RODMAN: In this episode of Urban Conversion, I'm reaching out for a little help.

You keep a frenetic pace in order to take care of something emotionally.

Get back to basics and reconnect with nature.

It's like being a million miles away from your office.

What office?

That's right.

This might be just what I needed.

Big ol' day in the saddle, eh Pilgrim?

To clear my head and look beyond the grind.

Awful medicine right here.

I'll be seeing the forest for the trees in this "Urban Conversion."

GINA: My husband Rodman is passionate about creating new businesses and opportunities, but let's just say he's not too eco-friendly.

RODMAN: My wife Gina, she's amazing, but she can be a little over the top when it comes to going green.

GINA: The sustainability movement is not just a trend.

It's a concept that will impact the future.

RODMAN: I'm not against sustainability.

I just need to understand it first.

Yeah, now we're talking!

So I'm taking myself out of my comfort zone... sometimes to extremes.

Wow.

GINA: And we're making it part of our lives.

(horn honking) RODMAN: Yeah, well, most of it.

GINA: Who knows where it will take us.

Welcome to Michigan, welcome to Detroit, Rodman.

RODMAN: It's all part of making our own "Urban Conversion."

♪ RODMAN: Nowadays it seems impossible not to burn yourself out chasing what you really want in life.

Sustainability can apply to many things.

Sometimes it's most important to apply it to yourself.

How hard can you push yourself for a goal?

Or, how far can you take yourself away from what's important to you, just because work is calling?

Sustainability requires balance and right now I have anything but that.

I'm reaching out to my good friend, Reuvain Bacal, a land-based psychotherapist for some guidance.

I definitely think that disconnection from nature and the natural world leads people to feeling unwell.

I utilize the natural world in-session as a resource for people to feel at peace with themselves, connected with the world.

Step into my office.

(chuckles) Step into my office.

Alright.

I'm open minded, but I'm pretty closed with what I tell people.

So Rodman, what's going on?

Working a lot of hours, trying to run the businesses and then, I mean, personally, I've had a lot of stuff.

I can tell my body's not doing what it should be doing.

I should be sleeping.

I work a lot.

I'm tired.

I imagine that you keep a frenetic pace in order to take care of something emotionally.

When people are disconnected from nature and then try to medicate over the experiences of anxiety, fear, lack of trust, with addictions, drugs, alcohol, work; what you see is not feeling whole.

We're living in this very strange life of living in these little boxes with ourselves or just a couple other people and then working all the time and not being in connection with, with what we're actually part of.

I don't get out in nature as much.

I'm working, I'm working, I'm working.

Most people seem to experience themselves as separate.

We are fully part of all of creation, of everything around us.

So I don't have to feel so anxious and separated and alone, I can reconnect with my home, right here.

What I'm inspired about for you is to create some circumstances where you can get realigned with the natural world.

The hike I want to send you on is gonna be really physically rigorous.

I'm going to get you really out of your head and into your body.

I think it's going to be interesting to do the things that he's suggesting.

I know this guy who's a cowboy.

I want to set you up with an immersion experience.

And then when you come back, we're having a fire circle with an elder friend of mine.

That's what I'd like to help you with.

Awesome.

I am down for anything.

I'm just to that point where I'm ready for it.

My name's Josh Baruch.

I'm the owner of Colorado Wilderness Rides and Guides.

We're an adventure travel company for people that are looking for education, for perceived sense of risk, something new that they haven't done before.

Our egos get a little bit big and nature is a great tool for tweaking that and giving us the opportunity to take the time to listen.

Now it's coming out into nature.

We are just sort o of spinning our wheels.

We're getting less productive, we're getting burned out.

This trip, we're providing logistic support and education.

I had to get up really early today.

JOSH: We leave at sunrise because nature is cyclical.

We want to experience one of the cycles on a one day scale.

RODMAN: The sunrise is just beautiful, lighting up the peaks in the distance.

We're outside of Allenspark, Colorado, about 55 miles northwest of Denver.

We're in the foothill mountains.

We always turn off our cell phones.

We want to have an opportunity to get to enjoy the different senses that we have out here.

Alright.

Leave this in the car.

The thing I always tell everybody that comes out with us is, just because you love the mountains, doesn't mean the mountains love you.

