Wanderings
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A Day of Wandering in the Alpine Lakes

July 13, 2001

"Not All Who Wander are Lost"
-JRR Tolkien

One wrong turn
And retraced steps
Back to town for beta

Back down that road
The worst I've traveled
To its very end

On with the boots
And bug spray, too
Down the trail so briefly

Into the brush
Schwack schwack schwack
Schwacking for an hour

And then a trail
A faint, slight trail
Along a road once built for loggers

Through old clearcuts
Still bleak and barren
Human trash still strewn about

A spraypainted rock marks the end
"Private Property Boundary"
I shake my head in shame

We press onward
Toward our goal
A mystery before us

Up and up along the creek
Then suddenly before us
High cliffs guard a pristine lake

Boulder hopping
along its shore
I feel I'm dancing in an Eden

We climb still higher
To its twin
In a cirque of equal grandeur

A rest stop here
For drink and food
But the bugs prevent a long one

We continue up
Toward the ridge
Energized by the nearness of the answers

At the ridge
I'm stopped in my tracks
By the views unparalleled

We stop for lunch
Our questions answered
But many new others raised

This place, this place
This wondrous place
Nourishes my soul

I take it in
It takes me in
Permeating my being

Time passes quickly
And we must leave
To make the car by dusk

We leave our perch
Move quickly down
Past the lakes and trees

All the while
We scheme and plan
Our return for further play

 

This page was last edited on Thursday, January 01, 2004
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