"Wake up and smell the Nescafe"--(Caballo Blanco Part 3)

Jay & Caballo in Batopilas

Perhaps it's the fact that I did come down with the flu last week and I'm STILL not over it... but I can't seem to motivate to finish my Caballo story (part 1, part 2). ... I've been cooped up with sick people for 10 days now. I need sun and healing.  Please. Sun & healing.

However, I can't let it go completely, so here's the mediocre wrap up:

• We descend to Batopilas and never find the goat herder. 50+ miles in 3 days, complete!
• We hang out there for 2 or 3 days because the bus out of town only comes a couple times a week.Yummy food, relaxation, Tecate, Nescafe (the stuff is everywhere in mountains of Mexico. Caballo's phrase, "Wake up and smell the Nescafe..." You have to load it with cream and sugar and think of it as a different drink altogether.)  
• Batopilas is super interesting--an old mining town from the 17th century. Oldest hydroplant in north america? I think so. Incredibly remote.
• Finally we decide to hitchhike out. We catch a ride on the scariest road ever in the back of a bread truck. I think we took turns riding up front because I don't remember being in a windowless vehicle-- it's a 5+ hour trip.

This quick video of motorcycles driving down to Batopilas will give you the idea (yikes!):

• Spend a night in Creel at a hostel. The next day, I have to ask for money to get Odin on the train to get back to my town in the south...some kind tourists offer. Jay & Caballo already headed north to Chihuahua.

• I get THE WORST food poisoning within 20 minutes of eating chile rellenos at the train stop in Divisadero. OUCH. Sick for 5 days. I mean seriously sick. I probably still have parasites.

And so concludes my brush with the legendary Caballo Blanco. I feel honored to have tagged along on the best hike of my life with this inspiring, unique, kind man. May he rest in peace.

now please: SUN and HEALING!

Run Free. Caballo Blanco, Part 2

If I were to be remembered for anything at all, I would want that to be that I am/was authentic. Run Free!  --Micah True

Here is a memorial to Caballo written by the author of Born to Run. (Christopher McDougall)

Finally, I am getting to Part 2! If you missed part one, here it is. 

Day Two: about 8 miles. We set out after breakfast at Mama Tita's. Our 'easy' day didn't feel easy because it was straight up a steep trail and oh, how my feet ached.*  Caballo told so many stories but I just can't pull them out of my dusty brain files. I wrote down a list of notes in my journal (things like: El Pelón, and Talise: robbed by a kid with a rock, and another: Presidente offering weed to caballo). My 28 year old mind was positive that I'd remember the references--ha!  Some worked, some didn't.

Afternoon downpours during the summer in the canyons brightened the already lush landscape and left rainbows spanning the skies. It began to rain as we climbed up toward Los Alisos, but it was nothing traumatic. In fact, I think it felt good--after all, it was August and the temperature was in the high 90s...HOT & humid.

Our destination, Los Alisos, is a homestead up the other side of the Urique Canyon. The land is owned by the same couple who owns El Paraiso, but another family caretakes the property. We slept on the floor of a small structure, I used my flat bed sheet because my sleeping bag had been stolen from my truck when I lived in Hermosillo. The weather was so warm, it didn't matter. I'd been camping like that for almost a year.  We were given generous hospitality from the kind family. Their home was humble yet immaculate, the dirt floors swept to perfection. 

Los Alisos. (I wish I had decent camera with me...or took more photos)

In the early morning,  mist  settled in the coffee grove and hovered magically over the cornfield. Vibrant crops and purple flowers were all around. We drank strong cowboy style café tostada (homegrown coffee beans roasted over a fire on a an old tractor disc that's pounded into a wok-like shape), ate something, and then set off for our toughest day:

Day 3: 25+ miles up, up, up and then down down down into the Batopilas Canyon. 

We were spread out on the trail as the sun beat down on the most exposed section of our ascent. Caballo led the way followed by Jay then Odin and me. You forgot O-dog was there, didn't you? . Caballo sang a tune, "Odin is a good dog...." Odin ran back and forth between me and Jay--keeping the pack together. 

A happy O-dog (before The Incident)

Caballo told stories about getting off trail and inadvertantly wandering onto marijuana crops and being faced with machine guns-- I can't remember if this happened to him or other people-- but the take-home message was that you must have a guide when hiking between Urique and Batopilas. 

As we descended into Batopilas canyon, we saw a man with a pack of goats and herding dog far below us. Odin took off.  The next thing we could see was the herd dog and my sweet dog Odin running together after a baby goat and then we heard screams echoing through the canyon. Yes. they killed a baby goat! The herding dog had turned on his own goats! We were too far away to get there quickly and by the time we descended, Odin found us, but there was no sign of the herder. I felt terrible! Embarassed. Horrified. Caballo felt awful too and said that we could find out who he was in Batopilas and pay him for the goat. Yes, we must find him.

