A Skier (Hiker, Paddler, etc.) Looks At Forty
Posted by Zach Johns on Wednesday, January 16, 2013 Under: Random thoughts
By “dressed for the occasion” I mean wearing a fleece hat on top of a wool hat, fleece mittens, Gore-Tex mittens, two polypropylene tops, a polyester t-shirt, fleece jacket, down vest. Gore-Tex jacket, polypropylene long underwear bottoms, fleece pants, nylon wind pants, wool socks and LaCrosse boots rated to -100F.
Yes, I was camping. It would be -20F by morning.
It wasn’t just the new year that I was celebrating, however. In just over 24 hours I would reach my fortieth birthday. Yes, forty - that magical age of “Holy crap - I’m FORTY!!!” But at the time I was just standing there. Staring at the fire. Thinking.
I've found that I do a lot of thinking when I'm in the woods. Much of what I do is done alone. In silence. It gives me time to really reflect.
Granted, I do a ton of these activities with my kids, but even then there is a lot of quiet time. Sometimes I get in the mode I call “trail zombie.” It's where I hike in complete silence and get in this zone of almost numbness to the outside world - which is kind of sad because being out experiencing the natural world is a big part of what makes it great.
But it happens. It's usually at the end of the day when I might be cold and tired and have a couple more miles to get to the trailhead or campsite and I just plod on in silence. But only outwardly I am silent. Inside, my brain is going into overdrive with profound thoughts.
I don't know if it's all the oxygen that's being pumped to my brain or what, but it seems like whether I'm hiking or biking or inline skating or simply sitting on the chairlift or by the campfire, my brain just goes crazy. I sometimes think that if I always carried a pencil and notebook in my backpack I could be a millionaire with the ideas that come out of my brain. But I don’t.
So as I sat there on the eve of 2013, the eve of my 40th birthday, my mind was racing as always. So in celebration of my forty years on this planet, I thought I’d share with you a few of those pearls of wisdom that have ran across my brain during quiet times in the woods (random thoughts, really).
Just humor me - I’m old! First, I’ll just give you a bit of trivia. Forty years ago I was born and named after a movie character. Can you guess the name of the movie? The answer will be at the end of this column.
Now for some deep thoughts from a forty-year-old.
- If you’re ever feeling kind of bummed, go out and find a chickadee. I’ve never seen a depressed one. They’re the happiest, sassiest little bird out there, and I guarantee that watching one will put a smile on your face!
- To heck with fancy perfumes, the best thing a girl can smell like is a combination of campfire smoke, bug spray and sunscreen - maybe with a touch of balsam sap thrown in for good measure!
- If I could only ski one type of run for the rest of my life, I’d take a slushy mogul run on a fifty degree day.
- I like paddling rivers much more than lakes. There are new things to see around every bend. The current is a helpful friend and there is nothing more frustrating than paddling a huge lake into a strong wind.
- I love seeing moose on the trail, but I like telling the stories of seeing them even better! (Once I’m safely out of the way!)
- I like oatmeal on the trail - once a year. Then I get sick of it.
- Lake Superior is the center of the universe.
- I like the sound of rain on my tent fly but thunder scares the crap outta me!
- Catching a fish or shooting a deer is great, but watching your kid catch a fish or shoot a deer is hyper-awesome!
- Our forefathers who set aside the parks and forests are among the wisest of the wise.
- On one hand, I wish everyone in the world could experience wilderness. On the other, it’s ok if everyone just gets inspired by reading my stories and seeing my pictures. Otherwise, it would get too crowded.
- I love paddling the BWCA, but the last ten or so trips I have made there have been on foot. The last seven in winter - I wonder what that means?
- A bald eagle sitting in a stately white pine - yeah…
- I can stare at maps all day. Paper maps. Preferably topo. Not that internet satellite stuff!
- Some people like to eat like kings when camping. Not me. I prefer to live on jerky and ClifBars for a few days. Then when you get home - man, that’s the greatest pizza you’ve ever tasted! And cold milk!?! Mind-blowingly delicious!
- Opening a book at home that smells like campfire and has a strip of birch bark for a book mark - reminds you to put it away until the weekend. Nothing like reading by the light of a headlamp in front of a fire!
- Paddling close to a beaver or a heron and they accept you, just floating there, as a natural part of the river community. Pretty cool.
- If you haven’t ridden a bike in a while, do it. Straddle a two-wheeler and hit a trail with the kids. You’ll feel like a kid again, too!
- As much as I appreciate new school skiing and all the flipping and spinning tricks that come with it, nothing screams, “YEAH!!” like a big ol’ spread eagle, daffy or backscratcher.
