Chapter 22: Ever Higher, Ever Farther

Alexandria took her first step onto the trail, shivering, and took a deep breath. Her boots were tightly laced, her gators firm against her shins. Her long brown hair trailed out from her hand knit winter hat, spinning chaotically in the wind. The spinning light above them had been turned off sometime in the night, apparently. The real moon was low in the black sky. It was a slim crescent, and seemed to wane even as she watched it.

Calvin was behind her. His gear wasn't as nice as hers was, having never really hiked before, but he looked warm and mostly comfortable. They had woken up at five, and they had packed in the kitchen, shivering. She though she heard stirring noises from her brother's room, but she had ignored it.

Calvin looked like he hadn't slept well on the couch. He had made a fire before going to sleep in the fireplace, but it had probably burned out sometime in the early morning. The cold seeped into the cabin quickly without a fire going. When she was a kid, one of her parents woke up without fail every two hours to put more logs on. When she was a teenager, she did it herself.

Alexandria did a quick check of gear with Calvin. They had sunblock, a first aid kit, emergency blankets, and even a few flares. They also had plenty of food and water. They seemed fairly well prepared to her.

They started walking at a brisk pace. After a few minutes, Alexandria was glad that she hadn't put on more layers when she was dressing for the morning, this speed was heating her up enough.

The trail to Crystal Lake was packed with snow this time of year, but Alexandria wasn't worried about finding it. In her childhood, it was a popular all day hike. The trail was wide, gentle, and long, designed for crowds of vacationing families. It stretched six miles into the heart of the mountains, following the Aureus River all the way up from its exit into Jackson Lake to its start at the lake.

As they walked, she thought of the trail in the summer. She imagined hundreds of families hiking up as far as they felt comfortable. She imagined how they would stop for food, slicing thick summer sausage and hearty cheeses, climbing the full pine trees on the river's banks. But she knew that no one had hiked on this trail in years. She had seen the abandoned cabin's on Jackson Lake's edge, which looked like they had not held people for years.

She knew that no one had walked this for a while deeper, too. She heard it in the dead quiet of the mountain snow. She saw it in the lover's carvings on the trees, which had begun to fade as the trees armored themselves with fresh bark. She felt it in the pit of her stomach, as she thought of her brother, who wanted to stay in bed instead of hike.

They hiked in silence as the sky above them grew lighter by imperceptible changes, and the forest began to wake up. The trees stretched their arms, with creaks and groans. Snow fell to the ground in heaps. They heard the deep crumbling of the ice to their side, as the sun rose in full. There was water flowing down the river under the ice, which melted and refroze as the night and day switched places in an endless cycle. They stopped soon after, to pack up a few of their layers.

“We're about two miles from Crystal Lake,” Alexandria said, rolling her down winter jacket into a tight ball, and stashing it in her pack. Calvin was breathing heavily.

“It's probably the altitude,” she said. “The air is thinner up here, and it takes more breath to get the same amount of oxygen. Even from campus to here is a huge change.”

“I'm also not especially physically active, compared to you,” said Calvin in between breaths. “You set a fairly speedy pace.”

“I'll hike slower.”

The ate a few snacks, drank some water, and continued on their way.

As they warmed up, Alexandria did decrease their pace, and they started to talk. Calvin asked questions, mostly, because he was out of breath. Alexandria did the majority of the talking.

“Have you hiked this trail often?”

“Every winter,” she said. “When we were little, Al and I would take our disc sleds and tie them to our backpacks like turtle shells. We would each pack a thermos of our grandmother's hot chocolate, a bunch of snacks, and hike up to the lake. Crystal Lake lies in a sort of bowl beneath a few mountains. There are gullies running into it on practically all sides. We would hike up the gullies for as far as we dared, and then sled down, getting fantastic distance on the frozen lake. One of those gullies will take us to a ridge, and I bet whatever the light is isn't far beyond that.”

“When was the last time you did that?” Calvin asked.

