If you can imagine driving across a plowed field perpendicular to the plowed furrows, then you know what it's like to drive on Chaffee County 390 Road. It takes longer to drive the 12 miles of this dirt road than to drive the 30 plus miles through Buena Vista and into Salida...but it's a pretty drive!
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| Wildflowers in the meadow |
Malcolm Muggeridge, English journalist, said, "Every happening, whether great or small, is a parable whereby God speaks to us, and the art of life is to get the message." On the quiet ride to Salida with Nic asleep in the passenger seat, I pondered the lessons of the day. At least 3 of these, and possibly all 5 apply to any endeavor in life:
- Prepare Well - Since we don't use technology while navigating it is vital that we are thorough in our research before the trip, and then we must commit our research to memory. I will confess that our prep work was about 95% thorough. Most of our effort was spent researching the basin and the headwall climb to the Southwest Ridge. We neglected the little detail about the "curious fork in the road that meanders to the right." Had we paid attention to this fork in the road, we would have never followed the Fishermen/False Leaders...
- Carefully Chose Who You Follow - they may not be going to the same place as you. I jokingly referred to these unknown guys as the Fishermen/False Leaders, my guess is they are good guys. The blame for this falls directly on our shoulders, since we were 5% lazy on our prep work, we made assumptions that were incorrect and followed them. Oops.
- The Mountain Will Be There Tomorrow - La Plata Peak has existed longer than we can imagine and will be around for a while I think. As such, no need to make rash decisions today, we will get to the top on some other day.
- Images Are Only Two Dimensional - I personally spent hours reading reports of this trail and hours poring over images, memorizing tree lines, landmarks and shapes of ridges. You can spend time learning about something but that knowledge is superficial and incomplete. The completion of that knowledge comes from experiencing the real thing. This has huge implications in the religious world. If you would like more info, I will be happy to discuss.
- We Should Be Willing to Redefine Success and Failure - I write this down nervously because there are at least 12 of my Facebook friends that would call me crazy or a loser for even stating this. I think we have a skewed definition AND an unhealthy infatuation with success in our culture today. In the past, attaining the summit of a mountain is what defined success for me. If we didn't make it, the days following would be agonizing - filled with thoughts of what went wrong, how could we have been so inept, or I must go back out and conquer! I can say with all sincerity that today was one of my most favorite days in the mountains, ever! We didn't make the summit but it was rich in experience.
That wraps up my mountain adventure for 2013. We (a specially assembled team) are anticipating the 2014 adventure to Brown's Lake and our assault on Tabeguache Peak, we will stay at Base Camp until we stand on the elusive summit! (did I just say that immediately after writing #5?)
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| Flowers and drainage from the Correct Basin |
