“Halfway around the lake, I walked past two older men bent over their phones. They exclaimed and pointed at each other’s screens and then one of them looked up and said – ‘mama grizzly and her cubs up ahead.’ ‘You okay?’ I asked and they nodded. I rested my hand on my bear spray. ‘On the trail or off?’ I asked.”

But there’s also a parallel life where this was the only time I’d see the mountains all year. A parallel life where I only saw it for five days my whole life.

A parallel life where I never made it here at all.

“Thirty seven creatures tip-tapped on the fabric of my tent and thought hmmm…you’re tasty. The cloud of my breath drew them in like smoke from a grill and they waited for an opening.  

Under other circumstances, I’d be flattered as the muse for a symphony.”