In Mountain and Meadow~Colorado Nature Close To Home

26 October ~ 2007

I dressed Ben and Maggie in orange, and got away for most of the week, hiking deep into a wilderness area that I visit several times a winter. It has majestic rock formations with lots of hidden spires and ravines, and is usually accessible except on the worst winters. (I visited it last December 16th. On December 20th we had three feet of snow and I was not able to get in there again until March).

My pack felt good when I started uphill, because my back and legs are strong. All the constant training I do really pays off. I am able to pick up a backpack and head almost anywhere at a moment's notice.

The pack was heavier than usual, because of the extra winter gear I brought along. The days were warm but nights were cold - frost every night. I was warm and cozy in my sleeping bags. (two - I put my summer bag inside my winter bag, making it virtually impossible to be cold). I took the edge off the morning chill by making a campfire, then baking blueberry muffins and topping them with honey and apricot jelly.

I have found that in this wilderness there are usually level areas around the rock formations, where the eroded surface accumulates. I travel off trail and search out the level spots to set my tent upon, with the granite cathedrals towering over and around it.

Our orange vests were just a precaution since it was the second combined rifle season. As it turned out I didn't see any people up there except on the day I was hiking out, down near the trailhead. Only in the Colorado West can you have an entire wilderness area like that to yourself, and your dogs.

I was immersed and surrounded by beauty and silence, and warmed by the steady companionship of Ben and Maggie. It was a full moon, and after dinner us three would hike after the moon came up. We could see anywhere except in the shadows of the trees and the rock formations - then I would have to turn on my light so as not to trip or fall.

One night us three climbed on top of a massive boulder and waited for the moon to top the east ridge. Just before it did I could see the trees along the ridgeline transform into silver silhouettes. When the first moonlight hit us my girl Maggie was drinking in a foot wide basin in the rock filled with melt from last Sunday's snowfall. I then turned and watched my shadow appear and stretch down the west side of the boulder.

I brought books along, since even up there it is hard to be tired enought to fill the night with twelve hours of sleep. I came across a nice quote, which seem to describe just what I feel going up there alone:

"No man is slave and no man is master, facing the sunlight on wild wood and wild fur and eyes. Liberty seeps like health into your heart. The weight on your heart of being an object, being manipulated and having to strive cunningly - all that is lifted away. A wild shy honest delight steals into you. You breathe in a part of your being that had unconsciously been constricted." -_{Lois Crisler}

Up there the days lose their boundaries, and I walk in freedom and beauty and wildness, behind my dogs that are of the same heart. It's something that many people are not even aware is lacking in their life, but I have found I cannot be content without. I disappear into places like this on a regular schedule, knowing that I need it to have an authentic and rich life.

In the long nights you become accustomed to the fullness of silence, and open your heart to the blessed mystery, which the stillness and beauty are a part of.