Hard Hike Home

Long and strenuous is what my day was like yesterday, beginning after breakfast and loading my pack, during the long walk out from my high mountain campsite, trying to make it to the truck before dark.

This hike was tough enough that more than once I questioned my resolve and strength to get that far. I wondered if I was losing a little of my edge, as the years past fifty roll on, but when I saw how exhausted my three year old border collies were I figured it was just a darn hard trail day

At midday I stopped at a three foot wide stream, to eat and drink and hopefully to regain some energy that the miles of uphill walking had drained. I fed Ben and Maggie what was left of their food, then the three of us took a nap in the shade. Sleep when you are that tired comes easy, and seemed right after I laid down.

I have no idea long we were asleep, but it must have been quite a while because when I did finally get up and shouldered the pack my muscles were no longer sore, and I made it over the second ridge and to my truck at least a half hour before dark.

Now back home and a good night's sleep removed from the physical demands of a long backpacking trip, the images of what I experienced in the days before the hike fill my thoughts. I was the only one camped at the lake, probably because of its distance in and the lateness of the season, when thunderstorm bring sudden snowstorms up that high. Most of the time the lake was rough like the weather up there - dark and gray and choppy from the clouds and the wind coming down from the alpine.

But I saw it one day in a different light, on a morning when not even a breeze broke the surface, and the lake was brightened by the reflection of the surrounding peaks in its depths. Nature is both rugged and unforgiving, but with the will to stay in spite of whatever comes, you may be there when she reveals another side, and then you can consider yourself lucky, and probably blessed, for paying attention, and seeing.

"if we go do not go seeking divinity, we are not likely to find it" Scott Russell Saunders

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