Vivid images of crumbling mountain peaks surrounding unnamed glacial lakes, and the cold, murky water of Prince William Sound dug themselves deep into my consciousness. Each day the memories washed over me like waves hitting the shore after a piece of Blackstone gave way.
Two-years later, I found myself flying from MSP to Seattle, to Juneau, before finally landing in Haines, AK. I planned to spend a couple of days in the town flanked by Mt. Riley and Mt Ripley, at the top of the Lynn Canal, before heading out for 5 days of kayaking, camping, and hiking.
I arrived there free and weightless, as each mile erased a burden, mistake, and wasted thought. For me this was an escape to write and distance myself from the corporate world, and return to a land that refused to let all of me leave, that chose bits and pieces, and scattered them across the sound and into the Talkeetna Mountains.
I went there with no plan and allowed the landscape and soundscape to take me in, and do whatever it wanted. In that process and time, I became filled something else, something I could not name, but definitely something beyond here.
Notes from the last two days.
08/07/10
Last day in Haines and Alaska. From my time here I have discovered a clearer path and direction for what I will do next, what I will concentrate upon and a clearer picture of my purpose. These realizations come from the land, kayaking, new experiences, walking around Haines many times and the people I had the pleasure to meet and talk with. I am amazed at the spirituality and connectedness with nature that seems more common and out outward, where people are more honest, with themselves and others. Is it the wild land, the small town surrounded by snow-capped peaks, deep canals, rivers, lakes, and eagles and ravens that soar and hunt the land?
While hiking back from Davidson Glacier, I was in the lead and taking with Kyle. The conversation came around to spirituality, religion, self-discovery and connection to nature, and the signs and hints left us, when we are looking, and ready.
In general, this place is a few years in the past, with a gentler, easy going attitude that gets things done, but without the stress and anger of a larger city.
08/10/10
I am here and I came from there? What did I find in this land that is different from that land? Wilderness? What is wilderness? Where is the nature we seek? Why must we go somewhere else to find what surrounds and is within?
The true experience can only begin and bring understanding through solitude and the forced need to go inside, nature, and yourself.
Nature and wilderness is what we perceive or allow ourselves to absorb, and what is taken away. To some, wilderness may be the local park or even the zoo. Others see the vast isolated expanse of Alaska, the tundra surrounded by towering snow covered peaks, or the open sea lapping at the shores of ancient forests. What is right, who has the universal definition? Both, of course, as it is the perception and experience, how it is internalized and processed. We seek what is new and unfamiliar. Something just out of our comfort zone but within reach based on the knowledge and wisdom thus far attained.
