Recent Random Rambles

"From dream to dream and rhyme to rhyme I have ranged / In rambling talk with an image of air: / Vague memories, nothing but memories."  William Butler Yeats

Plan B

 

Success is not so much determined by how one carries out Plan A, as it is how one copes with all of life's Plan Bs.

Another "New Dots" Hike Requires A Wade Across The Animas River

For every sortie into new territory, we connect more new dots that reveal the lay of the land. It's slow, painstaking work that requires an investment of  decades. But we love every step, as, one by one, the rugged San Juan Mountains reward us with secrets. Who knows, maybe someday all these new dots will complete the "puzzle" and we can throw away our hiking maps and apps.

New Dots!

Studies show that human beings crave/need novelty, lest we wither on the vine of life. While Bobbie and I love the excess and convenience of nearby trails, there's nothing like "New Dots" to recharge legs and soul. It fends off boredom (stagnation?) to climb out of comfy grooves every so often and break some new ground...be it a trail, changing jobs, new relationship or uprooting to someplace different. 

Happiness Is Finding A Hidden Lake...In A Secluded Basin...With A Challenging Ridge Line Summit

 The route is vertiginous, to the degree that you can almost feel the flow of talus underfoot. That the the whole hillside doesn't give way and slough downhill and close the Jeep road access is beyond me.

Exploring The Upper Reaches Of Blaine Basin, Below Mount Sneffels Seldom Trekked North Face

It is said that "familiarity breeds contempt." Perhaps that's why the grind up to Blaine Basin is among my least favorite hikes, that and the fact that a good 80 percent of it winds through monotonous can't-see-the-mountains-for-the-trees forest. Thus, I almost begged off the invitation to accompany Bobbie and good friend, Martha.