Imagination and fiction make up more than three quarters of our real life.
- Simone Weil
7/12/15
Friday I spent the night just below the summit of Long’s Peak. The back country camp site, called Boulderfield, is at 12,760 feet above sea level and is six miles from the trail head which starts at 9,406 feet. The hike in went well. I was still feeling a little beaten from my Grand Lake hike earlier in the week, but was able to cover the six miles in just over three hours hours with a loaded pack. Each of the seven tents sites offered nothing more then a small area of flat ground surrounded by a three foot wall constructed of boulders of varying sizes. The weather can get pretty sketchy, pretty quickly and the boulders around the tent provide not only a wind block, but anchors to secure one’s tent.
There was a slow but steady trickle of people either heading up to a place called the Keyhole (the launch point to the summit), or coming down from it. I spoke with three different parties and all of them chose to turn back from the summit. One party was stymied by low visibility and the other two parties did not have the proper gear - crampons and an ice tool.
The night was cold and my sleeping bag was not really built for the below 40 temps. I slept, but I am pretty sure that I was just in a hyperthermic stupor rather then a deep sleep. In the morning while the marmot’s took turns investigating my bear canister, I almost got up and gave the summit a shot. But instead I rolled over and tried to get a little more sleep now that the sun was on my tent and it was beginning warm up…
Once I returned to Boulder I stopped into my favorite coffee shop - the Laughing Goat. I had to fulfill one of my guilty pleasures - watching an AMC show called Hell on Wheels and drinking an Americano. The series is a pseudo-western about the building of the transcontinental railway and all of the drama that ensued. It is raw in its presentation and a bit dramatic (kind of like my writing) and I really enjoy it. As of late one of the things that I have noticed about the series is that the main character and I are living parallel lives. Crazy I know…
Every time I score a small victory in some aspect of my life, Cullen Bohannan scores a small victory in his mini- series life as well. Every time I get my ass kicked, Cullen gets his ass kicked. Every time he learns a life lesson, I do as well. Cullen and I share a life, his fictional, mine… almost real…
I guess the attraction and connection is not just the universal struggle that all of the characters in this show face, but how each of them, particularly the protagonist, handles their hardship. Cullen, unlike most of the characters, owns his mistakes and keeps his word. He doesn’t judge others, he just monitors his own actions. He does not really try to win anyone’s approval, he just does what he thinks is right, and hopes for the best. While the plot thickens and other characters lose their way, his tenacity kicks in, and he seems to just grow more grounded.
Thankfully life provides me with a fictional hero when I am too far west to access the real ones I have back East…
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| Long's Peak |
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