"Meadow, #2"
From the poem “Schedules? We Don’t Have No Stinking Schedules!”
I’m generally in no rush to get anywhere in the mountains, feeling that I must get to this place by dark today, so I can get to that place by dark tomorrow, so I can get out of the mountains by such and such a date, so I can get back to all of the delights of civilization, like TV, cell phones, bad news, car alarms, rude people, crime, pollution, artery clogging fast foods, finances, demanding relationships, and sociopath bosses. No, I prefer slow, with lots of stops.
Now don’t get me wrong, I’ve gone fast in the mountains; early starts, 3-4 miles per hour hiking speed, running at times, quick meals, short yaks with fellow hikers, hiking until or after dark, so I know what fast is all about. But for me, the mountains are a place to linger in, to kick back in, to enjoy, to savor, much like a lover’s gentle embrace!
And when you go fast you miss out on seeing lots of cool stuff! When you go slow, with lots of stops, you see more, much, more! For instance, between the two M passes, Muir, and Mather, there is one place where the trail steps down and to the right, and speedsters see that up ahead, and program in their steps, and step down and swing to their right, and head on down the trail, almost in a blur, looking down at their feet, and then looking up at the trail ahead of them, down, and up, down and up, as they jam down the trail! But I look to my left, and then down, and then to my right, and then up, and as I came to the step down I noticed off to my left perhaps the most beautiful 6 square feet of the John Muir Trail, for there were 6 different flowers in a multitude of colors, red, white, yellow, orange, purple, some very common, some very unique, one even edible, surrounded by beautiful greenery, and even backed by a bucolic (oh how I love the way that word makes my tongue feel) brook (and aren’t those the best ones?)!
Image time! The scheduleless clouds overhead messed with my light, seemingly having the same disdain for getting anywhere fast as I, perhaps even stopping to see what I was trying to do below them, but it was all good!
Purple Hat
May 14, 2007
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Garnet Lake Lovelies