Bumping around the land of my childhood with two of my best friends over the last week and a half was amazing!  We spent the 4th of July in Ashland, which is always a good time.  I went to my 10 year high school reunion, which actually deserves its own post for all the awesomeness it was!  We then headed into the Russian Wilderness in N Cali, and spent 4 days alone together next to a mountain lake soaking up the peaceful beauty of the natural world.  We watched eagles, …

 
I adjusted the angle of the light and it caught something reflective as Andy hauled himself across the untensioned highline back to the access tunnel. The smell of rust and the reverberating echoes of friends rigging the line filtered through my concentrating mind as I adjusted exposure settings on the camera. What a wild place!

The steel launch doors high above were painted red with sheets of rusted metal peeling off. Andrew sat on a stairway to nowhere surveying the operation; his shadow powerfully projected on the ceiling. Although no protection …

Wilderness is something we seldom experience as social dwelling humans anymore.  The vast expanses of nature, gory and serene in their realness have shrunk and hidden away from humanity and we are much worse off for it. 
Teva gives $10,000 to “Teva Life Agents” to have the adventure of a lifetime and document it. 
Andrew Hyde and I submitted a video to Teva at the end of January.   Many of you helped us along the way with your comments and energy.  Thanks you!
In the end Teva picked a Life Agent: a spectacular individual …

Blackness. 
Blackness so complete it is impossible to tell if it is white or black or blue or green or purple.  Not one photon makes its way to my eye, and my brain screams with lack of optical information.
I make a clicking noise with my tongue and can surmise by the echo we are in a large space; how large it’s hard to tell, but definitely expansive and open.  I can hear the scratching of shoes on metal to my left some distance away.  Something else rustles to my right. It’s …

 
Falling… head first, arms spread, feet trailing, heart accelerating, universes close in dangerously fast. Past-future, fear-exhilaration, up-down, life-death, love; all collide in a kinetic snap of adrenaline as I hit the apex of my plunge. I’m disoriented, dangling upside-down as my eyes search to find something recognizable to focus on. City lights, dark rock, flashlights, sky, all whirl by as I spin, stop, and slowly right myself.
 
Whew, I sit… b        r              e                a                  t              h    .                .                        .                and watch the light of Golden below me as my heart slows a …