I wrote this article/story for a recent issue of “N” magazine, the quarterly for The Naturist Society Foundation.
Life Among the Killer Bees
What seems so many years ago, the news carried frightful stories of “KILLER BEES!” We braced for the dangerous, murderous, aggressive immigrants invading our borders from the south. The product of a South American lab experiment gone awry in 1957, it would be only a matter of time when these fearsome bees would destroy our native populations and their natural diversity. No one, especially our children, would be safe outside. There was fear.
In those years, I lived peacefully in my quiet strawbale house in the beautiful desert foothills of the Tortolita Mountains, near Tucson. Daily, I walked out my door to wander nude, observing the seasonal changes, in bliss or meditative appreciation, out into the pristine 80 acres of neighboring hills and mountains.
…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 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, here.
An Ultralight Path for Nude Hiking
Defined as two naturists, DF and I love to immerse ourselves in nature, our bodies as naked as possible. We value the added sensual exploration and awareness, the oneness, the spiritual augmentation, and the liberating sense of freedom. I like to experience the body’s natural instincts, the way it steps and climbs in so many ways, and across the seemingly infinite myriad of nature’s make up.
Several years ago, we began hiking the deserts and forests of Arizona nude. There was a period of inhibition and fear. We walked with wraps in hand, shuffling for cover when someone approached. In stealth, fully listening, we smuggled our naked bodies through uncertain terrain. We got more comfortable as time brought more experience and through our dialog with similar-thinking people. Realistically, on the trail, one to four oddballs out of one hundred encounters may object. Personally, we have had more people inquire and then spontaneously join our nudity than give us dirty looks. We comport as ourselves and others act similarly.
We also, found a plethora of options and strategies to have an abundance of natural treasures all to our clothes-free selves. We started by hiking further. I bought a four-wheel-drive, and we were able to drive and camp away from people, and to then walk further into unencumbered natural states.
We became more enthusiastic with what we were experiencing, realizing health benefits both mental and physical. The more we hiked, the more the passion for being nude amongst nature captured us. We began to discover more of what was hidden in the wilds, and thirsted for it. We felt overwhelmingly blessed, standing naked in the middle of the astounding and awesome.
During our Bear’s Ears trip we spent many evening’s ends and several times in between, reading to each other. Edward Abbey’s “Desert Solitaire: A Season in the Wilderness: A Celebration of the Beauty of Living in a Harsh and Hostile Land” was a favorite. On pages 261 and 262, I found this excerpt when he was a park ranger exceedingly relatable. I identify with much of his expressions of exasperation.
QUOTE:
“Ranger, where is Arches National Monument?”
“I don’t know, mister, but I can tell you where it was.”
“LABOR DAY. Flux and influx, the final visitation of the season. They come in herds, like buffalo, down from The City. A veil of dust floats above the sneaky snakey old road from here to the highway, drifting gently downward to settle upon the blades of the yucca, the mustard yellow rabbitbush, the petals of asters and autumn sunflowers, the umbrella-shaped clumps of blooming wild buckwheat.
“What can I tell them? Sealed in their metallic shells like mulluscs on wheels, how can I pry the people free? The auto as tin can, the park ranger as opener. Look here, I want to say for godsakes folks get out of them there machines, take off those fucking sunglasses and unpeel both eyeballs, look around; throw away those goddamned idiotic cameras! For chrissake folks what is this life if full of care we have no time to stare? Eh? Take off your shoes for a while, unzip your fly, piss hearty, dig your toes in the hot sand, feel that raw and rugged earth, split a couple of big toenails, draw blood! Why not? Jesus Christ lady, roll that window down! You can’t see the desert if you can’t smell it. Dusty? Of course it’s dusty—this is Utah! But it is good dust, good red Utah dust, rich in iron, rich in irony. Turn that motor off. Get out of that piece of iron and stretch those varicose veins, take off your brassiere and get some sun on old wrinkled jugs! You sir, squinting at the map with your radiator boiling and your fuel pump vapor-locked, crawl out of that shiny hunk of GM junk and take a walk-yes, leave the old lady and those squawling brats behind for a while, turn your back on them and take a long quiet walk straight into the canyons, get lost for a while, come back when you damn well feel like it, it’ll do you and her and them a world of good. Give the kids a break, too, let them out of the car, let them go scrambling over rocks, hunting for rattlesnakes and scorpions, and anthills—yes sir, let them out, turn them loose, how dare you imprison little children in your goddamned upholstered horseless hearse. Yes sir, yes madam, I entreat you, get out of those motorized wheelchairs, get off your foam rubber backsides, stand up straight like men! like Women! Like human beings! And walk—walk—WALK upon our sweet blessed land.”
