Cindy Burkart Maynard's Blog
June 20, 2019
Camino de Santiago 500 miles across northern Spain
Now I begin. For almost a year, I have been drawn to the Camino de Santiago de Compostela like iron filings to a magnet. I never understood why. When I try to explain this strange obsession to myself, I find no reasonable explanation. Instead a list “virtues” bubbles up to the surface. These are my intentions in walking the Camino.Simplicity: All I truly need can be reduced to a very few items weighing less than ten pounds. The many things I own, are all “frosting in the cake,” distractions from what is really important. I intend to carry home with me a sense of simplicity, and appreciation of how little I actually “need.” Clarity: My life is cluttered with too much busy-ness. I intend to sweep away my attachment to all those busy things that fill my days, and to come home with clarity of purpose. I will have more energy to dedicate to those things that are truly important. Penitence: I am burdened by the memory of all the times I have fallen short, times I have been hurtful, negligent, spiteful. By acknowledging my many short-comings I hope to achieve my next intention . . . Forgiveness: I intend to lighten my psychic load of guilt by achieving forgiveness for myself and the others in my life who have wronged me. Acceptance: This is a “coming of age” journey, a “change of life” celebration. I know the downhill slope is before me. I intend to accept it as gracefully, as I can without rancor. Endurance: A strenuous physical challenge has always been for me a metaphor for the ability to soldier on even when it becomes painful. At that point, the meaning of the game changes from finishing the marathon, beating my last 10K, or walking across Spain, to the deep breathing, concentration, positive self-talk needed to pull me through. I intend to return home with a renewed faith in my ability to endure. Openness: My busy-ness, my many self-imposed rules and disciplines, have weakened my flexibility. It has grown harder to throw my heart open to people who are not like myself, experiences that have not been carefully orchestrated, and instead revel in the unscripted opportunities that life gives me. I intend to return with a more open heart and mind. Attentiveness: In my “nose to the grindstone” existence, I have often failed to attend to the small wonders, unexplained blessings, senseless beauty of life. I intend to learn to “stop and smell the roses” strewn across my path. Connectedness: All is connected. There is a great spider web that binds all human beings, non-human beings, and non-beings, all the past, and all the future together in one huge, sticky, fibrous mass of connectedness. My body contains the same stardust as yours, the same stardust as the first single-celled manifestation of life, the same stardust that makes all the planets and galaxies of the universe. I have felt this connectedness often through my deep love of nature and my love of history. By walking in the footsteps of Charlemagne, El Cid, Pope John Paul II, St. Francis of Assisi, Lorenzo de Medici, many kings and queens, and millions of pilgrims of every description, I intend to feel this connectedness in a new, more profound way.If you haven’t seen Martin Sheen’s movie, The Way, you might want to check it out. It’s a good visual of what the Camino looks like. https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/the_... you want to know more about the Camino, you can check this out: http://www.caminosantiagodecompostela...
March 29, 2019
Soyala has arrived!
It's almost as exciting as winning first prize at the high school track and field day. The analogy is apt. It feels like I've stayed in my lane, jumped the hurdles, kept my mind on the finish line, and won the race. It's also a bit like giving birth, with many doubts and worries, a much longer gestation period (two years), but without the pain. "Soyala: Daughter of the Desert" is out there in the world. Will anyone notice her? Will anyone appreciate her? I'll do my best to support her and encourage her. To my mind, she is a beautiful creation. I hope others will agree.
July 21, 2018
Ghost Town Tour - Ashcroft
Ghost Towns #1 - Ashcroft, COThe
Ghost Town tour started out as mildly as summer day in the high country. A smooth paved road wound its way up Castle Creek. It was a pleasure to escape the devilishly hot weather on front range and luxuriate in mountain scenery.First stop on our tour was the town of Ashcroft, 12 miles south of Aspen, at an elevation of 9,500 feet. Now Ashcroft is a huddle of nine or ten ruined, weather-beaten buildings. This is all that remains of the great dreams and high aspirations that created the town. The first dreamers to envision prosperity in this high mountain meadow were C.B Culver and W.F. Coxhead, a pair of prospectors who believed the area they originally called Castle Forks City showed as much promise of riches as the boomtown of Leadville. Within a few short weeks they attracted prospectors, laid out streets and built a courthouse.The Tam O’Shanter-Montezuma and other mines above Ashcroft originally produced a bonanza of silver, and the town mushroomed to over 2000 residents, including, for a short time, silver king Horace and Baby Doe Tabor. Almost overnight two newspapers, a school, sawmills, and a smelter and 16-20 saloons, sprang up. But the boom was short-lived. Within a year the mine closed, and population dwindled to only 50 residents.Interest in the Ashcroft area revived in the 1930s when T.J. Fiske a former Olympian bobsled racer and investment banker teamed up with Ted Ryan, financier, and Robert Rowan, real estate magnate. These visionary high-rollers had dreams of developing a European-style ski resort to rival St. Moritz. They got as far as building rustic accommodations called the