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

Off On Another Adventure Experience.....

We're soon off on another adventure experience, and I am musing about the challenges and opportunities before me.......especially about the role the stones have come to play.....

As N. O'Connell wrote; "Stones...chart the mysterious topography of the human spirit".

This particular adventure has many moments for... contemplating the finding, gathering, choosing & collecting, cleaning & polishing, designing, painting, coating, musing over, travelling with, adventuring, placing, reflecting on, then beginning all over again the process of the Summit Stones within these experiences.......

DSD

Adventures As Vision Quests.....

Have you ever thought about your adventures as being like vision quests.......

There is often mystery and magic within such experiences.......

E. Bernbaum wrote; "The Crow, who put a particular emphasis on the positive role of suffering, ranked sites for vision quests in order of increasing altitude", and B. Doolittle said too; "Through a dream quest, the warrior has earned the spiritual protection of the animals he admires...They warn him of danger...and give him magical strength".

On my own quests near places like Hidden Lake, Rockbound and Three Isle Lakes, out among the Islands, and in the Sierra's, I've mused time and again about Grandfather, a Mountain Elder, who said: "Create your wild spirit and then be true to this...You are a Storm Rider with the soul of a Trail Dancer".

DSD

New Experiences.....

"I can only muse...as I've come to understand the word canyon. Elements of canyoneering... come to mean the place, one's knowledge of it, and the experience... more than a simplistic view of a specific activity." J. Annerino

There are always new adventures to be experienced..... For someone who struggles with change at times, and who has mostly headed up to altitude or out on the ocean in our wild lands, trying a new adventure experience on like canyoneering was challenging.....and yet was proof again of the inherent rewards within adventure experiences.....

DSD

The Clouds Cleared.....

The clouds cleared...as they always do...

And later I walked out to look upon the stars...

I waited for a moment until, as J. Muir wrote:

"Soon came perfect stillness, earth and sky were inseparably blended and spiritualized, and we could only gaze on the celestial vision in devout, silent, wondering admiration."

Another storm weathered...

DSD

Ebb and Flow.......

Our lives can certainly feel like very 'tide like' at times...

We all seem to experience the ebb and flow, and very high and low tides...

Especially when we challenge ourselves and adventure out...

If we go long enough...through the seasons, full days out, over the years...

If we go far enough...to new altitudes, across unknown waters, ever trying new adventures...

If we go often enough...and keep returning even when we doubt and question...

Anonymous wrote, "Some of my very best days...and some of my very worst days...have both been in the mountains." Grandfather, a Mountain Elder said too, "There can be no mountain without a valley, no wave without a trough, no rainbow without a storm."

The I Ching reflects that: "Success comes to those who can weather the storm."

Today feels very stormy.....

DSD

Muir.......

Life As A Rock...

I've often mused about the elemental life of a rock.....

"If you smile at a stone...that stone will smile back at you..." Anon

"In every color there's the light; In every stone sleeps a crystal." Enigma Music

"It was not any human voice...It was great and strange...It was like the

rock speaking." J. Masefield

Take a moment to muse about the next stone you find and you will see what is often hidden within..... DSD

Faces In Stone.....

Have you ever seen or imagined a face in the stone you 'see' when out on your adventures?
When you climb or hike across that granite, quartz, or limestone...do you ever wonder about the shapes that are presented to you? Sometimes we can find things out in that rock that reflect many different things...
Grandfather, a Mountain Elder said, "You will feel me beside you; see my face in the stone; hear me on the wind.", and W. Jones wrote that "Early Miwok Indians imagined rocks that grew and people who turned to stone".
There is a character to such rock and stone that is an adventure to imagine...maybe like the character we find within ourselves when adventuring. There is an art to discovering these aspects of character...and the stories we then tell about these discoveries becomes a part of our lives. La Pena, Bates, and Medley wrote about the importance of these stories and that, "Stories explain...the appearance of faces, figures, shapes, designs, and animal forms that are sometimes found at these spots." So much to 'see'.....
DSD

Beach Hiking.....

Just gazing at an image of a wilderness beach...and pondering what Deng Ming-Dao said, "The narrow ribbon between land and ocean is a perfect place to understand the mind of wisdom."
It would be impossible to tally up the many miles, and endless hours, I have hiked down sand and cobble beaches...They are another favorite place.....
And when I stumble upon some perfect stones, ones so smooth and wave polished, waiting there patiently for a finder and later an image to appear within them, and then to eventually be placed, maybe on a desert trail, or tucked into a summit register, or placed just so for another adventurer to then find themselves...
Wilderness beaches..places to ponder...sounds so soothing...where thoughts take flight on their own accord...and anything becomes possible...
DSD