Resonance Ecology

Resonance Ecology Resonance Ecology combines musical empowerment resources with wilderness reconnection tools to help people step into their creative knowing.

Millions of years in motion in our distant solar system. Countless rains, winters and sunrises. A symphony of time and p...
08/19/2024

Millions of years in motion in our distant solar system. Countless rains, winters and sunrises. A symphony of time and place

11/19/22 Single season 46 High Peaks of the Adirondacks vision quest complete with the summit of Iroquois Peak via a tra...
12/19/2022

11/19/22 Single season 46 High Peaks of the Adirondacks vision quest complete with the summit of Iroquois Peak via a traverse over and back across Algonquin Peak. Well worth all the negative windchills gear prep!

Slow inhale, long exhale. Wow, this has been a journey!
Folks keep asking me “What’s next?” “The Appalachian Trail?”

I reply, “What’s next is now for me" traversing my life one step at a time, with reverence and gratefulness. A great healing took place for this recent weekend on this snowy and icy alpine hike. A grand crescendoing of many miles of moments to come into a greater, more patient love of self and other. The 46 have not been a stepping stone to more ambitious peaks plans. Rather, they have served as their own matrix for essential healing and growth at this unique time in my life.

This 46er 4,000footers+ journey sort of began on July 17th this summer with hiking Mt Marcy for the first time. Yet it really began in many ways with a great romantic heartbreak earlier in the year that called me look for a new vector of self transformation. To know myself as a whole rather than a fragment. On the weekend after hiking Marcy in July, I woke up early to go for Wright, Algonquin and Iroquois. I remember lying in bed as the alarm went off at 4AM thinking ‘either I say yes and go for these 46 for real or go back to sleep.’ The quest to know myself through this challenge had me go turn the shower on and toast those bagels! Fittingly, that day of #3 Wright peak and #4 Algonquin Peak and what was to be #5 Iroquois Peak, I bumped into a lady who I shared both peaks with and I didn’t go to Iroquois then as planned because she wasn’t going. This was very congruent with what was happening in the previous relationship. After this experience, I sensed I need a solo rite of passage/vision quest to fully birth a new self. Finally reaching Iroquois on my own terms allowed me to experience what it feels like to have tears freeze on your face as they come out. A little self-love and warm breath goes a long way. I realized the lover I was searching for over these years was myself(!) In truly coming to terms with myself, I can truly love another.

The original goal was to make it to peak #4 of the day Mt Marshall by about 4PM so I’d see sunset from the nearby Iroqu...
12/01/2022

The original goal was to make it to peak #4 of the day Mt Marshall by about 4PM so I’d see sunset from the nearby Iroquois Peak ( #46 of 46!) around 6PM-ish. Then I'd merrily trot (and/or skip gleefully.. perhaps a combination) along the Algonquin ridge up and down toward my car(e)-fully laid plans of post hikes treats 6ish miles yonder.

The unanticipated continuity of the muddy, icy and brushy herd trails meant that I was about 2 hours behind schedule at this point. Interesting! So I instead witnessed the sun setting on the ice just as I crested Mt Marshall at about 6PM. I was now 17 miles deep into my 25ishmile hike. One last stretch to go!

The final peak of Iroquois, was an attractive craggy behemoth about a mile away on the same ridge, rising steep and high behind my shoulder to the East amidst the evening twilight. I knew there were two ways there and neither would be a walk in the park (more of a scramble through the park.) Option 1: descend over about 2,000 feet off Mt Marshall and climb another about 2,500 feet or so back up via a reportedly particularly steep trail (the original plan, doable with more time.) Or Option 2: take the notable shortcut of a reported herd path I he(a)rd about from a Instagram ADK high peaks mountain expert (Ooo!). It would mean traversing over another small peak on the way, and the scaling a drainage next to the Shepard’s Tooth cliff, but was decidedly more direct (famous last words.) I committed to that latter route as I munched on my remaining bagel-with-nutritional-yeast-provisons, strapped on my trusty headlamp, and drank some freshly filtered mountaintop water, the nectar of the gods.

When I reached the point where my special mtn expert friend’s GPS map was which I had downloaded, I was met with a silver blaze on a tree.. and a perfectly untouched, dense forest of treacherously squishy moss crevices, honorably sheer boulders and a dynamic range of impenetrable evergreens. Checking, double checking, triple..and triangulating the map, it became apparent that there was no herd path unlike what I had heard. Yet I was literally 0.4miles from the last peak! the 46th peak of this long quest!

Herd path (noun) : an unofficial trail created by hikers and usually maintained by hikers themselves.Fact: about a quart...
11/18/2022

Herd path (noun) : an unofficial trail created by hikers and usually maintained by hikers themselves.

Fact: about a quarter of the 46 Adirondack high peaks are only accessible by herd paths. These are also the most remote peaks.

Below is 1 of 2 of story of my He(a)rd Path Saga: the push to finish the 46 High Peaks of the Adirondacks -

10/22/22 First aid kit, check. Splint kit, check. Backup batteries for headlamps and cellphone, check. Much food and a freshly plunged water filter, check. Layers, check. Rope, knife and bivy bag, check. Hiking poles, checked.

After climbing Mt Colden at first light, I saw my first human being since 2:30am at about 9AM, a sudden energetic hello in blue fuzzy hat around a bend!

