Soarpheat
Chris McEachron Joined: April 18th 2007
Logged in: March 9th 2011
Logged in: March 9th 2011
This TravelBlog will contain accounts of my adventures, expeditions, and mishaps as I travel around the globe guiding. Read on, and enjoy.
-Chris
Travel Blog Posts
Try not. Do or do not. There is no try. -Yoda Wise words indeed. Welcome back faithful reader to the great mystery/science fiction/comedy/broadway musical that is my life. Yes, we've laughed and cried together, waited impatiently for the next blog and been inndated by whimsical nonsence, we've won awards and had to hide from the paparazzi, we've... Well, that's not really true. But maybe you've enjoyed it nonetheless. In the classic form of presentations (note, if you will, that for the purposes of this sentence I'm pronouncing that word "preeeeeeeeeeeeeezintashins" and imagining myself wearing a monacle - not 100% sure why), I plan on telling you what I'm going to tell you, then telling you, then telling you what I just told you. Shall we begin? Of course we... shall. What I'm going to tell you: ... read more
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The first question which you will ask and which I must try to answer is this, "What is the use of climbing Mount Everest?" and my answer must at once be, "It is no use." There is not the slightest prospect of any gain whatsoever. Oh, we may learn a little about the behavior of the human body at high altitudes, and possibly medical men may turn our observation to some account for the purposes of aviation. But otherwise nothing will come of it. We shall not bring back a single bit of gold or silver, not a gem, nor any coal or iron. We shall not find a single foot of earth that can be planted with crops to raise food. It's no use. So, if you cannot understand that there is something in man ... read more
Sierra as a puppy
After you've done a thing the same way for two years, look it over carefully. After five years, look at it with suspicion. And after ten years, throw it away and start all over. ~Alfred Edward Perlman, New York Times, 3 July 1958 Welcome back Constant Readers! Some of you might have thought me dead. I am not. Some of you might have thought me injured. I am not. Some of you might have thought me stupid and lazy. This, in fact, I am. There can be no excuse for my long absence, but what I can say is that the past two years have been one of enormous change and growth for me, and that the next two look to be even greater. When I last left you (and I had to go back and ... read more
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True stability results when presumed order and presumed disorder are balanced. A truly stable system expects the unexpected, is prepared to be disrupted, waits to be transformed. -Tom Robbins Well, faithful readers, I'm back. As always, I sincerely apologize for the long delay, but I assure you that this entry will be worth the wait. You see, as my constant companions through my trials, tribulations, and totally awesome experiences (alliteration notwithstanding), I feel as though I have come to know you nearly as well as I hope that you know me. As such, my next announcement may come as somewhat of a shock to many of you. If you're not sitting down, maybe you should be... I have signed a 12-month lease in suburban Leesburg Virginia with a full on apartment complex, and I an hourly ... read more
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Ahh... it seems that the illusive blogger Soarpheat is poised and ready to once again enlighten the universe with the goings ons and comings arounds of the tiny but insightfully unique world that is my crazy life. Whew! That sentence took some force to put out, but now that it is there, there it will stay. Thanks to the wonder that is the internet of course. So, where did I leave off ages ago? I believe that I was writing from Whitehorse, Yukon, having just finished my last NOLS course. Right now, I am at the NOLS twig in Ensenada, preparing to go back into the field tomorrow. However, as always, many things have occurred betwixt (i absolutely love that word, even though I think that it might not even be real...). For starters, I ... read more
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There’s a land where the mountains are nameless, And the rivers all run God knows where; There are lives that are erring and aimless, And deaths that just hang by a hair; There are hardships that nobody reckons; There are valleys unpeopled and still; There’s a land — oh, it beckons and beckons, And I want to go back — and I will. -Robert Service, from Spell of the Yukon Well Faithful Reader, I have returned from yet another excursion into the great wild yonder, and while my written recounting of the events that have unfolded will in all liklihood be quite similar other such entries, I do think that my pictures will be quite neat and I even have a video that I'm about 40% sure I can figure out how to attach. So if ... read more
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No more of parental rules! We're heading for the snow! Good riddance to those grown up ghouls! We're leaving! Yukon Ho! - Bill Watterson Hello everybody, Soarpheat here and once again, I've decided that the goings-ons of my life were interesting enough that someone other than me might be interested in them. As in like times past, that means that I am continuing in my trend of proudly putting many details of my life in a public forum and thinking that somebody somewhere might find them. I kind of sound like a weirdo when I put it that way. As is hopefully obvious by the location I listed, I'm currently chilling out in the Yukon Territory of Canada, the town of Whitehorse to be more specific. Now you may be asking yourself, "Self, why is he ... read more
Pro kayaker in training
The true way to render ourselves happy is to love our work and find in it our pleasure. -Francoise de Motteville Well, believe it or not faithful readers, Soarpheat, AKA Chris McEachron for the first time ever has a full time 9 to 5 job. Pretty crazy huh? Anywho, I'll get to that shortly. When I last left you, I believe I was about to head off into the wild blue (hot) yonder back in Baja. It was a really cool course actually. My students were a hoot, a lot of fun and a pretty highly functioning group. My co-instructors were great as well, I had a lot of fun and learned a bunch from both of them. One of my co-instructors was a guy named John, and this was actually the second time in a ... read more
The moments of the past do not remain still; they retain in our memory the motion which drew them towards the future, towards a future which has itself become the past, and draw us on in their train. -Marcel Proust Wow, quite a bit of time has passed since I last posted a blog. For all of you who read it regularly and keep up to date, I apologize, and while I’d like to promise all of you persistant readers that such a horrendous lapse will never again occur, the best I can do is to tell you that I will try slightly harder to keep writing in it and that I do respond to criticism so feel free to let me know in any way that you deem fit that too much time has passed ... read more
What, pray tell, would I buy? There is nothing out here that is not free for the asking. Can you buy a sunrise? Is there a price to the exhilaration we feel from the thunderstorm that rages outside? Nature is the truest democracy, and not the richest man in the world is served a grander sunset than the beggar. Michael Furtman Buenas dias todos! As some of you might now, I'm still in Baja. It's a tough life. My seminar went great. I learned quite a bit. I am now a very comfortable kayaker in 90% of doable conditions, and I have the basics of both surfing and rolling. It was pretty dang fun too. One of my instructors was a guy named Matt who used to be a NOLS instructor but for the past ... read more
