The Last Known Adventurer

19/06/2020

11/06/2020

Fire & Ice:

There are those moments when it’s quiet, your somewhere there isn’t any noise and you start thinking internally about self-improvement or awareness. This is one of the reasons people seek the outdoors. For quiet and time to think. There have been several times when I have looked at my own hands like they are something foreign to me. Especially when I was younger I would look at my hands and state to myself… “this is me and I am really in this huge world.” It was self clarification. I remember a feeling of being small every time I would do this like the world was too big.

In early March I had the pleasure of traveling with two friends for a ski trip and to check out a State Park and some National Parks in Utah. It was 2 months after my father's death which is a crushing loss for me. It was my first adventure with him not in the world. I had traveled with him many times, most recently Israel, Palestine, and Jordan back in October of 2019. The two greatest trips I have ever had in my life was with him traveling to the National Parks on western road trips. The name of the page represents him and his adventures, for he truly was the last known adventurer.

On my journey to Utah, we made a stop in Arches National Park where the photos from the album “Fire & Ice” can be found. It was not the first time I had been here. In 2008 after my college graduation I had traveled with two fraternity brothers on a western road trip and visited a lot of college friends. It was a different time and I was at a different stage in life. I will probably add photos from that trip later on. On this trip, my friends and I spent more time in the Devils Garden area of Arches National Park and I was able to see Landscape Arch for the first time. From a distance, we were able to see Delicate Arch but didn’t hike from Wolfe Ranch to see it up close. When I make it back and if it is still standing that is something that I will do and look forward to. Arches National Park is small, with a thorough visit you could spend an entire day hiking and walk around the enormous sculptors of sandstone. It’s unique and beautiful with some viewpoints and rock formations that can only be seen at Arches or in movies. While driving through Arches you feel small and young. Imagining the amount of time it took for nature to sculpt the arches or formations made you realize just how little you are in this big world we live in. It also reminds you that nature is unbelievably beautiful.

Dead Horse Point State Park and Canyonlands National Park are pretty close to each other. After visiting Arches NP we made our way to Dead Horse SP and the "island in the sky" overview in Canyonlands. Because we didn’t hike to Delicate Arch this gave us more time to travel to other nearby parks. You could spend days or weeks in each park. Someone could spend the entire day just looking out over the canyons and Colorado River from the overlooks. So much red, orange, and various earth tones. It was a great experience to hang out with some old friends and just exist.

With some fun shenanigans, my friends and I went to Alta and Snowbird for some skiing and winter fun.

This was the last trip I was able to go on before the Covid19 pandemic and traveling restrictions. I’m a nurse and one of my friends who came on the trip is also a nurse. The other is a teacher. Both my nurse friend and myself were then thrown into Covid19 chaos. In just a few weeks we were directly treating Covid19 patients. I was on an actual Covid19 unit decked from head to toe in personal protective equipment (PPE). The first week on the Covid19 unit was kinda scary. We didn’t actually know what we were getting into or how serious the virus was. Fortunately, my colleagues and I didn’t contract it and whatever kind of PPE and practice of using PPE has worked. In this experience comes sadness. The saddest part was watching patients pass away without their family or friends beside them.

I think back to looking at my own hands and feeling the vulnerability of how fragile life is. I think about how mighty and long-lasting nature can be. Canyons take hundreds of thousands of years to form and a typical human life is constricted into merely decades.

- C. Tittle.

26/05/2020

TLKA Introduction: Why Travel?

I think there are more practical or obvious reasons to travel. Many travel for work and school. Others travel to visit family or friends. For those who can afford it, seasonal travel helps escape warm or cold weather. Some travel to find themselves or to find love in the modern era. I believe I travel because of wanderlust. I have always had the desire or urge to move and remain active. I have always had the tendency to learn and submerge myself in new cultures or find interesting locations. I am a searcher and discoverer.

In my travel I tend to think, imagine, and create. Some of the best writings I have ever accomplished were based on thoughts and ideas of when I traveled. I often journaled while traveling. To remember information, traveling helped reinforce what I had already learned or provided a mental link to information in the future. It helped me remember. I was a geography teacher for a short time and as you can imagine traveling the world greatly improved my understanding of the subject. A broader world view develops and a mental map of the planet is created that helps make sense of current events, politics, economics, and pretty much every subject. I am a proponent and motivator of putting yourself in as many different experiences as possible. It stretches your mind and provides growth and balance. Immersing yourself in endless experiences can be exhausting, so travel while you do it. Go on vacation and make learning fun. Day trips to a local park or monument is an easy way to be an adventurer.

C. Tittle