I need lots of sleep. I fell into bed last night around 10:30 and woke up just after 8. The first thing I did (after taking care of my dog Jessie), I sat down to write. Just whatever. I opened my journal, picked up a pen, and started writing. About a dream. I wrote what I remembered about it, then I wrote what I thought about the story in the dream, then I wrote what I felt about it. About 20 minutes in, my writing hand started to go numb. After 30 minutes, I had two and a half pages of hastily written whatever came to mind. Interesting stuff. I’ll try it again tomorrow.
The mountains called us today, to Harts Pass. Making that drive brings out the cowpoke in me. As many times as I’ve made that trip, I still git nervous when that old washboard forest road gives way to a rocky track blasted from a cliff face named Dead Horse Point. Heck, two years ago, I run into a rock slide and had to turn around. No mean feat, made a 17-point turn, my back end hanging over the edge. You fall, you die. Snow, same thing, I’ve done it a thousand times and got stuck then unstuck a couple, but I still worry. This time, to git up that last quarter mile, to the pass, I had to drop the old Land Cruiser into low range with both differentials locked. That snow was heavy as concrete and them wheel ruts was so deep my undercarriage, as high as it is, plowed snow up the middle. The old rig started slippin’. I got her stopped and a glance in the rearview told me what I already knew: 400 yards in reverse down a slippery slope to the nearest turnaround. Maybe if I back up a little, then run at it again. So I dropped it into reverse, just six feet or so. I moved into neutral, fingers drumming on the shifter. Give it a couple of tries, see if it’ll go. Hope I don’t high center. OK, into drive. Tap the gas. A little more. I felt a little oof as the tires pushed through the clogged up rut. A bounce right. A bounce left. But still movin, still movin and then…made it!
Jessie promptly buried herself in the snow. I strapped on my snowshoes and we hiked a mile and a half up to the Pacific Crest Trail junction. No broad vistas, what with clouds and snow flurries, but beautiful and soothing still.
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