Get After It A #CUWild Story

Getting after Mother Nature means everything. It takes many different forms, for many different reasons, and satisfies infinite tiny essential nutrients for my universe. The greatest thing I’ve gained, beyond anything else the last year and a half of making Momma Earth my number one gal has taught me, is how to enjoy time alone. You see, I’m the epitome of extroverts, wanting company and good times with friends to take precedence over any me-time, but when I started hiking in the hills of Orange County last spring, I noticed a change. I craved time to think and reflect with no distractions, I loved the aches in my muscles and the burn in my lungs as I slogged up Dread Hill for the first time, the calm of little Red Rock Canyon, the shade of the oaks in Sleepy Hollow. From the very local Whiting Ranch, a solo-road trip up the 1 to San Francisco, to southern Utah (where I’m pretty sure my soul lives), the Pacific Northwest, and the closer-than-you-think San Gabriel Mountains, I’ve learned more about myself, my limits, my thought patterns, my priorities, and my strengths than I thought was possible.

Hiking was reborn in my life as a way to stay active and make more memories whether I had friends to join me or not, but it has spiraled into so much more. I’ve reconnected with old friends over a hike (shout out to Chapman alum
Evan Seccombe ’09 (MFA ‘11)
), made friendships stronger and bonds deeper with my favorite women on Earth (
Kiersten Eberle ‘11
,
Lindsay Taylor ‘10
and
Cassie Enos ’13
), and planned epic camping trips we’ll never forget (Labor Day with
Mallory Arabe ’09
,
John Cosgrove ’10
,
Rico Larroque ’09
and
Lindsay Taylor ‘10
, I’m talkin’ to you). What started as my challenge to stop limiting myself to what I could enlist friends to do with me, has grown, exploded, and solidified as an infectious energy and passion for getting after it. I’ve met countless new people at trailheads, on summits, jumping into rivers, hoofing up merciless switchbacks, hanging off cliffs — all adventurous souls, inspiring me to charge harder, climb with more purpose, savor the details, sip that summit beer a little slower, soak it all in a little deeper.

This will come as no surprise, but the best memories are formed from the least expected circumstances. I could tell any number of stories from the past year and half, but the one that drives it all home, brings together everything that spending time outdoors can mean, was last fall, Halloween weekend, a very early morning hike up Mt. Baden Powell, an 8,000+ foot summit on the western side of the San Gabriel Mountains. Evan and I decided to get up there before the sun, watching the sky lighten with the dawn as we climbed up the Angeles Crest Highway. What started as a clear, perfect morning, creeped into a foggy, glowing, magical, snow-covered ascent. The first glimpse on the side of the road made us erupt in half-nervous, half excited, half-unbelieving laughter. Higher and higher, less and less ground showed between the pines—more and more snow. Was this really L.A.? The first snow of the year, and we weren’t even trying to find it. It wasn’t too far into our four mile climb before we were in a Dr. Seuss-like winter wonderland of frosted pines and pristinely glittering snow drifts between switchbacks. Judging by the lack of tracks in the snow ahead of us, we were maybe only the second people up there since the snow had fallen. Every couple turns was something I’d never seen before, a total surprise, something unexpected. The way the snow covered that log, encrusted this tree, or how frost melted from pine needles and fell like rain all around us, it was so much more than awe-inspiring. The craziest part? Until we reached the summit, we were totally alone. No other hikers, no trail runners, no park rangers, not a soul. The bliss, the sheer joy at having a snow-covered, pine tree strewn mountain all to yourself, in LA, on a Sunday morning, with one of your best friends, lost in conversation about life, love and humanity — you have to try it at least once.

Evan and I are the kind of friends who knew each other in college, were part of a large group of friends but never that close, but somehow reconnected, now feeling like we’ll be friends until we’re unable to climb mountains anymore (NEVER!!). Hikes like these snapped us out of the slump I’m sure many of you have also run into after college, that stale feeling, the quarter-life crisis of “ok, now what?” Evan is now solidly in my five favorite people on the planet club, and it wouldn’t have happened without the adventure, independence and insatiable quest for being outside I’d rediscovered over the last year — proof that energy is infectious, I guess. My first solo hike into the Orange County foothills could never have prepared me for the kind of friendship Evan and I have built among the creeping vines of poison oak, rattlesnakes, soul-crushing switchbacks, snow-covered mountaintops, and early morning escapes in the wilderness.

Getting after Mother Nature means everything. It takes many different forms, for many different reasons, and satisfies infinite tiny essential nutrients for my universe. From learning how to enjoy being alone, to creating and growing those until-the-end-of-time type of friendships, the past year and a half has changed me utterly. My day dreams are now lost in forests, trekking up rivers, sleeping under stars. Trips to Vegas have been replaced with camping trips, European vacations have been replaced with the Inca Trail and the Rim to Rim to Rim hike across the Grand Canyon — plans are in the works and adventure has given my life a direction.

Get After It.

Alison Conners ’10 

acon-designs.com

 

 

 

Alison Conners, or as you may know her, A-Con, graduated with a BFA in graphic design and a minor in religious studies in 2010. She began her career as a graphic designer with O’Neill Clothing the Monday morning following graduation, and it’s been non-stop since. Last fall she took a promotion to work for Billabong, as textile designer, spending her work week cooking up all the artwork (except tee shirt graphics) for the women’s line. In her free time, she’s baggin’ peaks, trekking up rivers, chasing meteor showers, playing her ukulele, and hanging out with her dude crew and gal pals.