Feeling the "Sprit of Place" at Special Times

. Just about every year I have section-hiked a week or so on the Appalachian Trail, generally southbound, having started in 1993 at Mount Katahdin. Since I'm not a thru-hiker sometimes I have repeated sections just for the pleasure of it.
. For the past few years I have volunteered for the cadre that maintains the AT in this state, the Maine Appalachian Trail Club. At a recent meeting of the Club, the Overseers' PowerPoint slide show of the past year's work got me reminiscing about backpacking in the Saddleback Range in Maine. In particular I remember when I tented near the Poplar Ridge Leanto, which is located North of, and below the mountaintop. Summing it up, a number of wonderful things "happened" if that is the right word. Mostly they were very special feelings and impressions.
. The weather was good and I slept well. I arose and got hiking very early. That happened to be a trip where I hiked alone, which I'm sure contributed some to the pensive mood. So that morning I was particularly open to the feeling of the place.
. I was packed and ready to go but waited before starting out to watch the sunrise. Just before it I could literally see the sunrise gradually coming down to the location, as evidenced by the rosy coloring on some low scattered cumulus immediately above me. They felt so close I felt I could almost touch them. (Not far from the truth as I was on a mountain, after all.)
. The conditions were right and I finally saw the very short-lived "green flash" solar phenomenon at the very first moment of sunrise.
. There is "something" about that ridge. As I climbed, some remarkable insights about our human nature came to me, which I can only attribute to the particular combination of time and place. For example one was about the dynamic tension between the eternal "Mr. Mystic" who (which) follows no temporal rules, and offers guidance to the other aspect: the in-the-moment "Irritable Me" whose rule is: avoid pain, seek pleasure.
. I reached the peak and, despite the gale, I hung around the summit area for a few minutes to enjoy the view. I was wishing there was someone to operate my camera so I could have a picture to take back. To my complete surprise two gentlemen dressed in white showed up -- I swear I did not see them approaching on the trail -- and they kindly agreed to take a snapshot. They gave an odd reply when I thanked them. One of them said "That's what we're here for."
. I had put on every article of clothing I had to stay warm. But they were dressed in summer shorts and short-sleeve shirts. The cold didn't seem to bother them. Soon they headed back down southward on the AT. In a few minutes I saw them impossibly far away and then they vanished. I wondered how they did that so fast.
. Anyway there is no doubt there are times when you feel especially keenly the spirit of a place. Perhaps you might agree that one experiences "more than meets the eye" anyway when up on a mountain, and that this was a heightened experience of such.
. Soon I will be off to the New Jersey section of the AT to backpack with friends, one of whom said he is "getting psyched for this little adventure." And one never knows... you prepare for what you can reasonably expect, the rest is up to chance, which always makes such trips an adventure.

Photo credits. Green flash over Pacific Ocean, Oregon by George Howard 2005; others drawn over collage from MS Office clip art.