Thank you Ann! Yeah, these are from the good camera...RAW files...can't process 'em until I get home. I was pretty eager to see the sunset pictures, and they turned out well. Plus the flowers...they were really impressive in real life.
I came down or of the Northern San Juans to Silverton. Just before dropping steeply into a deep, carved valley, I sat for a last look around on a high tundra ridge. I opened my umbrella to block the wind around my feet, which were getting cold despite the sun. Thinking I was pretty clever, I attached my camera to the umbrella to hold it down against gusts of wind. Ha! As I put my shoes on and closed up my backpack, a string gust lifted umbrella and camera high up into the air, and with a cry of alarm I watched them floating away off to the east! First pinning everything down, I started running up and over a rise to hopefully retrieve my precious gear when it came down. It was a fifteen minute journey with heart in throat, lungs pounding, but finally I reached a snowfield where the camera had wrapped around one side of a penitente (a little tower of snow sculpted by the wind) and the umbrella around the other side. Thank God! Otherwise... No more pictures! After this, I scur...
My good buddy Cory, who I did so much of this hike with this year, has returned home due to an injured hamstring muscle. On the upside, he's getting to spend quality time with his grandson, who we talked about often on the trail. There is something special in the grandparent relationship, and I haven't seen it so clearly until getting to know Cory. I'm happy that he's making lemonade with the lemons life have him just now...
Right now I'm sitting at a train station in Santa Fe, four hours into the journey of bus, train, plane and car getting me back to Colorado for the final push. Two young ladies walk by, their hair long, black and straight. One of them walks with a cane and I'm fascinated by this. It suggests that no matter what, her grace cannot be of an unconscious type. The cane represents an encounter with infirmity that means her straight back and graceful walk must be chosen, rather than inherited. To be young but also to have fallen and risen again seems a great wonder to me. What one could accomplish, too young, wise! Happily, they didn't notice me staring, the long bangs acting as blinders, lol... This 95 miles stretch in far northern New Mexico was more beautiful than I expected. I starting walking at the Ghost Ranch, somewhat sheepish as I filled my water bottles from their fountain, because earlier in the summer, some CDT hikers dishonestly reused meal tickets to feed their friend...
WAUW! Super nice pictures!
ReplyDeleteThank you Ann! Yeah, these are from the good camera...RAW files...can't process 'em until I get home. I was pretty eager to see the sunset pictures, and they turned out well. Plus the flowers...they were really impressive in real life.
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