Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening...
This entry was posted on 3/30/2010 7:06 PM and is filed under Paths.
(January 10, 2010) It’s been a long time since I have blogged, particularly about my walks. But my most recent hike was my first hike in snow and so beautiful and inspiring that I was moved to record the experience.
I started up the trail, alone in the snowy woods, feeling very much like I was in a Robert Frost poem. The snow blanketed the woods around me, only punctuated by branches of red berries arched over the cool stillness. There was a set of footprints on the trail, the first to have traversed this path since it snowed, and I followed those to find my way until they abruptly stopped at a fence about half a mile up and turned back. I looked ahead and saw the break in the trees where the trail likely began again, and decided to go on. Soon I saw an animal’s footprints in the snow that I guessed to be a bobcat’s. I followed those up to guide me, enjoying the sensation that I was the first person to have made it up this far since the snowfall. It was harder work than I expected, the snow shifting underneath my feet, like running in dry sand. But at that point I decided that I was determined to make it to the top of the mountain.
Then the animal’s footprints veered off the trail, and I was left only with clean white powder before me. Following the line of the trees where I imagined the trail went, I went on. Occasionally, I veered slightly off course, sinking into the snow up to my knees, but self-corrected and got back to the shallower snow over the trail.
When I reached the summit, I was elated, as if I had climbed Mount Everest. The vistas were incredible. I could see for miles, could see the property below me from there, the mountains yet to climb in the distance...
On the way down, I followed the path I had forged. Coming up, I had followed the lead of rational thought in human tracks until they could only take me back where I came from. Then I had followed the path of nature and instinct in animals until they went down the side of the mountain where I couldn't follow. And then I created my own path to the top of the mountain, and my own footsteps led me home. Some great life lessons on this hike.
