Friday, July 09, 2004
I Take You, Sweet Lupine, Into My Dreams
07/09/04
I awoke last night on my windy perch to a wildly fantastic view of the Milky Way. Then I put on my glasses. Wow. To add to it, behind me, down in the low lands were some lights that looked like a cluster of fallen stars twinkling on the ground. I have no idea what they were because some of them changed color like stars seem to do. I just let it be magic as I drifted back to sleep. I awaked again to pee and had the same incomparable view. And, like a puddle of light in the indeterminate distance, the fallen stars still shone for me.
In the morning, I could not see the fallen stars.
I was ready to leave camp at the same time as Spur this morning, a first. We set out together leaving Apple Pie to request that we leave clear markings at intersections or ambiguous places.
Sometimes the Divide is forested and sometimes it's in the open, on top of it all. This morning it was in the forest. This evening we watched amazing light from grassy slopes.
In parts of the forest and parts of the open Divide, and especially in the transition areas between them, the lupine are in bloom. Wide expanses of lupine also offer up a sweet fragrance that is fleeting, which is best because the fragrance in larger doses would threatens to be cloying. I find the smell very soothing, and I smelled the lupine frequently today. Plus they are a lovely purple.
We've entered an area with active logging. At least they seem to be clear cutting chunks that leave treed corridors and maintain some integrity to watersheds or something. They clearcut in patterns, and there's got to be a good environmental reason for it. There's certainly no bottom-line reason for it.
The weather today, especially this morning, was lovely. The skies were clear, the temperature comfortable, and the winds still. We are camped on an old logging road that has a Firewood Cutting Area sign at the intersection with the main road. We picked the spot out in the dark. We are all sleeping out.
