Respecting Mother Nature...
Day 189
9-12-2006
Started: Pueblo West, CO
Finished: Canon City, CO
Today's Miles: 27.0
Total ADT Miles: 2602.0
The windy and rain filled skies that blew through Pueblo West last night cleared the way for a beautiful day today. The run in we had with the hail the other day and the storms that rolled through last night have influenced us, or better said, reminded us that Mother Nature is extremely deserving of respect and not a force to be taken lightly. The kind reminder in the form of welts from getting struck in the head with hail is actually very well timed. The environment we are approaching is one that can be beautiful and awe inspiring for a moment and then a moment later be dangerous and devastating. We hiked into the Front Range today. The Front Range is where the Eastern Plains meet the foothills of the Rocky Mountains. The Mountains were like magnets that we could feel pulling us in. The rugged and tall peaks look so amazing, and after hiking across the wide open spaces of the Great Plains we are full of excitement for the change of scenery. Tonight we are camped out in Canon City thanks to a nice guy named Don. Don and his dog, Easy, saw us earlier in the day today and when we reached Canon City Don offered us a tent site so we could get off our tired feet. We both are still dealing with blister issues so it really was our feet that needed to rest. While hiking today we had two encounters that many people would find fearful. Randy's Maw Propster and Sheri's Aunt Jo would have jumped out of their skin if they would have had the snake sighting we had today. Well actually it was more then a sighting because Randy wasn't really paying close enough attention to the ground allowing him to walk right over the back of a pretty good size snake that had a very interesting and colorful pattern from head to tail. It's always a good rush of adrenaline when the ground starts to sliver beneath you. Our second encounter of the animal kind was one that would give Randy's sister Renee nightmares, and those nightmares probably wouldn't happen out here in a tent on the ground because after seeing two different Tarantula crawling about today she more then likely would have skipped out on the whole tenting idea. One of the hairy eight legged creapy-crawlies was huge, provoking Sheri to declare, "that is the biggest spider I have ever seen that wasn't in a cage!" She went on to explain that the nightly bug, ant, mosquito and spider check of our tent had just taken itself to a whole new level. The fears that people have of these types of animals and other aspects of Mother Nature are all perfectly healthy. Fear helps to keep us grounded and allows us to make good decisions that will be in the best interest of our safety. We wouldn't say that we were afraid today during any of our animal encounters. We would, however, say that we gave the animals the respect that they deserved and simply observed them from a distance, well from a distance once Randy got off the snake. The point is, we don't want to fear Mother Nature, fearing Mother Nature would only cause us to avoid putting ourselves in the position to witness her beauty and power, we do on the other hand want to respect her to the fullest. Respecting Mother Nature will be crucial to our success as we attempt to hike through the Rocky Mountains. Respecting the awe inspiring beauty, respecting the devastating power, respecting the seemingly instantaneous changes that can present themselves, respecting Nature all the while respecting ourselves enough to make safe decisions, not decisions based in fear, decisions based upon respect. Tomorrow we will begin our climb into the Rockies. We will start at an elevation of just over 5,000 feet and by the end of the day we will be standing just below 10,000 feet. The emotions we are feeling tonight could be described as anxious, or excited, or maybe even nervous, but not fear. Mother Nature has reminded us to respect Her and we undoubtedly do respect Her, and it's that respect that will enable us to bear witness to the beauty and power the mighty Mountains of Colorado have to offer.
Your Friends on the ADT,
Randy and Sheri
Follow our Journey at www.treckusa.com
|
