Put the Phone Down 📱
For the last few years, early May has still been well and truly ski season for me. As days grow longer and the Salt Lake Valley flourishes, I get up earlier and earlier for weekend missions or sprint up after work in search of slush and glowing sunsets.
Not so much this year. The lack of any sort of snowpack, plus an avalanche scare in mid-April, essentially spelled the end of any spring skiing dreams for me. Instead, I started May off with a long weekend in the San Rafael Swell on a bikepacking-light mission that I’ve been wanting to go on for years. While it was led by friends from Salt Lake City, I’d never met most of the other participants.
The desert holds a special place in my heart. Its vast, expansive and desolate nature evokes awe in a way very few landscapes manage. The endless sandstone puts our size in the universe into perspective, and it’s been my go-to escape to unplug for a weekend since I moved to Salt Lake.
The four days of desert bikepacking with relative strangers was just that, a chance to unplug, but it was also so much more because of it. With little to do but drink coffee, bike and talk around a fire, 14 people quickly became fast friends. Even, briefly, became family. Tears were shed, belly laughs abounded, sunburns crisped. And I’ll cherish the chance to connect with people I wouldn’t normally encounter in everyday life. Over the fire or sharing strenuous miles in the saddle, there was no temptation to be pulled away by technology. Life was simply lived in each specific moment.
There will be a full story in a later issue of our sister magazine, Mountain Flyer, if you want to check it out. But for now, find a minute to put your phone down, close your computer and sit outside. With friends or strangers. We’ve all got more in common than we think, and it’s beautiful when we’re reminded of that.
—Liam
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