Day 26. Part 1. March 26. Mile 332.5 to Mile 345.3 (Roosevelt Lake Marina)

Day 26. Part 1.  Sunday, March 26. Mile 232.5 elev. 4796 to Mile 245.3, elevation 2103. Walked 12.8 miles, 1702 ft up, 4585 ft  down.  Grade 463.2 ft/mile. (plus a couple of mostly level miles off trail by accident) 

Dear Trail Friends

Today was a beautiful day. Yesterday's decision to stop striving to meet my plan, and to reduce my mileage to 15/day, worked magic. I stopped trying to press my body to walk faster. Instead I told my body to walk at whatever pace gave her pleasure. 

I realized as I walked that one of the joys of solitude on the trail is settling into an intimate I-thou relationship with my body that other sentient being that dwells within me but seems so different from my verbalizing/verbalizable consciousness. Trying so hard to get in maximum miles a day I was being more slave driver than atuned companion. I could feel immediately the renewed rapport, the sense of connection. Also the quality of time changed. Instead of something I was rushing through toward a goal it became a very spacious moment. As I walked I was much more keenly aware of the spaciousness. I am so grateful I was able to let go of my plan (and come up with a plan for how to do so). 

Photo 1 expresses my feeling about the day. I see a butterfly in s thistle blossom. I bend to photograph it, first at a distance, then closer and closer. It does not fly away. Instead, it opens its wings. 

 

Chris and I have a framed poem about thistles. If I had it I would include it in this blog. It evokes a sense of an afterwards - a time after we humans are gone - when the thistles will still be here. So the photo for me captures two senses of time: the butterfly fragility and transience, the thistle toughness and endurance. A kind of kiss between those two qualities of time and of being. 

I began hiking in the dark around 5:30. I missed seeing the Crescent moon (was it already the new moon, so I saw no moon in the sky?) but enjoyed the colors on the horizon. I walked along a ridge where I could see vast distances and mountains in both directions, under a clear starry sky. As the sun rose, and I saw the lake I was headed for in the distance, I had a sense of excitement about a whole new day. It also felt like a whole new hike. I was determined to slow down and let my body find her own pace and rhythm. 

Photos 2 and 3 give a glimpse of the views from the ridge walk ( after I finished yesterday's climb and before most of today's descent. )

 

I  am keenly aware of spring as process here. New flowers appear each day. Photo 4 shows some that were new today. 

 

To be continued in Day 26, part 2