We're gonna do a nine mile hike with about 3,000 feet of gain.

Ahhh, I'm used to hiking from my car to the building.

Our biggest issue today would be lightning, if we have an afternoon thunderstorm, if anything happens, my background is an EMS.

Say we run into some big wildlife?

As long as we get distance, then we'll be fine.

We're going to be focusing on two things, leave no trace and tread lightly.

So anything we carry in, we're going to carry out.

Let's hit the trailhead.

Alright.

That sounds great.

RODMAN: So I come up to the trailhead and I'm telling you what -- pristine, beautiful trees, aspens everywhere.

JOSH: We're gonna travel through the subalpine to the alpine, which means we're above the trees and we're going to see wildlife and vegetation transition through these different bio communities.

No.

Have you ever seen any of the bristlecone pines?

They've been around since before the Egyptians.

Oh, really?

Yeah.

So, it's interesting that we have trees still in the United States around that are almost 6,000 years old.

That's crazy.

Yeah.

You take a look at the aspens.

How big can some of those groves get?

Oooh, they get, you know, multiple acres.

We're looking at plant life, we're looking at animal life.

Are we treading lightly right now?

We're trying to tread lightly.

So, this is a two needle pine.

Okay.

Pines are single needle, two needle, three needle and five needles so when we talked about Okay.

the bristlecone pines, that was a five needle pine.

Your single needle is gonna be your Douglas fir, your spruce.

(laughs) What'd you go to school for, treeology or something?

RODMAN: He's taking me through needles and what this means and what that means.

It looks like Chip and Dale.

Looks like an Abert's squirrel.

And then we might even get to see some yellow bellied marmots.

Oooh.

The yellow bellied marmot.

We're about a half a mile in?

I don't know, when did we leave?

I don't know.

(both laugh) RODMAN: We came up to this beautiful little creek.

Got a chance to stop and talk a little bit about slowing down.

I like to stop by things like water and stuff, allow us to recharge.

And when you come out here, you are forced to put your eyes inside and see what you see in here.

We don't always have that opportunity when we're not out in nature.

Been a lot of times when I come out here, again, there's reconnecting with the different senses so I can, you know, take a second to close my eyes for a minute or two, just sort of listen to the water.

(water rushing) You can smell the water, you can smell the pine trees, you smell everything.

It's fresh.

RODMAN: To just stop for a little bit and just kind of take in the environment, was really my favorite part of the hike so far.

Before we get up, maybe you just touch the water, touch the moss.

Let the water sort of roll over and carry away the stressors that you have in your life so you're more present.

RODMAN: There was one point where I looked up and I'm thinking, man, this might be a long day.

The great thing about this is, as they say, in nature, we go one step at a time.

JOSH: Rodman is doing fantastic.

He's pacing himself.

RODMAN: You come into these clearings, and you can just look out and, I mean, it's expansive, just rolling mountains with all these beautiful trees.

That's just gorgeous, I'm telling you.

Spectacular views.

It's like being a million miles away from the office.

What office?

That's right.

I don't know, it's a million miles away.

RODMAN: So I'm walking up the path and the trees are all disappearing.

We're getting above tree line.

JOSH: As you get toward the top, they get really twisted and gnarled due to the weather.

This is the whole Divide.

This is beautiful.

Looking at the whole southern side of Rocky Mountains.

It's a little cold and windy.

We probably have 15 mile an hour consistent gale.

It's probably 25 mile an hour gusts.

It comes up, you can't hear the people around you, sort of disorientates you and it takes your breath away and I don't know if anybody, until they actually go through it, really understands it.

We can see a front that's sitting over the Continental Divide.

This storm will probably hit 'cause you can see how it's swirling.

We could probably make the top, but we're going to probably get hit with weather.

I can see the thundershowers off in the distance to the right, you see them off to the left.

We're seeing that they're definitely getting closer to the peak that we're thinking about going to.

The other objective is to go up Meadow Mountain -- beautiful views.

We're close to tree line here, so if the weather turns on us, Okay.

we can get back down for safety purposes.

The summit ioptional, getting down safely is mandatory.

RODMAN: We decide to adjust our course and instead of going up to St. Vrain Mountain, we went up to a different peak.

Nature kind of dictates to you which direction you're going to go in.

Is there a trail?

