Rule Number Five

Rule Number #5: Embrace Your Choices

When you make a decision, stick with what you believe. This especially applies in the backcountry. When you put your foot down, make sure that you plant that foot. Find that rock and step upon the stone that you see. Put your foot down with authority. Make a decision about where you are going and just go. Because if you hesitate, you might just fall, and we know where falling gets you.

I feel the dirt underneath my feet. The heavy pack weighs me down, which makes my boot’s imprint that much more distinct. The dirt sits beneath me, holding me, and allowing me to stay on my own two feet. Dirt is thousands of years of decay, clinging to my boots, nothing but the remnants of life. Generation upon generation of everyone and everything swirling around and taking the form of “brown gunk.” I move along the dirt trail with privilege, after all I love to travel into the backcountry. And I know that my roots and ancestry are mixed into this dirt beneath me, guiding me along.

The Fourth Stream comes upon me suddenly and by surprise. I don’t hear the distinct trickle of moving water. I find myself standing on a ledge looking down into a steep gully. The water has washed away the Trail and carved a deep hole in the earth. The water has eaten the dirt. I gingerly move my feet and my big sack down the hole and across the now reserved Stream. The trickle is small today, much too tiny to inflict the damage that I’m seeing in front of me, and that I’ve had to climb into. This Stream has most recently turned itself into a raging River, and now into a Stream again.

I move carefully down the slope, remember I’m extremely top-heavy. The rocks are jagged and this could be dangerous. I pick my way along, even more carefully than I have been. I move across the stream and up the opposite side of the hole. To my surprise, another hole appears, and another Stream trickles through a giant crater. An angry river has barreled through this space giving birth to two distinct Streams. Again, I descend into the hole created, and I cross the small trickle. The Fifth Stream appears to be the exact twin of the Fourth Stream. They are both running along at the same speed and are the same size. They both occupy the bottom of massive craters, dug by the powerful flow of storm, and run-off. A monster had come roaring down the Mountain. The flow of water will eventually return, swallowing the two gentle Streams again, and making the Trail impassable for the backcountry Traveler.