Micronut's Last Post: Thanks ST. See yall in the hills.

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micronut

Trad climber

Fresno/Clovis, ca

Topic Author's Original Post - May 21, 2019 - 02:26pm PT

I just read Roadie's short story (posted below) and decided right then and there to make that the last thing I read on ST. It was beautiful and felt so fitting for the passing of this place. I know the Taco still has a few days before the axe drops, but I want the sweet flavor of that post to be the last thing I read here.

Thanks for a lot of years stoke, stories and friendships grown online and in real flesh and blood. Its been fun writing trip reports and sharpening my punters skills at writing here through this forum. Yall have been a great audience and I'll always look back fondly on this place.

See you out in the hills,

Micronut, Out.

---------------------------------

The Spot

The cool air of morning lingers here between long shadows fanning lazily across the dunes and rocks that surround my spot. There is an elusive quality to the light in the hours of early morning, a softness plays over the landscape like an overture to the day. The dog lounges, sprawled over the sand, beneath the skeletal frame of a dyeing juniper. Cliffs rise to the east and west, bordering the ancient geological fault that hems the horizon.

There is nothing special about this spot- its just another of the countless nooks and crannies that speckle the desert, or rather, this spot is special only to me. For the past six years this has been the place where I park my van, the place where I live.

Sometimes on rest days, like today, I'll spend hours just watching the shadows move over the dunes.

A few hundred yards from here stands a tower, a nondescript clump of eroding rock and mud. Like the space around it, its special only to me. I climbed it alone on my fortieth birthday. I can't tell you its name because it doesn't have one. You won't find it in any guidebook because I've never reported it to anyone. And, to be honest, I don't want you here. Go find your own spot.

Some mornings, when the weather is nice, my friend June will walk by. She's a river guide-retired but still walks eight miles a day, when the weather is nice that is. I'll see her coming, set out some lawn chairs and put on a pot of coffee. Together we'll sit, take in the light and talk. She's not my girlfriend or anything. She's about seventy-years-old. Her face has as many lines as the topo maps that describe the landscape. Still, I think she's pretty.

"The world's filling up," June said the other day. A parade of Jeepers had just gone by to practice driving up this hill that's a mile down the road. One tossed an empty beer can out the window as he passed. "I'm glad I won't be around much longer." She said this with conviction. After the dust cleared I picked up the can. Sometimes I envy her.

On rest days, like this one, I'll sometimes gather some juniper twigs and make a fire, after the shadows have completed their circuit and stretch to the east.

When the coals are right, I'll wrap a potato in foil and throw a steak on the grill. This makes the dog happy because she knows that soon she'll be getting a bone. I do a pretty bad job of cutting the meat from the bone and that makes her happy too.

Keeping the dog happy is a priority, she has important work to do. Part of her job is to warn away strangers, like the Jeepers, and to welcome friends, like June. Another part of her job, when the nights are cold, like they have been, is to keep me warm. A kind of biological heating unit. The most important job the dog has is to keep me honest. To keep me from taking myself and the world too seriously. She's good at this. She does it by reminding me that throwing the stick is just as important as the hunt for Osama bin Laden, that walking to the creek isn't that different than going to that peace rally this afternoon. In all honesty, I'd rather go swimming too.

It takes twenty minutes to drive from downtown to my spot. From here its three and a half hours to Standing Rock, if the road's not washed out, an hour-twenty to Indian Creek, if the wind is right. But a lot of days, like today for instance, I'd rather just stay here and throw the stick or talk to June.

I got home late last night. I'd spent the day out on the White Rim, climbing some tower or other. I was tired from the endless jostling dished out by that relentless and lousy road. My kidneys hurt and I just wanted to go to bed.

I noticed something different when I turned onto the road that leads to my spot. Somebody from the county had been here to put up a sign. The sign said- NO CAMPING. I got out of the van and threw the sign into the wash, a small but futile act of resistance.

Like June said, the world is filling up. And with it, I guess, so are the rulebooks.

I used to have a spot in Nevada. That was a long time ago. Then someone decided to move Las Vegas there, so I came here. Now I find myself thinking about windy Wyoming, After that I guess Alaska, or maybe The Yukon. A long series of tactical retreats, like Chief Joseph and the Nes Perce, hopeless in the end. Doomed.

Still, it'll be a long time before that empty corner of the world fills up. Like June, I'm glad I won't be around that long.

Thank You, Steve Seats
Moab, Utah, 2003

climber

Just livin' the dream

May 21, 2019 - 03:27pm PT

Ciao, Scott.

Thanks for all the humorous TRs and awesome posts over the years.

Happy climbing!

Trump

climber

May 21, 2019 - 06:20pm PT

I’ll share with you that I enjoyed that too, though you won’t be reading my reply. Still though, I love the optimism of thinking that the world will survive until it fills up, or that maybe my post will matter to you.

Aeriq

Sport climber

100-year Visitor

May 21, 2019 - 07:56pm PT

See you on the page! Nudge, nudge...

Delhi Dog

climber

Good Question...

May 21, 2019 - 08:07pm PT

Well you probably aren't going to read this since Roadie's was the last thing you were going to read...butt in the off chance you do...

Thanks for all the positive contributions you've made over the years. Always enjoyed your energy and way with words here on ST. You've given me a chance to think deeply about many things and for that I am appreciative.

Not sure about the FB thing. While I have an "account" I never really go there and am still hoping for an alternative. Either way it'd be great to share a rope or some fishing one of these days. Maybe our paths will cross at some point.
I'm in Truckee when I'm knott here in Delhi:-)

Cheers