There's really no designated trail.

We're just gonna go.

We're going to zigzag up and try to stay on rock.

It's gonna be a hot tubbing night tonight, I'm telling you that, for sure.

If the last little stretch was easy, everybody would do it.

Alright just watch your step, we'll move on some on the rocks.

(wind blows) How about that for spectacular?

Victory!

Yee-haw!

Yes!

Top of the world, baby!

It's a magical place.

One of the great things is, is you can only get up here if you work.

RODMAN: I'm very glad that I did this.

It's beautiful up here.

I think he's had a great experience, a great opportunity to get more aware of himself.

More aware of the remarkable environment that he has around him.

So we're only half way.

I got another half way to go.

Alright.

Well, let's do it.

RODMAN: There's a whole set of challenges going up physically, but a whole different set coming down.

Now you've already summited so you have success in the back of your mind.

On the way down, you're not working necessarily toward a goal.

RODMAN: Coming down the trail, and all of a sudden we heard some big cracks.

Now what is that?

Unidentified large moving mammal.

Ooh.

That sounds good, so it could be a bear.

I honestly think that was a deer.

When I get home I'm gonna tell Gina it was a bear, and it was a big bear.

My uncle used to tell me that before you go in the woods, to detract bears, you know, keep the bears away, Yeah... you'd want to put bells around your neck.

Then when you're in the woods you got to look for bear poop.

Yeah... And then you go, well, how do you know if you see bear poop?

Well, it'll have little bells in it.

(laughter) The best part of a hike right here!

Thank you.

Great work.

That was great.

No, you know, just getting out there, it's beautiful up there.

And a little bit of everything, you know, at each elevation.

RODMAN: We made it to the peak.

It was very empowering.

It's also incredibly humbling.

To be sitting in a position where you see how small you really are in life and this incredible world that we live in.

I'm really, really sore.

Guys like Josh, making it look like it's nothing.

I've been an outfitter for the last 28 years.

I run horses, I do snowcat tours, I do hunting operation.

Basically just figure out a way to stay in the woods.

This is an incredible spot inside of 30,000 acres of national forest.

By living in this backcountry, I have gained serenity, peace, and a lot of happiness.

I plan on taking Rodman down to the Boruine Homestead.

My hope when he sees what's going on in the homesteads is it was really tough back then.

But they didn't look at it that way.

I made it!

RODMAN: Tim's a cowboy, man.

I mean he is the real deal.

The drive up was a little dicey.

Here's my favorite sign.

And look on the back side.

Oh yes.

Got to have a sense of humor.

Why'd you decide to come up here?

TIM: Half of my life I've been riding around, hanging out in the woods and I'd hunt for food in the fall, and my belief is civilization has robbed basic mankind of the skills to survive.

It's a shame.

It really is a shame.

See what you're going to do today...

This is it, what do you think?

That's beautiful.

It's my little slice of heaven.

I mean this is gorgeous, every bit of it.

It's got everything.

ATVs, a cabin with these incredible fixtures.

This is the kind of place where a guy wants to go and just let loose.

I want to show you how we saddle.

Okay.

Oh, that's heavy.

Yeah, that is heavy.

That's probably, I don't know, 50 pounds or so.

TIM: Having a good experience on your first or second or third time on a ride is major.

If you do get that, "Hey I like this."

It's pretty awesome stuff.

When you think about it, the Indians, they rode bareback and that's really the best way to ride, because you get better balance that way and you get a better feel for the horse.

Equitation is really a human mind and an animal mind trying to get the same job done.

So this is my horse?

This is your horse.

His name is Decca.

Man, how am I gonna get on this horse, number one?

Number two, once I get up there, is it just gonna go?

Ahh.

OK, now, hold onto the reins.

Whoa, whoa.

This is where all your, your motion and activity happens with your hand.

It's like my steering wheel.

Yes.

Pressure, release.

Pressure, release.

TIM: My goal when I bring people out here is to find a feel so that you can get yourself comfortable in the saddle and have a little fun.

That's it?

I'll jump on my horse and we're gonna head out.

Alright.

RODMAN: We start down the trail, and luckily I've got somebody who knows what they're doing.

TIM: You have to understand your particular animal you're riding and find out his personality and make the two gel.

