On Mountains

[alpharaposa]

Mountains can be scary. Look at any given mountain, and odds are, it makes its own weather. There might be fog, or daily thunderstorms. It might be covered in dense forest or be a craggy pinnacle above a waste of scree.

It will always be huge. That's what a mountain is- a huge thing of earth and rock.

I've been over a few mountains in my time. As a hiker and backpacker, I've challenged them as day hikes and sometimes as the only way to get to the next place where I'm allowed to camp. I've even camped on top of a mountain. I've beaten mountains, and I've had a few of them beat me.

It can take a whole day to struggle up a mountain on foot. Sometimes two days, if the weather is bad or you start closer to the bottom. It's hard work. And those of us who've been on a mountain know that getting to the top is only half the trouble. Once you're up there, the only way to get home is to go back down.

So, it's scary. And it doesn't really get less scary when you've done it a few times. YOu look at yourself and think, "But I was younger then," or "I had more people to help me."

But if you want to see what the world looks like from the top of a mountain, you're going to have to make the hike. And if you do, you're going to have to accept that it's going to be a hard, long hike.

Have you ever been to the top of a mountain? Yes, it's hard, but it's amazing, too.

So, here's to the mountain. And here's to the trail. And here's to the staff and the old boots that will get me over it all.

Do you want to come?

Comments

[elusivetiger.livejournal.com]

Woot!

[aldersprig.livejournal.com]

Do you want to come?

Yes.

The neat thing about mountains is, even if we all have our own mountain to get over... we can walk them together nonetheless.

[xaq.livejournal.com]

Guess up here we've got one of the few that defy the odds in that first line. The mountains up here absolutely hate the weather. Any time it starts to get anything less than perfect, the first thing they do is disappear entirely.

No joke on that, either; on a slightly foggy day, the view of the area from the waiting area of the airport makes it look like you're just looking at open sky where they ought to be; if you didn't know they were there, you could almost be forgiven for wondering where in the world they came from when the fog lifted.

A little foggier, to where it reaches this one small rise at the end of the runway, and it looks like you're on the edge of the world. It's quite a sight, to be honest.

[zeeth_kyrah]

At the Great Smoky Mountains Natl Park, there is an observation platform up on one of the peaks. When it's foggy, you can't see much of anything, sometimes not even the ground below. But when the air clears all around, suddenly the whole world seems to open up and lay itself out around you.

[aefenglommung.livejournal.com]

Love it. If you'll allow, I'll print it in the next Scuttlebug (church scouting news). If we have room, I might get it into the next NAUMS newsletter, too.

[stryck.livejournal.com]

Go ahead. I don't mind.