The Mountaintop Experience

You never know who you are going to meet at the top of a mountain. Once, on a mountain in Alaska, we met a Japanese couple who urged Ted to "do the dance" he had done the night before on the cruise ship. (The first night of our Honeymoon, Ted stripped on stage in front of a thousand people or so, but that is a story for another post). At least they agreed to take our picture!
Everyone searches for something different in the mountaintop experience. Some want the bragging rights, others want peace, and most people want the view. I can't say what we were looking for on our weekend climb to Buzzard's Roost in Pfeiffer Big Sur State Park. Mostly we wanted the catharsis of the climb, the solitude and mystery of the old growth forest, the gratification of making it to the top, and of course the beauty of the view. But, as usual, we found more than we were looking for: no less than the confirmation of the universe that we were on the right path.
Let me explain. In the past few weeks, we have been talking about giving up travel nursing for a year in order to walk the entirety of the American Discovery Trail, a recently constructed trail stretching from the coast of Maine to Point Reyes, California. Our goal is to document our hike in pictures and columns in a local paper or other publication. As we hiked to Buzzard's Roost, we talked about how many miles we might walk in a day, whom we could contact for funding, and what publications we might approach with a proposal.

When we got to the top of the mountain, we met a young couple who had brought along their eight week old daughter. We laughed with them about the challenges they faced with a new baby and talked about some of the changes in their lives, with an honesty that could only come with a mountaintop experience. In the course of the conversation, we brought up our idea about the American Discovery Trail. Low and behold, the man we were talking with is a marketing director for Marmot, a popular outdoor equipment company. We were, in fact, wearing Marmot jackets at the time of the meeting. He urged us to submit a proposal to the marketing department, and also to submit proposals to local outfitting stores who might want to use the adventure as a marketing tool. There, on top of the mountain, we received immediate affirmation of our idea. Amazing.

When I was in college, one of my professors, Dr. Mark Holland, wrote a book entitled Synchronicity, which basically asserts that the universe constantly provides clues about our lives if we are willing to look. For example, the book claims that if a person is thinking about the symbology of fish, then that person will see fish symbols seemingly everywhere he looks. The person will think that seeing all the fish is an amazing coincidence, which the author terms synchronicity. Really, though, the person's eyes are merely opened to the aspects of the world on which his mind is unconsciously focused. The more that a person really sees the world around him, the more synchronistic events he will experience. With this in mind, then, I will say that right now we must be very open to new experiences. It seems that every time we have an idea it is immediately confirmed or denied by synchonistic events. As with our idea about the American Discovery Trail.
We have talked about climbing Mount Diablo in the near future. I can only wonder who we will meet there.
By: Rebecca
Photo By: Ted (Brigsby Bridge, CA)