Returning to Marshall Gulch for cover — Images by kenne
This week’s hike was from the Sunset trailhead to Marshall Gulch, up to Marshall saddle and back to the Sunset trailhead. Because of heavy rain and unnerving lightning, we turned back before reaching the saddle. Since one of our cars was at the Marshall Gulch trailhead, all the drivers were taken back to the Sunset trailhead, returning to rescue the remaining wet hikers.
This is my fourth or fifth time hiking Sunset trail, which I prefer to call Sunrise, since the hikes are always in the morning, but I’ve never hiked the trail in the sun — it’s always been cloudy with at least a misty rain. Yesterday was the first time for the rain to be heavy on this hike.
It’s nice to get the much-needed rain on the mountains, only if we could get some of it in the valley. At least the rain on the mountains is flowing down to Sabino Canyon and the dam area — the latest report is that the Sonoran Desert Toads are breast-stroking and piggy-back riding around the pools croaking contentedly. There’s a 30 % chance of rain again today.
As with the mountain streams, hiking and life is all about the flow — “being completely involved in an activity for its own sake. The ego falls away. Time flies. Every action, movement, and thought follows inevitably from the previous one, like playing jazz. Your whole being is involved, and you’re using your skills to the utmost.”
“The fact that you were completely immersed in what you were doing, that the concentration was very high, that you knew what you had to do moment by moment, that you had very quick and precise feedback as to how well you were doing, and that you felt that your abilities were stretched but not overwhelmed by the opportunities for action. In other words, the challenges were in balance with the skills. And when those conditions were present, you began to forget all the things that bothered you in everyday life, forget the self as an entity separate from what was going on — you felt you were a part of something greater and you were just moving along with the logic of the activity.” — Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi
kenne
iPhone image by Jeff
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