I just had this sudden inspiration to write a blog to anyone who is breezing around my site and wondering "what the hell happened to that girl?"

Back in January I decided to move up to Lake Tahoe full time to get my feet really wet and cold in the snow and have "this" - the mountains - be my primary existence.

So that is what I am doing. For the past several months I have been building my skills to give my soul more time in the deep wildnerss - the wilderness that is right here in our own backyard. I got certificed in something called AVI I - which allows people to identify the conditions under which it is most risky to be out in the backcountry...risky for avalanches, that is. I am working on becoming a snowboard instructor - not really to teach as a profession but more to improve my technical skills and have an easier time explaining to friends what to do when they cant transition from their heel to toe. I have hooked up with an incredible female duo called "babes in the backcountry" who teach technical skills to women who want to get out there... and we are working on a GAIA trip for the fall, probably a climbing trip to joshua tree.

This has been a radical shift for me, from living in the city - i definitely miss the stimulation from our infinitely creative community - but am finding myself inspired in a different way and really, truly, on my path. the learning seems endless.

As far as friends go - friends are friends. distance and time cannot change that. when i see friends now, the time that we have together is richer because we are spending it together in nature. and it is more concentrated because we have days together instead of moments.

I am still managing a conservation project in southern Mexico, and traveling to Mexico about one week per month. Last night I came back from our project site where I participated in a jaguar capture. for the past ten years, researchers from the national university of mexico have been tracking and collaring jaguars to see which areas they were using most and therefore most important to protect. (by the end of this year, we will have protected 350,000 acres in the buffer zone of the 1.7 million acre Calakmul Biosphere Reserve). my organization is called friends of calakmul. www.calakmul.org. we have hired an x-hunter, now conservationist, who has a totally unique way of tracking using blood hounds to follow the scent of the jaguar. in two days, we saw three jaguars. i can honestly say that petting a jaguar in the wild (once it was darted and tranquilized, of course) was one of the most magical experiences of my life.
I will post pictures soon.

So that is my blog. I hope you now know what the hell happened to me ........... : )