The Woman who loved the Mountian.

       In our modern society, we are growing further and further away from our roots and the natural world and in this story, one woman finds her self understanding nature in a much more personal way than she could have ever imagined.


      *beep beep beep*  alarm goes off sounding the a start to a new day, Briar Belle turns off the alarm and gets ready to head to class at the local community college and after class, straight to work, where she works at a small country diner as a waitress. The days go on and on and on, and everyday seems to not get any better and the bills, boyfriend problems, troubles with school, on the fringe of getting fired from her job because the diner isn't doing well and not to mention, her father been bedridden for months because of multiple illnesses who just passed only just a few months ago. Every night she fantasizes about leaving everything behind, exploring and having adventures where she is in control of everything. With just weeks of the semester left,  she decides that she will tough it out and just finish strong with classes and work. Finals happen, and she gets her results and to her surprise, ended up having some of the best grades in her classes. To celebrate, Briar decides she is finally going to take that trip that she had been longing for, a trip with no deadlines, no itinerary and no destination and would just go where the wind took her. She packs her bags and heads westbound and hits all of the major state and national parks the west has to offer. Along the way, she meets others that are kind of doing the same thing. Briar and her new group of friends spend a few weeks together just hanging out and seeing all the sites they can, but after so long, Briar decides she's going to continue her solo journey and keep seeing as much of the world as possible, again she packs up and leaves her new friends behind. Along the way, she talks to different people about what she should do and the things she should see. The people she talked to, always seemed to mention the cascades in Washington, so she decided she would visit this place that so many people had told her about along the way. Briar gets to the Cascade region and when she gets there, she gets this weird feeling of how she will figure out her life and all the missing parts in her life will come together. Before she starts to go out and just start hiking around, she stops by a little convince store/ diner th at reminded her of the one she worked at. While getting food, drinks, snacks and maps, she asks the old lady at the register, what she should do and where she should go while being there. The old lady tells Briar about a super remote and difficult place to get to place called Departure Peak that no one returns from, she also tells her about some of the lore and legends of the region and particularly about Departure Peak and how it is an ancient Mountain that has an overseer, someone that watches over and protects the mountain because at the top, there is believed to have a  magical stream that has the powers to heal you. But when you drink the water, the Mountain decides if you are worthy enough to receive its magical healing powers. But if you aren't worthy and or take more water than you need, you will die. If you are worthy enough to you drink it, you have to become part of the mountain and help look over it.
    Briar, now is more determined than ever to reach the top of Departure Peak and try its so called "magical" waters, because if she's not worthy enough to receive the healing powers and she dies, she doesn't really have anything to lose, but if she is worthy enough, then hopefully these waters will help heal her physically and emotionally.  She stops by the store to try to get more info and to tell the old lady goodbye. Briar starts the couple week journey up to Departure Peak, and runs into just about every problem you can have while trekking through remote wilderness. She ends up breaking her glasses, loses the maps, wind catches her water proof jacket and its never to be seen again, boot strings rip and a horde of ravenous Raccoons pillaged her food among some of the problems. While Briar was doubting herself and thinking about quitting the journey and heading back down the mountain, she thought of all the times her father had taken her outside exploring when she was a little girl, she remembered her dad always talking about how if you are good to Nature and have a good heart, that nature will be good to you in return.  He also talked about how mountains have feelings and that you could have a relationship with the Mountains. Briar had always thought her dad to be a little bit crazy in that regard, but ever since he had passed away, and she had been trying to find herself, she found that her father wasn't as crazy as she thought for so many years. With new determination to finish what she had started and to make it to the top of Departure and try the mythical healing waters, also thought she would try to spend more time taking care of Mother Earth, since she never had a Mother figure in her life, she decided that her real mom was mother nature and she would head to her fathers advice and starts to have a relationship with the wild. Briar, having fixed some problems from before and with a new attitude, was making really good time up to the Peak, and reckoned she was about 5 days front the Magical Waters and while she was hiking, she took a stumble and ended up rolling her ankle extremely bad and got some major scrapes and couldn't walk any further. So she  makes camp and sets up for a few days to allow her ankle and wounds to heal, to where she felt comfortable to head back up the Mountain. She finally got tired of sitting around and decided she would test out her ankle, while she did she lost balance and started falling down a little ravine, she was stuck and could not move. Briar had been stuck in this ravine for what seemed like ages, and she knew she was the only person on the Mountain, but decided to yell for help anyways, and yelled for hours and eventually passed out because of the pain and dehydration. When she woke up, she woke up in a hut like thing that was built of granite on the outside and moss on the inside and noticed that her ankle had a splint on it and that this hut looked like someone's home. After being really confused and being scared of how or who brought her there, a very sculpted and chiseled younger looking man peaked his head into the hut and said, "They call me Mountain, I heard you screaming and came to help you."Briar and Mountain spent the next couple days together getting to know each other and letting briar heal. She woke up one day and noticed Mountain was gone and so was the granite shelter they were in, but found her back pack to be heavier than is was before and then she dumped out what was in her bag and found all her gear, but also the gear that she had lost, plus Some more food and other things she didn't bring with her originally. She assumed Mountain had given her, his stuff and was also on his way to the magical waters, so she packed up and headed to the peak to thank him and to try the waters. With the peak In site and just another days push, she would be at the fabled waters, but still Mountain was nowhere to be seen and Briar couldn't find his foot prints. So she pushed on to the Peak and she could now see the mythical spring that the old lady talked about, and stops to get some of the water, and then Mountain comes out of nowhere and tells her that it is actually magical water and that if she does drink it she would die or join him. Briar says to him, " what do you mean ill join you if you, if I don't die?" he says that one time he drank the water, and that's why they call him Mountain, because he is in fact the mountain. The fabled overseer of the mountain, and that he would disappear, because he can only be in his human form for so long, or  magical spring would in fact die.  So Briar did take the risk  to drink the water, and then she started to feel funny, and Mountain said to her, I've been waiting my whole life for someone as worthy and special as you, so Mountain and Briar from then on took care of Departure Peak together for the rest of their lives.

