A Heavenly Hike

I'm an outdoors person and I was asked by someone today where I most enjoy hiking. That’s kind of an ambiguous question because my favorite single hike was not in a very convenient location.

Several years ago my then-boyfriend and I took a trip to eastern California. We visited Yosemite National Park. I was anxious to see all the birds that conjure around nearby Mono Lake. We stayed a couple of days in Lee Vining, a tiny town on the eastern edge of California, not far from Yosemite. One afternoon we decided to hike the Tioga Pass Trail, which is next to the east entrance station to Yosemite. We parked the car a short distance from the station and started up the trail. I think we began in late morning. 

The first quarter mile or so of the trail is uphill, which seemed particularly cruel since it is at about 10,000 feet elevation. Once we got to the crest of the hill, we were looking down on a beautiful, crystal lake a few hundred feet below. We meandered down the trail until we were at the edge of the water. Except for the sound of the tiny waves splashing upon the stony lake shore, everything was quiet. No one was around and there was virtually no wind. At that elevation, there are few trees in the Sierras, which is the mountain range in eastern California. In one direction was the lake, in one direction was the hillside we had just descended, and in the other two directions were placid, grassy, boulder-strewn meadows.

The temperature was probably around 60 that day, and the sky was a deep blue, save a few odd-looking circular clouds. I was neither hungry nor thirsty. I had slept well the night before so I did not feel tired or listless. With the sun on our backs, we slowly continued along the trail as it meandered through the alpine meadow.

Unlike most of my wilderness hikes, I did not feel compelled to examine the fauna. I did not have the urge to turn over stones in search of tiny animal life. Somehow I knew that this hike was about something else. 

Now and then we would pause, sit on a bolder and gaze about at the glowing green of the sun-lit grass and experience the quiet and solitude. On that hike I found something I had never experienced before in the outdoors, or really, almost anywhere. It was this state of euphoria; a sense that right then, for those few moments, everything was right in the world.

I have never had that experienced again but I have thought about what went into it. It required that I be in perfect comfort. If I had been hungry or if the weather had been too hot, the hike would not have been unusual aside from the very non-Massachusetts scenery. If there had been other people out there, someone perhaps causing some mild commotion, I would not be writing this blog entry. But everything was perfect, literally heaven-like.

I’d bet that someday I’ll enjoy a similar outdoor jaunt. The weather will be beautiful and I’ll be full of energy. Someday; but probably not this winter.