I FELT AS THOUGH I was in my early twenties again as I charged along the trail, expanding my lungs and my horizons, feeling excited by each twist and turn, by everything that lay ahead: the night in camp, the quietness, the simplicity and adventure, and by the season – most of all by the season – the ease of it, the warmth, and the sheer invigorating aliveness of it.
Goodness, but I love summer!
I love waist-high grass, thick and lush, interwoven with wildflowers. I love warm air on bare skin, and long days, and lingering evening twilight, and birds filling the air with motion and song. I love green – shimmering in a thousand shades – and the quiet sun-dappled corners of the forest, and backlit leaves on deciduous trees, and pine needles tipped with reflected light. I love working up a cleansing sweat on a stiff climb followed by the cold shock of mountain water on a hot body. I love sitting in stillness and silence, staring outward, merging into the landscape with every sense… relaxing into it… unchallenged by inhospitable elements, at peace, but energized also – fully alive.
Of course, I love winter too – with a passion – and the glorious golden autumn, and the liberating renewal of spring. I love whatever season I’m in the midst of, but it is summer right now, and so for now I love summer most of all.
This weekend’s walk and camp felt like a celebration of summer, and of life. It was a simple set of miles uphill from my home town, along a rugged canyon, ending at a discrete leave-no-trace camp upon an elevated ridge. Growing up in London I spent years dreaming about being able to do what I just did: walk from home to camp in a wild spot. For years I imagined being able to reach a mountain camp with no travel time, with no gas burned, no pollution, by the power of my feet alone. And I dreamed of putting down roots, learning a place, becoming so familiar with it that I felt I belonged. I dreamed of a relationship with a place. An imagined love affair. An intimate connection. A fantasy, perhaps?
But who would guess that fantasies can come true?
Is it mere luck – the good fortune of the privileged? Or choices? Or sacrifices? Or a mixture of these, and other elements that I’m unaware of? Either way, the gratitude I feel is immense. I feel grateful that, out here, our dystopian world matters less, if it even matters at all.
The sunset was captivating. I sat and watched it, photographed it, watched it some more. As the ninety-degree day cooled and shadows lengthened the light took on a richness it had earlier lacked. Warm hues, billowing clouds, an insect chorus reaching a crescendo, a rogue thundercloud – grumbling darkly as it passed – and then twilight, with crepuscular rays reaching far overhead, banded fingers of shade.
What price such treasures?
The forest the next morning was enchanted, beyond beautiful. I breakfasted in stillness and peace, savoring both, and then walked away from camp as vigorously as I had walked to it, relishing the physicality of being alive. To the few morning walkers I passed I may have looked rushed. But I wasn’t. I was just living.
Heading home, I thought. Which was silly. I was home already.
But goodness do I love summer!
![colorado front range trail late summer meadow](https://68f2de.p3cdn1.secureserver.net/wp-content/uploads/2021/08/colorado-front-range-trail-late-summer-meadow.jpg)
![colorado front range late summer meadow golden colorado](https://68f2de.p3cdn1.secureserver.net/wp-content/uploads/2021/08/colorado-front-range-late-summer-meadow-golden-colorado.jpg)
![hill side vegetation colorado front range summer august](https://68f2de.p3cdn1.secureserver.net/wp-content/uploads/2021/08/hill-side-vegetation-colorado-front-range-summer-august.jpg)
![evening light in colorado foothills](https://68f2de.p3cdn1.secureserver.net/wp-content/uploads/2021/08/evening-light-in-colorado-foothills.jpg)
![purple asters growing in creek colorado august](https://68f2de.p3cdn1.secureserver.net/wp-content/uploads/2021/08/purple-asters-growing-in-creek-colorado-august.jpg)
![sunbeams and clouds over colorado foothills and forests](https://68f2de.p3cdn1.secureserver.net/wp-content/uploads/2021/08/sunbeams-and-clouds-over-colorado-foothills-and-forests.jpg)
![evening light on mountain slope with pine trees colorado front range foothills](https://68f2de.p3cdn1.secureserver.net/wp-content/uploads/2021/08/evening-light-on-mountain-slope-with-pine-trees-colorado-front-range-foothills.jpg)
![sunlight bursting over forest and mountain ridge](https://68f2de.p3cdn1.secureserver.net/wp-content/uploads/2021/08/sunlight-bursting-over-forest-and-mountain-ridge.jpg)
![thundercloud above ridge colorado summer](https://68f2de.p3cdn1.secureserver.net/wp-content/uploads/2021/08/thundercloud-above-ridge-colorado-summer.jpg)
![sunset over the front range foothills and mountains colorado](https://68f2de.p3cdn1.secureserver.net/wp-content/uploads/2021/08/sunset-over-the-front-range-foothills-and-mountains-colorado.jpg)
![evening thunderstorm over rocky mountain foothills](https://68f2de.p3cdn1.secureserver.net/wp-content/uploads/2021/08/evening-thunderstorm-over-rocky-mountain-foothills.jpg)
![Crepuscular Rays and shadow bands at sunset in colorado](https://68f2de.p3cdn1.secureserver.net/wp-content/uploads/2021/08/Crepuscular-Rays-and-shadow-bands-at-sunset-in-colorado.jpg)
![breakfast in the foothills colorado](https://68f2de.p3cdn1.secureserver.net/wp-content/uploads/2021/08/breakfast-in-the-foothills-colorado.jpg)
![forest path colorado front range golden](https://68f2de.p3cdn1.secureserver.net/wp-content/uploads/2021/08/forest-path-colorado-front-range-golden.jpg)
![daisies in meadow colorado late summer](https://68f2de.p3cdn1.secureserver.net/wp-content/uploads/2021/08/daisies-in-meadow-colorado-late-summer-1.jpg)
![meadow and forest in mountains colorado front range](https://68f2de.p3cdn1.secureserver.net/wp-content/uploads/2021/08/meadow-and-forest-in-mountains-colorado-front-range.jpg)
![poison ivy leaves turning red autumn fall late summer](https://68f2de.p3cdn1.secureserver.net/wp-content/uploads/2021/08/poison-ivy-leaves-turning-red-autumn-fall-late-summer.jpg)
![plains lubber grasshopper](https://68f2de.p3cdn1.secureserver.net/wp-content/uploads/2021/08/plains-lubber-grasshopper.jpg)
![deep canyon colorado front range](https://68f2de.p3cdn1.secureserver.net/wp-content/uploads/2021/08/deep-canyon-colorado-front-range.jpg)