Gunna hang me in the mornin'

Yes, I realize I haven't been on here in forever, oh well. Today I had the opportunity to explore a bunch more of the southwest I haven't seen before. I went to Modena, a tiny little rail road town, that looks like there isn't a soul that lives there, and besides the few residents, no one would ( duh Austin) When  I visit these old western towns, it always gets my mind running and wishing that I could of been alive during the expansion of the west. For my own salvation, I'm glad I wasn't... heavenly father knew I shouldn't of been alive then, because frankly, I am a bandit of sorts and if I was in a lawless time... who knows how my life would of played out. In western movies, I am always rooting for the Outlaws. The ones who live life like it was their last day on earth ( most days it was..) These outlaws, made (took) money from rich people, traveled the world on their Nobel steed, always seem to get the ladies, and get to play with guns all day, when living the luxurious life you travel via the railroad and you are always dressing up to the 9's even when robbing a train.
Besides Modena and other little towns along the 56, I stopped by  The Mountain Meadows massacre....  a place I've always heard about, and wanted to go to, but never have. What happened there, over those few days, was a major dark time for the Mormon church.. while it would be dumb to guess why the Mormon militia massacred these other pioneers from Arkansas, the only reasonable reason why, is that the Mormon pioneers were very tired of getting mistreated and often times killed because of their religion. So, they decided to be on the offensive and not be pushed around anymore. Again, this is just a assumption, I do not agree with their actions, but I was not in their situation.  This was a terribly unfortunate time, for not only the Mormon religion, but for western expansion.  Just like the old west towns I occasionally visit and wish I was an outlaw, I too wonder if I could have been a pioneer and made the journey across the ocean and across the young country we are so lucky to live in. I always am so grateful for what the pioneers did, they sacrificed themselves so they and future generations could enjoy religious freedom.