Oregon's Back Woods
One of my favorite hiking spots is Pamelia Lake in the Mt Jefferson Wilderness. Getting to the lake entails a 10 mile drive on a Forest Service Road to the trailhead, and then hiking about 2.5 miles to the lake. The hike gains about 600 feet in altitude so youngsters like myself find it slow going. Slow is synonymous for "time to ponder life and all its perplexing questions."
Blow Down Pick Up Sticks
The hike starts with a nice path through the woods but soon becomes a tangle of blown down trees. The high number of "blow downs" resulted from extraordinarily heavy snows last winter followed by moderately warm temperatures. The heavy loads of snow on the shallow rooted trees left tangles of huge tress propped up at crazy angles everywhere. Luckily, the Forest Service, with the help of volunteers, has cleared the path to the lake but left behind a bizarre landscape of crazily tilting trees interspersed with huge fallen ones. The sight is absolutely surreal.
Boulder City
Then came the boulders, rocks, and gravel. I'd been up this trail several times in past years but with the heavy devastation caused by the blow downs, the trail has been diverted through areas that resemble gigantic economy size gravel pits. Keep in mind that these remnants of the last ice age are even older than me! It almost started me thinking about global warming but I quickly turned my mind to more pleasant philosophical thoughts and away from ugly political issues.
Tranquility In Abundance
Finally, after huffing and puffing my way uphill for over an hour, my reward was the lake itself. Pamelia is pristine in every way, unspoiled by humankind, and so quiet one can hear ones heart beating. I stood there for at least two minutes listening for anything - a bird, a fish jumping, a flies buzzing around, the rustling of wind blowing through the trees. Nothing! Absolutely nothing! Now, think of that when you're ready to throw a rock through your TV screen after the umpteenth negative political ad! So, there is a place you can go and hear absolutely nothing without going to a clinic for a hearing test. I find it simply amazing that Mother Nature thought of it first.
This is one of the places I go when my batteries need recharging. I wish I had learned about this place when I was much younger. In retrospect however, I doubt I would have appreciated it then as much as I do now. Sometimes batteries need replacement. Sometimes they need to be recharged. Thankfully, I fall in the latter category and plan on continuing my hunt for solitude amidst the chaos around me. Too bad one can't make a living do that.
