Getting away [open]

[calendreahedgerow]

Calendrea Hedgerow has had enough of the city for a while. The shootings, the traffic, the people! She needed to get off by herself and do some relaxing. So it was with a certain bit of excitement that she packed her white Monte Carlo and headed out of town. She had recently learned of a lake away up in the hills and she planned to do some camping, just to spend a week in the woods and have a little me time. She had packed up her tent, sleeping bag, fishing gear, and her backpack. She took along a cooler and would stock up with food and ice once she got to the edge of town.

Her excitment only grew as she left the city limits behind, having stocked her cooler at a mini-mart not 10 minutes ago, and could see the first slopes of the foothills leaping up before her. The lake would be in those hills, or so she was told, and she could hardly wait to find a good camping spot.

In all the trip took an hour to accomplish which was worth it even with gasoline prices these day. Pulling into the lake area she drove around until she found a lot to park in. Packing up her gear, and grabbing her small cooler by the handle, she slung on her pack, grabbed her walking stick, and headed up the trail near the stream that fed into the lake. She would avoid the lake prefering to be away from the people and camp further up in the hills. Once she set up camp she could trek in and out as needed to resupply herself.

Along the stream she walked. The wind blew in hair and refreshed her beyond words to describe. She hadn' t realized how much she missed the woods until now. Feeling as though her soul was opening up once more, she hefted her slipping pack and easily strolled deeper into the forest. The pack was feeling heavy but she was used to physical exertion and had quite alot of upper body strength despite her slight frame.

Comming into a small clearing near the stream she looked about and decide to set up camp here. The stream dropped about 7 foot creating a small waterfall in a bowl like area. To the right of the bowl a run off occured tripping down rocks and fallen logs that formed a small hollow. Two streams then merged at the falls and pooled a bit into a basin approximately 30 feet across. Beneath the falls was a stone ledge upon which the waters poured steadily. Yes, she smiled, this would do quite nicely.

At the clearing atop the falls she pitched her tent and began to dig a fire pit in which to build her campfire. She felt she would be most comfortable here.

[calendreahedgerow]

Settling in to the woods took less time than she'd figured. She had her tent erected, a small two man backpacker's affair which she had used on many a trip including her time in the deserts of Utah. She had the firepit dug and a blaze going. She prepared to roast some steak she had brought and had pulled a log over to use as a seat upon which to sit.

As she let the meat cook in foil thrown into the coals of the fire, she sang softly to herself songs from the hills. Her voice drifted out eerily into the evening and played a nice counter part to the crickets and night birds which where just begining to wake up. A whipoorwhill sounded in the distance to be answered by another further off. Morning doves called low to the ground beneath a stand of pine as they bedded down for the night. Lightening bugs rose slowly from the ground and began to drift all around. She was content.

[calendreahedgerow]

While her supper cooks, she decides to slip down to the pool for a swim in the moonlight. The events of this week were just beyond belief and she needed this vacation in more ways that one. Letting the harshness of the city and the indifference of its people slip from her mind, she padded barefoot down the small hollow to the pool beneath the falls. Weathered stones line the hollow having been washed free from the hillside by years of previous rains trickling down its slopes to join the pool.

The slope carries her down the hillside approximately seven feet before leveling out at the pool's shore, moonlight is reflected from its placid surface and a warm breeze blows gently against her face. Slipping from her things she streches her foot out and steps into the chill waters. As Calendrea moves deeper into the pool, water laps up and envelopes her whole body sending shivers thoughout. Her thermostat kicks in though, and soon enough she has adjusted to the water's environment. Tredding water she turns and looks up to the slope from wence she came delighting in the look of the moon as it peeks in between the trees. A stand of hemlock flank the slope by the path down here, but a huge sycamore tree with its bark peeling to reveal the white skin beneath stands guard over the pool at the top of the falls.

The water has an amazing effect upon her as tensions and fears are washed away. She wonders why she had stayed away from the forest so long. She needed its embrace to reinvigorate her, to feed her spirit and help her maintain her equilibrium. Being raised on a rather large farm she had free reign for much of her early years. She was never one to stay inside in front of the television, not when there was so much to explore and get into in the real world. When she hadn't been bothering her brothers around the garage, or having grand adventures with her sister, she was off on her own ranging through the woods. Sometime she would go on foot, other times she would saddle up her horse, pack a lunch and spend the whole day on her own in the forest. There was an apple tree she was most fond of robbing and she would stand on the back of her horse and harvest its fruit sharing with her mount. Little Sorrel had been a good horse and she missed him.

Swiming toward the base of he falls, she pulled herself up onto the mudstone ledge. The stones had been beaten smooth and felt good beneath her bare feet. Calendrea moved to stand beneath the gentle torrent and let the waters bathe her skin. Turning her face upward she smiles as nature's baptism cleanses her soul of its troubles invogorating her back into a state of oneness with self and her surroundings. There was little enough for her to connect to in the city, but here she could walk in the beauty of the world as though she were a part of it instead of just being parasitic to it.

Feeling quite refreshed she leaves the falls and dives into the depths of the pool. Totally emerged beneath the surface she is embraced fully by the forest and its world. She will find it hard to return to the city. Surfacing, she wades to the shallows and stands dripping beside her clothes. She drips dry upon a large rock on the shore and lets the sound of the water pouring down the face of the falls and the trickling noise it makes as it drains from the other end of the pool sing to her of life's goodness. Dressing she climbs once more from the ravine and enters her camp.