Then I went forth to the delightful mud and bog infamous floating logs on the way to Mt Redfield. Unlike its name, it had no field as I had red about. Most of its herd path was climbing up and down a flowing mountain brook instead - exciting! classic ADK herd path action!

Then onward to nearby Cliff Mountain (44 of 46) whose herd path actually involved climbing cliffs, unlike what I had heard about from a hiker. I had taken it all for granite, thinking he rocked at trail knowledge.

After being steeped in the knowledge of those good times, I made for Mt. Marshall, marshalling my strength and snacks. I encountered an enchanted glen that led to a river crossing with an invisible trail on the other side of it.. that my GPS map adamantly insisted it had heard was there. Tromping through brush, I let out a bemused giggle. Little did I know at the time that this was just a small taste of he(a)rd path shenanigans to come that evening..

First light while ascending Mt Colden yesterday 10/22 #42 of 46. After hiking through vast dark forests with star light...
10/24/2022

First light while ascending Mt Colden yesterday 10/22 #42 of 46. After hiking through vast dark forests with star light/Jupter light/ battery light for 4 hours, it was a truly transcendant and grateful experience to witness the light of our star’s power as this side of the planet turned back toward it. And to do so in remote wilderness where the landscapes speaking in the tongues of mammoth contours of time. I hadn’t anticipated how deeply emotionally effecting this would be. Some ancestral memory from our migrating human forebears seemed to have a knowing smile while my new 1990 born self awakened to it.

Gearing up for the largest day hike of my life so far and perhaps ever - the final massive traverse hike of this 46 High...
10/20/2022

Gearing up for the largest day hike of my life so far and perhaps ever - the final massive traverse hike of this 46 High Peaks vision quest immersion since #1 Mt Marcy in July:

10/22 2AM start

#42 Mt Colden

#43 Mt Redfield

#43 Cliff Mountain

#45 Mt Marshall

#46 (🦋) Iroqouis Peak

Algonquin Peak on the way up to go down

projected finished 10/22 10PM

Deep time to dwell in gratefulness for a healthy heart, lungs, knees, mind and mammoth ancient and awake and changing mountain ecosystems who are some of our greatest teachers around.

Indigenous People’s Day! Photo taken on so-called Algonquin Peak via Wright as I wondered what the original first names ...
10/11/2022

Indigenous People’s Day! Photo taken on so-called Algonquin Peak via Wright as I wondered what the original first names of these epic rock giants were back in July. The internet is so scant on this knowledge - any leads please? I bet the original names we were way more place-based and epic. I recently learned that “Adirondacks” is apparently a derogatory term describing folks eating tree bark to survive winters among these colossal peaks. What’s the right name to trend for this vast wilderness that isn’t a misnomer? and what indigenous businesses can we support today as trekkers here?

9/24 Seymour -> Seward -> Donaldson -> Emmons —> Donaldson and out on the Catkins Brooks trail. Really did Seeymoure. 19...
09/28/2022

9/24 Seymour -> Seward -> Donaldson -> Emmons —> Donaldson and out on the Catkins Brooks trail. Really did Seeymoure. 19 mileish mudtastic immersion into being with each footstep and breath.

Hiked solo but are we ever truly alone as an 70-80 trillion cell community of self tuned by millenia to bring the outside in through the senses?

This hike had me thinking about every moment we lean into the outdoors, we are helping to heal the illusion of lifeless nature perpetuated by our object relations English language. Parts of nature sounds so static with the Eng to the lish. Trees, sky, mud. Yet nouns are usually truly verbs. Trees are treeing as we be humaning. That sky and mud keep changing, whut. Let’s go English, more -ing subjects please.

41/46

After finishing Allen Mtn at 4AM I drove over to the nearby Santanoni trailhead for 5 hours of sleep including a neighbo...
09/19/2022

After finishing Allen Mtn at 4AM I drove over to the nearby Santanoni trailhead for 5 hours of sleep including a neighbor rolling up with a deep thumping bass dreamtrack, boom. Then came the initiation of the loop. Not as much mud as anticipated on the 17.7 miles. The mud was to be navigated mostly in my mind over the miles. Slowly, the trail helped me let go of momentum of past stories of self and unite with the present moment.

4PM - 4AM Allen Mountain journey 20miles 3,497 gain. I was leading a farm to school community music gig in VT that morni...
09/15/2022

4PM - 4AM Allen Mountain journey 20miles 3,497 gain. I was leading a farm to school community music gig in VT that morning so I welcomed a late start knowing the full moon was coming. The last human folks I saw were at 7PM. Thrilling to habe my first time going up green and red slime slabs in such a remote corner or the mountains alone by headlamp. Stretching beyond my comfort zone to find a greater inner peace. Moon meditations at the outlook on top. Gratefulness for life

34/46

25.6 miles , 7027 vertical — the longest day hike of my life so far in wanting to stretch beyond perceived limits. In th...
09/06/2022

25.6 miles , 7027 vertical — the longest day hike of my life so far in wanting to stretch beyond perceived limits. In the , via Nye and Street in the morning and then traversing over to Big Slide and back over Phelps. Pictures in reverse order of the hike. Deeply grateful solid herd paths, knees, lungs, heart and the fire of being alive.

33/46

Esther and Whiteface last Sunday to hear the music of the alpine ecosystems stirring my heart29/46 ADK ...
08/24/2022

Esther and Whiteface last Sunday to hear the music of the alpine ecosystems stirring my heart

29/46 ADK

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