The World Is Big

Thanks to my computer semi-illiterate Mountain Boy for messing around enough on this lap top last night to finally figure out how I could post pictures.

I think I'm back in blogging business!

YES!!

Have you ever been incredibly busy at work for the entire day and then realized at the end of the day that you got absolutely nothing done that you had plan on doing?

Today was one of those days.

I spent the day in a place I had not intended to be, with someone I had not intended to spend the day, and realized by 3:30pm that I had not eaten breakfast today, let alone lunch.

By 4 I was done.  Stick a fork in me.

I walked out of the building, having only partially accomplished putting out the fire that persisted in flaming, and thankfully headed away from town and Out the Road.

On the spur of the moment I drove by my turnoff to the house, and continued further out Glacier Highway, not yet ready to go home.

I wanted to go to the Arboretum but when I arrived there was a chain across the driveway and a CLOSED sign on the mailbox.

I then drove to the Shrine of St Therese wanting and needing something peaceful to wind my over-burdened brain down, and drove contentedly into the parking lot realizing that I was the only person there.

Good deal.

All summer I have been patiently waiting for the crowds to leave - not only the tourist crowds, and the seasonal worker crowds, but also the locals who frequent all the places I love to go in this very beautiful place.

More and more now, I visit places that are again quiet and serene and where I can be alone with my thoughts and my energy and my need to not share these places with others.

I climbed out of the car and walked over to a gravel parking lot where a boat that I had not seen before was resting quiet and alone in the corner..........

Usually when I visit the Shrine I walk down to the water, along a gravel path out to an island where a beautiful church, that is surrounded by other very lovely religious icons, is hidden among the pine trees.

I did not walk there today, but there are pictures of that place in earlier blog posts both during winter and summer.

Here is a blog from my first winter exploration of St Therese:

http://livingthejuneauadventure.blogspot.com/2010/03/depths-of-winter.html

Today, with the watery early winter sun already beginning to set and the temperature dropping, I stayed closer to readily accessible areas close to the parking lot.

After enjoying the boat I noticed for the first time that there was a small trail sign behind it.  How could I have visited this place a handful of times and never have known about this trail?

It has been a few weeks since I walked on a trail.

It seems longer - feels like months.

But regardless, I very happily walked the trail for just a short while tonight, all the while aware that daylight was beginning to fade. 

  I still do not know how long the trail is, or where it ends, but resolved to visit this place again very soon to check it out.

Trail markers are small yellow crosses..........

After a short while I turned around and headed back towards my car and then further down towards the water.

A picture of a gravel walk-way leading down from the parking lot.

The bridge spans a small creek that feeds directly into the channel.

On the bridge is a plaque listing the names of local businesses and citizens who donated their time and money to make this bridge a reality......... 

And finally, as if knowing that I had subconsciously left the best for last, I turned and walked along yet one more gravel pathway towards the channel.

I have no idea what the weather was like during the day today.

Caught up as I was in necessary tedium.

Because of that, I was determined to spend some quiet and alone time by the water on what was a very lovely late fall evening.

I know this place well. 

I first found it last winter not long after I moved out of the extended stay hotel and out to the Unabomber Cabin.

It was winter, I had only lived in the house for a short while, and I rode my borrowed mountain bike further Out the Road through the muddy and slushy roads eager to do nothing but quietly explore.

And I found this very beautiful place only a few miles from home.

The church, the statues, the plaques, the mountains, the water, the sky.......I was in love. 

I was enthralled and delighted and felt so grateful that something so special was so accessible to me.

I still feel that way...........

For many people, obviously because of the many religious icons that grace the grounds, this is a spiritual place.

I am not a spiritual or religious person.

I brought someone here during the summer who is deeply religious, thinking that he would like this place.

He did not, and called it a place of false religion.

I don't know about that.

Because I am not a spiritual or religious person I find all the religious icons beautiful......very beautiful......but uninspiring.

What speaks to me about this place is that it is a place of peace.

It is a place of peace because this place ultimately brings me peace.

It reminds me of why I came to Alaska. 

I didn't come to Alaska to spend my days missing meals, putting out proverbial fires and not even knowing whether it was raining or sunny outside.

I came to Alaska to become part of the water and part of the mountains and part of the pine trees.

This place reminded me of what is really important...........

The world is big and I want to have a good look at it before it gets dark.....

John Muir