RODMAN: As I got more and more into it, I got a little more confident with the reins and all of a sudden, the horse and I started working together.

It was kind of our bonding moment.

I'm really enjoying the horse ride.

They've got such grace and such balance and they're so beautiful.

What do you like most about being out here?

TIM: I guess I like the peace and quiet and I like the expanse.

It's nice to get out in the middle of nowhere.

I mean, there's nothing.

I mean, listen...

Nothing.

It's just you and the wind and the trees and the horses.

I know, right?

Love it.

RODMAN: So we're going through all kinds of terrain, open prairies, aspens that are changing colors.

We come in to this beautiful clearing and... homestead.

Feels good to get off that saddle for a little bit.

TIM: Homestead Act of 1862 was passed in order to get people to come out to the West and stake a claim.

You live there for five years, show that you can make a living off it, you could buy the land, 160 acres for 15 dollars.

They built things well back then.

Did they mill this lumber?

Yeah, a lot of lumber was, 'cause that's all you could really produce out here.

What else is there?

Yeah.

Look, like a puzzle!

What's it say?

Boruine Homestead, 1906.

This is a good way to show someone that's been in the city and knows that way of life, what it must have been like to live this way of life.

Robert Boruine built this in 1896.

Stayed here until 1914 when the place burned down.

After he left, it turned into a brothel.

Seems like people would have to travel a long way to meet the ladies.

Thinking back to then, the things you would have to do to survive up here...

Especially with your short growing season and water and... What if you got hurt?

You got to do it yourself, you know?

And that's what they did.

They had all kinds of little ailment cures of their own.

You had to be self-sufficient, and a lot of people didn't make it.

What it takes to make it out here is grit.

I mean, you really had to have a drive.

RODMAN: It really gives me a new appreciation for what people had to go through.

The original homesteaders had to work with nature.

TIM: You had to have an imagination, because whatever was thrown at you every day, you had to figure out how you're gonna get through it.

I like the cowboy life.

I don't know if I could live it.

I mean it's beautiful up here now.

Year round?

I don't know.

RODMAN: Every trail was different.

Some trails were dusty, some trails were rocky.

Some were steep, some were moderate.

And then we come into this incredible, incredible prairie.

Big ol' day in the saddle, eh Pilgrim?

(laughs) I get so caught up in the day to day of business and when you get out here, everything just kind of melts away.

I need to add stuff like this into my life.

TIM: I think Rodman learned how to find the field with his horse, and check out some awesome country.

He never realized what horses can really cover.

If I were gonna invent anything, it's a padded saddle, because my butt hurt.

It was pretty cool.

I mean, you almost get this bond with your horse where they understand you, you understand them and you're working together.

Day ain't over yet.

Ugh.

It's so different from my day to day.

Yeah.

I mean, this is your day, you came to my office, it'd probably be a little different for you, too, right?

Exactly.

Hey, we're gonna have a little dinner tonight.

You're welcome to stay if you want.

I can't tell you how glad I am.

Tim said, "Hey, why don't you stay for dinner?"

I'm so hungry right now and it's gonna cap off the perfect day.

TIM: You know, we're not here for that much time.

My goal has always been, if you can get 70 years out of here, you're lucky.

And what do you want to do with that time?

Do I think this lifestyle's for everybody?

No.

There's days where I get tired of it.

This is not a job, it is a lifestyle.

RODMAN: We're gonna have this fire tonight to celebrate coming together with nature.

My family's gonna be involved, to be integrated into this growth that I'm going through.

This is a good close to Rodman's journey because it's an opportunity for him to consolidate his experiences and reflect on them.

So we had a visit from Rocky.

We're teaching my kids about appreciating the land.

It's important that everybody connect with nature.

It's an obligation that many peoples of the world have forgotten they had.

If we don't put attention to the laws of nature, to the laws of creation, then we're in big trouble.

And we are in big trouble already.

But I'm an optimist.

I've been asked to offer a prayer and offer a song.

And I'm gonna teach the kids that song, and hopefully they're gonna catch it by the time the fire's ready.

It's really nice to end my journey this way.

We have this spiritual ceremony.

What's the significance of the fire?

At least on one level, and when we hold intention is that when you have an intention, you're feeling deeply into yourself.

It's that place of longing, that only longing touches.

