The Sunset

​Sunset

I watched the shadows lengthen over elephant mountain, as the sun dipped below the ridge behind the camp. The lengthening shadow were like eyes slowly closing on another day. As the earth readied for slumber.

I wondered about the lives lost in the B52 crash of 63. And the rusting metal remains that still clung to the mountain side. 

There was a landslide a couple of years ago,  beneath the elephant's eye.  And the scar that remains looks like tears.  I suppose of you're a mountain it might take half a century to cry for loss.

I suspect and hope the men died instantly on that frigid stormy night.  As that's the way when men challenge an immovable monolith.  We must bend or die  because it never will.

There's too little light now,  the mountains have lost there green luster.  They're each a muted blue as twilight descends. 

Cycles of life and the physics of the world can be more evident in the stillness of a sunset as it is under the fluorescent glare
of a classroom.

It's dark now, except for the light I made.  Firelight and a solar light inside the tent. 

The moon is rising late.  Last night I woke thinking someone was shining a flashlight on the tent.  But the moon had cleared the distant mountain peak.

It's only 8:20. Another cycle as the 9:30 days of twilight were back in June.  Still June has bugs.  And I'm sitting still beside the firelight without a buzz.

I ran over the ridge,  ok I jogged walked.  I'm so petered after six miles that I struggled to finish in under 2 hours.  1:58;30.

I did it.  My heart rate was the highest at the end and it was the only time I would say I ran.

Tomorrow  I plan on hiking up to the view with my camera then jog back . It's less than half way.

From the peak there are many lakes and katadhin looms in the distance.

It's amazing what you can glean from the world around you when you have the advantage of elevation.