1. |
Ode to Maine
02:33
|
|||
|
Multiple layers of blue-grey gradient. Moosehead Lake, ginger ale and Canadian. Mountain ghosts, thunderstorms rolling in, barefoot explorers on a rocky shore camping again. Needles and leaves block the rain from coming in. Transparent small stone lake floor with needlepoint droplet thread on slate untainted waves. The green trees and isles of Maine juxtaposing them.
Hours, miles, moments, midnights dodging moisture in the car.
Headlamp glow illuminates the mist weighing down our pillows.
Camp swarms of mosquitos, it hold sea shells, the scent of salt,
the quiet as silent as the ocean floor. Sip your Allen’s and let the days make your course.
Watching ducks on salt water waves is something odd at first as with clam shells and eggshells on the shore of our campsite deep in the woods. Acadia offers summit after summit after summit with much less effort than out west. We didn’t get them all, but tried our best. Rocky coasts and lobsters poached. Paddling boats and late night toasts. Sargent Mountain, The Beehive, The Bubbles, swim in hidden water. Noodles jet boiled, chicken canned, then well find the car hit the road again.
|
||||
2. |
Ode to Rocky Mountain
02:32
|
|||
|
We went away that summer. We had a babe that summer. Packed her on a plane that summer. Barely a complaint we heard from her.
We flew out west to visit, hike, replenish. Great days that summer. We drove into Rocky National Park and had great days that summer.
You learned to laugh that summer. Family’s first summit that summer. Deer Mountain was no bummer. We narrowly escaped the rain and thunder.
You didn’t fight the altitude; you broke 12,000 feet that summer. Rocky Mountain was good to you. We had great days that summer.
We went to Denver that summer. Food truck and brews that summer. We played charades that summer with friends that we love and friends that love ya, oooh.
Rocky was our first family park. We flew there that summer. We saw a moose and her baby too. We explored that park together.
I’ll sing this Rocky Mountain song to you about our great days that summer. Rocky was our first trip with you. We had great days that summer.
|
||||
3. |
Ode to Big Bend
03:38
|
|||
|
We found a place in the Lone Star State to set up camp after finding out there is no public land. We squatted in the outskirts after trying to find the owner before we were snoring. Then off to Big Bend formally, again we had no where to sleep.
Permits had been taken up so later that night we slept in the car at a dusty RV park, but we hiked, we climbed, we joked, we laughed, amongst cactus spines and the sky’s outstretched arms. Then when the sun rose we drove the road to bouldered desert trails of gold.
We paid for a paddle across the Rio Grande. Cinco más for a burro ride over trails of sand. A local man, paid, was our guide. He showed us where he and his family reside. We bought some things from him then ate goat: the best tacos in my experience.
The next morning I awoke with a cold. We decided to skip the harder trails and chose to walk this time, across the River Grande to Mexico where intentamos conversar con un buen man at his blue bar. We three took shots and there I carved our names into the bar. Espero to come back some day y con un cuchillo add nombres.
We finally got permits for backcountry sites. We drove out to where dark skies shine so bright with a trillion stars for us to see and nothing but wilderness surrounding.
|
||||
4. |
Ode to the Giant Forest
03:24
|
|||
|
In California skip the beach, snub LA and drive East. If you don't know where to go, just find the pines, palms, and orange groves, but that's not enough for me. Bring tire chains in the spring, a winter coat, food and drink, a warm bag and camp stove, just clean up so bears don't know and sleep under a canopy of green, but that's not what I came to see.
We came to scale that forest mountain pass, we came to hike through the snow and outlast the picture posing families in gym shorts shivering in their hoodies here for General Sherman and then back to the city. We're here for under 20 fahrenheit nights. We came from Ohio to do this right.
The visual concept is too big for my head. Like a goldfish brain, around every corner I'm overwhelmed again by the stature, the orange hue. I can't explain to you the feeling that it gave. Hands on hairy bark, burn scars; like uneven, black tile.
Chin to trunk, up, up and up. Thousands of years in the making, what have they seen? What have they done? I could swear that they had breath. I stood inside a living corpse near bear cubs. We hiked Moro rock and looked from above. I couldn't leave. I left in tears. I couldn't leave.
|
||||
5. |
Yosemite
04:00
|
|||
|
I wanna be back in Wawona. Two nice days I would say would give a taste yet barely scratch the surface, Number 2 or 1 famed, golden reputation paired with a never-ending highway filled with Disney-shuttle-like advertisements.
We came to the park to find seclusion in nature, mankind silenced, but we couldn't escape the exhaust fumes, road noise, the tour bus/large group alliance. All in all the scenery here is surprisingly stunning, but the mood at Valley View is ruined when they empty the bus, but leave the engine running.
Cheers-ing a beer near the foot of El Capitan: the original plan, to hike to isolated land away from common man and woman posing for Instagram ( hip out, two fingers up on one hand), but after multiple tries with the map attempting to navigate our escape from the tourist traps we gave up and walked from a parking lot, those things that we kept on winding up in, in our attempts to desert them, but maybe it was our fault. Our experience here is not a lot and by that I mean none at all. We were new to this place. We were captivated by Mirror Lake, but our final views were in between mirrored two lane highways. A dark hour back down the mountain pass to a space that's ours, only shared with the stars, I wa-wanna be back in Wawona.
|
||||
6. |
Ode to Glacier/Banff
03:42
|
|||
|
Oh Canada, we’re leaving today, but we’ll be back in a week. Glacier nights and grizzly hikes await back in the USA. Grinnell Lake takes my breath away, aqua marine, but we can’t stay, off to the ice floats for a bathe. Sunlit trek with friend to where we began. Karaoke slayers accept us in like we’ve been here before and we’ll be there again.
