real love, it finds you somewhere with your back to it.

Sometimes in winter it’s so bitterly cold that one says, it’s simply too cold, what do I care whether summer comes, the bad outweighs the good. But whether we like it or not, an end finally comes to the hard frost, and one fine morning the wind has turned and we have a thaw. Comparing the natural state of the weather with our state of mind and our circumstances, subject to variables and change, I still have some hope that it can improve. Van Gogh

Morning y'all,

It's another grey day up top. The high yesterday reached 42 degrees. The low got down to 36 degrees. It was 41 degrees and mostly cloudy at 7am observation. The mountain received .16" of liquid precipitation, most of it coming overnight. There is no more snow or ice on the ground. It is great, quiet hiking conditions. I've seen very few people over the last few days.

I love this place more and more with each passing day. One of the reasons it all still feels so fresh and alive to me is that I have a great number of amazing friends who appreciate this environment as much as I do. Seeing it through their new eyes, I feel the enthusiasm I recall bursting forth from my first trip up Alum Cave in January 2011. Unlike my friend Henry, who insists on one world at a time, I feel comfortable straddling between my default mode of happy quietude and revelling in the company of my good mountain loving friends. We are all on the same wavelength, appreciative of all the little gifts the mountain has to offer us. We know that the mountain speaks in mysterious tongues and it is our vocation to be, to listen, to let all that good flow into our veins. Sharing this heightened sense of feeling with others is the only joy greater than solitude.