... and the view of our little town, nestled in the San Jacinto Mountains, from up there. While this is a nice general view of this place in which we happen to be stuck, saying regularly that there are worse places, this town and these trails hold far more significance for a soul who was crammed into this place when they were 12.
My wife hopped around at her whim most of her life and found herself here ten years ago, but she's the type of person to hit all these trails immediately, so in reality she knows my mountain better than I do, while I'm the type of person who has been putting these trails off for 30 years, because why would I want to go for a long, exhausting walk when I could be treating photos or writing?
She has felt the aching stir of her nomad soul, pushing her to escape, while I managed to escape twice, then was kicked out, and yet, here we are, hiking the trails that eluded my motivational drive for three decades, like Tahquitz won't let us escape until we truly understand him. Maybe that was always the curse that so many people speak of? Maybe this devil, trapped underneath Southern California granite is just lonely?
I've clearly been using the current social climate to take a step back from my work and really enjoy my family, but as a family we've been enjoying this mountain so much more that we have been wondering why we wanted to escape so bad? We are beginning to truly appreciate where we are stuck.
This particular trail wouldn't have been possible with the kids, as we were trudging through feet of snow near the top, but the goddess and I needed a little escape from our escape, and luckily we still have some support from our beautiful, and relatively unaffected community (good luck finding toilet paper) up here so we can get away and take a deep breath, when most are observing the world through closed blinds.
I am not a trail soul, yet, but I am relentless, whether I can breathe or not, and with this beautiful soul leading me, I can conquer anything. The next little baby step in my own personal realignment should be pretty epic. La vita è bella.
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