Articles from Janice and Cowboy John

Lamoille Lake Tour

Einstein was right. Time is relative. Every adult knows time moves more rapidly for grown-ups than for kids.

Summer stretched forever when I was a kid. Biking to the sandpit in Weiser with friends, sandwich in a bag, crawling through sticky junipers in the hedge that ran all the way around our house, running through the sprinkler on hot Idaho days. Leaf houses in the fall under the Queen Anne cherry tree.

We planned nothing ahead of time, just plunged into the day. All we cared about was what we were doing right then, in that moment.

Today, my speed-bullet summer is used up before I get to it. Mostly I live in the future, obsessing over grass-clogged flowerbeds, neglected grapevines, the turbulent pile on my desk, and a dusty living room.

I recall walks in the mountains, though, when time was irrelevant because I was occupied with flowers, fluffy clouds, twisted mahogany trees, and moss embracing a wet rock—details in the present.

We hiked this summer a lot, just John and me and the dog, but I remember a particular walk with Joann and Steve from Reno.

The goal was Lamoille Lake. Our feet kept pace with our talking, and before any of us knew we had passed the lake and were standing at Liberty Pass, 10,540 feet above sea level.

We celebrated at the Wilderness sign with a photo before walking to the edge of the granite ledge to see Liberty Lake in the hollow below, and tiny Castle Lake above Liberty. From above, the lakes are circular, turquoise-blue jewels bordered in green. (In some years the stream which flows through that greenery into Liberty Lake is a mass of blinding pink wild onions.) The sharp granite ridge behind Castle Lake forms the southern edge of the Ruby Mts dropping into Ruby Valley.

Hiking and talking that day we relished the day, got lost in conversation, and were aware of beauty around us.

Buried in busy schedules often we don’t engage fully, as when we were children. If we’re not careful our Daytimers/Palm Pilots will delete the present. Einstein was right. Time is a plastic concept. Living fully in what’s happening right now gives you more of it.

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