8-19-2012
It’s Sunday morning, August 19th, I think. I’m sitting on a giant rock amid another crystal clear, Vermont mountain stream. Again, I can’t say enough about Vermont. Every moment is perfect, constantly surrounded by natural beauty. A highlight last night was reaching the top of a mountain, just as the sun’s bourbon light was ebbing, and I came to a veritable Museum of Natural Modern Art on that mountain. All over a few huge boulders, previous hikers had built elaborate rock cairns. In simplest form, a rock cairn is just a pyramid of rocks, but people had spent a ton of time on these. Elaborate rock arches, overhanging cairns, ones that seemed to defy gravity, and cairns that were skillfully balanced and seemingly delicate, but could possibly have been in place for years. I could’ve stayed for hours but light was fading fast and I had to get to the nearest shelter that unfortunately didn’t have any water. I had one cup on me, not enough to cook, so I’m eating last night’s meal by this stream to get some calories for the day. A Thai Sweet Chili Pasta side is not my ideal breakfast. Biscuits and gravy sound better, but I do what I gotta do.