- As far a music goes, I prefer wolves howling, loons calling and chickadees singing. (Yeah, I really like chickadees!)
- I am very satisfied with being a novice whitewater paddler. I love rapids, but huge water is scary. I’ll watch other people paddle big water all day, though.
- As I have gotten older and had kids, protecting our environment, especially wilderness, has become much more important to me.
- My favorite campsites are near noisy water. Waterfalls, rapids and Lake Superior make the best music to fall asleep to.
- Green is the prettiest color in the world followed by “forest service brown.”
- I don’t understand litter bugs. Especially in the backcountry.
- If I won the lottery I would buy a really nice tent to live in.
- Get your kids out in the woods as much as you can. They might not thank you now, but they probably will when they get in their 30s.
- If it snows a bunch you had better be skiing. Powder days are few and far between.
- You don’t know quiet until you’ve slept in a quinzhee.
- One of the best things about going to Alaska is flying over the Canadian wilderness. For the longest time you can stare down at mountains, forests, rivers, and it just goes forever!
- Oh, and there’s ALASKA!
- Surfing a standing wave in a kayak is one of the most thrilling things you can do.
- There’s no excuse for not climbing mountains during peak fall leaf season. None.
- A bed of pine needles baking in the sun smells soooo good! Especially in late winter.
- There really should be more wild buffalo.
- I don’t really like “people who ski.” I love “skiers.”
- Even though I don’t do either, I really respect surfers and rock climbers.
- Getting lost is a privilege.
- Teddy Roosevelt was a real-life superhero.
- Spend as much time outdoors as you can. You’ll never be sorry you did.
By the way, the secret to my first name - Forty years ago I was named after a movie character named “Zachary Bass.”
The movie: A MAN IN THE WILDERNESS. Kinda weird, huh?
In : Random thoughts
Tags: camping hiking skiing "teddy roosevelt" wild wilderness zachary bass
Zach Johns is an alpine skier, backpacker, paddler and all-around nature lover who lives on Minnesota‘s Iron Range. Originally from Osceola, Wis., Johns attended the University of Minnesota-Duluth so he could ski every day and be close to the trails of his beloved North Shore. There, he earned a degree in Communication and was editor of the student newspaper. However, the real education he gained at UMD was in honing his outdoor skills. He took courses in subjects such as backpacking, winter camping, rock climbing and canoe tripping. By the time he graduated, that was all he wanted to do. In January of 1997, he moved to the Range where he met a group of die-hard skiers dedicated to making turns at Giants Ridge every single day of the winter (when they weren’t out skiing the big mountains of the west.) Throughout the late nineties he built a very impressive ski resume, taking several trips to Utah, Montana, Wyoming, California, British Columbia and Alaska. During the off-season, he took to the hiking trails. In 1997, he hiked the entire Superior Hiking Trail during the single season (what had been completed until that time) and in following years, took trips to Yosemite, Glacier and the Grand Canyon. He also made two attempts to climb King’s Peak, the highest mountain in Utah, but failed to summit both times. In 1999, he attempted the infamous 43-mile Kekekabic Trail through the heart of the BWCA and limped out after only ten miles with a hernia. He did finally complete the Kek in 2005, during one of the hottest weeks on record. Besides hiking, he also continued dabbling with paddling, making several canoe trips to the BWCA and became an enthusiastic (yet very novice) whitewater kayaker. He is now a father of two sons, Nick and Jackson, who accompany their father on nearly all his adventures. Both were skiing fairly soon after they could stand and from 2006-2011, the three hiked in every state park in Minnesota, 195 miles of hiking in 65 parks. Since becoming a dad, Johns has suddenly realized that you can’t just be out there skiing, hiking, paddling, etc. without also working to protect the very things you love. With that in mind, he founded an adventure club at work to get co-workers outside who might not otherwise be inspired to go. The club has gone on hiking, paddling, winter camping and cycling trips and annually go on a trash pick-up hike to celebrate Earth Day. He believes that once you get people out into beautiful wild places, the more likely they will be to protect them. He has also done a lot of volunteer work for the Superior Hiking Trail Association including adopting a backcountry campsite which he and the boys maintain twice a year. It is of extreme importance, he believes, to introduce children to the outdoors early. Not only is it good for them, but they will be the ones protecting these places once we are gone. Future plans? There are a few local goals to check-off including hiking the Border Route Trail in the BWCA and Isle Royale. Mostly, it’s just to take the boys hiking and camping in more of our national parks, skiing the big western mountains, and more of their usual seasonal cycle: Giants Ridge in the winter, Superior’s North Shore in the spring, South Shore in the summer and back to the North Shore in the fall.
