Sunday, November 28, 2010

Quiet And Dark

Had a great Thanksgiving getaway out to Western Colorado. We spent 3 days at a friend's ranch in middle of nowhere outside of Meeker, CO. The silence and the true darkness at night was wonderful and refreshing. I love where I'm living in Nederland, but our cabin is close to a busy highway and there is always some light pollution from town. I've spent a lot of time in places that are completely silent and completely free of artificial light, but I've never lived anywhere like this. Our trip out to Meeker reminded me of how much I want to live somewhere like this at some point in my life, preferably sometime fairly soon.

I'm not even sure just what it is but there is something that feels really healthy to me about being somewhere out of sight and out of sound of others. I love having a community around me and I value a lot of the benefits of urban and/or populated areas, but when I am fortunate enough to spend some time away from populated areas I almost always feel more comfortable and more able to understand myself and understand the things going on around me.

This coming weekend I will be heading out to San Francisco for The North Face Endurance Challenge race. To get back to Colorado I will be driving a car that a friend wants moved from there to here. My plan was drive the first day to Salt Lake City and the second day to my home here in Nederland. After this weekend though I can't help but think of all the wonderfully quiet and dark places between San Francisco and here that I could spend a night camping rather than a night in Salt Lake City.

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9 comments:

  1. CollinNovember 28, 2010 at 9:47 PM

    If you end up in SLC and need a place to crash, you can always hit me up.

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  2. Sara MontgomeryNovember 29, 2010 at 4:38 AM

    Totally relate to that 2nd paragraph.

    Good luck this weekend!

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  3. AnonymousNovember 29, 2010 at 4:53 AM

    Gas a tope!!!
    Girona, Spain.

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  4. FairbanksNovember 29, 2010 at 11:26 AM

    don't forget your tire chains going over Donner,ca they are required. Just did the drive 2 times last week (co-ca) and NV sure has a lot of dark space...
    Good luck in Cali!

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  5. BrickNovember 29, 2010 at 12:40 PM

    100% agree with you.
    I live in Sydney Australia but used to live in the country side UK.
    The love it when I get away bush and no car/city noise.

    And can see so many more stars.

    You are making me home sick. :(

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  6. ScottNovember 29, 2010 at 1:51 PM

    If you don't mind living somewhere warm, I would recommend Oracle AZ (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oracle,_Arizona) as somewhere to live that's (1) relatively close to a big city (approx 20 mi from the Tucson suburbs), but (2) doesn't have "big city" lights (Tucson is on the other side of the Catalina Mtns). There are plenty of steep, rocky trails right outside of Oracle (e.g. Arizona Trail) that should be challenging to a runner. The climate is a lot like that of Sedona AZ, but without the hordes of tourists. Spearfish SD (Black Hills) and Centennial WY (Snowy Range) are also both small towns, and have cooler climates than Oracle, but I don't know what most of the trails are like in those locations.

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  7. DerrickNovember 29, 2010 at 2:26 PM

    Yup. Can relate!

    Southern Ontario in Canada is nice, but need to go further north...much further.

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  8. junNovember 30, 2010 at 11:07 AM

    I think that is why many of us run trails and ultras, because there is a small piece of us that wants that solitude and peacefulness. Even if we can't have it in our daily routine, we can find some semblance of it on our long runs. I live and breath for it.

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  9. Clynton TaylorDecember 7, 2010 at 8:19 PM

    Absolutely, love the silence, away from it all. Sounds like the perfect time.

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