Oh it’s enough to be on your way.

                It’s enough to cover ground.

                It’s enough to be movin on.

Oh build it behind your eyes,

                Carry it in your heart,

                Safe among your own.

James Taylor

And so it begins.

I have a world of forever friends.  There are all of you who are reading this, sharing the common bond of friendship and the common bond of being a treasure to this old man.

How did I get here?

My Mom, for sure; my family, my friends, Walt Disney, Huck Finn, Tom and, of course, Becky. 

There’s Colin Fletcher’s book, “The 1000 Mile Summer”, Ed Abbey’s, “Desert Solitaire” and Graham Mackintosh’s, “Into a Desert Place” (now there’s a man with grit!).  My brother, Frank, told me of his adventures in the Sierras and when I was around 12, my Mom took me on a week long pack trip through the High Sierra Camps.  I caught my first wild trout at, “Waterwheel Falls” on that trip.  At fourteen or so, my family organized a four or five day trip out of Wawona, Yosemite National Park.  For the first time, I carried a backpack that I packed or, better put, a pack that I took pride in.  That next Christmas, Greg Hough and I took over a Christmas Tree lot for Greg’s older brother and I earned enough to buy a Kelty knockoff external frame pack at, Yellow Mart in Indio.  That’s how I got here.  It’s been heaven ever since.

Where am I going?

Up the trail a ways.  Up the trail, keeping these few things in mind:

            rigid twigs break - willows bend

                        after Enlightenment, the laundry,

                                    and the surety of knowing that  I am the luckiest man alive.

Thank you all.

John

5/7/2004