Rosario has a full spa center on its premises, offering all manner of massage and aromatherapy treatments to soothe the soul, reinvigorate the body and rejuvenate the spirit, but my beloved and I have no need of those services because there is no greater healer for the mind/body/spirit than the forest. Yesterday after breakfast we parked our car at Cascade Lake and then went into the woods, hiking on a soft trail padded by centuries of detritus --- pine needles, fallen leaves, downed tree trunks that had over time decomposed into a thick, rich forest floor that muffled all sound save for the occasional snapping of twigs underneath our feet. It had rained all night before and the clouds were still dense and low, so everything was wet, and the cold, bracing air was redolent with sweet, fresh pine from boughs that had been broken off by the accompanying fierce winds. Fat water drops dripped onto big golden, maple-shaped fallen leaves, and sometimes into our hair; fingers of mist brushed against our faces. Little brown birds flitted in the branches and twittered nervously to each other upon our approach. Up and up the trail climbed, alongside a stream that gurgled and burbled as it rushed back down the mountain, through woods of red cedar, hemlock, douglas fir and lodge-pole pines. Moss and lichen clung to the branches, and whole colonies of mushrooms and toadstools ---- white, orange, brown --- sprang from rotting logs. Here was the forest in all its truth-telling glory: every stage of existence --- from the tiny saplings just starting to thrust out of the soil to the towering giants standing proudly erect to the lightning-struck or merely elderly who had to lean against others to the dead ones that had toppled over and were now serving as nurseries for new life forms --- is beautiful. And birth, life, death and rebirth are all part of the same unceasing and miraculous cycle... Eventually, after a couple of miles, the trail brought us to Mountain Lake, its waters lying still and silver and enshrouded in a swirling fog. We hiked the four mile loop around the lake, savoring the sound of the water softly lapping against its shores and the sight of the dense mysterious mists moving over the surrounding hillsides. On the way back down, we took a different trail that led us past a series of small falls, the water pounding over the rocks, and then we emerged at the eastern end of Cascade Lake. It started to rain lightly as I walked to the edge of the lake and bent down to put my hand in the water where our souls had first merged all those years ago. Then, as we started to walk the last mile to where we had left our car, the skies let loose. I suppose I could have put the hood of my rain jacket up, and William could have fished his rain parka out of the backpack, but instead we tilted our heads toward the sky and laughed with delight as we held hands and allowed ourselves to get pelted. We were soaked by the time we completed our 9 mile hike and reached the Sea Moon Gem for our ride back to Rosario, but we were also fully soothed, reinvigorated and rejuvenated...
Posted on: Thu, 23 Oct 2014 17:50:33 +0000
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