Oh, the tranquility of walking ridgelines…
Those convex-shaped landforms that divide one watershed from another. Arch-like and knife-like ridges shedding rain or melting snow in different directions. Pacific Ocean. Atlantic Ocean. Gulf of Mexico. Gulf of California. Water Towers all.
Cirque of the Towers, Wind River Mountains, Wyoming. Popo Agie Wilderness Area, Shoshone National Forest.[/caption]
Escalating step by step one direction lets you see where you are going. Escalating step by step the other direction let’s you see where you’ve been.
They provide you vistas. Foreground. Middle-ground. Background.
They provide you landmarks. Peaks. Valleys. Rivers. Lakes. Stands of trees. Meadows. Waterfalls. Cliffs.
Wapiti. Muley’s. Griz. Wolves. No wait, animals aren’t landmarks – they move silly.
Slaughter Creek Headwaters, Absaroka Mountains, Wyoming. Washakie Wilderness Area, Shoshone National Forest.
They provide you scale. Macro. Micro.
They provide you horizontal direction. North. South. East. West.
They provide you vertical direction. Relatively flat, sometimes. Sucking air steep when ascending, knee-wrecking steep descending – always.
They provide you the third dimension – distance. Miles. Tens of miles. Depends on the day.
They allow you to keep track of the weather. Storm clouds brewing. Wind direction and speed.
Public lands are a cobweb of ridgelines.
They are there for the walking. They are there for you. Because you own them.
So why not use them.
Whether you are a master at knowing them, or simply a novice trying to learn them, you know how they grab you. Influence you. Shape you.
And if you are neither the master nor the novice, you have a choice. Try them or not. Get hooked or not. Build character or not.
Only you can determine whether there is tranquility in their being.