PIE ON A TRAIL

    In the midst of the first ”winter like” storm of the season a renewed group of hikers set out to reach their next milestone. Upon leaving the shelter and amazing kindness of Northern Oregon’s Big Lake Camp, the winds began to howl, the rain became heavy and the morning skies grew dark. Ugghhh! This would be the beginning of an often miserable, quite humbling and soul trying final stretch of Oregon. One by one we would reach our limits, find our strengths and eventually press on towards a new state with hopefully clearer, brighter skies. For myself…I would end up alone, often walking late into the cold, wet nights; my headlamp barely shining the way through the bleak visibility of the storm. This would be a journey in which I’d feel so close yet so far away, so excited yet so demoralized and oh so alive but oh so numb from the cold! During these looooong days and nights I had an extensive amount of time to think of what lay ahead and to reflect on what had laid behind…

Oh those warm, golden days in Southern Oregon…

  The awesomeness of running into some of the trails best folks ever, just when I had thought I would definitely be all by my lonesome…     The nights in which I actually didn’t camp alone and instead had warm family diners…    The signs that make you smile…       The fire closures…  

The acceptence of new challenges and the  happy delirium of new accomplishments…     The creativeness of fitting yourself anywhere…     The new friends…     The reunions…   The friends of a lifetime…

    The beauty of a break in a storm…

    The kindness…              The warmth and loveliness of shelter…    The Giant Pacific Salamanders…And much more…So it was that with all these memories came hope…hope to continue through the adverse weather and reach a place that all my day dreams were made of; some where like home. And soon enough the past became the present and I found myself where I had wanted to be…      And with the help of these awesomely amazing gentlemen…I arrived…to a place that had been a motivating day dream during all the rain and all the cold…a place that was now real!This place, full of love, warmth, great food and friendship is just what a weary hiker needed more than anything…      And for the others whom I set out with over a week ago…they all trekked on. Each one faced and weathered their own storms  and each one dreamed their own day dreams…and with that each one arrived where they wanted to be…for a day or so…then it’s back to the trail…cheers!