A Fairlee Good Time

Yesterday, Denise and I drove to Fairlee, Vermont with our mountain bikes. We met two friends at Lake Morey and headed up Bald Top Trail. We didn't blow anybody's house down, but we were huffing and puffing so hard we could have if there had been a house in sight. It was all trees... and steep! Granted, we are sexagenerians (not sex-crazed, at least not most days--just over sixty), but still, it was WICKED steep as we say here in Vermont. So we pedaled, and some of the way we walked the bikes because mud was added to steepness. We met a logger. "Will we get to Brushwood Road if we keep going?" I asked. "No," he said. "You've got to go back to that last fork and take a right on the Cross Mountain Trail." "You mean the one about a mile back down the steepest part of the hill?" I asked. "Yut," he smiled. "Gets a little swampy up on top, but that'll take you over to Brushwood." "Thanks!" I said cheerfully. I wondered how much longer David and Diane would be our friends. We rode back down the hill, took the fork, and crossed the mountain, riding some, walking some, riding through a swamp, and riding wild and free down a long mountain road for the last couple miles. We took a dip in Lake Morey to clean off and then met for a cold beverage and bite to eat at the Salt Hill Pub. I felt body-tired but spirit refreshed. David and Diane said they would still be our friends. In fact, they claimed to like the bike ride.

I have been reading The Crossing by Cormac McCarthy. It's part of the Border Trilogy which includes one of my favorite novels of all time--All the Pretty Horses. When I read The Crossing, I feel--after a page or two--as if I am riding my sorrel horse alongside Billy Parham, and we are in the mountains of Mexico. I love being outdoors. I think a life of adventures--even very small adventures (like capturing potato beetles in the garden if that's all the day provides)--is good for body and spirit. And I think a life lived with imagination, with stories and art, and an appreciation of beauty, adds that little touch of stardust that makes it all especially special. At least, it works for me