About a month ago I walked up to the Kaibab Rim for the first time at Lipan Point. I am not sure what I expected... Having gazed over countless ranges and fiords in my life, I had grown accustom to that great gulfing sense of scale and open space.Here which Mountains and Waters bring to the heart of a follower of John, that enduring sense to return homeonce moe and explore the hidden places. At first it seemed almost comon place, yet as I descended the Kaibab, Toroweap, and Coconino, the textures and spell of this place began to weave its magic into my soul. I was drawn deeper towards a formation of hoodoos made of the Mavu Limestone rich in green above a fan of Bright Angel Shale... The wall of the Palisades of the Desert across Tanner Wash was an ever constant reminder of the depths in which we descend.. For that old naturalist within me had grown stagnet and stale.. Yet here within these desert canyon walls I had been surprised again by the overwelming ability of Nature to inspire and wake up those who had been asleep in there Suburban Lifestyles.. This ws the wisdom of John preaching itself with each foot fall.. By the time I had reached Tanner Rapids of the Colorado River, I had been awoken again...
I spent a week following lines and formations with my old soulmate found again. Scrambling over rock traverses of Unkar bend, exploring broken slabs of Red Wall towering hundreds of feet high, descending throuh bending slots or Shinumo Quartzite, only to argue over the nature of formation of swirls of iron red and calcite white bands of rock that only brought images of the clouds of Jupiter and he Great Red Spot... And always, the mirids of stars of the Night Sky... So many a man could not count. To look aloft and see the subtile colors ofthe Milky Way Core. Arguing about the contellations deep into the night, while Jupiter holds commanding presence behind Castor and Pullox, renamed through late night attrition the Dragonfly Cluster...
This is where the soul of man is mean to rise up and meet the dawn.. I walk each day, exploring the folds of the canyons. Looking deep and longing into the Black Rock of the Vishnu Schist that paints epic pictures of Gandoff at The Bridge of Kazadom. The word... Balorok rolls though my mind like dwarven drums.. I look deep withing he twisted quartzite fissures.. Something calls low and dedp to descend, yet knows to do so would be to test fates.. I shall return, and tempt the underworld.. This place calls to something which is reverse of a Mountaineers sight, to crag around and get low... To taste the deserts depths and returnto the Rim, telling idol standing tourists what lies just beyondthe edge of comfort...Just beyond, whre they dare tempt and test there very mantle... Then saunteron towards Campers Services and that fabled $2 - 8 min shower all hikers dream of...
So now 3 weeks later, I await a flight to return. To explore a new reach of "The Grand"... as a fellow Thru Hiker once said,
"The trail has ruined me. For how could any person who has lived true freedom, and seen the nature of the World as it stood before you be able to return to a "Normal Life".. You can't! Your RUINED! I'M RUINED!"
And so I walk happily into my Lover's Arms... One Landscape that inspires, and the second a womanwho dwells there combing her silent calling into the depths of the canyons folds.. Lost by Nature's spell...
Let another week within The Deep Begin...
Mountains And Rivers Without End,
Ridgewalker
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