Jackson's Review of our backpacking trip in the Eagle Cap Mountains:

Hello! Jackson here. So, we went up and did a backpacking trip. However, I am not going to outline the order of events which transpired, as I'm sure others will do so (ie, Dad and Lindsey). So, rather as a prequel of sorts, I fully intend to describe the scenery we observed and the atmosphere the backdrop devised. With complete disregard for societal normality, I will be speaking as if in a medieval high fantasy setting in an attempt to fully convey the beauty we beheld (And maybe with the slight intention of satiating my desire to write in this descriptive style. Notably, without the artifice of AI). To convey these sentiments from these times, I may take artistic license on some aspects of the trail, however I will try to keep it as honest as I may.  I will also use images from the trail we completed alongside photos from various works of fantasy in order to truly convey the experience. (Any photos not taken from the trail we completed will be labeled -NIH- **Not Included Here**)

To begin, we all sat in the car for four hours, and slept overnight in a campground before we made our way to the trailhead. We donned our packs for the journey ahead. We paused at the trailhead and posed for a photo as a family, after we took the photo, we set off on our grand adventure. Within a brief moment everyone in the family began to split off, as natural. Evelyn, Addy, and I at the front, the others the back. I'm not completely sure how the other's hike went, although the three of us made great time and seemed to have excellent endurance. At one point, the leading group made their way to 'The six mile meadow.' We all waited for each other and ate lunch there before trekking on. We came across  river crossing and sloshed through the fluid before gaining massive elevation. Once we arrived at the top, we set up camp. And let me tell you, it was pretty.

        

Once we all broke camp the next morning, we began the next hike, later found to be roughly a 13 mile journey through the mountains. It started casual, wonderful even. The hike was easy going, and laid back. With a personalized pace, we could go for hours. After a slight bit of work, we began to climb. As we passed through the meadows, the wonderful fragrance from each individual flower filled each nostril with an otherworldly awareness. A high point was soon reached, altitude gained with each step. As I began to gradually travel, the pine twisted to birch, weeds to a soft, arched green brush as if from the dreamscape. In the absence of fatigue, miles where gained upon the soft landscape before arching firmly upward, catching the traveler off guard. Work must be given in order to reach the full altitude, the full potential of this isolated world. After this trudge, the land angled steeply downward.

        

Woah.

        

Alas, amongst the hills a meadow may seem to be. As ye ol' traveler gains progress, thee may enter such a world as if being transported. As of all of a sudden, ye find yourself perched upon a bridge built open rocks, a stepping stone layout. placed bare beneath your eyes the forest expands in but a moment, a soft, lush grass encases the ground as if to prevent an eye upon the floor. As we progress upon the dirt pathway,  rich soil overwhelms your senses, the gentle gurgle of a lazy brook passes throughout the meadow before ducking between the trees once again. The trail traverses alongside that brook, easing into a steepened slope of an agonizing hardship. To complete this section is to crawl over the peak and tread toward the lake in desperation.

Once the lake has been reached by desperate means, the trail switches back upon itself. For a slight moment you continue to progress before the trail ducks into a subtle decline in a gradual sloping valley with sharp cliffs upon its faces. Rustling grasses and shrubbery eases itself gently up the slope and a river cascades into the valley before it lazily weaves through the grasses below. With sky as bright as a bluebird, the scenery certainly has its place. As the valley tapers and eases behind us, the cobbled path makes way to a dirt path, worn down and modern. The shrubbery seems to age 5,000 years to the modern day and we make our way back to six mile meadow. The next day we hiked back the way we came and arrived at the car, leaving the enchanting magical environment behind us

Day one- Mile one

River crossings were abundant

Our warm breakfast rock. Little did we know the frost that awaited us the next morning!

Lindsey rocks the homeless look!

I can't help but see a very centered photo of us.

The top of the pass

Fairytale meadows

Jack was awesome at the river crossings

We all did it in our very own style 😆

Monday morning was crisp to say the least!

Find a tree. Use the rope. Hang the food. It seems simple...

