Light At The Top

Sunrise, Ampersand Mountain, Adirondacks, NY. It was not a good night's sleep, alone in a campsite at Saranac Lake. Coyotes yipped and howled at sunset, and later at moonrise, a sound I love. But the second time they woke me they were closer to my tent than I liked. I laid there, awake now, unable to stop a marching parade of angst that I guess we all live with. Troubled thoughts of a too-active mind, all of them far worse than a pack of hungry dogs. I gave up, packed up. Walked out into a night infused with a thick fog, following the beam of my headlamp up the mountain, determined to see the sun come up. The summit topped just above treeline after a steep climb at the end, and I emerged onto bare rock between a sandwich of clouds. Color graced the tops and bottoms of them, but even the light of sunrise seemed to have a hard time penetrating the gloom. Sometimes I wonder if I bring the darkness with me, or if I'm just following it, in pursuit of things I've lost. Another round of coyote calls, to the sunrise this time, drifted up from the denseness down there, sad and primal. The day will move on, the slopes below will come into detail and exude autumn, and the stone will warm under my feet. But I'll be gone, westward down the trail, descending into the shadowed side of the mountain. Content that there's light at the top.

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Filename: Light At The Top
Image Size: 2048x1363 / 1.5MB; Ampersand Ampersand Mountain Adirondacks Adirondack Mountains Adirondack Park NY New York landscape landscape photography autumn High Peaks Wilderness hiking trail cloud Saranac Lake summit sunrise sunup peaks mountains Ray Palmer Photography
Contained in galleries: Adirondacks

Sunrise, Ampersand Mountain, Adirondacks, NY. It was not a good night's sleep, alone in a campsite at Saranac Lake. Coyotes yipped and howled at sunset, and later at moonrise, a sound I love. But the second time they woke me they were closer to my tent than I liked. I laid there, awake now, unable to stop a marching parade of angst that I guess we all live with. Troubled thoughts of a too-active mind, all of them far worse than a pack of hungry dogs. I gave up, packed up. Walked out into a night infused with a thick fog, following the beam of my headlamp up the mountain, determined to see the sun come up. The summit topped just above treeline after a steep climb at the end, and I emerged onto bare rock between a sandwich of clouds. Color graced the tops and bottoms of them, but even the light of sunrise seemed to have a hard time penetrating the gloom. Sometimes I wonder if I bring the darkness with me, or if I'm just following it, in pursuit of things I've lost. Another round of coyote calls, to the sunrise this time, drifted up from the denseness down there, sad and primal. The day will move on, the slopes below will come into detail and exude autumn, and the stone will warm under my feet. But I'll be gone, westward down the trail, descending into the shadowed side of the mountain. Content that there's light at the top.