More of the Winds

Beartooth Mountains

There are a lot of really cool places within a 4-5 hour drive from where we live. For example, the Beartooth Mountains. This mountain range sits upon the larger Beartooth Plateau, the largest true high elevation plateau in the United States. Almost 400 species of plants have been discovered and the Beartooths are considered to be the most biologically unique mountain range in North America. The region is also one of the few remaining with sizable populations of Grizzly Bears outside of Alaska and Canada. Black Bears, mountain goats, Bighorn Sheep, elk, moose, wolverine, mountain lion, and lynx are also found here. The Beartooth's are composed of Precambrian granite and crystalline metamorphic rocks dated at approximately 4 billion years old, making these rocks some of the oldest on Earth!

South Leigh Lakes

WHY I love backpacking

Sometimes I ---- feel fat, like a loser, like a burden to my friends, like a complicated mess, ugly, annoying, selfish, out of control, hate people, hate my job, don't like my friends and all of their problems, hate the sound of my own voice, feel so insecure, talentless, not unique or special and unloved. But when I'm backpacking in the Wilderness, all of that goes away. None of that silly stuff matters anymore. Its just me and the trees. Life becomes so beautifully simple while in the woods. I know what I have to do to survive and keep my mind and body safe, and I do it. I do it well. I enjoy the pain of carrying a 40-50lb backpack for miles deep into rugged Wilderness. Those blisters on my feet are a sign of being free from societies screaming burdens and my pressing insecurities. And they feel great. I love it. I love it with a passion. The Wilderness is my church. I enter it's trails and everything becomes clear and okay again. There is nothing more true and real than being surrounded by nature and it's blanket of peace that it brings me.