This guy could be find anywhere... in a sleeping bag. Whether it was early morning, or lunch stops, there he was!

The entire trip was magical. Pictures, of course, are a poor representation, but we couldn't help but take scenery images. Here are some of our favorites:

We definitely took a detour to hike to the snow, and we left our mark!

Smoke was not a big deal. The first night it added a surreal, mystical glow that can't be captured

Evelyn's Update:

Evelyn here! Last weekend I planned a trip to Revette Lake with some of my friends. We hiked in and camped, and it was a ton of fun! Many of them had never been backpacking before. 

I seriously love this so much... and they are not wrong. -Rachel

This weekend, before we left for Oregon, I got people together to make food and feed the homeless. This was my third time organizing an event like this, and it was the best turnout so far in terms of people and food, so that is pretty awesome! A lot of my friends plan on continuing these events after I leave.

Additionally, I got to job shadow Mike, who's a CRNA, which made me pretty excited about my future career. 

I drove to Missoula on a whim on Wednesday night after work to see one of Josh's shows with Poise, which was awesome, but we had to stay overnight in Wallace and I barely made it to work in time next day haha. I had a great week!

Have a good week!

A couple of weeks ago I finished up my last patient, went back to my desk, and took off my jacket. I sat there for a while thinking about the last 15 years of my career. I thought of this building, this team, and these patients- of how small we were in the beginning, the excitement of growth, and all the twists and turns along the way. It’s been a wild ride. Then I stood up and walked past all the empty rooms to the back door where I usually leave at the end of the day. I paused for a second, looked back, and then looked out into the town and community surrounding me. I took a deep breath, and stepped over the threshold out of my old office as the door closed behind me.

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A lot has led up to this moment, and the last year was one of the busiest and most transformative times of my life. It is impossible to include all the small details, or the conversations, or the multiple difficult decisions that have taken place along the way- partly because of narrative convenience, and partly because things have evolved so much and so quickly that I don’t know if I even could. Here is a very brief and overly-linear storyline that fills in most of the questions that people might have.

In 2014-2021 I worked at one of the very few offices in town that accepted Medicaid patients- most of that time as the lead doctor in a small satellite office as part of a larger organization. We worked hard, and we were very good at what we did, and people liked us, and we grew. As this happened, I got a real sense that we were an important part of the community, and it was extremely rewarding to see my patients in the grocery stores or at my kids’ school events. This was a regular occurrence, and almost universally they would come up and thank me for how they had been treated. They would tell their stories, share their excitement and frustration over small life events, and then introduce their friends and family. At our office, we were providing something for them that they couldn’t receive in many other places- and a lot of times this went beyond great dentistry. For some, in a very real way, we were giving them dignity.

In the early 2020s our area experienced extreme growth, largely accelerated by the covid pandemic. The Wall Street Journal did a piece about how we were among the fastest growing communities in the nation, and the median income skyrocketed to nearly double what it was before. There was a twelve-month period during this time where an average of twenty new residents per day were moving in from surrounding states! To say that this influx caused some growing pains in our little community would be a huge understatement, and it fundamentally changed the economy- mostly for the better. 

But not for everyone. While a lot of industries and business thrived in this new atmosphere, there were still large cohorts of people who were left out of this growth and were increasingly being left behind. To a great extent, the growth was happening because of the hard work of these people, and yet their wages couldn’t keep up with the rapidly rising cost of living. Dentists were hit by this as well, and seeing Medicaid or otherwise marginalized groups became unfeasible for many private practices in order to keep up with the economic and political realities of the area.

As for us- we flourished. Our patient-focused philosophy, new ownership, and the addition of new procedures made it so that we, as a practice, were doing better than ever. But as market forces shifted, like almost every other practice in the area, it became increasingly difficult to sustain our traditional patient base. We expanded our team, and eventually built a new location with more space and better facilities for a growing demographic of patients seeking quality high-end dentistry. My own skillset grew, and I was able to see and do things, clinically, that I never dreamed of being a part of when I was in dental school. It’s been cool. My past patients though- those who were already falling through the cracks, didn’t have anywhere else to go.

