Ode To Three Fingers Mtn.

Queest Alb 6,870'

View from South Peak © Ken James McLeod

Here, in the granite void of the mountain top, I could hear true wilderness around me; melodies of the Hermit thrush coming from the cirque below, a cry from the red-tailed hawk above, crystalline spring water seeping over moss-covered boulders and so pure tasting like a tonic befit only for Gods, and the shrill whistle therefrom a marmot calling to its mate. The wind blew in my face as I climbed ever upward, the clouds rolled up the forested valley below and over the vast expanse of snow-covered peaks, and onward I pressed with heart pounding and lungs puffing. On an exposed ridge, I danced a jig of happiness and chanted to all that lay before me . . . the trackless land and voiceless void, the sheerness of wilderness in all its splendor. And words uttered from my lips, "How Grand It Be."

note: The Boulder Rv. Wilderness (49,000 acres) was created by Congress in 1984 under the Washington Wilderness Act, however my travels began here long before that. It is a place I have spent a lifetime in . . . and is a place near and dear to my heart.

KJM

July 1981

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