Leaving Deso that last day was hard and was easy.
Hard because after a few days on the mountain top—–all the echoing voices of my complaining and perfectionist mind quiet down. I can hear my heart and a rare clarity provides insight that allows you to look forward and backward in your life and see thru complexities and smile at goofed up opportunities that you have had and see the wonder of what is to come. But mostly my days up there become filled with gratitude looking down, astounded at the beauty that goes unrecognized in the cacophony of everyday life.
And it was easy to leave because we were out of food, unshowered and looking forward to the Philadelphia Cheesesteak sandwich at Good Eats in Marblemount ( now closed ) and equally the chocolate expresso milkshake at Cascadian Farms further downriver ( also closed after the pandemic )
When we left Deso at the end of our week stay, we took everything with us not knowing if we would be back or not. My medical practice is full and complicated and I thought I would likely get caught…..so after checking everything over, making sure all garbage was packed up with us and everything was stowed and being proud of how careful I was with the Cubies preserving as much water for the next LO as possible……I locked the door, did one last walkaround and headed down with my son to the known world.
First you hike off the last rise down into a notch and then back up again a bit on the ridge. There is one spot there, I know well……it is your last really good full on sight of the LO….the one I had mentioned as seeing a flash of white when my son came up.
As Jack relates “as i was hiking down the mountain with my pack I turned and knelt on the trail and said, “Thank you, shack”. Then I added “Blah” with a little grin, because I knew that the shack and that mountain would understand what that meant, and turned and went down the trail back to this world ”
In that small slit like clearing … I too knelt on both knees with my pack off and quietly said “thank you shack” ….. then slipped the pack back on and turned down trail and hiked on. It isn’t long you before you pass the campground and then down the avalanche chute and then you are into the trees and continuing down for hours.
At 3PM we met the NPS boat at the Deso trail dock…climbed onboard and when the boat pulled away and we rounded the corner and got out onto the lake……we looked back up at the LO…..a square dot at the very top of the peak…..it is reassuring to see it there and know it waits and part of me wonders if I will make it back. Kerouac never did.
Thanks so much for sharing this journey with me.
And I invite you to hike up there and see it for yourself one day—- standing beside the shack– taking it all in.
Its waiting for you.
If you would like to read thru my Haikus I wrote on Deso—just hit Next below->