‘The Great Aspen Breakdown’: One man’s journey from the West Coast to Aspen

Editor’s note: This is the second installment in a series of profiles focusing on the participants in the Writ Large storytelling event. This series will focus on those that make the Roaring Fork Valley what it is.

For two years following the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, Kyle Jason Leitzke partook in van life.

Originally from northern California, he traveled to Canada, Oregon, Washington, and Colorado.

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“I left my life and work and community out there to go on my hero’s journey and travel and follow my calling without really a plan,” he said.

During van life, he met another nomad, and they began a relationship that lasted three months, but Leitzke said felt like three lifetimes, before they went their separate ways once they made it to Colorado. After they split, Leitzke decided to drive his van straight back home to Arcata, California — a place he called home for eight years before he became a nomad.

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It only took him two days to drive from Colorado to California. He got back to his hometown as the sun was setting on his favorite restaurant. He pulled into the driveway and parked. 

“And I asked myself, ‘Am I home, like, have I completed my journey?'” he said. “And the feeling I got, my intuition was ‘No.'”

Part of the reason he went on his van life journey in the first place was to find a new home, but he was at a loss for where that was and when he would find it.

During the week he got back to California, some nomad friends he had met over the last two years were putting on a small music festival in Salida, Colorado. His friends asked him to lead a chakra activation circle at the festival.

Leitzke, a coach, counselor, and facilitator, began his ayurvedic training while he was working as a academic and career advisor for undeclared students at Cal Poly Humboldt, a university in northern California. Ayurveda is an ancient holistic wisdom that originates in India. Through this training, along with yoga and vedanta, he said he is able to help purpose-driven men have clear direction, be emotionally resilient, and feel fulfilled.

A TRIP TO THE PAST

He did not always follow these practices, though. He used to be a depressed, college football MVP. He played offense in college after a lifetime of people telling him that he was going to be a professional athlete.

He was trying to live for his brother, who died in an accident just 10 days before his seventh birthday, by continuing to play football.

At that time, as Leitzke was circling GI Joe toys he wanted in a Toys R Us magazine, his brother was outside playing with a neighbor friend when he was hit by a car.

“The biggest lesson that I took from that is that life is sacred,” Leitzke said. “And if Ryan no longer gets to live, I’m gonna make my life count.”

Leitzke sought out sports and school to fill the void his brother left behind. He met several different mentors through athletes and academics, but he always felt he was missing something. 

The closest he came to filling that void was after he quit football and became a college football coach and career advisor for others. 

But he realized that all of this is not what he really wanted.

“This is because I had an identity crisis,” he said. “I realized in my career counseling that an affinity I have with my students was really helping them develop their identity.”

BACK ON THE ROAD

After quitting his university job, buying his van, receiving his certification in ayurveda, and becoming a nomad for two years, this takes us back to Leitzke ending up in Colorado.

At this point, he just started to get back into in-person facilitation following the start of the pandemic. So, he agreed to helping with the music festival and back to Colorado he went.

“I’ve been really curious about Colorado as a place as a new home,” he said. “I’ve done research online over the last couple of years and also in my travels and visited a little bit with like Boulder and Denver, and Salida was a place that I had heard about. So, I was curious, will this be home?”

His intention was to stay in Colorado for at least the summer, see how it feels, and then make a decision on where to go and what to do in the fall.

Coincidentally, another nomad friend had a condo in Aspen near Hunter Creek. He invited Leitzke to come visit, and HE decided to jump on the opportunity and check out the area for a couple of days.

And only on the second day of his trip did what Leitzke calls “The Great Aspen Breakdown” happen.

The day started out with him doing meditations, journaling, and pulling oracle cards at Castle Creek. One of the cards he pulled was of a mountain, which means stand firm, he said.

With that message in mind, Leitzke left the creek because he had a call with a client later in the day. As he is coming down the hill in his van to get into Aspen, his dashboard lights turn on out of nowhere. Unsure what to do, he continues to just coast until he is able to get into town and park.

He checks the warning codes and googles what to do, but eventually, he starts the van up again, and the lights do not come back on.

“So I’m like, okay, weird, that was really weird, but maybe it fixed itself,” he said. “Let me just see how it goes.”

The van does not go very far, though, before the lights come back.

The next day as Leitzke is on his way back to Aspen from Snowmass’ summer concert series, the warning lights are back. Doing 35 miles an hour on the highway, he eventually pulls over at the Aspen-Pitkin County Airport. He turns off the van and waits.

“Okay, let me just take a few deep breaths here, sit here, and just center myself, calm myself, think about what’s the next step,” he said. “Talk with her (his van is a she, and her name is Elita), and we’re gonna be okay, like, let’s just get back to Aspen. We’ll figure this out.”

Leitzke starts his van again after a few minutes, but the lights come back on again. He was able to get back to his friend’s condo, however, and the next day he calls a couple of mechanic’s shops, but he was unable to book an appointment.

Frustrated and in need of movement, Leitzke decides to head up to Smuggler’s. While up there, he is looking at all of the different mountains around Aspen — Ajax, Buttermilk, Sopris — when he strikes up a conversation with a couple of women.

“I remember … they’re pointing out different mountains, and they say, ‘Oh, so this is in my backyard,” he said. “And I was still very new and just like going with the flow and having some nice conversations with people at the top.”

He carried those conversations down into town with him. Over the next couple of days, he gets restaurant suggestions, yoga class invitations, and social hangout requests, until he is able to get connected with a mobile mechanic.

Based on the sensor errors, the mobile mechanic diagnoses Elita, or Ellie for short, with water damage. But the mechanic cannot find any water damage. He checks the sensors and ports and nooks and crannies of the van, but no water is to be found. The mechanic suggests a test drive instead, and the van drives completely fine. 

No lights come back on. And Leitzke has never had an issue with the van since.

“The divine hand literally was like, ‘No, you’re staying here,’ is how I took that,” he said.

The other event that solidified his destiny to stay in the Roaring Fork Valley was a trip to the Maroon Bells.

Late one evening, Leitzke went up to the Bells. As his eyes trail over the lake and go up the mountain peaks, he realizes the peaks are those that are on his oracle card that he pulled weeks ago. The one that reminded him to “stand firm.”

Leitzke has stood firm in the valley for over a year, and he does not have plans to leave anytime soon. He has lived in Carbondale and currently lives in Redstone, which are two places he has found to be the home he was looking for when his van life journey began years ago.

“I remember I had the thought of, ‘Oh, this reminds me of home,’ thinking of Arcata, California, where I used to live because it’s got this mix of progressiveness, spirituality, agriculture, cowboy, money, art, representation,” he said. “Then this lightning bolt shot through my body, and I see that as a very strong intuitive message. When I have some of these clear thoughts, and I get super strong tingles or some jolt like that, which was one of the strongest ones. I stopped, and I looked over at Sopris, and I think to myself, ‘This is home.'”