So. What to do? I think an weekend escape would be a worthwhile endeavor, as I have been living in the basement of a families house in Pella, Iowa and am craving the freedom that TentLife afforded. Now if only it wasn’t so blasted cold up here in the North!

He done good.

As we all know April showers (some of the April showers, though, do come in March) bring May flowers. The focus is usually on the object of that sentence, not the actual subject. Oh how easily we overlook the actual subjects of what we say. This was my fatal mistake.

It was late March and I found myself barely able to climb up out of bed. For, as all us tentlifer’s know, we climb up out of bed, not step down, as our beds are on the ground. My head was seemingly in a vise, as the cruel torturer continued to crank it down tighter and tighter. I was freezing, and sweating, my temperature was in the triple digits, and after being this way for two days… I succumbed to the pressure: it was time to humble myself and go crash at a friend’s house to recover from my illness.

For the next three days I rolled around, sniffed, coughed, ached, and slept myself well. My clouded mind, however, failed to fully grasp what was happening outside the safe walls of my buddy’s house. Three days of incessant rain had been pounding southwest Missouri. Rain it was, but I need you to fully understand me here. Imagine one of the heaviest rains you’ve ever seen, and have it last for a full 72 hours. Somehow it kept on.

Upon my recovery a thought came rushing over me, rushing over me so strongly that I actually felt it, in the depths of my soul: “Oh shit… MY TENT!” For your reference: everything I owned was literally in my tent. And the location of my tent, on a nice dry day, was only 75 feet from the banks of the lake, and maybe 4 feet above it. The overwhelmingly formidable thought of everything but my truck and the clothes on my body made me almost wet myself, which of course would have only compounded the problem of obtrusive liquids.

My friend Brad Ray and I decided to go see what the damage was to my belongings. As we arrived at the peninsula at 11:30p.m. I was horrified when the headlights revealed to me that my beloved peninsula no longer existed. It had become an island. Most certainly my belongings had succumbed to the flood. We found a small sailboat and two paddles and began making our way out to the island. The sheer amount of water that seemingly converged upon my life was incredible.

As we neared the island my angst turned to joy when I noticed that, there stood my tent, full of all it’s Ozark Trails’ glory, was unscathed by the past storm and current flood. Nothing I owned had incurred any significant damage.

So naturally, realizing everything was fine, Brad and I decided to head to bed, in the tent, on the island.

But remember this important fact: when the floods come, the vermin move to high ground, and subsequently think a tent is a nice place to dwell…
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Contributor Jarod Sickler is an avid rock climber as well as stone cold philosopher – seriously, he’s doing graduate work right now in SoCal. He did TentLife in Branson, MO and Durango, CO for 15 months (or so).

Mark is not only a vagabond thinker but also older brother to Skot Montgomery (TentLife in Alabama & Tennessee), this free spirit must run in the family… and I’m now wondering if their parents were hippie transplant’s from California.

Anyway, I met Mark this past summer and had an instant affinity to his humor and general laid back demeanor. But what most impressed me was his philosophy on teaching (ask him about his “1555″ tattoo) and life in general. This past year he took an indefinite leave of absence from teaching history to high schooler’s to work out at Camp Kivu in Durango, Colorado… probably because his brother Skot kept telling him it was the best place on earth (besides Mitchell, South Dakota home of the Corn Palace). Mark aka “Montagonia” will be adding his thoughts and share his story in the coming months.

I am looking forward to what TentLife will provoke in him, as he ventures out into the wild with a tent and an open mind!

“Two things: Blue Man Group and Walden Pond.”

Even though our trip was short, we made time for both those things. We stopped by Walden right before we headed off the airport. I had heard visitors can swim in the pond so we brought our bathing suits. I was so excited. We parked near the back of a little parking lot and made our way down the trail.

Finally, the trees broke at a small siesta and we could see the pond! I was so stoked. It was pristine, still and covered with lily pads. We continued around the pond on an over-grown trail until we came up on some houses. Needless to say, I was pretty ticked. Who would have the audacity to build a neighborhood on pond that represents solitude and reflection?

Come to find out, we were walking around the wrong pond. FAIL.

Eventually, we made it to the real Walden and it was awesome! The water was crystal clear, there were people swimming in it, and there was very tranquil walking path around the whole thing. We walked a short distance back to the site where HDT’s cabin used to be. All that is left is the foundation. Near the entrance of the park, however, there is an exact replica HDT’s cabin and some informational placards.

I was struck by the fact that Walden pond is not very far from civilization. Granted, when HDT was there, the area was probably much less developed but that doesn’t change the fact that civilization was accessible. This is significant. We don’t have to seek out an incredibly remote, wilderness location to experience solitude and contemplation.

My tent was about a quarter mile from civilization but that didn’t effect my experience. In fact, I was a full-time student and working 40+ hours a week, yet at no time did I feel as though I wasn’t experiencing the contemplative lifestyle that Tentlife provides. At it’s core, Tentlife is a change of scenery. It’s a drastic shift from the norm that forces vulnerability and unexpectedness. At the very core of HDT’s Walden experience was this very same shift.

Simply exploring a new lifestyle can and will accomplish wildly amazing and unexpected things in one’s life

Get a tent. Live in it.