“A while ago. Al got pretty self absorbed when we turned about fifteen.”

“Your parents let you hike all the way up here by yourselves?”

“I suppose,” she said. “We knew the trails pretty well, and there were two of us. I think they decided it just wasn't worth the trouble. They stayed at the cabin by themselves while we spent most of the day in the mountains.”

“That must have been nice for them.”

“I think it was. Then they stopped coming,” she said. “Everyone stopped coming. I remember when we were about nine, we went up here a couple times with a set of identical girl twins, Bridget and Natalie. They were about our age, and were staying at a nearby cabin. We built forts on the windswept snow banks on the edge of the lake. That was a long time ago. I used to wonder about them. Wonder if they ever came back, and climbed the trees we used to climb. I wonder if they remember me.”

“I'm sure they do.”

She continued to tell him stories of her childhood in the mountains. After a time, they stopped for breath.

“Why do you think they stopped coming?” Calvin asked. He drank deeply from his water bottle.

“Who?”

“People,” Calvin said. “In general.”

“I don't know,” Alexandria said. “I wish I did. It makes me sad. It's sure a beautiful place.”

She ate a few crackers, and started walking again. After another thirty minutes or so, they made it out of the trees and onto the lake.

The trees ended suddenly. The forest came up, thick and tall, to the bowl wherein lay Crystal Lake, but no further. The lake stretched, circular and flat, in front of them. Gullies rose up to the ridges on all side, and rocky peaks cast their shadows from the morning sun. It was like something out of a story.

Calvin reached the lip of the lake, and sat down heavily. Alexandria pulled him up.

“You don't want to do that,” she said. “It cramps up your muscles. You want to keep them stretched.” He nodded. “Makes sense,” he gasped.

“We'll naturally go slower once we reach the gullies,” Alexandria told him. “But I wanted to get up the trail as fast as possible. It is winter out here, and I want to be back to the cabin by three. The sun will fall shortly after.”

She let Calvin catch his breath. Then they walked on, across the lake and up towards the far gully. The sun was higher in the sky than it had any right to be, in the middle of the morning.

Alexandria wrapped her scarf tightly across her face as she trod across the frozen surface of Crystal Lake. The cold winds rushed down from the peaks, across the lake, and down the single exit into the forest below. But the snow in the bowl was also acting like a giant mirror, angling the sun's rays down onto her. She was sweating, yet her eyes were stinging from the cold of the wind.

When they got into the gully itself, the heat died down, and so did the wind. They took careful steps on the snow, sometimes sliding back a foot or two, but more often they landed firm on the rocks below. Calvin took a few steps, and then stopped to breathe. He took a few more, and stopped again. Part of Alexandria wanted to slow the pace down, to talk with her friend, but she wanted to get to the top of the ridge first.

Higher and higher they climbed. The gully stretched below them. Alexandria looked down, and tried to judge whether there was enough snow on either side to safely slide down to the lake. Probably not without a good sled.

Finally, they reached the top of the ridge. The wilderness stretched out before them. Alexandria looked out. She didn't know the names of the lakes or the peaks that filled her vision. It all ran together, in a chaotic snow capped vista. Calvin was too tired to look.

She gazed across the ridge, left to right, searching for something man made. Finally, she saw it. A wooden and rock shack, rather sizable, built into the side of the peak to her north. There were wires and cables stretching upwards from the structure, and a large light on the top. It looked like a lighthouse.

Alexandria pulled Calvin to his feet, and urged him to walk as quickly as he could. The sky wheeled about them as she practically ran across the rocky slabs towards the rock shelter. The wind must have swept the ridge line clear of snow. As she got closer, she noticed a large generator outside, with a number of solar panels on it.

Calvin couldn't keep up with her. She grabbed the wooden handle of the door, and threw it open, breathing hard. As she heard Calvin call out to her, she entered the room.

Chapter 22: 1,714 | 41,475/50,000

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