Nothing sinister happened.

Today was easy, in one sense, because we went short on the mileage. We did have to labor up 5000 vertical feet almost a mile strait into the sky. Now, thanks to our efforts, we are at 8000 ft. high in the San Bernadino Mountains. The air is much cooler, there are trees, plenty of water and no burnt shrub stumps. The climb up East Mission Fork creek and then further up the north fork was quite beautiful. It is still quite light out and we are relaxing at camp. There were two guys from Huntington Beach up here with a Motorcycle, truck, cooler, and plenty of water we didn’t have to filter. We sat and talked to them for about an hour about all kinds of things. The human contact was nice. It is strange how out here people one would most certainly pass right by each other on a city street due to a conflict of symbolically stated interests become instant friends. The general and ever present hunger has been dented with a good dinner and the prospect of breakfast a sleep away.

I think about a lot of things during the day. Some are practical. The walking breathing mediation Dyl has taught me sometimes lapses into a repeated prayer. Breath in “surrounded on all sides by,” breathe out “One,” breath in, “nothing but,” breathe out, “God.” I try to sense the content more than verbalize it. Still, although it is a simple thing I keep it to myself. Not proper fodder for a religious freak, certainly not for a Christian. It passes the time. Mostly I think about Siri and home. Lately actually, I think about food, about eating exclusively at restaurants. All the memorable meals I have ever eaten get eaten again in memory. I dreamed about two jelly filled doughnuts and a Twix candybar. The doughnuts were the kind they make at the “Buttry’s” grocery store in Laramie Wyoming where Dyl and I grew up. After consuming one I wasn’t satiated; and, somehow, it was still there. The three items sat before me and time passed rapidly. They aged before me getting staler and staler. I expectantly and urgently went to bite again the doughnut I had just eaten. My jaw dropped and a good bite sized potion entered my mouth. Right as I was biting yet before my teeth had struck the aged glaze, I awoke.