Hiking Beyond Civilization

The effect this place has on you is so beautifully gradual. Walking to Sololea yesterday I glanced up for a moment and found myself staring out through the canopy of a pine forest onto a sheer cliff face where a glacier slid off and then further up were snow capped peaks, the only trace of civilization the yawning jet streams criss-crossing too blue skies.

I will be sad to leave tomorrow but part of me thinks my time here is going, it feels like it will be right to leave tomorrow. The weather is closing in for Winter and the hostel is about to be overrun with American exchange students, we have been comrades tightly knit over meals and shared missions.

When Pat lost his backpack over the cliff above The Cross it was a personal mission for us to watch his back, feed him and make sure he got the insurance paperwork from the police. When Dave lost his camera we fanned out across the hostel looking for it, only when we sat down to think for a moment were our eyes opened – it was hiding in a pile of clothes he’d just washed. We’ve washed dishes together and talk shit around the fire nightly.

The mission for today hasn’t been decided because I’m the only one up yet – I’ve made it a rule I have to watch the sun rise every morning, I change a little for the better in doing that every morning. There was a yarn going around last night that the mountains have been hollowed out by the Swiss Army to give their people a refuge if war was to come and a couple of the boys say there is a door in one of the cliff tops near by – bloody good urban myth until I see that door.