[at-l] Resend of: A walk in the woods (yeah right) Should be easier to read.

[WHHAWKINS@aol.com]

Subj:	A walk in the woods (yeah right)
Date:	7/9/99 1:15:07 PM EDT
From:	<A HREF="mailto:Zenlotus">Zenlotus</A>
To:	<A HREF="mailto:WH HAWKINS">WH HAWKINS</A>

Hello all,

I’m back.  I had a wonderful vacation and some really good hikes. The first 
week I was doing a 7 day sesshin at the Zen Center.  It was a  silent 
retreat. I can’t say much about that except it went by very quickly and was 
good for my practice.

I got home from the sesshin at 5pm on Saturday evening and I just spent the 
evening putting things in order around  the house.  I had all of my stuff 
ready for my camping trip before I went to the Center the week before so all 
I had to do was  load it into the truck on Sunday morning before I left.

I left early and drove for 7 hours through some gorgeous country in Colorado 
down to the southwest part of  the state to the Black Canyon of the Gunnison. 
 I set up my tent (yes all by myself) and got my sleeping pads and bag ready 
for bed time. I spent the rest of the afternoon and evening sitting in a lawn 
chair reading and writing.  I made dinner on the Coleman stove and went to 
bed about 8:30pm.  I got up before 6am on Monday and had tea, breakfast, read 
and wrote in my journal and got my backpack ready for the hike which wasn’t 
on a trail.

My pack was about 25lbs (plenty of food, water and extensive first aid 
equipment). I hit the route (unmaintained trails are called routes) by 8am. 
It started in through the short flat oak trees and descended into some taller 
trees. It wasn’t long before I saw my first bit of wildlife (a green snake 
beside the trail).  I weren’t sceard. J  Then, I saw a deer coming up the 
trail so I stayed perfectly still and waited for her to get close and I took 
a picture. She kept her eyes on me and as she approached on the trail by the 
place where I was standing, she dipped down behind a tree and walked to the 
other side of  me back onto the trail.

The sun was up, but the day was still cool as I made my way further down the 
route.  There were some previously used routes that had been closed off with 
fallen trees along the way.  My first real test came when  the route became 
very steep, 30% grade or so, with an attached link chain fastened down to use 
as an assist down the steep grade. I took it very slowly as it was dangerous. 
My brain told my heart that this was scary and I must be crazy to be doing 
such a thing alone.  Half way down I had to turn around and go down backwards.

The chain came to an end and I figured that that must be the worst of it. The 
route wound  back and forth so it was impossible to see the full extent of 
what was to come. I was wrong, the route did become worse, the  entire left 
side of the route opened up and I could see such an expanse of open sky and 
the path below, full of boulders, skree and treacherous peril. It had been a 
full moon the night  before, so this must be sheer lunacy I told myself.  I  
knew that one false step and I could be dashed to my death. As I sat on a 
boulder looking down the steep way,  filled with  rock and loose skree, I 
told myself that my mother would kill me if I died out on the desolate trail. 
 The last thing she had said to me the week before was, "Be careful."  I had 
laughed and replied the standard answer, "Oh mom."

It was about this time that I heard loose rock rolling down the hill above 
me. I saw the young woman’s torso and her bent head as she came around the 
corner. I stayed quiet as she was in a slippery looking position and I didn’t 
want to scare her by speaking out.  She saw me when she got a bit closer and 
recognized me as a fellow camper on the C Loop of the South Rim Campground.  
Her name was Penny; and we chatted about the dangerous route.  Her male 
companion, Phil, made his way down to my perch and I shared my mother’s 
warning as they continued on down ahead of me.  I waited a few more minutes 
before I started down so I wouldn’t send loose rocks down on their heads.  I 
didn’t hear any screams from below as I made my way down so I knew they were 
probably safely eating their lunch near  the river.

Finally, as the warm sun was hitting 1030 in the eastern sky, I made it to 
the bottom of the canyon and went toward the river and my comrades, who had 
indeed made it to the river rocks alive.  We marveled at the beauty of the 
canyon floor and the green flowing river that was only black from the rim 
1800 ft above our heads.  The one mile route had taken me 2.5 hours to get 
down.

My lunch was a well deserved treat of Boca burgers with ketchup and Dijon 
mustard. And a beautifully firm, crisp and tasty gala apple.  I drank a liter 
of water and poured a liter out. I decided I would only carry two liters  
back up to the top.

I started before the young couple to make my way back up the route. I knew it 
would be slow going and I wanted to get to the top by 1pm (an hour past the 
time I thought I would be back originally). It seemed easier going up 
although the sun was higher and hotter going back up and the exertion on my 
lungs was more intense.  I stopped frequently to sip some water and soon 
wondered if perhaps I had been premature in pouring out that liter bottle.

Penny and Phil came up behind me as I was pulling myself up the right side of 
the trail.  They passed me up and I sat down on a shaded rock to retie my 
boots and eat a Power Bar, this was hard work.  I didn’t remember the rangers 
warning about staying to the left side of the route as I made my way up.  I 
was a good 200 yards up past the turn off when I realized I was off the 
route. A 20 foot open expanse with  a 35%  grade laid between me and the left 
side of the route. I couldn’t go across and the thought of going back down 
the way I had come was beyond my fear threshold.  I decided the only way to 
get out alive was to go up.  So, I continued up through the vegetation on 
canyon walls.  Pulling myself up, hand over hand, aided only by the small oak 
saplings that grew along the curve of the mountain.  Small boulders were also 
useful in making my way through the brush. There were no sounds on the 
mountain and the rivers rushing was far below me, but I knew that I had a 
long way to go before I came to the rim again.  I also knew that as I inched 
up the mountain I was heading west and I needed to be heading east.  
Thankfully I reached a deer trail and turned east, towards where I thought 
the trail was. I thought back to the deer I had seen earlier that morning and 
sent my silent thanks of gratitude her way for providing me a path to safety. 
 As I came around a bend in the path and through a thicket of brambles I 
spied the metal chain ahead.  Looking at what separated me and the chain I 
saw that there was more danger in going straight to that spot than heading up 
and over in that direction.  I went back to my upward hand over hand method 
until I reached the route again.  It was then that I realized that I had 
totally bypassed the chain portion of the route and in fact was on one of the 
blocked off sections. Climbing over a boulder that lay between me and the 
regular route, I heaved a sigh of relief and sent my thanks upward toward the 
deep blue sky into the universe.  Very soon thereafter I encountered two 
young men about my son’s age who were on their way down.  We chatted as I 
caught my breath and regained a bit of my strength and composure. Seth was on 
his way to Georgia from Oregon, he stopped in Durango to see his longtime 
friend David. Nice boys doing a little road trip and decided to take a trip 
to the river to  do a bit of fishing.  Twenty minutes passed and I decided it 
was time to let the boys get on down and for me to get on up. Reaching out to 
shake Seth’s hand, I let him give me a bit of a pull up the path and passed 
on to David’s strong grip.  As they waved goodbye I couldn’t resist, "Be 
careful." I said and headed on up to the safety of the south rim.

I'm off the list right now, but feel fee to send comments to me at 
zenlotus@aol.com if you like.

happy trails
zenlotus
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