Universal Flow: Colorado

A nomad is a person with no settled home, who moves from place to place making a living.

These nomads are the types of people that have a time picturing themselves as the 60 year telling whoever it might be about how they worked for JimBobs Bean Factory since they were 13 and never looked back. These people look at life in the sense of travel, companionship of likeminded souls, and gaining the knowledge of life through hard times and good times while growing and learning from those experiences. Urban nomads have had more than a handful of jobs that have taken them all around the country or world. They chose this lifestyle on purpose in the form of being able to see new places, or just because thats what the universe had dealt them.

Bear Peak in the city of Boulder, CO

Now this is just my philosophy on a good way to live your life. In the year 2014 I had lived in four different cities all in one year. La Crosse WI, Longmont CO, Duluth MN and back to my home town in Kenosha WI. I have gone from being a carpenter, student, welder, professional trail builder and now back to welding. And thanks to Western Technical College in La Crosse, I now have the opportunity to possibly move back to Colorado or become a Yooper through welding careers.

(Yooper: Upper Peninsula Michigan resident)

Driving a packed sedan, leaving Colorado.
Nothings forever.

Moving into my Longmont cottage

For us Generation Y's, this is a hard lifestyle for our parents to be excited about sometimes. Many of them are or have been those JimBobs Bean Factory workers and are hard stuck on finding that one job that you stick with even if it may not be what you're passionate about. But for me, how am I going to know what I am passionate about if I am not exploring the possibilities? Is this a good way to live, I don't know? I have seen so many amazing places in the last year and that is all worth it for me. Sure I am in search of that perfect company and perfect house and perfect atmosphere and yes its degrading to be back home with Mom and Dad but in the end you gain the perspective and appreciation to know exactly what you're looking for. The Generation Y's can see the light at the end of the tunnel. They are focused, determined, and driven, they are just driving through a different tunnel as our parents and grandparents.

Camping at Winter Park, CO

Emerald Lake- Rocky Mountain National Park, CO

To all of the new generations:

In the mean time... enjoy where you are, if you don't... move.

Explore, experience new things, grow, love, be happy and get lost once and a while.

July 2014

This is a pretty late post, but I felt this was a post that needed to be written.

In April I had graduated from Western Technical College with a welding degree, my first college graduation. Yes, I was a little late but I had taken the time to grow and figure myself out (4 years after high school!), but that's another story. I had my first job offer before I had even graduated pipe welding at Blackeagle Energy Services in Berthoud, CO in between Fort Collins and Boulder. This had been a dream of mine to live in Colorado for years and it was finally happening.

Copper Harbor Trails Festival. You must go.

After a few months passed by I was getting restless. I contacted Aaron Rogers of the Copper Harbor Trails Club in Copper Harbor, MI (now under the name Rock Solid Trail Contracting, LLC) and had still had the offer to go and build trail in Duluth, MN. This was also a dream I had really wanted to see through. I had taken many courses on mountain bike trail building including a Trail Master Certification course from Mike Riter of Trail Design Specialists out of Georgia. After much pondering and weighing of pros and cons, I took the job. It was a bittersweet last night in Colorado.

My last night in Colorful Colorado.

I pulled up to a big beautiful newly renovated trail house in Duluth 16 hours later. Before I could even unpack I met the crew at Spirit Mountain, Minnesota's first mountain bike accessible ski hill just down the road from the house. The guys were half way done with Spirit's first downhill race course.

Nils Hempel dropping the rock at Spirit.

Shortly after introductions were made, the DG, also known as the Duluth Grill, was our next stop. This was our main source of nourishment at least three times a week, the place was out of this world. The DG has anything and everything organic, from the Huevos Rancheros Skillet to the Smoked Salmon Wrap to the Quinoa Curry Bowl, this place had it all.

13402: The Trail Haus

Duluth Grill boasting its fresh grown veggies right in the lot.

The Duluth Traverse is going to be a 100+ mile mountain bike trail system that traverses through the entire 26 mile long city of Duluth, MN. We were in charge of building the ending trail sections in the Mission Creek part of the city.

Duluth Travers Map.

Trail Building....what separates the men from the boys. Duluth is a very unique place, a place where you can lose your mind in the woods easily. Many assumptions categorize trail building as digging paths through the woods. Thats half correct. Trail building comes down to a fine balance between building a trail that is a ripping good time to ride but is also sustainable and sheds water correctly. The soil in Duluth made this task extremely challenging. Imagine raking, and shaping miles and miles of art class clay. We dubbed this soil, The GnarClay. Along with dealing with the clay, we were building boardwalks and armoring steep poor drainage areas with paver stones. All of this material had to be hauled in by hand.

Morning misty hike into work.

Beaver pond trail on a misty morning.

Trail serenity.

Zebulan Featherly doin work.

The dreaded GnarClay eating everything in its path.

It was fall, the heat was gone and the colors and rain were here. We had been building for two months now and trails were linking together, boardwalks were connecting spliced bits of trail and we were riding bikes out of work everyday. Even though we were beat tired and struggled to open our hands from swinging tools all day, there was nothing better than gripping bars and riding what you just built all the way down to the house.

Throughout this move, I had met many great people. One of them actually got me into photography. Some of these people I will be friends with forever.
One thing that has really stuck with me is to follow your gut feeling and heart. Do the things you love, take chances, be adventurous. You learn a lot from living in different places and meeting new people. The world is filled with so many diverse people that have a lot to offer you.

Live life to the fullest, open your eyes, stop to smell the flowers and don't look back.