By my count, not many.
Back in 1989 I was offered a Wilderness Ranger job with the Forest Service on the Lake Plateau in the Absaroka/Beartooth Wilderness. Throughout my youth I would have listed that right up there as my number one dream job. No fire fighter or secret agent spy stuff for me. Yet that same summer I was also offered to be a glaciology assistant on Mount Logan, in the Yukon. At 19,540 feet it is the highest point in Canada and I could get paid to go to one of the wildest amazing places on earth. Tough choices, eh?
Well I took the Logan job, drove the Alaska Highway non-stop consuming 7 cases of beer between three of us, spent 43 days straight in the same long johns and it's safe to say my life ended up quite different as a result. I spent the next 10 years in Canada, went on expeditions all over including another 6 to Logan, made a name for myself, became a writer and photographer, ad nauseum.
So for years I had considered that to be a life changing decision - to take the Yukon job over the Wilderness job in Montana. Well not so fast. Looking back, I had already made the transition to Canada to go to University, was climbing all the time, and beginning to dream of big trips to big places. Getting to Logan was just an extension of a path I already had wandered onto. Distilling it down and following the crumbs of life back toward the opening; the defining moment came in the winter of 1987.My University of Montana college buddy Rob Macal had taken the semester off to be a ski bum at Big Mountain. For some reason unknown to me (probably had something to do with a girl), Rob was back on campus and I randomly ran into him. As we caught up for the 5 minutes I had before class, Rob told me about this dude he met on the ski hill that. "does avalanche research and got a degree in outdoor stuff somewhere in western Canada." Uninspired as a physics student (this WAS during Regan's star wars insanity. Oh wait... still have it) and horrible at calculus and itchin' to spend more time in the mountains, I wandered over to the Mansfield Library and searched the college catalogues on microfiche to do some research on this western Canada Shangri La. This WAS before the internet existed outside a few military installations and google was something we did on nice spring days when the hippy chicks took their tops off to play hacky sack. I found the Outdoor Pursuits program at the University of Calgary. At the time there were only about three of these experiential ed programs around. Imagine an entire college degree in fun with some science like advanced physiology thrown in to keep you honest. Sadly, the Alberta government isn't much into liberal arts and the program no longer exists. Cutting to the chase, I applied, I got accepted, I went, I thrived, I lived, I loved, I mourned, I can't imagine any other life.
So looking back, it was that 5 minute random "good to run into you" moment that is one of the true life changers I can count on one hand. Thanks Rob. What does all of this have to do with Hunter and Pika? Well, it just shows that sometimes the biggest things in life start with the smallest encounters and decisions. Even the most mundane moments might make miracles (sorry for the corny alliteration). More succinctly, don't take anything for granted.
I'd never had a cat before (I can't say "own a cat" because I've since learned the proprietary rights run the other way) and didn't really consider myself a cat guy. So the unassuming moment I decided for no particular reason that we should finally get a cat–Nichole had been suggesting it for some time–was another of those precious and fleeting switches were everything changes.
Within days we had found Hunter and Pika. I can't imagine any other life. More on the "getting day" later.
No comments:
Post a Comment