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SOS Trails

Source One Serenity’s Trail Program

Make Impact in the Forest

Since 2021, Source One Serenity has been collaborating with the Umpqua National Forest to eliminate the deferred maintenance backlog on the 10.6-mile Boulder Creek Trail #1552 in the Boulder Creek Wilderness.

In 2022, we continue the trail work in the Boulder Creek Wilderness, and will also work in the Twin Lakes area and some other locations in the Umpqua National Forest.

Sign up to be on our list for volunteer opportunities

We are hiring!

One or two weeks hitches in the Boulder Creek Wilderness

    Job Description
Apply HERE

Serving Community

Read what Ben H., combat post 9/11 veteran wrote about the importance of trail work for the community mental health

    Red Here

A River Heals

Casting it Forward

A River Heals Unseen Wounds

Frank Moore is a WWII veteran who after his deployment in Normandy in 1944 became a conservationist and land steward. He healed his unseen wounds from the war through the river, his fly rod and steelhead. By experiencing firsthand the healing power of nature, and the rebirth of his soul, he had a new mission to protect the magnificent gem, the North Umpqua River from heavy logging in the 60s and 70s. And he did…

What a stroke of serendipity brought Rusty, co-founder of Source One Serenity, and Frank together in Luxembourg in 2013! Frank became a leading example and a mentor for Rusty to continue serving his country.

How many veterans Rusty already took to the mountains and streams on the upper North Umpqua to let them heal their wounds, express gratitude and experience oneness with nature.

To come full circle, together with other veterans Rusty started building an oak bench to honor and commemorate Frank Moore and to celebrate the passage of the bill on Frank and Jeanne Moore Wild Steelhead Sanctuary signed into law in March 2019. The Sanctuary is 100,000 acres of Steamboat Creek area, a tributary of the North Umpqua River and one of the world’s most famous salmon and steelhead fisheries. The bill ensures that the river will remain as it is today, and protects this place of Oregon life-long from man’s interference. But there is more. As Frank said, it serves us to be a place to experience a rebirth of our souls.

Unveiling the secret…

Oak bench to be placed at Canton campground in the Umpqua National Forest

Mindfulness, Woo-woo, and Fly Fishing

By Elena Lininger

Co-Founder of Source One Serenity and an Army veteran spouse

Mindfulness is such a buzzword nowadays. According to Google Trends, search for this word on Google has quadrupled in the last 15 years! Mindfulness became not only a tool for psychologists to treat their patients’ stress and anxiety, but some big companies such as General Mills, Aetna, Google and Salesforce swear by mindfulness. For example, in the tallest building of San Francisco, Salesforce Tower there are meditation rooms for employees on every floor. Even elite US special forces went through mindfulness training, and it’s been proven to be a powerful tool to improve their working memory and attention.

There are still some people who consider it as a “woo-woo”. I agree that it is something very different, kind of mysterious and it is intangible (it’s not a pill, right?). Also, the effects of practicing mindfulness through meditation doesn’t happen overnight, but regular practice especially on a daily basis brings the healing aspects. It is scientifically proven that mindfulness can help not only with stress, anxiety, pain, and illness, but also with more creativity and better problem-solving.

A wonderful Whole Health Improvement Program team at the Roseburg VA Medical Center offers a range of different courses and classes around mindfulness to our veterans (almost 13 % of the population in Douglas County are veterans!). I also found out that even in our small rural community there are certified mindfulness teachers.

Sometimes we even don’t realize (and we don’t need to) that we are mindful when we are in certain situations or surroundings. When I am on the North Umpqua River, my senses are engaged: seeing beautiful landscape and moving water that doesn’t stop, hearing water burbling, and smelling something fishy and earthy. There are no thoughts, no judgements. It is an experience of being one-on-one with powerful Nature and Universe. One student under Dalai Lama taught me that “non-judgmental observation is mindfulness.” We in the Umpqua Valley are very lucky with abundant resources to practice mindfulness without knowing it: being in green landscape surrounded by magnificent rivers, streams and waterfalls.

My husband’s life was saved by fly fishing. I did extensive research on this, and I admire that fly fishing is actually a very mindful activity. When you’re standing in the water, looking at the stream flow to cast the line, can you think of anything else than just being there? Unless you are attached to your expectations to catch fish (if you do, then just drop these expectations and be mindful!). Although they say that mindfulness has no side effects, but I know of someone who after a fly fishing retreat reported of being drunk on peace.

Gary Zukav with Fellow Veterans

Gary Zukav with Fellow Veterans

A group of veterans met with Gary Zukav, a spiritual teacher and the author of four consecutive New York Times bestsellers. In his book, The Seat of the Soul, and in some of his interviews with Oprah Winfrey, he shared experiences and perceptions of his military service as a Green Beret in Vietnam.

This time Gary Zukav met with fellow veterans on the North Umpqua River of Southern Oregon, and he explained why. In Part 1 Gary tells his story with vulnerability and honesty, and how he has come a long way from the external power of badge, boots, uniform, and weapons to authentic empowerment. From insecurities and fear to experiences that we are more than our minds and bodies, and as he puts it in The Seat of the Soul, there is “another kind of power, a power that loves life in every form it appears, a power that does not judge what it encounters, a power that perceives meaningfulness and purpose in the smallest details upon the Earth. This is authentic power.”

But are we all ready to expand beyond our perceptions of physical reality and into this new realm of experience where “the origins of our deeper values are found”? Part 2 is a conversation where other veterans of several generations share their experiences, and some admitted that it was the most thought-provoking conversation.

As Maya Angelou said, “When Zukav’s ideas stop challenging you, you will laugh with the wonderful laughter of the discoverer who has found a new continent”. Talking to Gary Zukav and Linda Francis under majestic old trees of the Umpqua National Forest is an insight into Gary’s teachings through his books, including The Seat of the Soul.

Be the creator of authentic power on a new continent.

Nature is loud with silence

NATURE IS LOUD WITH SILENCE

By Keith Glovan

Post-9/11 US Army veteran from Roseburg, OR

I have known Rusty [the co-founder of Source One Serenity] for some time now; heard of his adventures but never partook in the action. These past few months I’ve been trying to process so many things on my own always hoping to drown things out with “noise”.

Where we went, nature was loud with silence. Ok, so long story short: Being out in the wilderness with Rusty, fishing, walking, camping. He reminded me that it’s not about the destination…it’s about the journey.

I had a hard time seeing life from a wider perspective. Nature has a way of making a person remember who we are and where we come from. Having the opportunity to completely disconnect from people and sort things out on my own has not only helped me mentally but it has also helped me emotionally and in my marriage.

It’s a great time, Rusty definitely makes it worth while to be in the woods! Bring bug spray, and peanut butter cookies!

Thank you, brother.

If you want to read it in pdf format,

CLICK HERE