Childhood Memories of the Mountain

Spruce and maple trees wiz by as I look out the backseat window. Beside me is my twin brother, Tim, and up in the front are my dad and sister of six, Charlotte. Our destination is a mountain in northern Vermont, Camel’s Hump. It’s a long drive, the longest I’ve been on in my short three year life. My dad has decided to introduce nature to his children while they are young. We will climb this mountain this weekend, and many times in the future. My dad will take us up this mountain more than a dozen times in our child and adolescent hoods, once every summer. Unforeseen to him (or was it?) were the effects that these hikes, these lessons in nature and life, would have on me.

We arrive at the trailhead in the mid morning and we start to walk. I have my plastic book bag from school on my back. Inside are the dire essentials, Blankie, clean underwear, socks, toothbrush, paste and strapped to the outside is my sleeping bag. I am wearing tiny sneakers, brightly colored of red, orange and with white laces. We start the climb up the trail. It wanders uphill through deciduous forest. The trees here are large; Beeches predominate with birches and maples making up most of the rest. We move as a group in order from tallest, dad, to smallest, Tim and me. In the middle is Charlotte taking on the role of Big Sis telling her brothers behind her where to step and warning of bears and mountain lions. It takes us two hours to cover the first mile. A good pace for small feet. We stop at a trial junction and sit on a group of large boulders. We eat lunch on what we would thereafter call the “Lunch Rocks”.

As soon as our stomachs are filled we resume our hike. We take the right fork. In poetic terms this is “the road more traveled”. We don’t know...

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... was taught to observe and learn about nature I have become aware of myself and of the society in which I live in a different sense than most people experience. I do not view myself as someone who has the coolest car or the most sought after sneakers, but as someone who can tell others the importance of trees and the lifestyles of Boreal Chickadees. I continue to climb mountains to observe what nature has to offer. Recently, life has interfered with my annual treks up Camel’s Hump, but the lessons learned there remain. The experiences there influence my daily thoughts and actions and often the way I express myself to other people. Next summer I may return to Vermont to climb my old mountain and to learn a few new things. In the future I’ll return with my three year old and I’ll begin to teach, or at least to show, him the beauty of the woods and the lesson of life.