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Live By Living’s first cancer survivor retreat of the 2011 summer season reminded us again and again why we do what we do. Our destination was Francie’s Cabin, a beautiful log cabin south of Breckenridge. On Saturday, July 16, after a round of introductions, 14 intrepid trailblazers began the steep trek up the Crystal Creek trail.

Among our group were some truly undaunted survivors who either had never been hiking, or had only hiked a few times. Two in our group had severe hip arthritis, to boot! But we just took our time, resting as necessary, and we reached the hut in little over an hour. Everyone was delighted to see the beautiful gable that graces the front of the cabin as we rounded the last bend in the trail. Most people passed the afternoon reading and relaxing, or getting an aromatherapy massage from Nicola, one of our volunteers.




After dinner, we enjoyed the gorgeous sunset off the front porch.








A few minutes later, someone shouted, “Look! it’s a bear!! Right outside the window!” And sure enough, a good-sized black bear was exploring around the hut. We managed a fuzzy picture of him in the dim light. We made sure to shut the doors tight, and after several hands of “Dutch Blitz,” people retired to their rooms and drifted off to sleep. No one had nightmares about bears, but on Sunday morning, a few people said they had been kept up by an intermittent noise that sounded like grating or huffing. We couldn’t imagine what it could be. This was a mystery that would not be solved until much later in the day . . . .


After a breakfast of pancakes, we set the tone for the day by listening to a short passage from “Awake in the Wild,” a book by Mark Coleman about meditating in nature. The passage illustrates the profound beauty we can experience by being patient, still, and mindful in nature. It also highlights how the natural world offers many lessons that we can apply in living our own lives fully. In the passage, a young woman describes how she spent hours watching an eagle. At first, she couldn’t understand what the bird was doing as it circled its nest, seeming to drop something, then return to the nest. Then, she could scarcely believe what she was seeing: a mother eagle teaching her young how to fly by pushing them out of the nest, allowing them to fall a bit, then scooping them up and returning them to the next. Each time, the mother would allow the eaglet to fall a bit farther as it learned to use its wings to power its own flight.

With our intention to pay attention to our surroundings, we set off for our hike up the Crystal Creek valley. The wildflowers were out in abundance, from paintbrush











to columbine















to Old Man of the Mountains, a sunflower that, we learned, is also called Compass Flower because it always points east instead of tracking the sun.

With this year’s abundant snow, there was still a lot of runoff, and the creek we had skipped across the previous summer was far deeper. To reach our goal, we had to cross a wobbly bridge consisting of two green logs that bent with every step. This was a new experience, for sure! But with our volunteers and friends to help, everyone made it across safely.

We were rewarded for our courage with the thing that has delighted visitors to Colorado for decades: Snow!! In the Summer!! Shahada, our first-time hiker, thought this definitely beat 98 degrees in Denver!

After a brief friendly snowball fight, we continued up the valley to the lovely Lower Crystal Lake, the ruins of an old miner’s cabin, and the imposing presence of Father Dyer Peak.

After dinner that night, we once again heard the grating, rasping sound that had kept a few hikers awake the previous night. We organized an expedition to trace the sound to its source. Under the front deck, we found the culprit: a porcupine who found parts of the cabin quite tasty. Mystery solved, and earplugs firmly in place, we enjoyed a quieter night.

Sunday, Wendy showed us that high-tech wicking fabrics can be fashionable as well as functional.












After the final group photo, we headed down the trail with some hew friends, new experiences, and new perspectives. Thanks to our volunteers: Jo, Nicola, Steve, Elaine, and Stephanie. And thanks to our intrepid trailblazers: Shahada, Coleen, Wendy, Alison, Anne, TeHsing, Donna, Joyce, Ben and Barb.

We all had a great time on the first Live By Living cancer survivor and caregiver retreat!  Although the weekend weather forecast was somewhat worrisome, we started off under blue skies on Saturday.  The trail to the Froelicher hut heads straight up the hill, but our group was STRONG! And we didn’t try to race.  We had a lovely snack on the way up by an old ruined miner’s cabin, and arrived at the hut in good time.

