I spent most of June in an existential funk that would make Don Draper jealous, and even now I’m not certain I’ve completely shaken it, but it took a phone call on July 2nd from my father to bring me back to the real world.  You see, to be honest, life is difficult right now.  As many of my friends are hitting milestones with careers, money, loved ones, and children, and making happy announcements of these happy things on facebook, I seem currently destined to be stagnant in life and on the receiving end of a continuous flow of bad news.  Money is tight, work and creativity are low, and no matter how hard I try to better my current lot and get my career moving again, the best-laid plans of mice and men often go awry.  This is bothering me because I generally like to be busy, proactive, making plans and taking big moves with my career, but for now it seems that for whatever reason, opportunity is NOT knocking at the door.  Instead, I’m stuck sitting still and playing the waiting game.  I had just finished telling a friend that I was debating doing nothing for the entire day when the phone rang.

“Hello?” I answered.

“Rob, do you have any interest in going for a hike in the high country?” my dad asked.

I paused for a moment to think it over.  “Where? Most of Lassen is still closed from all the snow.”

“I know.  Do you know of anywhere?  Your sister just went somewhere, um, Castle Crags. Have you ever been there?”

“Dad, that’s low elevation.  It’ll be hot as hell there.  You know, there’s this trail by Child’s Meadows I just saw the other day heading to a place called Spencer’s Meadows.  Never been there before, but curious what it looks like.  We could check that out?”  Child’s Meadows is a beautiful spot about halfway between Lassen and the town of Chester.  I went there with my sister about a week ago in an effort to escape the valley heat and to just get away from Red Bluff for a while.  It’s rustic, laid back, obscenely peaceful, and looks like this:

“Okay, let’s look into it,” my dad said and we each hung up to Google some trails.

I called my dad back after a few minutes.  He was the first to talk, “Rob, that hike’s like 10 miles plus.  I don’t think your mom wants to go that far.  What about Brokeoff Mountain?  That trail you pass by on the way to the Lassen Highway.  It looks like it’s open, about 7 miles roundtrip.  Should be doable.”

“Sure,” I said with a bit of a sigh, and after hanging up, pulled myself out of bed and got ready for the day.

Now, if we were smart people, we would have thought about this adventure ahead of time, realized that if Lassen was covered in snow, Brokeoff (right next to Lassen) also would be covered in snow, and because of all of this, we should steer clear of the mountain as a candidate for a lazy day hike.  Yet, apparently we are not smart people.

We got to the trailhead which was not at all busy.  Usually cars are strung all about the parking area for this trail, but on this day there were only a few cars.  That should have been the first sign.  The second sign came almost immediately as we started the trail: we had to cross through a fast-moving, white water stream.  There were no rocks or bridges to hop across, probably because this stream isn’t so bad late summer, so we had to wade across it, making shoes and socks immediately soaked right out of the gate.  From there, we climbed quickly in elevation, having to wade through mud and streams a few more times before coming to the snow-lined banks of a mountain lake.  This was the start of the snow.

From this point forward, there was no trail.  Instead we had to inch our way forward through the forthcoming miles, following the markers and footsteps of previous hikers and occasionally getting lost.

Eventually, my mom had enough.  The snow made for very difficult hiking conditions.  I decided to stay with her and my dad quickly scrambled the last half mile or so just to see the top.  On the way down, we joked about this trail being advertised as “moderately strenuous” when in fact it was downright difficult, and we took in the views and discovered one more gem of a lake.

One more crossing of the stream, one more soaking of socks and shoes, led back to the vehicle.  As I stepped into the fast-moving water, a rock slipped and banged up my ankle pretty bad.  We were all sore and exhausted by the time we hit the Jeep.  As we made our way back down the mountain and to Red Bluff, for whatever reason a migraine started to come over me.  I went home and after a shower and a bit of downtime, went to bed at 7:15.  I slept off-and-on for 12 hours with very intense dreams and an absolute firestorm of a headache.  Yet for whatever reason, when I woke up, I felt a new, rejuvenating, and masculine energy in my core.  Though it was July 3rd and I wasn’t scheduled to work due to the Independence Day weekend, I put on a suit, drove up to Redding, and stopping by my firm and the courthouse just started working files and solving problems in as competent and diligent of a manner as possible.  There was only about five hours worth of work that I was able to scrounge together, but as I finished it, I felt somewhat more attached to the real world.  I felt like an attorney once again.

I still have no idea if things are going to turn around and get better in my life, or if I’m going to be stuck with this low workload for a while and living on pennies, but I’ve decided either way I’ll keep my head up and remain diligent.  No more resolving to have lazy days in the middle of June.  There are too many mountains and challenges in this world, and I want to take them on.

Cheers,

Rob