And so it's an opportunity to bridge that gap, between that place of longing where you really want shift and you really want transformation.

I'm gonna offer tobacco here as a way of saying thank you.

Creator and good spirit, I ask you to guide us and support us tonight.

We used the tobacco as a communication with the fire to help Rodman get a clear intention established for what he wants to change in his life.

The nourishment of the experience of sitting around the fire by ourselves or with our people, our family, our tribe, our community, has been replaced where you seem to reach for substitutes to try to mend some kind of emptiness.

We don't have to do that.

We can actually reach for the true nourishing experiences, like sitting around the fire with your people.

I was developing a kinship with the people in the circle.

And in the context of the hunter-gatherer, when you find it, it's done and it's time to rejoice in the feast.

It's hard for you and many of us to experience that sense of satisfaction and enough.

RODMAN: You could feel that it was somewhat of a sacred space.

It was okay to open up to be you, to release, to let go.

I've always believed that if you take care of the people around you, you will always be taken care of.

It's probably a delicate balance between responsible and caretaking.

Sometimes, you just got to get up and say, "When can I stop the hunt?"

And then be able to focus on some of the more important things.

So, Rodman, I'm gonna play the flute here.

Just listen in a way that's really below your mind.

(haunting flute melody) ♪ I was praying, my mom was with me.

My mother passed on a couple of months ago and you know, my mother was a very special woman.

She always, she always encouraged me to slow down a little bit.

To take care of myself a little more.

Moms know some things.

It was just so nice tonight to be talking about balance and going through that, and then to be able to just feel my mom there, kind of sending me that same message.

My intention would be to continue to walk down the path and simplify.

Watching what my mother went through in life and then through death, really put into perspective on the things that I need to start focusing on in my life.

Encourage you to roll a smoke, roll some tobacco.

I never smoked tobacco before.

This is a powerful instrument.

This is powerful medicine right here.

It was a process of bringing in the smoke and then blowing the smoke out to be basically one with the fire.

Life is sacred.

Everything.

And everything is perfect.

It may be painful, may be challenging.

That's how we grow.

To sit there and look at the fire for what it was tonight.

It was different.

There was a spiritual peace to the fire.

There were so many things that were symbolic of what I was trying to achieve just in life, and to actually connect with the fire on that level was very different.

So Reuvain asked Mama Quilla to come up and close us out in prayer and a little bit of song tonight.

When this pack of coyotes, out of nowhere, it was amazing.

I mean, these things came out of nowhere.

And I mean, they were primal.

Help him, all of us in this time of transformation and reinvention.

To do things differently.

New beginnings, new approaches.

I want to ask you, spirits of this land, for a blessing for him, and for his family.

Thank you.

(coyotes howling) The timing of that and the, just the connection with just nature at that point, it's unexplainable.

I want to call a choir here.

RODMAN: You know, it's always funny to have the kids come up because you know they're a little shy and a little timid.

(drumming and chanting) I'm glad we did this.

I hope it was helpful.

RODMAN: You know when we set out on this urban conversion, most of what we've been dealing with have been 'things.'

Like we can change how we get our electricity, but this has been the first time that we've touched on how we can change ourselves.

And then connect again with the earth.

Connecting with the universe, connecting with energy.

I am connected to every single person around me.

I'm not alone.

As a matter of fact, I'm far from alone.

It's probably the most overlooked piece of making any kind of change, whether it's the environment, whether it's sustainability, whether it's any of what we're looking to do in our mission to change.

Learning how to make my own urban conversion has me all over the map.

Cars that run on hydrogen gas or veggie oil?

Making things at home that you can just buy at the store?

Chickens, goats, and bees in your backyard?

It all sounded pretty crazy at first, but the more I explore the sustainability movement, the more fun I have.

Come along with me as my family and I figure out what will work in our household.

It's all a part of making our own Urban Conversion.

♪ ♪ Sustainability is a huge topic.

On urbanconversion.com we cover it all.

We bring you news, how-to, the quick tips for going green and much more.

My education may start on the show, but it continues at urbanconversion.com.

Full seasons of Urban Conversion are available on DVD for 20 dollars.

Follow Rodman and Gina as they explore the sustainability movement through unscripted fun with education as the goal.

To order, please visit urbanconversion.com.