Traveling Cargopants

Posted By Hargobind on May 21, 2010

I was recently presented with a very difficult situation where a friend of mine was detained from crossing the border from Juarez, Mexico into El Paso. Her short trip from the airport to the border was delayed by over an hour due to traffic. And when she finally reached immigration, she had to wait another 3 hours in line only to be interrogated and denied access to coming over. Not only that, but the locals who I had talked with in El Paso earlier that night had filled my head with stories about how dangerous it was in Juarez, and I began fearing for my friend’s life.

It was interesting to watch the crazy trip that my mind went through… the worry, angst, and fear that I experienced. And finally remembering to chant a prayer of protection and meditate on serenity and project a good outcome of the situation. Ultimately the lesson that I “remembered” in this experience is that I need to be grounded and maintain a meditative, neutral mind no matter what.

Another example of this is when I was 14 years old and my dad and I were driving back home from Boy Scouts one night. We were sitting at a stop light at a quiet intersection waiting for the light to change, when I looked up and saw two cars smash head on into each other. Whoa! I’d never seen anything like that, and I remember feeling totally in shock. My dad looked over at me and asked if I was alright. I mumbled, “Yeah, I guess so…” He said, “I need to go help these people. Are you ok here until I get back?” I replied, “Yeah, I’m fine. Go help them.” He got out of the car and went to check on each person and make sure they were OK. I watched as he totally handled the situation with a sense of authority and calm until the police and ambulance got there and took over. When he came back to the car and got in, I just looked wide-eyed at him and said, “How did you do that?” “Do what?”, he replied. “Just be so calm and know exactly what to do and how to help those people.” He looked at me with a twinkle in his eye and said, “Meditation, my son.” Ever since then I’ve tried to make meditation a daily part of my life… sometimes I take the time to do a full meditation with posture and chanting, etc. And some days it’s just repeating a simple prayer in my head or focusing on my breath or whatever. Regardless of how you do it, the goal is getting to that point inside where YOU are in control of your mind, not the other way around.

Later that night as I was getting ready for bed tonight and thinking about my friend in Mexico, I decided to play a prayer on my iPod to keep the vibration of peace and protection throughout the night. I looked at my collection of the the Sikh prayers, and used my intuition to find one that felt right. The one that felt the strongest was Sukhmani Sahib. I didn’t know what this prayer was for until I looked it up later… of course, it was perfect! The word Sukhmani is rendered into English as “consoler of the mind.” Other common translations are “Jewel of peace”, “Psalm of peace” or “Song of peace”, signifying the soothing effect it has on the mind of the reader/listener. Depending on the person reading or speaking, this bani (psalm) takes approximately 60-90 minutes to complete. You can listen to a beautiful recitation of Sukhmani by Prof. Satnam Singh Sethi in two parts:

Sukhmani Sahib Part 1 (37:50 minutes)

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Sukhmani Sahib Part 2 (35:25 minutes)

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You can find other Sikh prayers and music at www.sikhnet.com/gurbani

Category: Journey | 2 Comments »
Tags: fear, meditation, mind, prayer

Posted By Hargobind on May 21, 2010

A friend sent me to a link of some incredible still-motion videos (including one of the volcano in Iceland). This guy has a really cool technique where his camera seems to crawl across the ground while capturing still-motion frames. Based on how clear the pictures are, I’m fairly certain he runs his film through some sort processing tool that renders the frames using something like the HDR technique which allows you to see all ranges of lighting and color side by side in a photograph or film (normal cameras usually tend to focus on either the light or dark objects but not both).

The soundtrack to one of his videos contained two songs by a band named Thrice who I’m totally digging on right now. One thing I really respect about them is that they have such variety in their music — everything from chill and melodic to alt rock to metal. Since they live somewhere in California, I’m definitely going to make it a point to see them in concert while I’m traveling the west coast.

I’m still listening to their stuff, but so far here are a few of my favorites. These songs are from the albums The Alchemy Index Vol. 1 & 2 and Vheissu.

Category: Music, Random Fun | No Comments »
Tags: photography, rock

Posted By Hargobind on May 17, 2010

After passing through the town of Glenwood Springs, we stopped for the night in Grand Junction where we couch surfed with Jana (and her cats). What a fun and welcoming experience into a home filled with so much love, laughter, eastern philosophy and meditation (…and the list goes on). Although we only had a couple hours with her that night and the next morning, we had a great time hanging out and sharing stories, especially about the fascinating history of great hippie activists in the SouthWest.

Our next destination was to Moab, Utah, and Jana had the great suggestion of heading south to take the less traveled route through Ridgway before heading west into Utah. Although the first hour of the drive through the Uncompahgre Valley is a little boring, the views get much better south of Montrose where you start seeing Mesa cliffs and mountains off in the distance. And we were fortunate enough to catch the full moon just as it was rising above the eastern mountains.

[View Slideshow]

About 5 minutes south of Highway 62 (leading to Ridgway), there’s a small pulloff for Orvis Hot Springs. For anyone traveling around western Colorado, visiting Orvis is a MUST! This is one of the nicest natural hot springs places I’ve ever been to. Don’t let it put you off that the property is surrounded by cow farms… the entire soaking area is fenced in, and once you’re bathing in the hot mineral waters, everything else dissolves away. They’ve got 4 outdoor hot springs pools averaging 100-107°, including the Lobster Pot which ranges 108-114°. They also have a 100° indoor pool (for kids?) and a private indoor tub which is first-come-first-serve. The entire outdoor area is clothing optional which is particularly wonderful considering the mountainous landscape and minimal human presence in the surrounding areas have the effect of putting you in a natural and primitive mood.

