Mt Baker -Day 79 (Freedom of the Hills)

Get back from Las Vegas. Do cases in the OR Tuesday and Wednesday. See patients, both old and new. Catch up with paperwork. Sweat out two training sessions with Paul G and three on my own, including two on Sunday. Time to catch a quick glimpse of the two hundred Monarch butterflies that land in our yard on their way to Canada from Mexico. It's then back to the airport to fly to Dayton Ohio. Time to reflect how lonely at times all this can really be. Going to Dayton to see my mother on mother's day. Actually, it is not as considerate as it may seem.Yes, I had made my trip to Dayton to see her. But it was Paul G, my personal trainer and erstwhile spiritual leader, who reminded me it was mother's day. Nancy, knowing my general failure to remember important occasions, had already packed a mother's day card in my carry-on bag. I arrive in Dayton just in time to run six miles on the paved bicycle trail by the Little Miami River. Hundreds of geese were lining the banks of the river making the stepping on the trail a little precarious. Will finish later with strength and endurance exercises, today mostly involving legs, after I finish this blog.

Brought with me two books this time. One was a love story by the Nobel Prize winning author, Gabriel Garcia Marquez, entitled Love in the Time of Cholera. The second was Mountaineering: The Freedom of the Hills. Marquez's story takes place in Cartagena, Columbia. It is about the love-struck Florentino Ariza who waits over fifty years to win the heart of his beloved Fermina. The powerful imagery that Garcia is able to create can be transporting. I find myself many times in the old Columbian city.

The book Mountaineering: Freedom of the Hills is actually the best textbook in the country on the subject of climbing and a Christmas gift to me from Paul G. Over 500 pages in length, the book's chapters cover the essentials of clothing and equipment, camping and food, physical conditioning, and wilderness travel to name a few. It is put together by the Mountaineers Club, a group based in Seattle, Washington who date their origins back to 1906. Their initial purpose was to explore the mountains and forests of the Pacific Northwest. The current edition of Mountaineering is their seventh. The book notes that "Freedom of the hills" is a "concept that combines the simple joy of being in the mountains with the skill, equipment and strength to travel without harm to ourselves, others, or the environment" I will likely refer to it on subsequent blogs. The authors convey the words of the naturalist, John Muir. "Climb the mountains and get their good tidings. Nature's peace will flow into you as sunshine flows into trees. The winds will blow their own freshness into you and the storms their energy, while cares will drop off like autumn leaves. Walk quietly in any direction and taste the freedom of the hills."
Makes it all bearable!