Wholistic Fitness

HAPPY BIRTHDAY GYRL!!!!
Temple Manager and my Beloved Joy “Ananda” Kilpatrick turned 39 Years Young on the 11th…so, i did what any other respectable Mountain Yogi would do for such a Brave Goddess of Sweat and Spirit…

i whisked her away to the Greatest, Grandest Canyon of them all! The Grand Canyon is just up the street from the Temple
H(om)e and the Canyon’s Pranic influence is an undeniable factor of the special ‘ether’ surrounding Flagstaff. Ananda has found Rebirth within the canyons of the Southwest and taking her into this Grand Canyon was a ‘Joy to be hold” for sure!

Going for a real ‘Joy ride’!!! We rode our road bikes out to Hermit’s Rest…a fantastic 20 mile jaunt with the Canyon just yawning her geologic majesty on our side. The Park Service does not allow cars on this stretch of road…just perfect for WF Warriors and Warrioress!

i am thinkin’ i may have trained Ananda too go(o)d! she decided she wanted to make a Duathlon out of her birthday, so we cranked down the famous South Kaibab Trail toward Cedar Ridge…just a couple of thousand foot drop, is all! Ananda was so stoked on the Pran of the Canyon, that we rode our bikes down to the Backcountry Office and took out a Backcountry Permit for a two day backpacking all the way down into the Inner Gorge…we will spend a couple nights right on the Colorado River and just MERGE into the Solitude and Spectacular Serenity. Of course, i have another motive; i want to recon a particular trail for an absolutely crazy athletic event sometime in the future! Stay tuned to this ONE! In this shot (try clicking to enlarge), you can not only see how dramatic the South Kaibab Trail switchbacks through millennia, you can even see the bottom of the canyon several thousand feet below. It is waaaay down there where A and i will descend into later this summer. As we were slaloming through the haggard, panting, complaining young Dorito-fed kids and their parents along the trail, us ‘old people’ noticed with alarm that these people were literally imploding…due to poor nutrition and exercise, their bodies could not even remember how to break a sweat! i think the quote of the day had to go to the young, overfat girl who whined, “I KNEW i shoulda brought cheesefries with me!” Each year, people die on these extremely steep trails due to ‘heat exhaustion.” call it what you will… i call it; lack of herbs and WF, baby! just recently a 26-year old woman died at the bottom of the canyon due to poor training and overambitious ego trying to to do the Rim to the River and back in one day.

Of course, the 260 million year old Kaibab Limestone is just fantastic for bouldering…here, i create a nice little V2 boulder problem along the Path. the formation at the bottom of the Canyon? appropriately and auspiciously named, “The Vishnu Metamorphic Complex” is…get this; 1.7 Billion years old! (i have already Taught you what Vishnu symbolizes of the three Yogic Deities…anybody remember?)

A and i picked a place to sit and meditate. you can only imagine how easy it is to ‘drop in’ with this Expanse of Pran and Natural Beauty surrounding your every pore. As we sat with California Condors, Mexican Jays, Hawks and the Expanse, i could not help but recall Sogyal Rinpoche’s Teaching;
“What should we �do� with the mind in meditation? Nothing at all.
Just leave it, simply, as it is.
One master described meditation as �mind, suspended in space, nowhere.�

Happy Birthday Ananda, you are the Shining Jewel of This Humble Temple!
i’m already packing for our next adventure…and as the Silician strongman Franco Columbo once asked,

“Why travel light
when you are strong?”

Ananda, you are an inspiration…you ain’t gettin’ older,
you’re getting FITTER!

And to all of you, my Beloved DL Warriors…thanks for reading and
Stay with Wholistic Fitness so you can be healthy and fun for your Loved One’s birthdays, not just your own!

cheesefries?

what ARE cheesefries, anyway?

love and off to Teach in the City of Angels…

maybe we will see you there?!

love and sweat,
coach ilg