To the Peak

from the peak

Now the new year has truly begun. I needed some sort of ritual, I guess, and a brisk walk with a good friend to the top of Gaviota Peak felt about right. It must be a common impulse; there were quite a few others, young and old, making the trudge, including a sweet family from Lompoc who asked to have their picture taken.

I was with my stalwart buddy Kelley, who keeps up a good pace and a steady conversation too. Kelley and I have experienced many of life's challenges and joys side-by-side over the last almost-twenty years, and she was the perfect companion.

Monte, who's no slouch, chose to surf instead. He refers to this particular hike as grunt...a boring walk up a fire road, he says, and what's the point?

But I think the point was just to do it, and Kelley and I felt pretty good. We sat for a little while at the peak, where there's a big silver canister with notebooks into which people scribble thoughts and sign their names. Sometimes you see sentiments like, "Never again" or "Why did I let anyone convince me this would be fun?" But more often than not, folks wax poetic and spiritual.  

There's a lot of gratitude going on up there.