We pack our bags and writing moves on as if there wasn’t more depth, but we bought some coffee and bag of chips and set sights to the Great White North to see their monstrous grey and jagged points.
Yeah!
Lake Moraine has racked my brain. Above Louise we dodged the rain in tea houses. Soaked through, we journey down to where we drove through circled gates, scattered license plates, and get online to find a site.
Yeah!
Oh Montana, you've given us everything: 2 times 12 miles and more of beauty. Oh Canada, you’ve given us Banff and Calgary where we can walk to sushi and shower bodies. Oh Canada, passports stamped, I hope to see you again. When will I see you again?
|
||||
7. |
Ode to Utah Pt. 1
03:43
|
|||
|
Airline arrival in the Rocky Mountains' shadow. Rental car towards Silverthorn. Logging more miles in Colorado. Meeting up with a good old friend, an ex-Ohio true mountain man. I'm back at Loveland, but not the pass. A flash blizzard drops a foot of fresh (on our ass). We're snowed in on I-70 again.
The morning after we moved west and watched the gray rock turn to red. From snowy tops to flat red rock, the Utah desert awaits us. Solid skyscrapers: thick, sheer, vertical feet. The arches were so much more striking than we thought. A jaw-dropping week at Utah National Parks.
We tent slept on the banks of the Colorado and carried camp up these red cliffs- in Canyonlands -we hiked for hours and got Jeep-ed out of it. A week of warm salami and wax coated cheese, Triscuits and trail mix, endless visual scenery.
We had one last-minute stop back at Arches park to close our trip at Delicate Arch. We drive back towards Denver, drop off borrowed gear, said goodbyes, and drank some beers and whiskey with a beloved pair of friends before boarding Frontier Air towards home. It was hard to comprehend. It was hard to leave it all there.
Returning to an amber moon from those red canyon walls.
|
||||
8. |
Some Time in Cuyahoga
00:59
|
|||
|
Well, we went to Cuyahoga, it was thirty below, we went on a hike and drank beers in the snow. It was alright. The arctic freeze gave us cabin fever so we left Toledo and drove to Cleveland. It was alright.
Then there was a snowstorm on the way home. It took us longer to get there because we had to drive slow, but it was alright.
|
||||
9. |
Ode to Utah Pt. 2
01:51
|
|||
|
We’ve come to Utah again. We’re sleeping in the Walmart lot, laid out in the back of our rental car again. Soon to be off Sheep Bridge Road in the public lands. We’ll find a plot of sand and claim it as our home.
Tent’s set in the darkness. We prance, lit up by moonlight like dancers on a stage. Headlamps don’t need glow. We’ll spend our nights under sky fires knowing a bright day awaits ahead of us in the red rock desert dust.
We took a day trip to Bryce and spent multiple days in Zion climbing hours for views, chasing heights. We hike to where angels land, observe a point, play peekaboo with hoodoos, grip chain railings, take a chance.
Eat a sandwich, forget about bandwidth, wear long johns 'cause you forgot to pack pants around camp, and admire all you can.
|
||||
10. |
Yellowstone
03:18
|
|||
|
I got a new girlfriend and she needs to reach the coast for an old friend's wedding, but plane tickets cost too much, so I gather roommates, we arrange them dates for the event and load up the Olds Intrigue with the four of us, a pack of white tees, a pair of jeans, a swim suit and a formal outfit each.
Camp at Wall Drug, the Corn Palace is kinda nice (kinda...). Crazy Horse and Rushmore were in our sights, but of an unplanned size. Cave tours and Yellowstone; we camped for 4 nights straight. With department gear we shivered near each other in a worn out tent. With no foam mats on a stone pad, that night was rough, but our days were rad.
Our first National Park, but we did the best we could as twenty-two year old kids unprepared for the woods. Geysers, hot springs, waterfalls, buffalo and elk ran wild. We were sad to leave and sadder to switch to busy Seattle streets later that week.
Little did we know that’d be the start of a love that’d grow into a wedding dress and weeks in the wilderness, quality time and numerous adventurous quests. Exploring the parks of the US. We stared as two, but now it’s three or more for the rest.
|
||||
Earthbook Toledo, Ohio
Earthbook is the solo project of Mark Gorey (Take Weight :: High Draw)
This is my
Earthbook: a sonic expression of journaling, traveling, describing, inspecting, & dissecting life on Earth through artistic/poetic songwriting and documentary-style concept albums and odes.
... more
Earthbook recommends:
Full band Earthbook morphs into Oak Heart
go to album
Have some fun, punk!
go to albumIf you like Earthbook, you may also like:
Fool Me As Many Times As You Like
by Daudi Matsiko
featured on Bandcamp Radio Aug 29, 2023
go to album
somebody had to
by phoneswithchords
The gentle lo-fi songs on the latest phoneswithchords LP develop their granular sketches of childhood and coming of age into full portraits.
go to album
grow your hair long if you’re wanting to see something that you can change
by Field Medic
The new Field Medic LP is the indie rock project's most vulnerable, using sharp humor to make self-reflection emotionally resonant.
go to album
A vibrant vision of "Central Americana" from the Costa Rica-based artist, blending heartland devotionals with playful Tropicália grooves.
go to album
