Footprints

An excerpt from ‘Footprints’

     The footprints appeared recently fresh and pointed south toward a cascade that fed the lake.  That stride was longer, the imprints larger, just one solitary fellow explorer had disturbed the otherwise pristine, creamy blanket covering the landscape.  As the slope began to climb more noticeably, a tumbling fall of water drew attention.  Cascade and stream separated acres of glacial moraine from the fertility of forest.  New snow was all the two zones shared in common.  Water bounced and splattered in a raucous free-for-all, creating myriads of bulbous shapes of ice upon ice.  Dormant rock mosses lay behind delicate curtains of frozen lace.

     Perhaps the quiet visitor could have stayed put right there, mesmerized by the tremendous sounds of changing beats and surges of current and the incredible variety of frozen decorations, but curiosity, eventually, led further.  What other secrets might be revealed today?  Where might the footprints lead?

     Leaving the crystal palace of forming ice, the carefree wanderer climbed higher to enter the next sculpted tier of forest.  The plunging tumult and its enveloping noise faded in the distance.  This first snow somehow sucked all sound from the atmosphere.  Each step padded softly toward a meadowy seep of spent marsh marigolds and elephant head spires.  Clumps of desiccated vegetation occasionally crunched underfoot.  It was odd to see the footprints turn away from the forest to head into loose talus, up to a ridgeline saddle.  After all, the snow-covered steepness would add an extra challenge to the already difficult vertical ascent.