Hiking Log 4
Captain’s Log Stardate 220302
Mountains leave me speechless. I’ve driven in the Alps, the Rockies, The Smokies, and the snowcapped peaks of the San Bernadino mountains. The affect is always the same. There is nothing much to say. I can only look. It happened again yesterday as I walked the Window Trail in the Chishos Mountains. All I could do was stop periodically and look. The towering, 35 million year old monsters looked back in silence. I had nothing much to offer in response.
I did learn one thing yesterday. Walking 2.5 miles a day around Johnson City, Texas is nothing like walking 2.5 miles of mountain trail with an elevation gain of 950 feet. Nothing at all. First of all the mountain trail is way prettier with its trees and shrubs and bird life and towering vistas. Secondly, walking over broken ground and climbing rocks on the way downhill, then turning around and going back up is breath-taking, literally. At the end, my muscles reminded me in a myriad number of ways that this was not what we trained for and that I needed a better plan. I agreed.
But even though I felt as though I would die, I didn’t, and a cold beer with my two walking friends made a huge difference as did the cold beers, warm shower, and grilled burgers back at camp. In the end, we once again gathered around the fire to sing songs that made us laugh and cry and feel good before heading off to some recuperative sleep, in preparation for another day on the trails.
John W. Wilson is the author of the Long Goodbye: A Caregiver’s Tale