Written by Suri, a participant on a 21 Day High Sierra Backpacking Course

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Metallic conveyor belts, fetid jet fuel sent, airsick 80s carpet design;

Nervy, nameless teenagers, strange nick-named counselors: buck, stump, shoop;

Saying goodbyes, backs turned, waving away beds, media, deodorant;

Five hour ride through a secluded, smudged road that brushed tires brown;

Thin dust smogging noses, eyes, feet, legs, faces;   

A group of 10 strangers from all reaches, mountains, rivers;

200 year-old-looking green sleeping bags with scars, dirt and patches;    

Saddles, peaks, steeps, drainages, flats, ridges, gentles;  

Packs worn by humans, humans half the size of packs; 

Pinus Flexilis, Carpenteria Californica, Sandworts, Amabilis;

A family of 10, close, amiable, ambitious strangers;

Creeks, lakes, rivers clearer than ice; 

Outlandish stories, poems, discussions, witticism, within a circle of fire; 

Intruding taps on tarps, petrichor on granite, 5 layers but still freezing;  

“I don’t want to hold the mayo”, “someone finish the jelly”, “I am so tired”;

Grumbling, petrified skies brightly fulminating, hands over organs, tarps overhead;

Untreated water filled with red, twisting drops of 53;

A challenge: no buck, no shoop, 10 brothers and sisters, alone;  

Brownies on horseback, hundling around a small fire, watching as they gelatinize;

Frivolous swims in untouched water, leaving trails of dust swirling;

Blue Sky, Bohemian Rhapsody, American Pie, Hamilton; 

Boisterous blisters, intruding in-grown toenails, savage scars;

Pure thin dust entering noses, eyes, feet, legs, faces;    

Saying goodbyes, backs turned, waving away mountains, lakes, trees; 

Metallic conveyor belts, fetid jet fuel sent, airsick 80s carpet design;

30 days, 10 people, thousands of memories.  

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