Punchbowl Shelter
This is Punchbowl Shelter -- reportedly haunted. I didn't see any demons of the superstitious kind. The devils we knew had small black V-shaped wings, and when they bit, they took a piece of you away. Blood ran from the kisses left by the flying fangs, black flies from hell.
J: Late lunch in Johns Hollow Shelter with Cloudwalker, Earth Dawg, Seuss and Shirt. Hot and humid today.
These days, this moment and my experience is flowing, real and yet ungraspable save for the breathing. With motion, this walk changes perspective with every hill and switchback. These days, filled with little aches and bites as they are, are the days we will long for all too soon. And this time we have now - it's all fluid and fleeting. A song says you can't hold on to mercury.
Six foot king snake lives in the hemlock tree to the left. Came out and wandered beneath Seuss and Shirt while they were quietly perched above on the shelter floor. Cool snake. We watched, transfixed. The feet feel today -- not all bad.
Seuss and I got to know each other as we left shelter and climbed Fullers rocks. One foot in front of the other. Push. Repeat. Five miles later, Bluff Mtn -- same refrain. We paused by the marker for Ottie. Small boy who got lost collecting firewood a century and a half ago. Didn't find his way back. Perished on that ridge we trod -- braver than us. We who doggedly follow white paint to mark our way.
This Punchbowl Shelter, with its pond of croaking frogs, biting flies, racheting cicadas -- it's said to be haunted. The haunting is in the memory of the little man who didn't have our luxuries, our options, and he walked on nonetheless - his marker passed back up on that ridge. We made the shelter with DelDoc, Hulagn, Curljob, Toonman, Seuss, Shirt and EarthDawg. Substantial rain for the first time since Atkins. 1383.8 left on the Trail. Sweet Mags reportedly went up the wrong road - so she spent all her hiker energy -- and stayed at John's Hollow. Hope she's OK with snakes. A quiet storm, not too much rain - but more than we've had in a while.
'I wonder if you hear me singing softly to myself
And I wonder do you recognise the tune
At times I've been so lonely for another human sound
I have cried and shouted to myself
I turn from the West gate and look to the east
I will await the coming dawn to welcome the traveller home
Dawn to dusk and dust to dust and days of mercury
In my mind's eye the time goes by is set like a crystal
At the end of the year the days grow dim, I feel the time go by
But you can't hold on to mercury.'
-H. Berry