After relaxing a bit and learning our way round the hut, we went downstairs to the Alpine Resource Center, a beautiful space that Tenth Mountain makes available to non-profit groups as part of its backcountry exploration program.  We explored the library there, and then settled in for some guided mindfulness training led by Sia Urroz, one of our volunteers.  Soon, it was time for some yummy appetizers, followed by lentil and spinach soup.  The culinary star of the evening was probably the Boston Cream Pie.  In between courses, we watched the sunset colors deepen on the peaks of the Mosquito Range, and got treated to a rainbow.

Sunday, we took a short but rewarding hike to Buckeye Lake, nestled in the cirque of Buckeye Gulch.

Wildflowers were still going strong here, including some star gentian, as well as a striking mystery flower with a long raceme of red flowers.

A few of us hiked up to the ridge above the lake for a view of the Holy Cross and the Sawatch Range.  All in all, a lovely day.

Monday, after a breakfast of peaches, blueberries and strawberries with yogurt and granola, we packed up and headed down the trail.  A brief rain shower on the way down dampened people’s clothes, but not their spirits.

Last Sunday, several of us hiked up the Straight Creek Trail. It’s kind of an unlikely place. You start just at the west portal of the Eisenhower Tunnel and hike north and east to the ridgetop above the tunnel and the boundary of Loveland ski area. Despite what you might think is a somewhat inauspicious start, you soon leave the sounds of the highway behind, and are instead soothed by the babbling of Straight Creek.





Straight Creek is one of the great wildflower hikes of Summit County, and we caught it right at, or perhaps a tad after, its peak. Everywhere you looked, there were incredible bouquets of a diverse array of flowers. (double click photos to enlarge)

It also harbors a lesson in possibility.





On the way up the trail, we stopped and talked about an essay that Terry Tempest Williams wrote (in her book Refuge) about birds that have rarely been sighted in Utah. Among birdwatchers, such birds, that may be definitively seen only once or twice in a fifty-year period, are called “accidentals.” (Another category of rarely sighted birds for which there is less documentation are known as “hypotheticals.” The terminology alone almost makes you want to become a birdwatcher.) She recounted a trio of sightings of American Flamingos in Utah, as well as a few other accidental species, including roseate spoonbills.






A little later, we got up high enough to see tons of Elephant’s Head flowers in full bloom. This is a flower that in itself stretches your concept of what is possible. A flower made up entirely of little pink or purple elephant’s heads, trunks and ears? Well, why not?  As remarkable as they are, Elephants’ head are often quite profuse in marshy areas and near streams, so much so that they can color entire meadows with a pink or purplish tint.


But then, there on the left, something that does not exist: a white Elephant’s Head. I’ve been on hundreds of hikes in the Colorado Rockies, and only in this place have I seen the white Elephant’s Head.


As Terry closed her essay:”How can hope be denied when there is always the possibility of an American flamingo or a roseate spoonbill floating down from the sky like pink rose petals?
“How can we rely solely on statistical evidence and percentages that would shackle our lives when red-necked grebes, bar-tailed godwits, and wandering tattlers come into our country?
“When Emily Dickinson writes, ‘Hope is the thing with feathers that perches in the soul,’ she reminds us, as the birds do, of the liberation and pragmatism of belief.”

And, I would append, as the White Elephant’s Head reminds us as well.

Wow, what a day for Live By Living’s first alpine survivor’s hike!  On July 24, nine of us hiked up to Blue Lake in the Indian Peaks Wilderness.

We started with a short reading from Aldo Leopold’s “A Sand County Almanac” about the fleeting masterpieces nature paints in the landscape.
When we arrived at the lake, after a good little hike, we first were drawn by the stunning mountains surrounding us in the cirque of Blue Lake:  Audubon, Paiute, Toll and Pawnee towered above us.  

Only after lunch, and a brief (!) dip in the lake by one of the more intrepid hikers, did we discover the nearby hillside replete with spellbinding wildflowers.  Huge clusters of

Paintbrush, Columbine, Chiming Bells, and Parry’s Primrose fairly covered the slope.

The fleeting beauty of wildflowers teaches us to live in the present. Fleeting though they may be, wildflower works of art return each year to give us wonder and delight. Suggesting another lesson for another time about the cycle of life.  Next week’s hike to Straight Creek will provide another opportunity to lose ourselves in the improbable beauty of such wonders as Elephant’s Head, Silky Phacelia, and more.  Join us!