Mountain Reset

Nearly halfway through the year, my calendar starts on the Winter Solstice, and it’s usually a good time to look at the year and see where you are. On the Winter Solstice, I reflect on the year and make plans for the new one. I get a list of the well-formed outcomes I intend for the next year. I try to envision what life will look like by the next year.

I do this in the form of a vision of what parts of my life will look like in a year. Then I write a statement on the things that I’m going to accomplish. Different areas each get one. So I have one for health/fitness, adventure, relationships, creativity, and giving. Notice I seem to forget my career, maybe because I never gave it much thought in my life.

So halfway through my year, near the Summer Solstice, I like to see where I am. Which is an excuse to disappear up into the mountains for a few days. This year I also have the chance to spend a longer stint in the adventure van to feel how things are working out.

It’s also time to spend time mountain biking, then sitting and doing nothing.

I’ve been wanting to bike up at the Buffalo Creek trail system for a while. It’s about an hour southwest of Denver. If you look at a map it is nearly straight west of Castle Rock. The upside and downside are that there is little internet service. You can still make a cell phone call out there but forget about catching up on the news or gossip. For a retreat and a reset, that’s perfect.

Camping sites are hard to come by. I made one for the Kelsey campground in December 2020 for this trip. Showing up there, every single site had reserved tags on them for the next few days. I have the benefit of being able to go in the middle of the week. Even then, that close to Denver, most of the sites were taken each night.

The campground was okay, some sites were better than others. I just have to say I’m glad I was in a van. Mine sucked. There wasn’t much of a place to put a tent that wasn’t a wash, and the fire pit and table had seen better years. Both also were in the middle of a washout. But I had a van so cared less.

But I have to say the view in the morning was great with the sun coming up through the trees.

Sometimes when I take bike trips I prefer to just park the vehicle and ride out from one place. This time, I decided to just park it, although it would have been easier to ride more of the trails if I drove to other trailheads. From where I was starting, everything was a climb back up to the campsite. If I had started at other trailheads I would have been eager to put on more miles if the return was downhill. It pays to plan a little.

I’ll leave the bike report for another post.

After three nights of sleeping in the woods, it was a productive retreat. I felt that I was well on the way to making outcomes and getting goals. Some I still need to work on. CoVid is still putting a limit on some things. I committed to making sure I’m focusing on the Daily Things. It’s a good time to review them and make sure they are all still worthy.

Getting away helps. Getting away where there is even less internet is even better.