We’re in Southeastern Utah. We have spent the morning climbing up a long ascent on the cliff side of Comb Ridge. We had been looking for an ancient tower in vain, but luck gave us some guidance from two strangers. We have just gotten our first glimpse of the structures in this remote canyon, as our story continues.
There is a huge spillway above that makes a waterfall in wetter weather and behind the imagined waterfall is a tower built into the rock. This is the two story structure that we have been looking for.
The plan is to get out early and quickly. We prepared last evening before bed for an earlier start. It may be a long day. We want to take advantage of the cliff shadow’s shade up the long hill.
We are climbing a 1200 foot, two mile cliff side road. It is the old main road to Colorado, which we are told, is now abandoned and in disrepair. As the day rolls on, the old travel route will reveal itself as a challenging 4×4 nightmare.
Somewhere up there are two ancient interests, a distinct petroglyph and a ruin that still displays a tower.
We find that it is okay to dress festive to make merriment. A little decoration here and there, or sometimes a lot. Here is a Christmas Tannenbaum Yule tree on its day off, sharing that it is also okay and quite natural to be naked.
We hope that your holidays have been happy and so we shall all go into a new year starting as free and unburdened as a new born child.
I am on the forum of FreeRangeNaturism.com often, if you would like to converse.
We’re off to explore north of Arch Canyon, along the rock slope west of Comb Ridge, Utah. I’ve been aligning a series of canyons, what I can see, with lines on a crude map. On the map, there is marked a cave, pictographs and ruins in a few of the several canyons. Which canyons are which, at this point I’m reasonably sure about, but heading north through the canyon on winding roads, trails may get confusing.
Then, there is a blank piece of the knowledge. I have no information about any trails, or routes to get to each canyon. There may be none. We’ll have to keep an eye out for any clues along the way. We may even find ourselves bushwhacking.
I can’t know how WordPress will deal with the coming pressures of overreaching government. They have been a safe haven, perhaps a bastion, defending my free speech for the ten years that I have been affiliated with them. I’ve deeply appreciated that. We are concerned that the TheFreeRangeNaturist.org may be taken down within a few months. Perhaps on “day one.”
The Project 2025 as read, sets back free dialog and so civil social change. It is imposition from a minority upon approximately 70% plus of the rest of us. It promises harassment, legal entanglements and fines.
There has been an unwarranted callus attack on our freedom of expression. Many corporate owners of social media and several search engines have been censoring the internet content already. This would be illegal for the government to do, like it denying free speech in a public park. Our public spaces on the internet however, are now by proxy and for profit, able to act like government. They provide the public spaces and are not regulated like a people’s democratic government, or like a government in our interests.
The issue here is that often, mere nudity has been classified as porn, unsuitable, deemed a nasty thing. For providers that flow over international borders, the lowest denominator is profitable, and so unfree countries have been placated at the expense of American freedoms. The backward religious countries in effect, dictate our American community standards. Wholesome, harmless, simple nudity is wrongly classified with porn. This site, because it contains nude images, is treated the same as sex by many of these entities. Unjustly, many nude sites have been taken down and censored during recent years.
Even the website of the respected “The Naturist Society Foundation,” an institution that has been defending our rights more than 45 years is now hidden under an adult content barrier on search engines.
The new administration is implementing the Project 2025. I’ve read much of the 900 pages. It contains several plans for anti-pornography objectives, even fines for providers. This minority, I see as akin to an American Taliban, which plans to impose restrictions on a majority of Americans and rolling back the freedoms that I personally have defended during my lifetime. I don’t know which internet entities will cave to the pressures.
I lived the 1950’s and 60’s. It was oppressive and dangerous to be different during that time. Society was run with fear. That is why there was social revolution and so much collision as the era ended. There was a lack of personal freedom caused by the same entities and personalities that seek to again rule our lives. We are not far from this minority choking freedoms again.
It’s Worse than No Chocolate!
In consideration of these facts, I would expect our freedoms to not be defended by most internet corporate tycoons, unless there is a profit to it. The corporate objective by law is to make profit for the shareholders and not bound by moral conscience. Because this is the past, it is a likely future.
I Ask for Some Help:
I’ve got over 400 full days of work here, more than a year of my time and effort devoted to this message. I’m looking for information to take steps to preserve my content for, in the least, my own personal memories. I’m not a computer tech.
