Most People Are On The World

I rushed out of my office at the end of the day today, and rushed to the Drivers Liscense office trying to get there before they locked the doors on me.  A 44 magnum is waiting for me by now at a local gun store - a shipment from my Mountain Boy down in TN - and I needed an Alaskan drivers liscense in order to get it out.  I should have checked before I arrived however, because once I got there I found out that I needed to write a test of rules of the road.....birth certificate.....stuff I wasn't prepared for, in addition to obvious proof of identify and residency that I expected to have to show.  Back again another day.........

From the Drivers Liscense office I drove to the grocery store, then began to head home.  I was wound pretty tight by that time, and on the spur of the moment  pulled into the Auke Lake Trailhead.  I needed to be outside and I needed to walk or run or........something.......

I have driven by this lake many times, ridden my bike by it a few times, but have never been on the trail.  The entire trail is only a couple of miles long, all open and gravel.  It circumnavigates the lake, and contains beautiful views of the lake and mountains, mature pine trees so tall that my camera could not even begin to capture their full height, rubber and metal bridges made for easy water crossings and benches made for ready resting.  Easy water crossings and good resting benches.  And also a good place to cast a line and do some quiet fishing I imagine. 

After a couple of miles I ran out of trail, and realized that I had hit the Back Loop Road.  After a moment of indecision (to head back on the trail or walk down the road and back to the car) I decided to walk the road.  After quite a walk and again on the spur of the moment, I veered off the Back Loop and made my way onto the campus of the University of Alaska Southeast - a small, quiet and isolated campus that included this very interesting sculpture.....

I walked hard and fast for about 90 minutes and felt calmer when I was done.

I am trying very hard to remain in the world and not simply on it.  Trying to do that takes a lot of work....

Most people are on the world, not in it—have no conscious sympathy or relationship to anything about them—undiffused, separate, and rigidly alone like marbles of polished stone, touching but separate......John Muir