YOLO Journal Issue 12 - Flipbook - Page 96
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never overwhelm you or ask something
impossible.
Founders and husband-wife duo
Yarrow Schley (avid outdoorsman,
formerly of LA’s vaunted The Ashram)
and Angela Barale (plant-based chef/interior designer) are disarmingly humble and
down to earth. After holding retreats for
five years at a nearby rented facility, they
now host out of their beautiful home
overlooking breathtaking Stinson Beach
and the nearby boho-hippie enclave of
Bolinas. Many of the other guests on
the retreat are repeat visitors, and they
assure us this new location is even better
and more personal than before.
I’d experienced the odd euphoria-inducing endorphin rush or so-called
“runner’s high” in the past (a weeklong
juice fast, intensive “hot/fit” power
yoga classes). But the combination of
these adrenaline boosters compressed
into a long weekend catapults the body
well past its comfort zone and into that
perpetually floaty, energetic state where
you’re dancing in the clouds. And when
the friendly hiking guides dole out five
almonds after a climb up a steep ravine,
you’ll savor these like a ruminant animal
chewing its cud and swear they’re the
best damn nuts you’ve ever eaten. After a
couple of days—of swapping out morning
coffee for herbal tea and eating small vegetarian plates in lieu of meat washed down
with alcohol—it all just starts to feel
very natural. It’s as if your body, which
you’ve coaxed into days of detoxifying, is
gratefully granting you a reset.
Photographs courtesy of The Coast Ridge
There’s something intoxicating about
hiking the Pacific Coast in Northern
California. The air is naturally aromatherapeutic, as you breathe in a sweetand-salty combination of redwood and
pine mixed with the ocean breeze, the
mist lightly spritzing your face.
While I now live abroad, I grew
up nearby and often miss this sensation.
So when my wife surprised me on my
birthday with news that she’d booked us
a four-day retreat at The Coast Ridge in
Stinson, California, I was thrilled. She
didn’t share many details, raising my
suspicions, and upon arrival at the lodge
my fears were confirmed as I spotted a
scale and measuring tape in a corner and
assumed our celebratory getaway would
involve some amount of privation.
But here, I quickly learned, the point
is to see what our bodies are capable
of, not what they can live without. It
was somewhere during the first of two
treks our first day, between ocean-vista
switchbacks and ladder-climbing over
creeks, that I realized this place was
extraordinary. For starters, there
are the West Marin forests: babbling
brooks, wild mushrooms and exotic
ferns, moss-covered rocks, and, of
course, panoramic views of the Pacific
and the Golden Gate playing peekaboo
along every trail. Also, the four days
are jam-packed with strenuous hiking,
power and restorative yoga, core/cardio
workouts, nightly deep tissue massages
and group bonding sessions by campfire.
But it’s all curated in such a way as to
