Schweitzer
I give a quick tug on the collar of my warm jacket. The cold, January wind stings at my face like a thousand needles on my short ride alone up the Quad to the top. I turn back to look behind me, towards all the people waiting for their chance to get first tracks of the morning, that’s when I see something so beautiful. As I look out towards the horizon I see beyond the mountain, beyond the condo’s, the cars, and the people, There I see it a small slice of heaven nestled among these rolling hills for only those few people who look at the right moment, on the right day, to see…as if it were a shiny diamond hidden among a pile of grey rocks. The bright blue sky and early morning sun beat down on Lake Pend Oreille’s smooth, untouched surface. Almost as if a mirror the lake reflects what few, scrawny fluffs of cloud still hang in the sky. I look around and I can see for miles in every direction: the snow is a soft white, the air is brisk, and the sun shines down illuminating everything with such brilliance my eyes would fry without my goggles. Not a soul has marked tracks on the new blanket of snow that covers last nights grooming. “A perfect day to be on the mountain”, I think to myself. As I gaze out on the view I realize the peace that a scene like this can bring to one’s soul. It seemed as if everything that had bothered me five minutes prior had no affect on me at the moment. Almost as if God stopped time so I could stare at the scene for a few more seconds before the chair violently lurches to a stop and I am jolted from my serenity back to reality. But that picture will be etched forever in the back of my mind as “my getaway”. The one thing I can think of when I get stressed that keeps me sane. It’s that one moment, that one scene, from that one chairlift on my way up Schweitzer Mountain.
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