"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

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