Inklings 2020

By the time I made it to the floor of the gorge, the immediate beauty of the waterfall took me aback. The thundering reached its apex. Mother nature with all her power revealed herself to me here in her most primal form. The fundamental forces of the universe were at play as gravity sent the water careening down the rock formations to the viewing station at the gorge floor. I rested there at the bottom for about fifteen minutes, basking in this achievement, but as my eye drifted back to the hulking stairway that lay before me the view of the steps looking back up was even more intimidating than the one looking down. Each set of steps felt more difficult than the last, and I found it hard to keep steady. Winded, I took my first break about halfway up the mountain. An old, Chinese woman looked concerned as she descended the mountain and paused briefly to look at me. Maybe she too regretted her decision to come down this far. I picked up my backpack and started back up again, but this time it felt more arduous. Again, I stopped for a break. Almost at the top, I could taste the end of the trail; however, my knees hurt and my calves were the sorest they’d been in a while. Tunnel vision almost took me, but the last gulps of water in my bottle stopped it. I was so determined to make it back up that I ignored the primeval forests full of ancient ferns and pines. My eye was on the prize, and I finished the stairway. Now, on to basecamp. The reverse of the warning sign said the complete hike both down and up was the equivalent of climbing up and down fifty stories. The hike from the steps to the camp building became a leisurely reflection time, and this was when I knew I would never return to that gorge. The memory of it makes my legs hurt. I can only imagine how bad it could have been had it been hotter or if it had been raining. As I arrived back at camp, I congratulated myself for my triumph: Tallulah Gorge, you have been conquered! That’s when I saw my dad and grandpa sitting there, licking popsicles like happy five-year-olds. 11