Wholistic Fitness

after my effort on Imogene Pass, it was hang time with Ananda in my beloved Ouray…since water seemed to be the theme of this trip, a gentle “Active Recovery” hike with Ananda up to Cascade Falls seemed to be in order…we sat right beneath the falls and did some Pranayam before splashing about in the crystal clear stream…

before finding a place to camp…
as has been the Teaching of my Teachers throughout my outdoor athletic life,
i always prioritize the instructions of the entire WF Bible to guide me:
“Just Listen.”
so, as Father Sun slipped behind the towering cliffs surrounding this high mountain hamlet,
A and i took a wander downstream,
and “just listened,” for Signs of where to camp…

sure enough,
the Signs could not be more clear as Deer welcomed us to our h(om)e for the night…
fortunately we still had time to do a sunset soak in the world famous “hot mineral springs” just outside of town…

http://www.ouraycolorado.com/Natural+Hot+Springs+Pool

the Healing Waters of this spring was the ideal, native Way to erase the contraction and acids from my tissues
before returning to our own little “Deer Grove” for a night next to Mother Earth and beneath a startling night sky of cascading stars…

as Father Sun punched through Brahamurhurti, the Eastern sky bloomed into a blue that soon looked as if all seven oceans hovered above our heads!

no better way to warm up the joints for another Warrior Day than by opening the hips and coordinating the eyes and legs than by a good round of “hacky sack”…

http://www.footbag.org/

i tried to teach Ananda how to ‘sack’ yet, truth is, i suck at ‘sackin”…even when i was a sponsored rock climber and sackin’ was supposed to be second nature to all rock climbers, when my bros gathered about to play their nightly and morning sackin’ sessions, i would cower away to do more bouldering or something…these days, without the pressure of ‘the boys,’ i find myself enjoying and learning the game at my own (lack of) coordination pace…it truly is a GREAT workout…by the time A and i got done sackin’ for a half hour? our hips were open, our bowels needed to be moved, and sweat glistened upon our skin…

after we broke camp and pumped our SUNRIDER herbs for the day, we were planning to go rock climbing at the local crags of Ouray, however, that gorgeous blue sky soon became a gorgeous thunderhead and a refreshing rain began to fall, drowning our climbing plans. however, as any seasoned wandering WF Yogi knows, being able to Adapt To Circumstances is what makes traveling so fun! what a perfect opportunity, i thought, to do something i have always wanted to do; explore a real mineral mine…so, i convinced my faithful companion into signing up for the Bachelor-Syracuse Mining Tour…

“…I’ve been a miner for a heart of gold…”
yeah well, lemme tell you, this mining tour is the real deal…DO NOT MISS IT if you ever get to Ouray, okay? you travel 3,000′ – yes, that’s 3,000′! – INTO the heart of Cascade Mountain on the actual mining ‘rail’ that served this mine into the early seventies. it is WAAAY freaky if you are in any way claustrophobic or a wuss. fortunately, me and my pard’nr here are neither of those and we rattled our way into Cascade Mountain on the rickety ass rails that hauled out millions of dollars of silver ore…this mine began as a 1,000′ hole in the ground right next to the silver-ore rich vein (known as the “Bachelor Vein” because it was staked out as a claim by four bachelors from…Syracuse, NY!). as the mine hole got waaaay too deep and dangerous and slow and since the Vein itself was only growing BIGGER (at times 4′ wide!), the Bachelors went back to New York, got some investors, and then began ‘single and double-jacking’ their way into the mountain to intersect the Vein and begin hauling out the riches…

here i am, 3,000′ feet into Cascade Mountain with my Mine Tour leader…Ananda and i marveled at the capacity for hard work in dangerous places our species has when Greed For Money is the motivation! incredible! at the peak of the pre-electricity era of “Colorado hard-rock mining”, a professional miner would work by candlelight in tunnels like this one and pound an 8lb sledge into a steel rod into solid granite for 8 hours! if he was lucky enough to be teamed up with a partner (called “double jacking”)… then you held and twisted a longer steel rod while the other guy (no women were hard rock miners…they were waaaaay too smart for this crap) endlessly slammed a 13 lb, 3′ long sledge by candlelight. if he missed? your fingers would pay the price! a “Double Jack” team, might, if they were good, pound an 8′ long hole in the rock by day’s end into which dynamite would be placed in a semicircular fashion to blow out more of the mountain next to the Vein…the average life span of a Colorado Hard Rock Miner was 39 years old…their young death was attributed to “Miners Lung’…a disease of inflamed and scar tissued lungs. next time you go and sit down for a cozy little time in the HARD ROCK CAFE, you best be a Warrior and give a moment of gratitude for these real HARD MEN…i would not be able to last one friggin’ day in that occupation. by the way…a Hard Rock Miner might earn about $6/Day for his effort. that wasn’t bad for the times, equivalent to about $16/hour today…however, 39 years old to enter the Bardo ain’t the best retirement plan in my book..

Here, “Miner Ananda” shows us what all the fuss was about…this is the actual “Bachelor Vein”…one of the nations most lush silver veins ever found…at this section of the mine, the Vein was only about a foot wide, however, my Tour Leader took Ananda and i aside and shone his light at a particular section of the Vein and i swear to Captain Jack Sparrow…the purest, most beautiful silver glinted at me in a way that even my Yogic eyes were trying to see ways to bring some home! it struck me in that moment, so deep within that beautiful Colorado mountain, that right here, in this glinting liquid like silver ore was the reason behind wars and countries and murders and all of the Outer Worldly stuff that goes on and on….just crazy…all this fuss over…sparkly rock! wow.

that is why it is so important, Oh Noble Warriors, to get out and LEARN…don’t just sit in judgment of things like mines that scar mountains…go and learn and get a FEELING to match up with your Opinions…you might be surprised at how much respect you can gain – regardless of the intent – of a human soul when a “joe” is just doing his or her best to make a living in the era in which they live.

i know for a fact, that this Mountain Yogi’s mind has been broadened and i will never look upon a Colorado mine ruin with quite the same eyes ever again. let me see if i can find you a website for this particular mine tour…hold on…

oh man! WHO LOVES YOU, HUH?
i got your DL HOOK UP, baby! you are even getting some DISCOUNTED TOUR TICKETS!
go here:
http://www.ouraycolorado.com/bachelor

well kids,
i could go on and on about our trip…the mine tour was just our first stop of the day…yet,
well,
we got more Training and Practice input to go over in the days ahead in DL and soon enough, i will be making another
Training Run up to Telluride, so i’ll pick up the Colorado high country ball again then…
in fact, i am thinking about doing a WF Tribal Gathering in T-ride or Ouray next year…
sound like fun?

we are Blessed to live in a free country,
a country where we can practice Mula Bandha
and train like a champion in our own ways
and broaden our minds and spirits
without
ANYONE
saying
we
aren’t allowed…

it is my wish that you injoyed and somehow benefited from my T-Ride Training Diaries…more coming down the DL line…so stay close to the Tribal Fire!

Colorado Hard Rockin’ in the Land of the Free…

your mountain yogi