Eternity

[Driftless]

 

I have fished this stretch for over 20 years and had never seen this magnificent rock draw. Other years the leaves obscured my field of vision. It appeared to be one solid rock ledge that was impregnable. Recently I fished the stretch in the dead of winter and this virtual "road not taken" was almost magically there before me.

 

 

There it was on the other side of the waterway. I sat down on the stream bank for a good long while and admired the steps that father time had cut in the rock ledge with the help of mother nature. I was fairly certain that this path to the future and the past had never been traveled before by any human due it being so far back in the middle of nowhere. It was a true metaphor of life there before me.

 

 

I had walked by this exact spot 100 times in the last 20 years and had not seen this wonder that time had created. The snow was drifted there and the path still looked precarious. The stream was deep and I would have had to walk back down stream quite a ways to get to the other side. The rock ledge down stream was closer to the water and made the trek across a swim not a wade. This made the crossing impossible that cold dark winter day.

 

 

I sat there and thought about life and its detours and wrong turns. I took this picture and went on my way fishing. As I fished upstream I was a bit melancholy that I was unable to at least walk to the head of the draw and look over the summit into eternity.

 

 

I thought about revisiting this place on a warmer day and take my chances and see what was on the other side. I looked back down stream to the place in the snow that I had sat on the bank for such a long time. Today was a fine day to keep fishing. I decided to not look back and continue forward not back. My sadness was replaced with a smile and on I trekked.

[Wanderer]

Now that’s some deep introspection.

 

There is a place in the Brooks Range of Alaska that pulled similar thoughts from me years ago.  I won’t get to pass by it so much but I did make a promise I’d revisit it some day.  I’ll be planning that trip soon.

 

Since Dolly Varden and Grayling live there, I might post some pics back for ya.  Of the fish, not the place.  I’ll never take a pic of the place.

Edited January 28, 2018 by Wanderer