A 'Giving Back' Season.....

"The mountains and forests want for nothing, yet they are giving of everything... The lakes and oceans share all, yet ask for so little... It is then our choice to give as well... to give back... out of respect... with no desire or expectations of our own..." Grey Wolf

Grey Wolf also said, "If you take that stone, you must give something back."

So... I've gathered small rocks, painted them, and placed well over a thousand now, out on one adventure or another... I call them 'Summit Stones'... They are my simple gesture, of anonymously giving just a little back...

It seems the season to reflect on such gifts...

DSD

"Power Places....."

"This is one of his power places... You sense a spirit here, an unspoken strength. It almost oozes from the rock through its thousands of cracks and crevices. Overhead, ravens soar by...".

A. Hobson

This quote always reminds me of those places I've adventured where such sensations have been present... They are such powerful experiences...

DSD

Alpenglow.......

"Eastward the dawn rose, ridge behind ridge into the morning, and vanished out of eyesight... it was no more than a glimmer blending with the hem of the sky, but it spoke to them , out of memory, and old tales, of the high and distant mountains." Tolkien

The best view of Alpenglow I have ever seen was reflected upon the face of my partner as we climbed above the clouds on to a ridgeline high in the Rockies...

The glow of the rising or setting sun upon the mountains warms even the coldest time of year... My skill is limited in trying to capture a sense of Alpenglow on the small Summit Stones I've painted, but each one seems to be getting closer and closer...

DSD

"Magnificent The Morning Was....."

"Magnificent the morning was, a memorable one, more glorious than I'd ever beheld. The seas were laughing in the distance. All the solid mountains were bright as clouds, tinted, drenched in imperial light. While in the meadow and the lower ground lay all the sweetness of a common dawn." Woodsworth

Just reflecting upon the many mornings on our adventures this past year.......

DSD

"And I Knew......."

"I needed something to pare the fat off my soul... to make me grateful again, for being alive. And I knew, deep and safe, beyond mere intellect, that there is nothing like a wilderness journey for rekindling the fires of life." C. Fletcher

How very true....... DSD

"If I Can....."

I have often mused that... If I can enjoy such adventures... Then anyone can...

And if anyone can... Then just maybe I can even enjoy other adventures.....

It is a wonder that I've even tried so many adventure experiences, let alone kept going all these years... But from the seeds of such ideas has grown over thirty years of fun and adventure out in our wildlands.....

DSD

"Runes and Rocks....."

"Magic becomes a kind of habit after we do the difficult, the near impossible, over and over and over again; a habit that operates down in the oldest and deepest levels of the brain and the mind. Where pain and fear can be alchemized into blissful, sublime confidence, and stumblebums wake up to find themselves dancing on the business end of pins..." R. Schultheis

Stones often show upon them and hold within them the hidden, cryptic symbols of Runes...

These are marks of mysteriousness and magic that take a keen eye to see and then decipher their hidden meanings...

DSD

Choices.....

"Choices....."

"Do we choose mountains, or rivers, or oceans - or do they choose us." Anon

The Adventures Of Hiking......

"You will discover as the years pass that hiking becomes a beautiful, warm, round pumpkin that sits up on a shelf, always ready to be taken down... It wouldn't be the same round and personal pumpkin, of course, if you hadn't grown it yourself... And its always sitting up there on the shelf, that big beautiful pumpkin - just waiting for you to wave the wand and turn it into something more magical." C. Fletcher

Hiking is an adventure medium that is second to none... In so many ways hiking is the 'destination' rather than just a means of travel. I was foraging through a Long Distance Hiking Trail forum recently and stumbled upon some trail elders musing about 'why' they hike... Their comments reflected a depth of musing that I enjoy so much... And now here I sit, enjoying my own memories and musings about why I went and why I've stayed so long in that special environment...

I remember balancing along the continental divide, trails of the Colorado, my pulse in the high Sierras...and so many other trails beneath my appreciative feet. There is another side to our self that we may just sense on a sunrise hike, a shared day hike, a solo long distance trek, during the low tide of a beach hike, across lengthy portages, moving so quietly through a desert or canyon, and even ridge walking above most of the world...

And I have so much enjoyed placing a few Summit Stones while wandering these many trails...

DSD

Adventure Musing.....

"The adventure... of a mystery. The 'adventure muse' has her ways, she hides from you, comes to you in the middle of the night, at midday, at dawn... an elusive gift that can appear anytime."

M. Hart

The top picture above is 'The Valley of The Muses' on the eastern slopes of Mt. Helikon.

Shrines to the Muses were called 'mouseion'; the original source for the current 'museum'.

The word 'Muses' itself comes from the Greek 'mousai'; the root of which means 'mountain'.

Interesting connections... If we contemplate what we find within our adventure experiences, we often discover before unseen hidden meaning...

DSD

Solitude & Surf.......

"The air is pungent with the sharp odour of salt sea and it shimmers with sound: the rush of the wind, the crying of the seabirds and, above all, the throbbing, pounding, everlasting roar of the surf.....". D. Pitt-Brooke

Just musing about our last adventure...the contrasts between our land and sea worlds...the calmness of those tiny islands and the roar of the never ending surf farther away.....the sweep of the kayak paddle.....the taste of the salt air.....the feel of the sand and shells beneath our hiking feet..... DSD

Tracks.......

"Tracking is an ancient science..." O. Murie

"The wilderness travelor...can add much to their experience by sleuthing about for traces of the unseen inhabitants of the region"; "These little stories in wild country can be the means of great esthetic adventuring". O. Murie

Another form of hidden adventure.......

DSD