These changes were largely responsible for my decision to go back to school and get my master’s degree in public health. Seeing, in real time, how much external factors could affect the health and welfare of individual people and families was both fascinating and a little bit troubling to me, and I wanted to understand it better. Since entering the field last fall, I’ve spent almost a year immersing myself in the intersection of social science, politics, data analysis, and medicine, and I'm more intrigued than ever by how these distinct forces can be intentionally leveraged to impact communities at scale.

I also wanted to continue to provide, as a clinician, for people who didn’t have access to the expansive offerings of private practice in the area. On my days off, I started moonlighting at a public health clinic in Spokane to dip my toes into the world of large, public health administration. Like with the education, I was immediately taken by the multiple moving parts of the operation, as well as by the difficult philosophical decisions that went into its management. Health care, as I saw it, was increasingly being defined more and more by decisions in boardrooms and political committees than those made in the operatory. Working in this world required a specialized skillset, but instead of steady hands and clinical knowledge, the toolbox consisted of analytics, systems thinking, and the ability to communicate across and between groups and cultures.

****-----------------****

Last spring, Heritage Health, the third largest community health center in the state of Idaho, was looking for a new director for their dental program. They were undergoing a massive expansion, bringing dental into a large new facility called The Center For Healthy Living, where it would be integrated with multiple other health services as a hub of public health for all of North Idaho. From there, dental clinics could expand even further into neighboring counties, either with mobile units, or by expanding the offerings of existing brick-and-mortar offices within the organization. In doing this, people who have found themselves without a medical home would increasingly have access to services that are desperately needed. 

So yeah- They needed someone to help guide the organization through this next chapter, and despite my relative inexperience with large-scale operations, they asked if I’d be willing to step into that role.

I said yes, and joined their amazing team a couple of months ago. At that time, my world started spinning, and has not stopped since.

Suddenly, I find myself sitting on a statewide political committee for the Idaho State Dental Association. Suddenly, I am enrolled not only at Boston University for my master’s, but at Harvard Medical School as well for executive leadership training. Suddenly I am setting up lunches and coffee meet-ups with other stakeholders in our community, or giving PowerPoint presentations to a room full of executives, or sitting around a table with other physicians, behavioral specialists, and administrators. Suddenly, I’m applying what I learn in class in real time, earning a seat at the table in 'the room where it happens.' It is exciting, but deeply daunting. The technical requirements don't intimidate me, but the responsibility does- the commitment that I have to my patients (who I still treat), to my organization, and mostly to the entire region that has, in a very real way, become my new workplace.

So, back to this last week…I finished up my last patient, went back to my desk, and took off my jacket. I sat there for a while thinking about the last 15 years of my career. It’s been a wild ride. Then I stood up and walked past all the empty rooms to the back door where I usually leave at the end of the day. I paused for a second, looked back, and then looked out into the town and community surrounding me. I took a deep breath, and stepped over the threshold into my new office as the door closed behind me.

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A quick note to my patients at Syringa: While my primary mission is shifting toward expanding public health across North Idaho, I am not disappearing! I will still look forward to seeing patients at Syringa Dental and Implants for the foreseeable future, though my hours might look a little different. I look forward to continuing to care for each of you while also helping build something that is desperately needed for our entire community. 

A quick note from Rachel: There are very few times in life when you go through a shift, and everything changes. Since September, life has been a pretty wild ride. Things have changed fast, and it has been incredible watching Logan take on these new challenges with gusto. It must be said that Syringa dental is family. I consider myself a de facto member of this family, and I am not sure I will ever experience that again with future practices (this has been tough for both of us). I love you guys- and we are not going anywhere. I am looking forward to football parties, monthly Bunco nights, fantasy football trash talk, ladies nights, and group dates. Family sticks together, and we will see you soon! 💜

1850. I think I'll remember that number for the rest of my life, right along with 1022 and 260 (these are home addresses I grew up in)

We used to be right next to Little Caesars. I loved these little pizzas and was on a first-name basis with everyone who worked there.

Here are a few pictures of the team over the years.

Have a good week!