UNQUOTE
So, we saw this, lots of able-bodied travelers with huge investments in RVs of all sizes. Even the owners of ATV’s who would sit in their open-air rigs, having the other three seats filled with mom, grand-mom, kids, or beer cooler, all missing the point. They scare away the wildlife, they disturb the natural quieting, they just stay in-between those rails. They can never feel the wonders missed around them. Never realizing their rude transgressions, or what they are missing. I feel sad about them. Mr. Abbey, forgive them, for they know not what they do.
There are millions on this planet who can only dream about the mobility to fully immerse into the gift that so many squander. How ever, by whatever means, I implore, use what you’ve been blessed with, sit and listen to the night, the morning, feel the sun everywhere, allow the touch of the earth on the feet which will respond to the sand, or the dew laden grass. Even if your body has been made to feel little, or nothing, you are of “it,” not separate, it effects you.
One very gratifying reason that DF and I hike and live nude in nature is to indulge in all of that which is. Our intention is to naturally not miss a thing, to realize the most authentic experience possible. We relish knowing these places with all of our natural senses, unrestricted.
Feel the real “it.” Sense the smell, hear it, taste it. Know it without the buffers, intimately. Be there with all that you can, to know it in the moment. So, strip!
I am on the forum of FreeRangeNaturism.com often, if you would like to converse.
This websites first post was July 15th 2015. Heck! It’s another anniversary, today. Thank-you!
There are no plans to stop doing this. I’ve got material and pics in the works for nearly a year’s posting, at this point. We’re sure to accumulate more during the interim, or however long that content last.
I started this project hoping to persuade others to find the liberation that we understand, to possibly bring an acceptance, or even adaptation of the health and spiritual values of naturism. I don’t know the impact, or how to measure that, but along the way, we did realize how much fun doing this was. Spending at least a long day for each post, at 52 posts per year over nine years…that’s over 400 days, way more than a year of my life given to this! Yeah, that just occurred to me. What I have received that is measurable is in these pages. For us personally, there is a cache of personal treasures, well documented memories of a wonderful life lived. Sharing this has been worth it.
Before someone asks…it’s actually hemp in the picture…omega-3.
We have had a journey with photography and personal experience. Changes in my writing skills have been quite an experiment. We have been stimulated away from the complacent and repetitive and toward many varied and very real adventures.
So, with all of that, we thank- you, the readers that have turned up and been discovered on the stats page each day. Thank-you, especially, to those who have written comments.
Personal gratification aside, it is a gift, from our hearts, we want to turn you on to something more for your life, to make a difference. Such actions are always of benefit. Seva, it has been called. It is very healthy, perhaps essential, to make a point to do something nice for someone else each day. We still would like to leave the world a better place.
I can’t believe how after all of this, there is still more to say about free range naturism, but there it is. There is more to come.
So enjoy, let us know how you may value it and tell your damn friends. The more people we touch, the more people will know how our bodies are a particular part of our lives and our relationship with our world and spirit. By being open and being seen as we are, the greater the odds that something will change and we will all be liberated. We all need to see nude as normal, natural, a matter of fact, being more alive, a good and wholesome thing.
I am on the forum of FreeRangeNaturism.com often, if you would like to converse.
The Free Range Naturist 