A river runs through it

This is a picture I have several times over from all my trips to Tuolumne Meadows in Yosemite and yet it never gets old. And, of course, the picture doesn’t do it justice.

i am not

I have stepped to the edge and looked down.  I have felt the air pushing me both directions as I stood in the vortex of buffeting currents.  I have closed my eyes and the beauty of the day was still so firmly emblazoned on my mind that I gasped with joy.  I have.

I will climb more mountains and marvel at the rolling peak lines stretching away from the folds in the earth.  I will raise my arms at my sides to feel the pressure wrought winds crashing up and down the majestic valleys.  I will keep my eyes wide to catalogue every detail I can for the moments when I am far away and longing to return.  I will.

I am aware of how many camping and backpacking photographs I have posted this month.  I am sure that many of you have grown tired of them and hoped my choices would be a bit more diverse.  I am being truthful when I say it was not my intention to have the majority of this month’s blogs be pictures from my beloved mountain adventures.  But, sorry I am not.

selfish

This was the view from the back of our tent.  We got to fall asleep to it and wake up to it the following morning…

People ask why I put myself through the mental and physical torture of backpacking, and why I subject myself to it every year over and over again.  I usually smile and say, “There is a sense of accomplishment at the end that is a high I’ve never gotten from anything else.”  Sometimes I say, “Because the mountains are home.”  I’ve even been known to respond, “That time restores me far more than it wears me down.”

Those are all truths.

But, this is truth too: There are moments I’ve experienced that may never been experienced by anyone else, ever, because you can’t drive to it, there is no video of it to watch, there is no way for you to have experienced it unless you had walked the same trails as me and stood in the same places at the same time.

Is that selfish of me to want to keep those moments to myself?

I’m okay with being selfish.  Though, I guess I have shared this picture with you now, even it does not compare to having been there, felt the dew coming in to settle on the golden grass, heard the nightly breeze as it slowly came tumbling down from the high cliffs, watched the sky fade to black only to be brightened again by more stars than we have numbers for…  Yes, I’ve shared this photo.  But, really, I haven’t shared anything at all.

I feel…

very, very liked.  Ridiculously so, even:

Thank you for that.  You know who you are. 

…..

In a random stat comparison, I’ve received 4,715 views so far over the life of my little blog here at the matticus kingdom.  So, that’s averaging out to just over 1 “like” per every 5 views.  That’s fun.  But, I don’t know what that means.  Is that a good ratio?

I’m not looking for validation, I’m just genuinely curious what other people experience on their own sites on the “likes/view” ratio.