Just Before Bottom

Peaked Mountain Brook, Adirondacks, NY. An early spring hike found me following the brook upwards from Thirteenth Lake, heading to Peaked Mountain in the Siamese Ponds Wilderness. Last year's leaves still filled every hollow, though ferns and Trillium were pushing up through them here and there. Part way up the trail I scrambled and fell, down into the canyon of the brook, to stand on a rock outcrop over a small splash pool, the rushing water barely held before running on, hell bent for the lake. Sometimes it's gravity that pulls us down, and sometime it's the weight pushing us. We sink, even though we know it's a hard climb back up. I stopped myself just before bottom, as if you ever really know where bottom is. A billion tears swept under my feet, but by now I had none to add. And then the sun came out, and even reached here, just for a brief minute. Just above bottom.

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Filename: Just Before Bottom.jpg
Image Size: 2048x1372 / 3.0MB; Thirteenth Lake Peaked Mountain Peaked Mountain Brook spring brook creel water bottom canyon Adirondacks Adirondack Mountains Siamese Ponds Wilderness ADK NY New York landscape landscape photography Ray Palmer Photography forest
Contained in galleries: Adirondacks

Peaked Mountain Brook, Adirondacks, NY. An early spring hike found me following the brook upwards from Thirteenth Lake, heading to Peaked Mountain in the Siamese Ponds Wilderness. Last year's leaves still filled every hollow, though ferns and Trillium were pushing up through them here and there. Part way up the trail I scrambled and fell, down into the canyon of the brook, to stand on a rock outcrop over a small splash pool, the rushing water barely held before running on, hell bent for the lake. Sometimes it's gravity that pulls us down, and sometime it's the weight pushing us. We sink, even though we know it's a hard climb back up. I stopped myself just before bottom, as if you ever really know where bottom is. A billion tears swept under my feet, but by now I had none to add. And then the sun came out, and even reached here, just for a brief minute. Just above bottom.