The Way to the Summit

A fantasy day-hike mixes several marvelous rock formations on two continents....

A man plucked from the summit of New Hampshire's Mt. Monadnock relaxes on part of the Grand Canyon wall. His fellow hikers, also displaced from Monadnock, seem interested in part of the landscape from Kata Tjuta (a.k.a. The Olgas) in Australia. Their boardwalk is taken from central Massachusetts, where it meanders toward Mt. Wachusett in the original shot. Here it leads toward another part of the Grand Canyon, which stands amidst foliage and a sun-washed bit of sandstone from Kantju Gorge in Australia's Uluru (a.k.a. Ayers Rock). Far in the distance, blued against the sky, is more of the Grand Canyon, whose foliage also frames the sides of the picture.

Mary and I had climbed together to the summit of Monadnock (she's in the center of the top left shot). A couple of years later we'd hiked to the bottom of the Grand Canyon via Bright Angel Trail, where we spent the night at Phantom Ranch and hiked back up the next day. Several years before we met I had vacationed in Australia, thanks to a new route that made airfare to Sydney less than that to LA. The earliest shot is of the boardwalk, taken shortly after I had gotten my driver's license and spent one of my early car rentals exploring the Quabbin Reservoir and environs.

I've delivered disc and dummy copy of the anthology and am caught up for now on tape transcribing (more might be coming). I still need to put together the workshop I'll be giving in 3 weeks, but have celebrated what's done by scanning a few hundred photos and enjoying some Play Time with them.

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