Yoga instructor Jelena Lepesic strikes eagle pose on a mossy rock.
Photo: Crai S. Bower
September 2008 | Escape the Pace
Off the Mat, Into the Wild
by Crai S. Bower
Yoga fills the pages of Conscious Choice. So it appears somewhat hypocritical to write a column about active travel here and not at least attempt yoga. After all, Dr. Steven Polyak, UW epidemiologist, age peer and fellow hockey player, recently completed 60 straight days attending a daily bikram yoga class. His “streak” (if yoga has streaks) was only upset by a scientific conference in Brazil. I am sure Steve is back sweating out each morning as I write this. If I can skate around him, why can’t I do yoga around him?
Though “hot yoga” was definitely not for this beginner, I was confident I could find an outlet that would combine my desire to be outdoors with an introduction to this national fitness trend. If Woody Harrelson, a devoted practitioner, could learn to twist and breathe, I could too. When an associate mentioned practicing yoga deep in the Sunshine Coast archipelago, I knew I had found my calling.
I flew from Vancouver’s South Terminal, landing in Port Hardy, and then flying over the scattered mosaic of islands and sea to the Nimmo Bay Lodge, an outpost of eight cabins, a billiards cottage and a floating dining hall. The entire property is powered by a magnificent waterfall — the reason owner Craig Murray chose this spit of land more than twenty years ago.
Morning yoga begins at 7:15. I rise, put on my most LuLu Lemonesque garb (a pair of shorts and a T-shirt) and head to the drying room, aka yoga studio. Instructor Jelena Lepesic, (“Jelli”) awaits me and two other students. The “studio” is not designed for hot yoga, but it is a drying room, and thus warm. I am awash in perspiration by the time I am instructed to lean back in the Camel Pose; walk my eyes down the wall. Alas, my eyes never “stretch” beyond the ceiling. I exit the class still seeking the endorphin rush I’ve heard is one palpable dividend from all that effort. One morning down, Polyak.
After a couple of hours casting for pink and Coho salmon (with great success), we collect Jelli and two other students for an afternoon session of wilderness yoga beneath the spectacular Fletcher Falls, a 200-foot cascade deep in the woods.
Yoga outdoors, while a staple of many yoga retreats, is not a common practice for most students in Seattle. Yet Saiko Flak, one of Seattle’s esteemed instructors, believes practicing in nature enhances every virtue we seek in yoga.
“When you practice in nature you’re less inclined to be competitive,” she explains. “You feel more limitless physically, you stretch your body toward, not the ceiling, but towards the sky. Your body feels boundless. It’s also a lot easier on your body to dig your feet into the grass than it is on the hard floor.”
Saiko, who teaches a drop-in class every Tuesday evening in Wallingford’s Meridian Park, first practiced poses outdoors as part of a photo shoot at Snoqualmie Falls. She says outdoor yoga serves as an excellent reminder that yoga is a meditative practice and not a competition.
“You come into the studio and you’re thinking about practicing for your body, but outside everyone is smiling, there is no mirror to check your body,” she says. “Having your bare feet on the earth keeps you grounded.”
Back in the woods, Jelli runs through a series of poses as I shoot four-score photos. When she turns the camera on me I do my best to stretch and bend and become one with the zenvironment, all without tumbling off the rock into the rushing stream. I am certain that, were I not geared up in waders, I would have felt taut and limber. Tragically, waders don’t lie.
But observing Jelli in the wilds, positioning herself upon a mat of moss beneath the awesome energy of a 20-story cascade, compels me to continue the practice when I return home to Seattle.
Who knows? One day, I might even be able to bend over and snatch that heart-shaped rock I spied glistening beneath the frothing stream, that is without bending my knees, or falling into the stream.
The Details
Nimmo Bay Heli-Resort, Box 696 Port McNeill, British Columbia V0N-2R0; nimmobay.com
Saiko Flak, saikoyoga.com
Crai S Bower has played competitive hockey for 41-years. He has “played” yoga exactly thrice. Read about his other discoveries at FlowingStreamWriting.net
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