Excerpts from Worlds End, part 2

2005-09-26 - 1:06 p.m.

September 20. Woke this morning about a quarter to eight (had to fire up the signal-challenged cell phone to tell the time; I don't do watches). It was raining and the sound of the rain dripping through the trees was beautiful. Unfortunately there's nothing that makes you have to go to the bathroom as badly as having one be inconvenient. In this case it meant not only leaving the warm, soft fuzziness of the flannel sheets and fleece blanket, but also getting dressed and putting on rain gear to make my way over to the bathhouse.

When I got back I made up a huge mug of coffee in my French press and lolled about on the porch listening to the rain and the creek, watching the breeze in the leaves and reading the remaining entries in the cabin's journal. They're everything from kids fascinated with the animals they've seen to a woman who wrote poetry to her late husband and a haughty, religious entry pointing out than an even more important love story was Jesus' tale (sort of a "you're making too big a deal about the death of your husband, come on now" flame. the bitch...how callous).

Washed up dishes from the lentil soup incident and coffee before taking a nice walk to the park office to register. It finally stopped raining though it continued to threaten more until nearly lunchtime. Mellow time the remainder of the morning and then drove up to Canyon Vista. The overlook is an expansive view of the Endless Mountains. Winding its way around the nooks of the valley is the Loyalsock Creek (on which I was staying). At this point most of the creek bed is more rocks and boulders than water, but it's still beautiful. The bridge I crossed on my morning walk had a meter for reading the depth of the creek but the water wasn't even close to reaching the bottom of the yardstick-style meter. There was maybe a foot or two of water at the deepest point. Not even a consistent enough flow for a proper game of Poohsticks had I had a companion.

I took some photos at Canyon Vista though they just don't capture how pretty it is since the most impressive thing up there is the space. Just a vastness to the area that's far prettier than any single view or feature can convey. Stayed up there and read, listening to the powerful whistle of the wind. Only saw four other people anywhere around there...two hiked up while I was there and I passed two more on their way up as I drove back down the dirt roads.

Made lunch back at the cabin and spent a luxuriously lazy afternoon reading and dozing in bed. Went walking again and went down to the creek for the first time. I'm a steep slope from it and the access is blocked by a green plastic fence - great for protecting the vegetation and limiting the heavy erosion that's eaten away at the hill, but it does give a touch of a construction site feel to what is otherwise a lovely view. There are some nice boulders and a rocky shore. Watched some mosquitos zigging manic patterns across the plane of the shallows and some tiny fish chasing under a rock.

Cracked open a Saranac Shirley Temple and headed off for a shower before evening set in. Decided to make a fire in the cabin's wood stove instead of the fire ring. Took absolute ages to get the darned thing started. I couldn't even get matches or paper to stay lit, much less any kindling. Tough work without a grate. Eventually got it under control though and cooked up some turbot for dinner on the electric stove. Tried the wood stove's blower out while I went to wash dishes and clean up for the night. Came back to a mini sauna. That thing really cranked! If they ever have trouble renting the cabins out, they could go into the spa business with a rustic twist. Am amazed the smoke detector didn't go off. I've had some that would scream every time we made toast. Luckily this one didn't seem to mind the slight haze so I didn't get inundated by the fire department. Would hate to explain I'm not in danger, I am just inept.

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