Those who know me realize my passion for the outdoors and my love of exploring it. Backpacking is one of my primary modes for doing so. I've backpacked over 60 times in 50 different wilderness areas, but one of my favorites is the Big Blue Wilderness (now Uncompahgre Wilderness) in Colorado. My father had reached the top in the 1930s on horseback while he visited cousin Jake, the US Forest Service Ranger stationed at the Alpine Ranger Station along the Big Blue River. One of Jake's jobs was to change the sign-in sheets atop Uncompahgre Peak, 13,409 feet high. The trail has deteriorated over the decades, so rock-scrambling is now the sole method of achieving the top of this 14er, which Len and I did in the 1994. (For photos and info on backpacking in general and the places I've backpacked in particular, go to Chuck's Adventures. It also has my other outdoor adventures.
Atop Uncompahgre Peak
(14,309 feet)
Not the top of the entire world
but certainly tops in mine.
On the ground yet scraping the clouds,
exaltation and vistas immeasurable,
simultaneously feeling
pebble-small and redwood-tall.
But where does one go from any pinnacle?
Other than root and stagnate,
there is nowhere to venture but down.
The peak, as all of life's highs,
proves ephemeral, fleeting, impermanent,
and can only be relished, remembered, revered
as life inevitably fast-forwards,
leaving the peak and its exhilaration behind.
So descend we must back to the valleys
to explore, experience, survive,
ever yearning for new pinnacles
and new endorphin highs,
and praying life conspires us
to one day again rescale the heights.
copyright 1997 by Chuck Morlock
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