To be continued (again)...**
Here is a bit of the endurance trail running advice that Caballo gave McDougall in Born to Run:

"Don’t fight the trail. Take what it gives you,” he began. “Lesson two – think easy, light, smooth and fast. You start with easy, because if that’s all you get, that’s not so bad. Then work on light. Make it effortless, like you don’t [care] how high the hill is or how far you’ve got to go.
“When you’ve practiced that so long that you forget you’re practicing, you work on making it smooooooth. You won’t have to worry about the last one – you get those three, and you’ll be fast.”

Next up:  We spend a few days in Batopilas, catch a ride up the scariest road ever in the back of a bread truck, and I contract the worst food poisoning EVER.

Until then...run free.
xo


*Urique is the deepest canyon in North America, by the way.
**I'm being too wordy, I know...but I just want to get most of it down! And I can't seem to find a large enough block of time to write. All of the males in my house were sick with fevers this week and while I seem to have avoided the illness, I haven't exactly had much 'free' time. (I did manage to actually run this week, so it couldn't have been that bad..)

Top image credit. 

Run Free! A tribute to Caballo Blanco Part 1

Caballo Blanco & Odin taking a quick break on Day 3.

Micah True, also known as Caballo Blanco, died at age 58 last week while out for a run in the Gila Wilderness of New Mexico. He was recently made somewhat famous by Christopher McDougall's book Born To Run.*

Blessed with some serious good luck, I  experienced the most incredible hike of my life in la Barranca del Cobre (Copper Canyon) in Mexico with this amazing man.

El Paraiso del Oso

It was back in the year 2000 and I was living at a remote lodge--El Paraiso del Oso in Cerocahui, Chihuahua, Mexico. By remote I mean that to get there you take a 6 hour train ride from Los Mochis (in the south) or Chihuauhua in the north, get off in Bahuichivo, then hitch-hike down a dirt road or meet the hotel van for ride to Cerocahui.** At the time, Cerocahui was  completely "off the grid". The town had a generator that ran for some hours each evening-- but that's it. Being a a mile or so out of town, El Paraiso was even off of the Cerocahui grid. There were solar panels for the refrigerators and there was also a generator that ran once in a while.

The owner, Doug, paid me a stipend to be a resident English speaker during the summer off-season when he was away from the lodge.  I assisted as a  guide on horse-packing and backpacking trips with mainly European tourists into the Urique Canyon. (Bonus: I also learned Mexican-mountain-style Spanish and got to hike with my dog, Odin, every day in the wilderness basically following butterflies and bouldering. One time I even found the coolest natural rock water slide tucked in between the madrones and pines that was about 100 feet long..

but I digress....
One August night, Caballo Blanco and his friend, Jay showed up at El Paraiso. Caballo lived in the Copper Canyon every winter and ran hundreds of miles through the mountains (which is how he got the name Caballo Blanco).  The native Tarahumara also run hundreds of miles through these mountains. That's just what they do. To subsist, Caballo guided tourists through the canyons--but not just any tourists, he told me. No whiners.

Caballo and his friend were embarking on a 3 day, 50 mile hike into the Urique Canyon, back up the other side and then down into Batopilas canyon. Caballo suggested that I join them, and Doug (who knew him) said to go for it, so I did. The next morning, I headed out with  a couple of peanut butter sandwiches, a water bottle, my Teva sandals, a back-up crappy pair of low-hikers and socks, a Ridge Rest foam pad and an old flat sheet for sleeping, a sun hat and some sort of camera. Maybe I had an extra shirt and pair of long pants?  No joke, that's all.  That's just how I roll. (Ahem....or used to....before kids. Oh, how I miss feeling that free...)

The first day we hiked 23+ miles into the Urique canyon, first climbing 1600 feet in elevation and then descending 6000 feet through pine forest and down into lush subtropical land with macaws and mango trees. My Teva straps blew out in the mud on the way down, so I switched to the really old, cheap hiking shoes. We cooled off in swimming holes and Caballo  taught me how to run efficiently down hill through the trails.

About seven hours later we were in the town of Urique and found a  room to share at the Hotel Canon Urique followed by dinner and Tecate at Mama Tita's. We sat in the picturesque courtyard of Tita's home and restaurant while she whipped up fresh salsa, frijoles and other deliciousness. That night, I lay in bed with my legs up the wall-- my feet swollen and throbbing.

To be continued....
Next up: We head out for an easy, 8 mile day--although straight up. ...and then Odin takes out a baby goat.

* Born to Run is such a good book, by the way. I don't think you have to love running to like it. In fact, Jason despised running until he read the book.
**When I moved there, I actually drove in from the north-- but I wouldn't advise it (think flash floods, winding, dirt mountain roads and drug cartels)! That's a story for another time.

