A hill of aspens, glowing golden, shines on the right side of the trail while the left side is a pine-covered hill. Between the two is the trail, a magical escape from reality. This is my sanctuary, of Buffalo Peaks wilderness. The trying experience of hiking through the mountains with 40 pounds on your back, the straps of your pack rubbing the skin off your hips and shoulders. The tension building in your muscles as you struggle under the weight. The pain that can only be diluted by a yoga session and a trip to the hot springs. Sun salutations in a lush, meadow valley. Warrior one and reverse warrior in the heat of the sun, relaxing from the miles we traveled just the day before. Shimmering waterfall with the patchwork dam outlining the upper edge, perfectly designed to let out the right amount of …show more content…
Even when your foot is so blistered you have no recollection of what your foot looked like originally, you have to keep walking and help encourage everyone else to do the same. With the expectation of the hot springs to help cleanse all wounds and release all of the tension in our weary bodies. I discovered a lot about myself. Not only who I am, but who I want to be. During these trips we had a lot of time to just think about what was going on in our lives and what we thought about it. This especially came up during the 2 hour long solo time that we had every year on the last full day on the trail. We had time to both reflect on our week, and to plan for when we got back to civilization. This year we each got a word to reflect on during solos. I had courage. What does courage mean? How does one show courage? How do we perceive courage? All thoughts running through my head as I sat in silence, listening to the sounds of nature around me. The birds chirping, pecking, and eating, the chipmunks and squirrels scurrying up and down the trees and jumping from branch to