all energy is only borrowed; someday you have to give it back.
to understand the mountains you have to live in them, cross them, have them crush your spirit.
the adirondack mountains challenge your will. to traverse sixteen miles of ridges takes five days of climbing and charging downhill for hours and hours. in the summer, the mayflies rule and they will drive you mad unless you run. they’re small black flies bigger than a gnat and they sting. they get in your sweating eyes, in your nose and ears.
when the weather changes up there, it is sudden, and you are pressed to get somewhere safe. the rain is so thick you can’t think. if you have a good contour map, you may survive to the closest leanto.
i remember so well how grateful we were, we five friends, to have a coffee pot. it was an italian style espresso pot. reniwicki even had some long thin cigarettes called ‘vogues’… all the colors of the rainbow. to draw on them and sip the espresso as we watched the river of water flowing down the trunk of an elder tree in front of the leanto, was the closest to paradise i ever felt.
you know what it means to conquer mountains? it means to conquer nature, to conquer myself. to walk with friends over the earth with the earth calling out loud, “i am nature, your force and your enemy.” across the gothics, haystack, saddleback, basin and marcy, i heard my inner voice saying yes to it all. yes to my body. yes to being a snake to wiggle up the crack in the wall, yes to the antelope leaping from rock to rock. the best of all was running without fear of falling down the mountain, leaping without thinking, trusting the forces within.
from ausable lodge to marcy dam, s. and his friends scrambled from rock to rock…
sixteen miles as the crow flies. but s’s aching muscles said 120.
that was the second time for s. in these rainforest green mountains of upstate new york. the first time, he forgot the salt and enough food. but the worst was that he had brought his dog. well, it was the son of a friend’s dog.
anyway, dogs don’t do too well in some of the ascents; especially the gothics, a row of peaks like gothic church steeples.
s. knew that he would not get away from the city again for at least two years. he had made a vow not to quit or get fired from the job he was starting in september.
for a year and a half he had changed jobs about four times.
s. had called l.p. one day complaining about his situation.
the conversation was brief. “it’s time for you to start thinking about a real career, scott.”
he sat down at a table at the 14th street horn and hardart cafeteria, with a nickle coffee and a ten cent slice of apple pie, and made a list of all the jobs he could think of. then he began crossing them out one by one. the last profession was architect. he would need to go back to school.
through the telephone book he found a night school on 18th st., walked over and signed up for the ninth grade; algebra, french, english, biology and civics. four hours a night, five days a week, beginning after labor day.
then he called l.p. and said, “i am going to be an architect and i just signed up for night high school.”
“i like the way you did that.” said simply, but s’s heart kind of glowed.
Warm and close story. Thanks Scott. Iยดm glad I got over mountaineering while I was young. I was too fit to really feel the lack of oxygene :lol:If I would do the same today :eyes: :ko: :faint:
"it means to conquer nature, to conquer myself."I just conquered myself yesterday on the mild incline down to my grocery store across the street. :pGreat story. Glad you got to have the experience. :yes:
I love this story. The first line says it all . ๐
๐ฆ sorry i am late here meli :heart:This is another heart felt story of yours ,the beginning is so grabbing , it keeps the reader around to the end… :love:
Nice experience Scott. Not familiar with the area you talk about, but upstate New York is really beautiful. If I could be a snowbird, I'd have a summer home in upstate New York.
:heart: ๐ฆ
Originally posted by nopanic:
exactly nic, now one can't help stopping to rest more often. but it can be done… just gotta pace myself. :happy:
Originally posted by L2D2:
you must know lake placid. this is a dozen miles from there. great juicy rain forest country… rivers everywhere.
lea :heart: that's o.k., i got plenty of on time birthday cards. :smile:thanks for the card. slow and steady wins the race. ๐
Originally posted by edwardpiercy:
nevertheless, conquering self still gets the merit badge. just a question of scale. :idea:i managed to get out of the house and play with real people today. that's a win. ๐
Hope you had fun, Scott. ๐
no ed, i didn't have a bit of fun. it was sad.i went back to the venice boardwalk on probably the busiest day of the year; the end of summer. observing the whole circus made me feel sorry for everyone. what were they doing? they didn't know. the palpable angst of a dark sunday with a chilling breeze from the pacific, the hooded vendors with their giant umbrellas blocking the impertinent marine layer.i felt like dante' with no virgil, detached and wondering. seeing the fear and the sadness; the lostness of people, i was sure this was a light level of hell.
Pretty painting. :up:
beautiful painting- intense and it looks like various images and/or things going on within- the previous post offers such an authentic face on the man
hi naomi, thanks for dropping in. glad you find the painting pretty.thanks for the comment jill. i don't quite get the last sentence. do you mean the face on the old man in the illustration or the 'face' on the man of the poem. puzzled.
in the illustration, next post- very nicely done
Wonderful painting, Scott, and HAPPY Birthday! Hope you had a marvelous day full of memory making. Wishing you the best!! Cheers :wine:
Happy Birthday Scott :hat:
Scott, i fell in love with this picture created by you. It represents the beauty of nature! it's awesome!:up: :up: Kak dela? Why don't you write, moj droog?How is your kitchen garden?
nic, thanks for the wish. :happy:
Originally posted by lavender988:
so glad you like it katya.i will write soon. :cool:garden is coming to an end soon. still have peppers growing but tomatoes is about over. i'm going to miss garden peppers. they have about ten times the flavor compared to supermarket tomatoes.
DANG! DID I MISS YOUR BIRTHDAY ? HOPE IT WAS A VERY PLEASANT ONE MY NEW FRIEND !!! LOVE THE PAINTING BY THE WAY!!!! LOVE THE " BORROWED ENERGY " how true the opening lines are
dang yourself kat ๐ and thanks for chiming in anyway, keep in touch. ๐
thank you for the reply.SO, when was your birthday friend ? year is not relevant :no:
that was september 2nd. ๐
You're welcome, Scott. :up: Hope it was a good distraction. :heart:
Originally posted by Cynthia23:
somehow i missed this. thank you for your visit and for commenting cynthia. i guess i was distracted for a moment. :happy:
it might have been a timing incident. too many things to do at once can make me go a little too fast. ๐
That's for sure! :up:
'crush your spirit.' Beautiful. Only a true poet could write that. Mountains teach us, don't they?
thanks for commenting moon… you know what i mean. yes. the mountains can teach us. :happy:
When was your birthday? :yikes: Belated happy birthday! :jester: Lovely play of colors in that painting. And this sounded as a strong, passionate and manly (in the good way, of course!) post to me altogether. Your blog is a book I love to come back to, Scott. ๐
awww thanks b. :heart: you always make me feel good with your comments. :happy:
You deserve it all. ๐
errrmmm… hi donut.
Mountains teach us how to be intrepid and overcome our inner fears and misfortune, they help us relax, know ourselves. we call mountains God's voice!
yes, katya. mountains bring us to a spiritual state. i guess that's why i like to get out into the wild a couple of times a year. to fill up on nature's power. thanks for the nice comment. :happy:
:up: :coffee: :heart:
…born from the skaybornto this land…from a dream… because of rainbow in Your heart because..there is an angel by your side, and You know about it,yes Scott? with smile
a little. yes. if i came from the sky, the dream… i will return to dream and to the sky with my rainbow around me like a belt.
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