Hiking My Feelings
Explore Landscapes #6
I just came back from a wonderful weekend backpacking in Joshua Tree National Park. It was lovely to head out into the wilderness, be immersed in nature, and off-grid.
Lost Horse Mine, Joshua Tree National Park
Last weekend I had the pleasure of volunteering on a JTNPA backpacking trip with the amazing Hiking My Feelings® team of Sydney and Barry Williams. We hiked 22 miles (over 3 days and 2 nights) across the beautiful wilderness of the Mojave Desert in Joshua Tree National Park.
Sydney founded Hiking My Feelings® to help others tap into the mind-body connection and healing power of nature that helped kick her self-limiting beliefs and type 2 diabetes into remission. Every experience they facilitate helps their growing community build confidence, compassion, and resilience, unearthing a connection to themselves, each other, and the planet.
The weekend was challenging (as the temperatures remain high in SoCal) and required some careful navigation at times across washed-out terrain (thanks to the recent rains), but thoroughly rewarding. It featured an abundance of desert flora, such as paper-bag bushes, Mojave lupine, and coyote melons, and fauna, such as jackrabbits, chuckwallas, and desert tortoises.
Sleeping out under the stars was fantastic, with overnight temperatures still in the 60’s. We had a clear sky both nights and could enjoy viewing the Milky Way arcing across the sky.
Hiking My Feelings® Retreat in Joshua Tree National Park
I can highly recommend attending one of their events, such as the upcoming Camping and Hiking: Tending to your Inner Wilderness event being held in Joshua Tree National Park November 17th-19th, 2023.
You can read more about Sydney and Hiking My Feelings on Substack - and check out the Wellness in the Wilderness podcast.
Dark Sky Workshops
In September, I led a Dark Sky Workshop in JT for a group of 5 students, one of whom, Julia Carmel writes about travel and West Coast experiences for the Los Angeles Times. Julia wrote a lovely article that was published earlier this week - click here to read the article.
If you’d like to learn how to photograph the night sky and create images of the Milky Way and Star Trails, please consider signing up for one of the workshops this coming weekend. I’m teaching two workshops on behalf of JTNPA on Friday, October 13th, and Saturday, October 14th, and then have my own workshop on Sunday, October 15th.
NOTE: this will be one of the last weekends in 2023 when you’ll be able to see the galactic core of the Milky Way.
Annular Eclipse - October 14th, 2023
For those of you who are interested in learning more about the upcoming Annular Eclipse and how to photograph it, I recommend you go and listen to the webinar that Stephen Trainor of The Photographers Ephemeris recently published.
It provides a thorough explanation of how you can plan and photograph this amazing phenomenon (using TPE of course), important safety considerations when photographing the sun, and what equipment you’ll need.
© Crookneck Consulting LLC
Until next time, explore, experience, and enjoy our wildlands responsibly. Think before you geotag. Adopt the 7 Principles of Leave No Trace and practice Responsible Nature Photography.
Bye for now,
Jon
