Waiting For Winter

This time of year can feel like a kind of limbo. The magnificent display of the changing aspens has long since turned into leaf litter on the forest floor. The first flurries of snow have fallen and melted away, and while it still decorates distant summits, no other signs of winter are forthcoming.

The summer visitors and festivals are long gone, but they've left behind a sense of peace. The roads and trails are especially quiet during this period.

In the time between autumn and winter, it would be easy to think that there is little to see in the high country. Still, if you can appreciate the simple things, there is always a new discovery to be made.

On this Black Friday I'm enjoying the silence outside, and the views of the mountains that I'm getting to know like good friends. Living a simple life means that it isn't always possible to take part in the big sales and shopping trends, but a walk in the wilderness is worth more to me than any gift or gadget that I can think of.

“Thousands of tired, nerve-shaken, over-civilized people are beginning to find out that going to the mountains is going home; that wildness is necessity; that mountain parks and reservations are useful not only as fountains of timber and irrigating rivers, but as fountains of life.”  John Muir

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