If anyone knows how to store in this format someplace, or who to contact for such, please, guide us toward that goal, in the comments.
If necessary, we can converse email, or phone from there.
If taken down, perhaps alternatives will appear that will not silence us and I can find a way to once again speak freely about and demonstrate something very healthy for humanity.
I have done my best to not make this website political, just an agent of social change and to do something good for my fellow humanity. A well-funded Taliban-like organizational process has made this political.
Better news:
We intend to continue our output as normal, perhaps in hope, perhaps denial, or defiance. We have plenty of content set for future publication, both tales and informative ideas.
We may see effective resistance to the intended steamroller of oppression. I can’t know how things will ultimately unfold, or how WordPress will respond to all of this. I need help preparing for the worse, while hoping for the best.
…There is a disappointing discovery. DF confesses a tragic mistake. She has forgotten the chocolate! Alarm, disbelief, the signs of grief engulfs our mood, “No! Not the chocolate!”
Our traditional savory dessert, snack, treat, will be missed. Everything is better nude and the same may be true of dark chocolate, but since the damage is done, we will just accept that. There are plenty of other blessings. The moment is simply and completely, lovely. I’m tempted to shout out, “tar-rad-ged-dee,” but my tongue is stuck hard in my cheek.
We have a chore before breakfast, to filter water. I didn’t check the water filter before we left, and discover that it is clogged. This is a very serious threatening issue! We can only boil water and there is but one small fuel canister. Clean pure water is quite a hassle when boiled with a campfire, when our only pot is a small titanium vessel. For us to have assuredly safe water for our return hike, this old school method just will have to be utilized…but, not now, later.
The article “Ultralight Path, which I published here on November 8th, 2024, was first published in “N” magazine, a couple of months previous. As we sat reading and browsing through the magazine’s pages, we saw the images of ourselves as sort of the poster children for naturist backpacking. A revelation then hit hard; we realized that we hadn’t been actually out backpacking in a couple of years! We felt a bit hypocritical. We have been four wheeling into day hiking situations and luxuriating at the hot springs mostly. Taking in our own sales pitch, we realized that we were missing something, too.
When our planned trip into the Blue River region got delayed, an apparent solution presented itself to us. On our hiking bucket list, was the re-exploration of the Lemon Pools on Mt. Lemon. Our last visit ended the day before the entire mountain went up in flames, back in 2020. We have been reluctant to go back because of the chance of having our hearts broken by the sight of the destruction.
Last year, looking down from above and into that valley, it had looked mostly untouched. It has been about four years and we figured that the dense brush should have had a chance to return…
…The first ten minutes are a steeper slope up at around 8700 feet through Marshall Gulch. I’m feeling that I have a challenge in front of me. We’re in thin air and haven’t had this size of a bulk to carry in a while. I’m beginning to feel out of breath. When I inquire about DF, she mentions that she is feeling a bit “wobbly” with her pack.
As we walk, our bodies are illuminated by the dominate reflected colors.
I snap photos as yellow and then pink light make our skin change its hew. In amongst the cover of a group of young trees we pass through a room of lavender and stop. There is a still warm air in here, and a scent identifying the local species. It is a unique space.
Politics create grief, sad, anger, anger, sad. We have been struggling. We needed a break, if not the cure, which is to get naked and get bowled over by nature. We needed to find what is immediate, get away to “it” and find perspective. It just so happened that in the Fall, leaf changes are happening and we had set aside the time to re-experience that splendor months ago.
These photos tend to speak for themselves. Instead of a more usual story with pics, this may be more pics with a story. I’ll often just pepper this short story with photos in a mostly random manner….
The last issue of “N” magazine had a couple of articles in it authored by me. This is one. I’m adding several extra illustrative photos that weren’t in the magazine:
I have a friend that produced a video documenting 69 different arrangements for wearing sarongs. As clothing, they can be elegant or practical.
Borrowing a phrase, “But wait, there’s more!” I use mine as a multi-use addition to my ultralight backpacking and nude hiking outfits. It is a constant companion. It may not slice, or dice, but probably can give duct tape a run for its money as an all-purpose problem solution. The following is a short list.
A sarong is light and folds up into nothing, so it’s easily packed out of the way. It is often all the clothing that I need, and I can wrap it around my waist as I get from the trailhead parking out into the sticks. When hiking nude, if the need comes, it is a quick cover-up. It can be a covering for a female hiker, too.
The Free Range Naturist 