We had climbed most of the day -- my friend - gingerly, me - trying to keep up.
It was late summer, grasses dry, the scent of mullein and sage.
The climb was steep: 10,000 foot mountain, he said. Though it didn't seem we climbed anywhere near that high, his facts were rarely inaccurate, and we did start at the base and climb to the top.
Finally, we reached where two friends lived in an alpine chalet. It was dusk by then, and soon (without city lights) so dark, we couldn't even see the many trees around us, even when one was inches ahead. We had to use flashlights, and one of them was weak and quickly failed.
There were no other people on that mountaintop but the four of us.
Later, my friend and I left the chalet and traveled a distance in the dark. Then he went one way toward a tent. He was used to seeing in the dark, so he gave me the flashlight to find a shack I had never seen before, which was over a half mile away through woods I had never been in.
Without city light, stars were so clear, I was sure I could hear them.
There were no other houses up there, or humans: Heaven.
Now, people don't understand why I prefer to walk at night. And when life gets to be too much, I think of that mountain top.
It was late summer, grasses dry, the scent of mullein and sage.
The climb was steep: 10,000 foot mountain, he said. Though it didn't seem we climbed anywhere near that high, his facts were rarely inaccurate, and we did start at the base and climb to the top.
Finally, we reached where two friends lived in an alpine chalet. It was dusk by then, and soon (without city lights) so dark, we couldn't even see the many trees around us, even when one was inches ahead. We had to use flashlights, and one of them was weak and quickly failed.
There were no other people on that mountaintop but the four of us.
Later, my friend and I left the chalet and traveled a distance in the dark. Then he went one way toward a tent. He was used to seeing in the dark, so he gave me the flashlight to find a shack I had never seen before, which was over a half mile away through woods I had never been in.
Without city light, stars were so clear, I was sure I could hear them.
There were no other houses up there, or humans: Heaven.
Now, people don't understand why I prefer to walk at night. And when life gets to be too much, I think of that mountain top.
