Mark’s Photos #7

It was mid-June of 2022 and I was in northern Massachusetts hiking the Appalachian Trail. For most of the afternoon I had been climbing 3,489 foot Mt. Greylock, the highest peak in the state, and I was still three miles from the top when I pulled into the designated camping area on the mountain’s flank. It was late and it had been a hard day. So I had a quick dinner and went straight to bed in my hammock. I was just dozing off when a troop of boy scouts arrived. They set up nearby and I cursed my bad luck. These noisy kids would likely be making a racket for hours. It would be impossible to sleep, and I needed sleep! I really needed sleep! But as I lay there fuming (and not sleeping), I heard the excitement in their young voices, the earnest questions of the younger boys to the older ones, their pride with the hard hike they had just done, the laughter at some earlier event, the chatter as they fixed their meals, and the gentle hum of conversation as they settled in. I heard all this and remembered another young Boy Scout, 60 years ago. A 12 year old, both excited and scared to be on his first camping trip. And what an amazing accomplishment it had seemed to him, that he had hiked in, carried all his stuff, and was actually outside camping. And here he was, six decades later, laying in a camping hammock, still excited to have hiked in, carrying all his stuff, and to be outside camping. So rather than be mad at my spirited neighbors, I decided to let their enthusiasm wash over me and was soon asleep.

I got up before dawn, packed in the dark, and was on my way to the top of the mountain with barely a sound. I thought about those young scouts and this old scout as I ascended, and the time passed quickly. When I was about a mile from the mountain top I came out of the forest and this tiny cabin on a mirror like pond appeared. I immediately got out my phone and took this picture. Then I stepped closer and looked down at that mirror pond. For a moment I thought I saw the face of 12 year old me peering back. Probably just a quirk of the lighting.