-Hoag-

Stuff. I had enough stuff that the thought of moving brought with it an anxiety attack, and a antecedent backache! It wasn’t bad that I had stuff, someday when I have a family and a house (that is my own) I would want it to be filled with things that make it homey and comfortable. But being in a time of my life that was nomadic in nature, it was ridiculous to own so much! And so about 9 months previous to starting TentLife I did a massive minimalization of my life. One of my strengths is Input, of which a habit is collecting things… And being single for so long I had spent my twenties collecting “hobbies” and the gear associated with these adventurous pursuits. My motto for the my single years was this:

Spend your money on gear not girls… cause gear never lets you down.

In an effort to pursue minimalism in my life, it was apparent that some of my hobbies had to be scaled back. This was DIFFICULT! As some of my identity was wrapped up in these “things,” it was time to scale back. So I took inventory of what I actually do as opposed to what I have done, and sold some things to friends and donated other things to the dump (yes, I recycled a lot of things too). After getting my hobbies squared away, I began to look at other things I had accumulated and began to painstaking task of sorting through junk, only keeping things that had sentimental value. I recycled textbooks from Undergrad and Grad school (weird, I know… why did I keep textbooks!?), I threw out magazines and took dishes, pots, pans, grills, clothes, shoes, hats and other things that I never use to Goodwill.

It was liberating.

No longer ruled by the things I own, I was able to be more mobile… I wasn’t distracted by hobbies that no longer held my attention, and my closet was incredibly slim! Pants that don’t fit… aren’t gonna fit, shirts that are trendy don’t ever stay trendy. Simplify. Minimalism. Happiness.

I’ve been getting into barefoot running lately, motivated by the book – Born to Run. Which goes into the bio mechanics of barefoot running and the benefits to your arch and such. One of the most fascinating things that Christopher McDougall references is Alan Webb’s barefoot odyssey, in which he has begun to incorporate barefoot running into his training and has seen his foot size shrink from a size 12 to a size 10! He attributes this to the foot becoming stronger, more compact with a higher arch. The arch is the part of the foot that supports our weight on foot strike… a stronger more compact arch, means a stronger push off from the ground. Barefoot running also repositions our body. It forces you to run on the pad of your foot rather than a heel strike, which is easy to do with air padded shoes, but is rather uncomfortable when running barefoot. When you run on the pad of your foot your back is forced to straighten, which reduces the stresses on our lower lumbar vertebrae. In order to really experience this type of running, I got some Vibram Five Fingers, pics below:

I didn’t go straight into running barefoot everyday, rather I started nice and easy with a few 10-15 min jaunts on grass and dirt, letting my muscles in my foot and lower leg get used to the idea. This past week I elevated it to 20-25 min (2x’s a week) and still felt soreness in my feet and calves the next day, but nowhere else… The video below is my homemade Vibram Five Fingers advertisement. Enjoy!

What did you do outdoors this week?

Life is not about seeking perfection, succeeding in everything, living normal, because where is the excitement in all that. Stop talking to old people about the weather, or asking someone what their major is and where they are from, lets be “honest green jacket gold jacket…” (if your confused watch happy Gilmore). Next time you’re in that situation, stare that person in the eyes, look into their soul and tell them what you’re really thinking. Be real, be honest, make them remember that conversation, and let it be an inspiration for change. Go mountain biking in the rain, take the doors off your truck, do whatever it takes to make you smile about the simple things. That is contentment. That is joy. Find God in everything you do, and I promise your life will be changed.

one love,

skot
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Contributor Skot Montgomery lived in a tent for 12 months in Alabama and Tennessee. wc97p62fdq

Yesterday was a fantastic day, high of about 74 F, sunny and a slight cool breeze. I got a ton done out at TentLife, as the summer months were way too hot to do a lot of things, like chop and haul wood, create some steps on the trail in, et cetera. In the excitement of the gorgeous day, I even went out and purchased an axe so that I could chop down some dead trees and get some stacks of firewood going for the winter. In between hauling wood, I put up a canopy over the kitchen area (which was donated by a friend here at work), started a fire, cooked, some soup and fire roasted some corn on the cob!

Fire Roasted Corn on the Cob
1. Soak corn (in husk) for 5-10 min in water
2. Put corn (in husk) on coals for about 5-10 min (flipping midway through)
3. Take corn out of fire when husk is charred
4. Unwrap corn and eat away!!

After the hard days work, I retreated to my hammock and read 150 pages of Christopher McDougall’s book Born to Run. Which is a fantastic non-fiction about Tarahumara Indians Mexico, who are running phenoms (think ultra-marathon trail running… as a way of life).

What did you do this weekend?
Tell me about your time outdoors!

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photo by Jamie Roach

As you can clearly see, I am not a professional windsurfer, in fact these pics are the only documentation proving that I actually got up on the board. It was real difficult. Most of my time was spent paddling the board from the shore and trying to stand up and then falling in the water. Nonetheless, it was a fun day and I thoroughly enjoyed learning how to windsurf, even though I wasn’t speeding across the water by the end of the day it was a success because I tried something I had never done before.

So. What have you done recently that gave you the opportunity to fail? Tell me about it!