissolving the ego and making space for true love and compassion, free from self-centered thinking.

The course was an incredible roller coaster ride of ups and downs. Part of the purpose of this sort of mediation is to not only "know" the law of Anicca (impermanence), but to experience it. Impermanence is experienced as one observes each itch, each pain, each tingling chill and wave of warmth as it arises and passes away, but also one experiences the arising and passing away of emotional states, feeling incapable, incompetent, insensitive, and unfocused at one point during the day, only to feel elated a short time later at ones incredible breakthroughs, progress, sensitivity to sensation, and equanimity with those sensations.

Waubonsie State Park December 17-19, 2010

On Friday night, December 17th, I met up with Troop 25 of Lincoln, Nebraska. I had been offered the opportunity to teach the Wilderness Survival merit badge. We made way for Waubonsie State Park in Iowa. There were no other campers in Waubonsie for the duration of our time there. Friday night I slept out under the stars. It was 16 degrees. A little after 4:00 am I woke up, too cold to sleep. Venus was as brilliant as I've ever seen it. At 5:00 am I ventured out of my bag, grabbing my fathers planisphere which I recently found. As I walked about to warm up, I studied the chart and in doing so, doubled my knowledge of constellations, memorizing the locations of Bootes, Virgo, Corvus, Crater, Hydra, and Leo. The first half of Saturday, the 18th, was mostly spent lecturing on wilderness first aid, survival priorities, survival techniques, etc. The second half was spent constructing shelters. Three boys made their shelters around a central tree, while mine stood alone. We returned to the cabin for dinner and peach cobbler and afterwards returned to the shelters, where we slept for the night. It was 26 degrees outside that night and, tucked into a wiggle-room only leaf hut, it was quite warm. The 19th was mostly an uneventful return to Lincoln and the end of a productive weekend.

Lecture portion of merit badge

Beginnings of the shelters

Skeleton of my shelter begins to take shape over leaf bed

Woods are covered in light layer of massive snow flakes

Making cocoa for the boys

Southwest Conservation Corps - Fourth Hitch October 16-27, 2010

This was our only "backcountry" hitch, doing maintenance on Major Creek Trail. We saw nobody on the trail until Friday rolled around, 5 days in). Photos start with organizing provisions on Sunday night before hitting the trail the next day. On Monday morning we broke camp, packed provisions, gear, and tools, and made our way to our first trail camp, 2.75 miles in. On Tuesday morning Mike, Paige, and I scouted out the full trail, hiking through last nights snow to treeline. Finding outfitter tents, open to public use, we moved camp at the end of our work day. The use of warm canvas tents with fireplace, lanterns, cookware, easy water access, and even an enclosed latrine was definitely a morale boost. On this trail we cleared about 4.5 miles of corridor, including the removal of about a dozen 8"-14" deadfalls. At the end of our last hitch we made our way to Salida and further on to Mountain Princeton for "graduations." Our final destination was unknown and there was grumbling about having to camp in the snow for no good reason, but we were delighted to discover that a large cabin had been reserved for us when the snow began to gather. Crews indulged in hot tubs, showers, pizza, ping pong, fussball, and movies for the night, gathering back at SCC in the morning for final de-rig.