The journey that begins with the first step

Looking down on the lilies
which are really not visible.

Rebecca told me that she loves the walk to Mount Pkols.

I thought she meant the walk that takes her from her house to the base of the mountain, and then the 1500 metre climb to the top.

Late tonight she assured me that is not what she meant. She meant drive to the base of the mountain and then walk up it.

Not knowing that and believing that it is a walk she takes often, I set out today to do the same thing.

If I had it to do over again, I would take enough money with me to take a bus home.

Not knowing that, I walked both ways. I didn’t really mind the way there.

https://islandnature.ca/2012/04/white-fawn-lilies-at-pipers-lagoon-park/

It was only the 10,000 steps that I usually take every day.

What was hard was the descent, for I was getting tired, and then the walk home.

Half way down the mountain there was a bench provided by the Friends of Mount Douglas. The saying on the plaque on the bench said, “Sometimes sitting is the best move.”

I got the joke and took the rest.

I knew one of my pictures was not going to turn out, but it seems so beautiful from above.

At the lookout I could spot a beautiful flower through the moss on the gray-lichen covered branches of the trees below. I was showing the picture to Rebecca and she turned to her own photos to show me that she had taken a picture of the same flower: the white fawn lily. She said it is like a crocus and then google told us that it grows just in this area of BC.

Whitaker Hike
on Mount Pkols

Walking home was a mystery for the streets all seemed to have the same name on the way back.

 I could mostly tell I was on the right track by landmarks I had seen along the way: a Sikh laying cement bricks in a driveway (I had noticed the brilliant colour of his turban), an abandoned couch in a yard, a sunshine yellow bush.

A trip I would not have wanted to miss.

And a trip I will train for, so that the next time I do it, my walk back home will have the same spring in my step as the walk there.

Arta