Highland-Bavarian Lodge where visitors could rent a room for $7 per day, take sleigh rides up Castle Creek Valley, and ski back down to the lodge. But World War II put an end to their grand plans for a ski resort. During WWII the Tenth Mountain Division trained at the lodge near Ashcroft. By the time the war had ended, interest in ski resort development had shifted to Aspen, and the grand plans for Ashcroft were scrapped.Ashcroft still tantalized dreamers and visionaries. In 1948 Stuart Mace, who as a conscientious objector, supported the war effort by commanding the army’s canine division rather than carrying a rifle, discovered the Ashcroft area. After the war he relocated his dogsled operation from Boulder to Castle Valley and negotiated a lifetime lease with then-owner Ted Ryan in exchange for Mace’s stewardship of the land. Stuart Mace, and his wife, Isabel, built the lodge they called Toklat, Inuit for glacial mountain valley. There they raised five children. Stuart used Toklat as home base for his dogsled operation. His dogs gained notoriety starring in the TV series Sgt. Preston of the Yukon. With his rugged good looks, he had the perfect appearance to play Sgt. Preston. Instead he filled in only as stuntman for the program. He was a fierce defender of the natural ecosystem, sometimes vociferously confronting offenders he found abusing the land.In 1987 Stuart Mace added a studio/workshop/gallery featuring weavings from the Mexican Village of Teotitlan del Valle, Oaxaca, Mexico. In 2004 ACES, (Aspen Center for Environmental Studies) bought Toklat. The Toklat lodge now hosts a variety of environmental classes.Today Ashcroft is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. A well-maintained walking path winds through the site, and interpretive signs point out the town jail, post office and saloon. On the morning we visited the small museum was open and Natalie Mase and Katya Galambos were ready to interpret the history of Ashcroft for visitors. The walls of the tiny building that serves as the museum are covered with historic photos, and Natalie and Katya are happy to explain Ashcroft’s story. “Who stayed at the hotel?” I asked. “There have been rumors of it being a brothel,” Natalie said with a sly smile. “It might have been a boarding house too.” Katya offered. “If you were a miner, you came up here for the summer and didn’t want to commit to building a cabin. Miners weren’t really looking to commit to a town and contribute to a community.” She explained. “They were trying to strike it rich, and if you didn’t, you moved on.” “The hotel may also have been useful to promote the area. As a fund raiser, you try to convince investors that your claim was the best, a good thing to invest in,” Natalie added. A nice big hotel with crenulated decorations proclaimed this place as a good bet.“The town was actually well positioned to outlast rival Aspen until the 1887 decision to take the Denver & Rio Grande Railroad line into Aspen. The center of gravity immediately shifted to the rail corridor and many Ashcroft residents simply packed up and moved, taking their tents or houses with them on wagons or skids.” (pinecreekcookhouse.com/Ashcroft/histo... decades the town’s last original resident, Jack Leahy, lived in his small cabin on the edge of the formerly bustling. According to his obituary in the Aspen Times “Jack was a most unique and colorful character. In fact, some referred to him as being a human paradox. He was a true pioneer of the old West, a typical old prospector, yet he was one of the most highly educated men in the Rockies. He led the way to the rich Aspen-Ashcroft mining district. Thousands followed him— then left when mining played out— yet he stayed and thus became both the first and last resident of Ashcroft.” With Jack’s passing, Ashcroft became an official ghost town.
Ghost Town tour started out as mildly as summer day in the high country. A smooth paved road wound its way up Castle Creek. It was a pleasure to escape the devilishly hot weather on front range and luxuriate in mountain scenery.First stop on our tour was the town of Ashcroft, 12 miles south of Aspen, at an elevation of 9,500 feet. Now Ashcroft is a huddle of nine or ten ruined, weather-beaten buildings. This is all that remains of the great dreams and high aspirations that created the town. The first dreamers to envision prosperity in this high mountain meadow were C.B Culver and W.F. Coxhead, a pair of prospectors who believed the area they originally called Castle Forks City showed as much promise of riches as the boomtown of Leadville. Within a few short weeks they attracted prospectors, laid out streets and built a courthouse.The Tam O’Shanter-Montezuma and other mines above Ashcroft originally produced a bonanza of silver, and the town mushroomed to over 2000 residents, including, for a short time, silver king Horace and Baby Doe Tabor. Almost overnight two newspapers, a school, sawmills, and a smelter and 16-20 saloons, sprang up. But the boom was short-lived. Within a year the mine closed, and population dwindled to only 50 residents.Interest in the Ashcroft area revived in the 1930s when T.J. Fiske a former Olympian bobsled racer and investment banker teamed up with Ted Ryan, financier, and Robert Rowan, real estate magnate. These visionary high-rollers had dreams of developing a European-style ski resort to rival St. Moritz. They got as far as building rustic accommodations called the Highland-Bavarian Lodge where visitors could rent a room for $7 per day, take sleigh rides up Castle Creek Valley, and ski back down to the lodge. But World War II put an end to their grand plans for a ski resort. During WWII the Tenth Mountain Division trained at the lodge near Ashcroft. By the time the war had ended, interest in ski resort development had shifted to Aspen, and the