Memories from May 7
I’d slept in my clothes and so was first out of camp in the morning. The trail wasn’t particularly notable but had a pleasantly pastoral view for a while.
The trail wound down to a highway and crossed a particularly scenic hydroelectric facility and gravel mounds.
Whatever this is, it looked pretty cool. This was the smallest part of dam infrastructure. Dams are really big.
After a while, the trail cut over to a sprawling lake and took it’s time tracing the lake’s outline.
There was a side trail to a beach which I missed and didn’t realize it until I was far enough along to not want to go back. Instead, having made 14 or 15 miles by noon, I decided to take a siesta at a nearby picnic area. After stuffing my face (I found a sleeve of girlscout cookies in the bottom of my food bag), I half napped face down on a picnic table and half listened to Let Your Life Speak. This isn’t a book review blog nor my personal diary so I’ll have just share one tidbit – that it was somehow calming to hear someone vocalize the idea that culture feeds white males a lie that they can make themselves anything. Instead, a central theme of the book is that all people have inherent proclivities and limits which they will be more satisfied if they respect. I’ve struggled with the idea that having a big impact is something of a birthright I need to live up to and that a normal life would somehow be a letdown. I think it was calming because it felt like I was being given the permission to be normal.
The book is short so when it finished, I got up and lazily walked a few more miles.
Isaac Takes A Hike 