(Re)Posturing in the Mountains

My adventures in mountainous British Columbia are drawing to a close, and the last few days here in Castlegar have been full of incredible experiences. I went fishing with my great friend (and all around outdoorsman) Ren on the Columbia River, where we caught a whitefish and tried to feed it to a beautiful bald eagle who was watching from a tree eighty feet up. For some reason, this bird wasn’t overly interested in what Ren considered to be the biggest whitefish he had ever seen (big words coming from a West Coast fisherman), so we trolled back over to pick it up and try again. The second flinging of the fish attracted the attention of a second bald eagle, circling far above. This resulted in an amazing National Geographic style battle between the two, claws out, screeches at full blast. The second bird won, and flew off with her prize, proving that you have to be on the ball to get your dinner.

I also spent some time in the Syringa Park, scouting out a baby bear which was alleged to be eighty feed up a tree somewhere nearby (run up there by another hikers two dogs). We never found the bear, but the viewpoints were incredible. We’re heading back out there today, to find some waterfalls and (hopefully) the natural stone waterside that we heard about from friends.

I don’t normally get into specific discussions about health on my blog, however, I recently had an experience that reshaped my perspective about how we carry ourselves through the world. A quick visit to my physiotherapist (the excellent Christy Nichols, of Kootenay Athletic Therapy) reminded me that posture connects deeply to how we experience the world (and, as a result, how we affect those around us). As someone who is interested in preserving my own health as wholly as that of the natural world, I was fully reminded that physical literacy is as important as any other. I hope to be hiking through these forests well into my nineties, and (as with anything worth keeping) that requires, time, attention, and effort. Worth it on every count.

Well, that’s it for me. Time to find some waterfalls.

Thanks for listening,
LB

This entry was posted on Wednesday, August 1st, 2012 at 5:09 pm and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.