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By Issy Arnold

White Sands National Monument, NM

October 31, 2017

Waking up at White Sands felt like I’d fallen through a black hole and flown off to another planet with it’s own sun and sky where normal rules of time and movement don’t apply. It was HOT and WINDY and everything sparkled. I spent the last day digging a massive hole so that I could pioneer a new form of synchronised swimming for when we’ve used up all the water and there are no more swimming pools.

A Rainbow in Our Campsite

By Issy Arnold

Gila Wilderness, NM

October 27. 2017

We went on what turned out to be the most beautiful failed mission I have ever partaken in, to find Turkey Creek hot springs. It was cool to be forced, by chance, to spend so much time in and with the Gila, the last wild river. It was kind of like the opposite of being at Lake Powell and Glen Canyon Dam, feeling the freedom and timelessness that people must have felt being in Glen Canyon before they drowned it. Long may the Gila run free and sparkly in the sun!!

How NOT to get to Turkey Creek hot springs from camp

Cross over the river exactly 4 times, regardless of whether this means abandoning a very defined path

When your instinct tells you that you have reached Turkey Creek and should follow it, ignore it, it doesn’t know what it’s talking about

Assume that every big rock you see is THE big rock Jenn was talking about

Take ‘there’ll be a bit where you feel like you’re off the track’ to mean ‘bushwhack through an area made solely of plants that can spike or scratch you, which definitely has not been seen by another human for at least 50 years’

Convince yourself that the first fencepost you see is THE homestead you are looking for

Whenever you are feeling a bit tired, look around and find any rock with a flat bit on it and know that this must be the rock wall from Jenn’s instructions and keep wading upstream, it’s probably round the next corner

KaraGOATe

By Issy Arnold

Patagonia, AZ

October 21, 2017

We spent the week camping in Patagonia’s old school yard, building with rocks, collecting seeds, having spigot showers and drying out in the sun on the basketball court, riding Golden Gus’s motorbike, meeting all the wonderful people that work at Borderlands Restoration and screaming Girls Just Wanna Have fun with them at the Wagon Wheel karaoke.

One morning a whole family of Javelinas with little chubby babies bounced across the road in front of us on our way to the rock structures.

Among many other things I learnt while in Patagonia I discovered that goats have RECTANGULAR PUPILS

Thanks for having us BR!!!

Watching The Sky

By Issy Arnold

Muley Point, Bears Ears National Monument, UT

October 4, 2017

I’ve been looking up at the sky way more since I came to the desert - the sunsets here aren’t just something far in the distance, they wrap around you like you’re being tucked into bed with a blanket of colour and light, the light in the air is more like water, it feels like you should be able to swim through it, the clouds hang in a different space to where they are at home in England.

At Muley Point I found this tuft of reeds springing out from the rock and decided to weave it into a bed and telescope for watching the sky. I kind of felt like I was floating in space, looking out into the universe with the surface of the moon on my back.

Swimming in a Graveyard

By Issy Arnold

Glen Canyon Dam/ Lake Powell, AZ

September 27, 2017

Your body knows it’s not in the right place in space, you shouldn’t be able to float in what should be thin air. After watching Damnation and seeing the footage of Katie Lee and her friends in the canyon before it was flooded I kind of felt like I was swimming in a graveyard when we went back to the lake after our tour of the dam.  

It made me wonder if there are any places left in the world where we and generations that come after us will be able to go and feel the freedom of knowing that no humans have touched that place for hundreds of years. I somehow doubt it.

We went down to the Lake at sunset and I can kind of see why people come to this weird pop up suburbia concrete holiday camp to feel like they are spending time in nature - it is beautiful. Imagine how beautiful it would be if we weren’t there.

Dancing With The Sand

By Issy Arnold

Angel Peak, Four Corners, NM

September 25th, 2017

Sunny told us our hair is attached to the stars and Daniel said his Grandfather once walked him round a hogan and told him the name for every single piece of wood used to build it.

It was really overwhelming to hear Navajo stories passing down a respect and understanding for the equality of all things in the universe  at the same time as learning about and seeing (and hearing) the earth being ripped open and creatures on the surface destroyed through fracking.

I wasn’t really sure how to deal with all this information so I did the thing you do when nothing else works - I DANCED

As I was dancing this poem popped up on my iPod and it seemed to sum up how I was feeling at that exact moment pretty well.  

Becoming A Rock

Issy Arnold

Wild Rivers, NM

September 11, 2017. Sometime in-between eating compote and marrying the sunset

I sat by the river all day on a flat rock absorbing the sun like a lizard, watching the constant flow of the water and the shapes it made weaving around the rocks.

After a while I got well jel of the rocks getting to sit still in the water all day and feel the river flowing around them without getting washed away like I would be if I got in.

So I made myself into a renegade rock.

Ron’s Farm

Issy Arnold

La Villita, NM

October 4, 2017

Ron’s farm was an absolute dreeeeeeeeeam.  We swam in the river everyday and washed our clothes and our hair and our grubby sweaty skin and got all grubby and sweaty again threshing a field of rye that he gave us to play with and ‘helping’ harvest blackberries and raspberries and grapes by stuffing our faces.

I don’t know if I’ve ever met anyone as passionate and open as Ron in my life, it was amazing to listen to him talk about the process of farming as an art form and to have a chance to be farmers alongside him for a few days.

When we left, Ron gave us each a spoon that he had whittled himself and in a Harry Potter vs Voldemort turn of events me and Paul both chose spoons made out of the same wood (!!!!!!!!!!!) - watch this space for a showdown at White Sands…

Ladling For Gold

Issy Arnold

Rio Grande Headwaters, CO

September 1, 2017

Things that happened at the headwaters

• Me and Ruby discovered our ‘rainfly’ was a flap of fabric approximately 10cm long
• Met two pack lamas
• Discovered washing up outside is 100% more jokes than washing up inside
• Met Bev from the museum who told us all about the characters that used to live in the red light district of Silverton  
• Made raspberry leaf tea
• Watched a herd of mountain sheep from the opposite mountain
• Found a moose’s skull which turned out to be a moose’s pelvis
• Saw an alive moose
• Found the headstone of a man from Scotland named Andrew ‘Andy’ McAndrews
• Discovered the magnificence of the humble woven wheat

On the first day I set off my way to the Great Mary Lakes but got distracted by a waterfall. I’ve been collecting water from each site we visit and I decided I wanted to collect water from the bubbly space in between the water falling off a ledge and into a pool. I couldn’t reach it with my hands so I scavenged some scraps of metal and wire from the ruins of the old mine next to the waterfall and fashioned my self a big ladle to extend the reach of my arm so I could collect the white water.