by dunewalker » Fri 23 May 2008, 17:11:49
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Birds are messengers.
Several years ago, shortly after moving to this corner of California, I decided to explore the local wilderness area. It has a trail that runs for 24 miles along its spine. Late that summer I arranged for a friend to drop me & my dog off at the trailhead at one end, then pick us up at the other at the end of the day. It had rained pretty hard the night before, & still was cloudy & cool. At the trailhead there was an inch or so of fresh snow, but no big deal. My dog & I headed up the trail into the wilderness, into deeper and deeper snow. Within 6 miles and some 2,000 feet higher, we had lost the trail in a foot of snow and were immersed in a total whiteout fog. All of a sudden, there was a piercing scream, and a huge hawk appeared above us with a mouse in its talons, which it immediately dropped at my feet. The hawk disappeared into the mist and the mouse scampered away into the drifts. Until this point I had been stubbornly forging ahead on the adventure, trying to ignore the foolhardiness of continuing, made even more so by not being familiar with the area. The hawk was obviously an omen or a messenger. The message was clear: "a second chance". Immediately my dog & I retreated down the trail and out of the wilderness. A month later, I was able to complete the adventure.