Outside, please.

Sleepy, rainy days

Little boys, trucks and sand.

open land of green, bumpy grass to ride

glider bikes, scooters and even a kite.

wind and skies painted with patterns of clouds

daffodils up, lilacs pending

laughter brings lightness.

Tired boy admires bobcat. (his finger was shut in his brother's door an hour earlier!)

Finn has a new best buddy. So cute!

Happy 'just enough' Spring.

Yesterday marked the spring equinox and we barely even had a winter! I know that I've been absent from my blog lately... so here are just a couple of things I've been thinking about and learning:

1.  I took another one of Christa's Franklin method classes--this time it was about the jaw and neck. I always learn so much from her about how my body works and can apply it directly to my yoga teaching. I had a crazy knot in my shoulder that went away the morning after taking her class.  Awesome.

But the pivotal breakthough I had wasn't even about my anatomy--
it was the idea of using 'just enough effort' in everything I do. This has always made complete sense to me with my body--economy of movement. You don't want to expend any extra energy by clenching your fists while you run or your jaw while you flow through a vinyasa yoga class, right?

I've always had it set in my head (from years of everyone telling me that trying hard is what matters), that if I try hard enough, I can do it.

First of all... that's just not true. But because it usually worked for me it led me to believe that trying even harder must be better. This really killed me with teaching at a charter school because I could ALWAYS work harder. I could always be BETTER, right? When really... I just need to be 'good enough' for what I want to achieve-- which might be different from day to day.  And relaxing-- rather than always pushing to be better will allow me to be 'better' anyway-- same with parenting.
Expending 'just enough' energy makes more sense.

2.  I'm on a new path for healing. I have been dealing with horrible allergies since I was eight years old. Insomnia and stress would flare up throughout the years depending on my life circumstances. For the past 6 years I've been getting worse with the allergies and insomnia. I attributed it first to my job, and then to the death of my mom, new baby, etc... But there's always something and even though I've tried every nutritional plan, supplement and holistic therapy possible, I can't seem to get better. I reached a breaking point.
I found this article and the doctor that wrote it. I'm going to get a hair test for heavy metals and it will probably show that I am toxic. Her plan is more affordable than anything else I've ever done and it makes so much sense. The catch is that it could take a couple of years to heal my adrenals (and in that process let go of the heavy metals). Yikes. But completely worth it if I can feel like myself again... I've been feeling rather hopeless about it lately...

Just one more thing...
3. Speaking of heavy metals, I really love Desi's recipe for natural deodorant. I've always known that most make-up is not made of good stuff, but it really hit home when I received the county's trash instructions and they had cosmetics on the "toxic, not to be thrown out with the normal trash" list. Yikes! So, I'm on a search for natural beauty products that work well.

 If you have any recipes or recommendations please let me know...

Thanks for listening... sorry so long!
xo

Please send your love, strength & prayers

Here is my amazingly strong & beautiful cousin and her husband of almost 24 years (look how in love they are!). This photo was taken 10 days before he was diagnosed with a stage IV glioblastoma (a.k.a.:a brain tumor).

It's been a year and a half that he's been fighting back. Chemo, radiation, 2 surgeries, alternative therapies, nutritional therapy, he's done it all.... and now he's on hospice. They have two boys--ages 13 and 7. I was 13 when my mom was first diagnosed with cancer-- it's such a mixed-up, tender age.

Sometimes it's so hard to make sense of life & suffering, isn't it?

Would you mind sending some love & strength their way?

xo

Winter views & blues

Winter has been almost nonexistent around here. Last year  (our first winter living back up in the mountains) was a crazy (HUGE) snow year with powder day after powder day that I missed while caring for newborn Bodhi. I didn't mind a bit-- I was too busy (and sleep deprived) to even think about i.

This season I bought some new ski gear and was eager  to get out there. Alas, the weather gods didn't cooperate. I still try to make it up to the mountain once a week to enjoy some solitude and silence on the slopes. (Even if it's only for a couple of runs!) 

These are some of the Intagram photos I've been taking (@colleentara).

Can't you just hear the silence?

Lately....I'm exhausted most of the time from lack of sleep (yes, little B is still up 2+ times a night!) and I've been feeling extra emotional about family members battling cancer. I think part of the blues I'm feeling is hormonal. But I'm also like a a fine-tuned antenna-- picking up energy from people and situations around me constantly. I have to find a consistent way to release some of it instead of absorbing it all like a saturated sponge. I feel things deeply, and I'm grateful for that sensitivity... but sometimes it can be overwhelming.

In fact, I think I'll head up to ski tomorrow and let the tall trees absorb it for me.