This last weekend my sister and my girlfriend hiked Feather Falls. I think round trip it was about 10 miles. I, however, chose to be their support. Maybe I will join them in this endeavor when I am in better shape. I did not fancy someone having to come to my rescue [do you know cell phones don’t get service there?]. Well it brings to mind that we have all kinds of books on hiking and mountain climbing.Where to go, and what to take. You will find them in a couple different places. There is a book called A Walk along land’s end by John McKinney that looks intriguing. That is in the 796.51 section. Then there is a book called 100 Classic hikes in Northern California that is worth a look. A book I can definitely recommend is a little more extreme. Into Thin Air by Jon Krakauer is about a mountain climbing expedition to Everest that ended very badly for some on the trip. It is a very riveting account, this can be found at 796.522.
It also brought to mind the Robert Frost poem The Road Not Taken:
The Road Not Taken
Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,
And sorry I could not travel both
And be one traveler, long I stood
And looked down one as far as I could
To where it bent in the undergrowth;
Then took the other, as just as fair,
And having perhaps the better claim
Because it was grassy and wanted wear,
Though as for that the passing there
Had worn them really about the same,
And both that morning equally lay
In leaves no step had trodden black.
Oh, I marked the first for another day!
Yet knowing how way leads on to way
I doubted if I should ever come back.
I shall be telling this with a sigh
Somewhere ages and ages hence:
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I,
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference.
What a lovely poem…
Posted by Estel