Awakening to a New Day

I woke up the next day thinking Mike had gone on his daily walk somewhere. For a moment my fears overwhelmed me until I realized it was almost daylight. I had made it through the night and I was still alive. I felt a sense of accomplishment and proud of myself. I did not know how it happened, but here I was, still in the cold of the early morning, staring at a tall tree telling myself to just be happy to be alive.

Joy overcame me and as I turned around I realized Mike was still asleep. I imagined he was tired, he had done most of the work on our adventure, carrying the weight of the pack while I merely pretended to have a backpack.

No matter, it was a new day and there were trails to hike, nature to enjoy and new experiences to expect. I had no idea what Mike had in mind for our new day but I completely trusted it would be amazing.

He suggested we leave everything as it was and take a hike on the continuing trail. He gave me yet another down jacket to keep me warm outside of the sleeping bag. I'm completely sold on down feathered attires now. My desire to protect animals from being killed for my benefit wanes steadily. I watched the sunrise just feet away from our campsite.

He took the camera and I walked ahead, soon it got warm so my hat came off, then my gloves and then I opened my jacket. We arrived at the Little Jimmy Campground only to find the bathrooms were filthy. Due to the remoteness of the location service trucks cannot be brought in to clean the vault toilets. Mike said they just close the campgrounds for 6 months and let mother nature clean them.

The next surprise was to walk to Windy Gap where the view of the mountains was stunning. Below us the fog enfolded the city and the few hills stood like islands amongst the clouds. Everything looked a million shades of blue until the sun appeared and changed the colors to many more million. I thanked God for such beauty.