Praise the wild soul for it’s ridges and canyons, for its rivers and rapids. For its love of deep caves and dark woods. For terrain, vast and varied, undulating beneath spirit sky.
Praise the wild soul for its beauty, tremulous as aspen leaf, fierce as mother hawk. For the way it shuns cages and breaks chains that bind. For the way it rises, wings unfurled, on rhythms of air. No stage holds dancers more graceful than this.
Reclaiming the Wild Soul by Mary Reynolds Thompson
This morning we woke up, packed the remaining odds and ends that hadn’t been packed last night, had breakfast, and headed out the door. I don’t know when I will see my bed or my shower again because I don’t know when we’ll have to bail on the trip because of snow. In a lot of ways, though, it doesn’t matter. Reconnecting with my wild soul the last few months has aided in healing and restoring me to wholeness. I can only hope that an extended stay in the woods will continue that important work.
We started the Waterton Canyon trailhead around 10am. The first 6 miles run along a dirt road. It was hot. It was dry. And the weight of my pack was more than I had anticipated. After nearly 10 miles of hiking with our 100lbs split relatively evenly between us, we stopped by Bear Creek for the evening. We stopped a little earlier than I thought we might, about 3pm, because we thought there might be rain (and we wanted to be in the tent when it rained!), but it was absolutely perfect. We pitched the tent, topped off our water supply, and chatted with a couple women camping in the same area. At some point rain clouds did appear, though they quickly passed. I wandered off to go sponge bathe the salt off my skin and got ready to settle in for the evening.
We had a rather tasty dinner of white cheddar mac and cheese with one of our salmon packets mixed in. With our bellies full and roastaroma tea in hand, we spent time chatting with the two sisters camping next to us.
Our plan for tomorrow is to get to Platte River, top off the water, and haul ass through the worst part of the trip this week. More details to come. At some point during the day I’m hoping to have access to phone service so I can get this entry posted! As for right now, it’s time to roll over, read some of my book, and crash into a deep slumber.