grand plans for Ashcroft were scrapped.Ashcroft still tantalized dreamers and visionaries. In 1948 Stuart Mace, who as a conscientious objector, supported the war effort by commanding the army’s canine division rather than carrying a rifle, discovered the Ashcroft area. After the war he relocated his dogsled operation from Boulder to Castle Valley and negotiated a lifetime lease with then-owner Ted Ryan in exchange for Mace’s stewardship of the land. Stuart Mace, and his wife, Isabel, built the lodge they called Toklat, Inuit for glacial mountain valley. There they raised five children. Stuart used Toklat as home base for his dogsled operation. His dogs gained notoriety starring in the TV series Sgt. Preston of the Yukon. With his rugged good looks, he had the perfect appearance to play Sgt. Preston. Instead he filled in only as stuntman for the program. He was a fierce defender of the natural ecosystem, sometimes vociferously confronting offenders he found abusing the land.In 1987 Stuart Mace added a studio/workshop/gallery featuring weavings from the Mexican Village of Teotitlan del Valle, Oaxaca, Mexico. In 2004 ACES, (Aspen Center for Environmental Studies) bought Toklat. The Toklat lodge now hosts a variety of environmental classes.Today Ashcroft is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. A well-maintained walking path winds through the site, and interpretive signs point out the town jail, post office and saloon. On the morning we visited the small museum was open and Natalie Mase and Katya Galambos were ready to interpret the history of Ashcroft for visitors. The walls of the tiny building that serves as the museum are covered with historic photos, and Natalie and Katya are happy to explain Ashcroft’s story. “Who stayed at the hotel?” I asked. “There have been rumors of it being a brothel,” Natalie said with a sly smile. “It might have been a boarding house too.” Katya offered. “If you were a miner, you came up here for the summer and didn’t want to commit to building a cabin. Miners weren’t really looking to commit to a town and contribute to a community.” She explained. “They were trying to strike it rich, and if you didn’t, you moved on.” “The hotel may also have been useful to promote the area. As a fund raiser, you try to convince investors that your claim was the best, a good thing to invest in,” Natalie added. A nice big hotel with crenulated decorations proclaimed this place as a good bet.“The town was actually well positioned to outlast rival Aspen until the 1887 decision to take the Denver & Rio Grande Railroad line into Aspen. The center of gravity immediately shifted to the rail corridor and many Ashcroft residents simply packed up and moved, taking their tents or houses with them on wagons or skids.” (pinecreekcookhouse.com/Ashcroft/histo... decades the town’s last original resident, Jack Leahy, lived in his small cabin on the edge of the formerly bustling. According to his obituary in the Aspen Times “Jack was a most unique and colorful character. In fact, some referred to him as being a human paradox. He was a true pioneer of the old West, a typical old prospector, yet he was one of the most highly educated men in the Rockies. He led the way to the rich Aspen-Ashcroft mining district. Thousands followed him— then left when mining played out— yet he stayed and thus became both the first and last resident of Ashcroft.” With Jack’s passing, Ashcroft became an official ghost town.
March 12, 2018
Teaser: First paragraphs from the new story I'm working on
Here's a teaser, the opening paragraphs of the story I'm now working on. What do you think? (Thanks John Hemmen for Raven image)The raven’s glossy wings sliced through the dry air, iridescent blue-black flashes reflecting the hot summer sunlight as he banked to the right following the ridgeline below. From high above, the raven searched for food. At this mid-day hour, he had the skies to himself; the other birds had long since abandoned their dawn chorus and sought shade andshelter among the three-leafed sumac and saltbush. Raven glided almost effortlessly on strong currents of warm air rising from the heated land below. The landscape unfolded below his outstretched wings. High mesa tops, pocked with juniper and pinion pines, erupted irregularly from the dry scrublands. The mesas might offer astringent juniper berries or dark red chokecherries to eat. Spacious rolling dry lands below the mesas looked barren from this height, but the raven knew that the sagebrush, saltbush, and rabbitbrush bushes scattered throughout the dry bunchgrasses sheltered snakes, scorpions, small birds, and desert hares. Deeply-cut arroyos, ravines that slashed through the landscape. Though dry at this time of year, their nearly vertical banks gave silent testimony to the floods that would flash through them when the snow melted, or a thunderhead let loose a torrent of rain. The arroyos led to the great river winding through the semi-desert landscape. An oasis of green lined the banks of this precious river, the only year-round water in this dry land. Below the high bluffs that embraced the river, cottonwood, alder, willows, marsh grasses, reeds, river otters, and fish flourished along its banks and in its waters. A resonant call came from upriver far below, almost a mile away. Raven knew this call. A gurgling croak produced at the back of the throat was a signal that another raven had found food. The prey must have been big enough to share – a deer carcass abandoned by a mountain Raven tucked in his glossy wings and swooped down he was barely aware of the two-legged beings who shared this landscape with him
February 20, 2018
Check our radio interview on KSJE Farmington
Bob and I were recently interviewed about our book, Ancient Skies Through Ancient Eyes, and our/my other books It was fun. Check it out
