Posts Tagged With: free hiking

Lemmon Pool’s Fire Escapade Part I

Posted on December 16, 2024 by lasthouseob1

Back packing into the Wilderness of Rocks

2024-09-10 into 11

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.

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Fall Colors 2024 Celebration: Pt.2

Posted on November 28, 2024 by lasthouseob1

2024-11-14

In this Part 2, we are continuing up the trail that we began in Part 1, here:

Fall Colors Celebration 2024: Pt.1

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.

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Fall Colors Celebration 2024: Pt.1

Posted on November 23, 2024 by lasthouseob1

2024-11-13&14

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….

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Que Sarong Sarong

Posted on November 16, 2024 by lasthouseob1

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.

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An Ultralight Path

Posted on November 8, 2024 by lasthouseob1

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.

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Memorial Day

Posted on November 1, 2024 by lasthouseob1

Bears Ears XVII

2024-05-27

It is Memorial Day Monday, the end of the long festive getaway weekend. People are packing up, for their return to working lives. They are savoring the last walks, final drives, the moments before leaving their good time playgrounds. It is quieter, a calm is returning, passersby are much less frequent.  

Memorial Day, I begin to think about my dad, the soldier, sadly, but proud and respectful.

By dinner’s end, we are feeling less impinged. The softer light permeates. Heat is turning progressively down to perfect warmth. Everything seems to mark the close of the holiday.

There is a sense of expanding freedom. We can relax easier in our nudity and stretch out of our hiding boundaries, safe to walk and wander.

There is in my guidebook, a reference to some ruins. They are somewhere on down the road that leads from our camping area, here where the creek empties out into the valley at the base of Arch Canyon. There is an old trail, a dotted line, probably another 4×4 route, leading up the stone surface. It is probably a good long hike on a less busy day, an ancient route, now marked by rubber skids and rubble.

There is “the old Perkin’s Ranch” a landmark. There is the symbol mark for ruins. As best as I can cipher, it is at the top of what is referred to as a nipple. I suspect it may be at the peak of an attention grabbing hill that I have spent time looking at, even curiously searching its nature with binoculars for details. It looks like a short walk. I’d like to see if I got it right.

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Clothing and Class War

Posted on October 25, 2024 by lasthouseob1

I recently finished the book “White Trash: The 400 Year Old History of Class in America” by Nancy Isenberg. I thought her harsh, in some ways wrong on Thomas Jefferson. I perceived some general bias and anger, but the reasoning and multitudes of facts surely justify some degree of anger. There has been a history of abundant injustice.

All Things MUST Pass

I picked the read up because I had been pondering class war and the media’s obvious fear to talk about it, the enlarging economic schism, the powers that be and why there are all of these people about that just don’t understand and share many of my perspectives. I’ve been concerned.

Since I am how I am, I couldn’t help but mentally insert the historic role of the use of clothing during the read. Although there was quite a bit on that topic in her book, I’ve got my own predilections, my way of seeing the world and sorting out thoughts. 

Somehow briefly, I’d like to inform, sow seeds, or trigger reflection and awareness. I recommend the book. It brought to me many forgotten memories of my youth and some ingrained class distinctions. It opened a better understanding of my parent’s generation and why I was raised as I was, during that era, and the subsequent social upheaval within me and around me.

I doubt that anyone has lived in a truly classless society of equality and equity. I realize that clothing has had and continues to have a significant part in the structures and preservation of class. This needs to be talked about.

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Hotel Rock II

Posted on October 18, 2024 by lasthouseob1

2024-05-26

Bears Ears XV

We have climbed a gradual slope, somewhere around 1200 feet near our campsite at Arch Canyon. The rock surface has given way to a plain (See the previous post “Hotel Rock”)

In the distance, I see what has to be Hotel Rock.

It is a massive bubble of colorful stone, seemingly popped out of the flat terrain to prominence. There are ruins placed into its structure. People used to live here.

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Hotel Rock

Posted on October 16, 2024 by lasthouseob1

2024-05-26

Bears Ears XIV

Having changed our plans to explore Arch Canyon, Utah, I must make alternate arrangements. There are several hikes and archeological sites in the area. We can remain busy, but I have to research routes particulars and make some strategic choices.

We’ve taken an evening after dinner walk to the top of the local hill next to camp. Up here, we can be alone, bare ourselves to the lovely elements and watch the 360 degree panorama changing with the fantastical coloring of the sunset. Our western view leads up the white, now turned blue, ridge of solid rock. It looks like a small mountain, but we know that it turns into a plain above the cliff walls of Arch Canyon and other canyons in the region.  

There is a surprise. We notice a small white light up there. There gives no sound with its movement, it is simply just too far away. Could someone be camping up there?

As dusk’s light fades into darkness, the light begins to move down the long slope. We watch a steady stream of ATV lights snaking down the hill of stone. Perhaps they have been having a sunset cocktail party up there. So there must be some sort of road, or road-like route. One map showed the possibility. One crude drawing showed a route roughly to Hotel Rock, simply a black line.

When these vehicles finish their descent, we can see where the road meets the turnoff below us. This is clue enough. Tomorrow, we’ll explore. At the least, we will find a stunning view and get our exercise, naked. On the other hand, we may have found the way to Hotel Rock.

In the tent, I get out a crude map under the night light.

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Arch Canyon II

Posted on October 5, 2024 by lasthouseob1

Bears Ears XIII

2024-05-25

Continuation of Bears Ears XII

When we left off last time, we had been exploring Arch Canyon’s ruins. We have a goal in mind up the road that should keep us busy for the next few days. Fellow explorers on quads have disappeared. We are left happily enjoying the air, sun and sense of free ranging freedom. Encounters with others will be very few from here.

Driving on down this challenging 4×4 route, my neck is getting sore and my back tired from the strain. I consciously let up on my grip, but I must also keep a sustained alert eye out for sharp objects and other obstacles. There is a constant turning of the wheel on the up/down weaving thread of a trail, avoiding the potential for catastrophe.  We are not alone. ATV’s and well-appointed jeeps are out here, too.

The road is absolutely narrow, and the brush thick. Anyone sharing the route must pull off to the side and there are few spots for that. At one point, a string of professional looking jeeps have pulled off of the side of the trail. They are politely making room for us. I’m thinking that our lone truck would be the one to yield.

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