Day 6 on the JMT.
My body was slowly adapting to the trail, and I began to feel changes not only in the scenery around me, but also within myself as I walked.
From this day on, I stepped into territory that was completely new to me.
The morning I greeted while looking out at Mount Ritter from Garnet Lake was breathtaking, beyond words.
In reality, I had camped at a small hidden lake a little above the southern end of Garnet Lake,
so it took about two extra miles to return to the JMT.
Even so, standing before the scenery that morning,
that detour felt like a luxury rather than an inconvenience.
The section between Thousand Island Lake and Shadow Lake was one I had walked on a backpacking trip several years earlier,
and fragments of those memories began to resurface.
I’d been intentionally drinking a lot of water since the morning,
and maybe because of that, I felt really good while hiking.
The Ansel Adams Wilderness borders Yosemite, but even so, it struck me again just how beautiful this area truly is.
Maybe my body was finally starting to adapt, because the tough climb after Shadow Lake
somehow felt easier than I expected.
As I walked through the forest, there were many moments when a sense of happiness arose for no particular reason.
I found myself thinking that walking through old-growth forest like this, while keeping Ho‘oponopono, an ancient Hawaiian self-healing practice, in mind,
might be beneficial not only for the body and mind, but also for cleansing the subconscious.
As I walked through the forest, the time slipped past 5:30 p.m.
Scanning the area, I spotted a small, unnamed lake,
and there I found the remains of a good campsite.
I decided to stay there for the night.
Walking the distance I chose for myself, and being able to camp wherever I wished as long as I followed the environmental rules,
I felt that backpacking in the Sierra Nevada is truly something special.
From this day on, the journey entered the longest stretch of backpacking I had ever experienced,pushing me fully into unfamiliar territory.
Even so, at this point I felt no mental fatigue,
and physically I was doing better than I had expected.
The journey was quietly and steadily reshaping both my body and my mind.
Before I knew it, walking itself was beginning to feel completely natural.
コメント