One of the coolest things I saw at Orvis was a tiny cat named “Meat” who is apparently a resident of the springs. She was originally a stray that was adopted by the owners after they saw her rummaging through their garbage eating old pieces of meat. I was told that she is over 20 years old which I’m sure is due to the fact that she drinks from the spring water and even loves to go swimming in the pools.

After soaking for a couple hours that night, we retired to our tent where we slept in warm, cozy sleeping bags while the temperature dropped into the mid 20′s. I woke up the next morning to find icicles in my beard and a layer of frost covering everything inside the tent. The eastern horizon in that area is all mountains, so the valley tends to be filled with light for at least an hour before the sun comes up over the horizon. It was a pretty awesome experience soaking in the pools that morning and watching the line of the sun slide down the western hills and across the valley as it slowly filled the entire area with daylight. We soaked for a couple hours more that morning, had some brunch, and then hopped back in the car for the next destination.

Category: Journey | 2 Comments »
Tags: hot springs, sunrise

Posted By Hargobind on May 8, 2010

Near the western exit of Glenwood Canyon lies the town of Glenwood Springs. It’s about 3 hours drive from Denver, 1 hour from Grand Junction, and 45 minutes north of Aspen. The town was founded late in the 1800′s as an outpost settlement to serve as a transportation hub between other cities in the area, and for transportation of the natural resources harvested from mineral and metal mining operations further south. Initially the town mainly contained saloons, brothels and other sordid activities, but it gradually grew into a more pleasant place due in part to the geographic features of the surrounding land. The town resides at the confluence of two major rivers, the Colorado and Roaring Fork rivers, in a large, naturally beautiful valley that was able to sustain the growth of local and outlying populations with plenty of farming and hunting.

The town is also famous for the Yampah Hot Springs Vapor Caves, historic underground steam baths with an average temperature of 110° F. The caves have been used by the Ute Indians for over 100 years as a source of rejuvenation and healing. There’s also the Glenwood Hot Springs Lodge and Pool which is the worlds largest pool filled by natural hot springs water to a cozy 90° F. Many famous people have lived or stayed in the town including President Teddy Roosevelt, Doc Holiday, and Ted Bundy was imprisoned (and escaped) from there.

[View Slideshow]

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Category: Journey | 1 Comment »
Tags: colorado, hot springs

Posted By Hargobind on March 18, 2010

While listening to some internet radio the other day, I found this mesmerizing drum & bass song that has beautiful vocals, ambient melodies, and is just sweet as sugar. The artist is Ben Sage and vocals are by Savvy. You can find a few more tracks of his to listen to at Last.fm and FilesTube.com.

Category: Music | 1 Comment »
Tags: drum & bass, vocal

Posted By Hargobind on March 15, 2010

The next portion of the trip was to drive west on I-70 from Denver to Grand Junction, with a short stop in Glenwood Springs (more info about that town in a subsequent post). Even though this drive is relatively short (approx. 4 hours), it stands out in my memory because of the scenery and grandeur of the landscape along the way. The city of Denver sits on the “High Plains” of Colorado at the eastern foothills of the Rocky Mountains. Traveling to any of the western cities (or states) or to get to any of the famous ski resorts in Colorado typically means driving Interstate 70 up into the mountains… and the drive itself is well worth it!

About half of the road between Denver and Grand Junction goes through the Glenwood Canyon. This road consists of steep mountainous walls up to 1,300 ft. that flank the Colorado River on both sides, steep grades of up to 7%, and some places where the road bends more than 45° to follow the contour of the canyon. Driving through this 12.5 mile gorge is quite a sight! According to Wikipedia, “The canyon is widely considered one of the most scenic natural features on the Interstate Highway System of the United States.” We got a special treat on our drive that night because sides of the cliffs with their many layers of rock were embellished by a recent mild snowfall combined with the illumination of the full moon. Foot access to the canyon is available at four rest areas along Interstate 70 in the canyon. We pulled off at the Hanging Lake Rest Area where we stretched our legs, threw snowballs, and splashed some rocks into the river. If you’re in that area in warmer months, there’s apparently a nice hike up to a very scenic area called Hanging Lake.  You can see some beautiful photos of this area courtesy of JS Nature Photos, and some other great ones at Panoramio. Since I drove through the canyon at night, I wasn’t able to take any pictures of my own, so I’ve found a couple of other photo galleries for your viewing pleasure (one, two).

Another spectacular feature of this drive is the Eisenhower Tunnel which bores through the mountain crest of the Continental Divide. For those of you who like maps, here’s a zoomed in map where you can see the specific section of the road containing the tunnel. It’s actually a dual-bore tunnel which means that it’s two tunnels that are linked together — each tunnel contains 2 lanes of one-way traffic. The tunnel happens to be one of the highest vehicular tunnels in the world at over 11,000 feet, and the length is approx. 1.7 miles with a 1.64% grade. That distance and sloping effect, combined with the fact that you’re driving at 50-60 mph creates a really bizarre optical illusion like the feeling of getting sucked into a black hole.

Driving on I-70 through Glenwood Canyon is without a doubt one of the more gorgeous drives I’ve ever been on, and I would gladly make plans to drive it again, even for a simple weekend trip of sightseeing, hiking and camping. And the fact that you can stop to soak in some natural hot springs along the way is like icing on the cake. More on Glenwood Springs to come…

Category: Journey | No Comments »
Tags: colorado, Denver, mountains, pictures