Surprisingly Beautiful

“Wow,” Strog began, emerging from the dense forest as I swatted yet again at the elusive flies floating in front of my face. “I think we just hiked out of the forest and into Switzerland.” I refocused my eyes for the view and let my jaw drop as I took in Mt. Shasta in the near distance and the wild flowers around us. A daring fly seized it’s opportunity and dove into my mouth. Perhaps I should have been grateful for the extra protein, but I wasn’t.

Instead, all my gratitude went into the scene before my eyes. When you’ve spent the better part of an hour or a day hiking through trees and you finally emerge on an open, flower-covered hillside with a spectacular mountain in front of you, well, it’s like stumbling upon front row tickets to a private concert of your favorite band. You can’t help but stop and show gratitude to the universe for creating such a majestic scene and placing you in it. And grateful we were, displayed largely in the act of taking breaks and eating at each perfectly placed viewpoint: bagels and cream cheese in the pre-noon hour, ramen in the afternoon, and beef jerky and candy bars in the evening.

You see, this week blew away our expectations. We stayed relatively low in elevation (mostly well under 6,000 feet), and so we expected to encounter quite a tough week of hiking over terrain covered in desert and grassland foliage with little shade. Surprisingly delighted were we to encounter continuously beautiful terrain: mountain and valley views, rivers, and waterfalls amidst lush shaded forest hiking. Perhaps due to the majestic views that continually surprised us or the relatively easy hiking terrain, but probably due to a combination of things, this last section has been our favorite so far on this trek.

 One strategy that made this week more pleasant was our early morning wake up times. We set the alarm for 5:00 am each morning and were hiking by 6:30. I know, I can’t believe it either. Nor can I believe that I just admitted that it made our experience more pleasant. But it’s true! The early morning hiking was cool and peaceful. By early afternoon the temps were unpleasantly hot, and we’d find shade, pitch our tent, and nap or read the afternoon away and hike on into the evening. It was really lovely despite my daily morning protests. And we got to see a couple of incredible sunrises. It’s amazing how we never seem to become habituated to sunrises and sunsets. No one ever glances west and says, “Oh that? Just another sunset.” Each one is something to pause and pay reverence to.

We also felt really strong this week: strong in our legs, our feet, and our spirits. It takes awhile to really build up hiker legs and feet – those that can go for miles and miles without tiring then get up and do it again the next day. Those for which a hill is just a hill and five miles is a short jaunt. We are certainly not as strong as the thru-hikers we’ve met, but our multiple 15 mile days mixed in with an 18er and our newfound ability (or at least newfound for me) to steam roll up hills shows us we’ve acquired our hiker legs. And it feels really good.

Of course, the legs are carried by the spirit, and to that end our spirits were lifted time and again by surprise views of Mt. Shasta, by cool streams to rinse our faces and soak our feet, and by incredible rivers and waterfalls. Each time the hiking started to become monotonous, we were met with some delightful surprise that lifted us up and lightened our load (at least metaphorically).

One such surprise (man-made, though, not natural) came partway up our last big climb of the section. We’d just powered up the first, steep mile after filling our packs with ten miles of water for a hot day when we came to a road. Luckily for us, we were perfectly timed to meet Subway Steve, trail angel and bearer of all things delicious. At first we turned down his offers of sandwiches and Gatorade: stuffing myself before a climb is never good. But then Steve mentioned pie. Pie, you say? Yes, I think we could probably help relieve you of that excess-pie problem you’re having. A mini pecan and lemon pie later (separately – one pecan, one lemon) and we could have sprinted the rest of the climb. Thank you, Subway Steve, for lifting our spirits and making pie our new hill climbing sponsor – this climb is brought to you by… Pie.

All in all, this week has been beautiful, fun, and everything we could hope for in a hike, really. All the awesomeness overpowered the flies, bees, mosquitos, and overly intimate sessions with poison oak (another story for another time). Happy trails!

Oh wait! Don’t go yet. I forgot one other piece – babies! Babies everywhere! Baby deer, baby snakes, baby lizards, baby birds – no baby bears or mountain lions yet (and no baby humans). Babies definitely added to the amazement of the week. So we’ll leave you with this video of babies being surprisingly unafraid of us.