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| Trail to James Peak |
Thursday August 23. I set out from Winter Park this morning to hike to James Peak....a mountain I had seen often when skiing at the resort. Clouds were hanging low over the mountains but I thought that this was an early morning phenomenon. With more sun later in the morning, the clouds would life.
They did not lift. But the clouds, billowing up, rising over the ridges, careening around this portion of the continental divide, offered glimpses of the deep valleys and gorges on the east side...like flimsy curtains blown by the wind in an open window...just enough to make me realize how immense the scene must be on a clear day.
I kept hiking along the ridge, this divide of the continent into waters flowing east to the Mississippi and waters flowing west to the Gulf of California, until rain began to fall. A gentle rain...more like a drizzle than a downpour...but, lacking rain gear, I headed back to the trail head at Berthoud Pass/
The clouds had another effect besides harboring moisture to rain down...they caused me to look more intently on the alpine vegetation growing at my feet...the lichens, mosses, grasses, sedges...their colors, forms, distribution. I guess when the macro landscape is hidden, our attention focuses on the micro environment, the low plants underneath that would be ignored when confronted with brightly-lit, sun-drenched mountain vistas. Clouds cause the focus to shift...if one lets them...to things that otherwise would be unseen.
