Today I hiked. Now I am tired. Of course the “hike” was more of an uphill walk along a paved trail, but it is still farther than I am accustomed to walking regularly. I suppose I can increase the difficulty modifier just a bit by adding the fact that I was also helping shepherd 12 girls ages 8-11 along the trail. The weather was perfect. There was just enough chill for people to be comfortable as long as they kept moving. The girls got a little cold after playing in the water, but no one was miserable. Gleek claimed she was miserable for awhile. She clung to my arm and moaned about her legs. But then we arrived at some interesting rocks and the climbing was more interesting than the moaning which was a relief for everyone.
Part of the hike was a scavenger hunt sheet that I put together. I walked the trail a few weeks ago and took pictures so the girls would have plants and landmarks to look for. It was interesting to see how the advent of Fall had begun to alter the landscape. The girls still managed to find everything, except we had to count sunflower stalks as flowers because the flowers themselves had all frozen and fallen off.
At the top end of the walk we saw Bridal Veil Falls. It is a spot full of memory for me, although these days it is a nostalgic memory rather than an active one. The base of the falls used to be groomed and tended. It was a well-trafficked public park with a tram that ran up a cable to a restaurant at the top. The tram was damaged by an avalanche in 1996 and the restaurant closed it’s doors so repairs could be made. The doors never opened again. The owners spent a decade wrangling funds and environmental preservation concerns until a forest fire came through two years ago and ended the discussion by burning everything. I remember the tram. I remember standing as a child on the grass near the base. I was too scared to ride that steep cable up to the top, but other family members went. I remember coming back when I was in college and having deja vu realizing that I had been there before. All that is left is falling down structures and the arch that used to frame the loading platform. It is like visiting a ghost town that you used to visit when it was thriving. The bustle is gone, what is left is empty. The emptiness has it’s own beauty, but it is not alive. The falls are still the same. They plummet hundreds of feet just as they used to do. There is still a steady stream of visitors because the path is a popular walking and biking route. But these days people come, look, then leave because there is nothing there that beckons them to stay.
The girls felt nothing of the nostalgia. The oldest of them was not even born when the tram stopped running. For them this place has always been as it is now. They were far more interested in wading than in contemplating rusted twists of metal on the cliff high above. Life moves on. So we looked for a while and then we left. It was a good walk. The girls found everything on their scavenger hunt pages. We made it back with no one lost or injured. We even got to pet a little dog on the trip back down. Now I just need to remember to stretch my legs before bed so that they won’t be sore tomorrow.