Saturday, May 19, 2007
Usually my umbrella comes in handy to address the downpour of rain or the blazing power of the sun. I never thought it would be a shelter from snow. To my surprise and to many of the motorists hauling boats, canoes and kayaks, snow flurries filled the air. Of the nine and a half hours on foot, a good third of the time was spent in snow. Freezing rain also made it’s way to the roof of the umbrella forming sheets of ice which slid off in pieces at random moments and crashed on the gravel below me. I admit not being prepared for this unexpected chill. Somehow my feet remained relatively dry while moisture managed to minimally funnel into the holes of my crocs.
It’s amazing how a thin chaddar wrapped around my kirta and backpack could retain the body heat needed to stay warm. There was no shelter for me along this 45 km stretch from English River to Upsala. There was not one building, not even an abandoned barn to take refuge under. Only the chanting and the good constant pace kept me from a serious freeze. Surely I could have flagged down a motorist but I was curious to see for how long I could push it until my driver Dr. Prashant (filling in for a resting Darshan Doug),
would pick me up. To some degree it was mind over matter. It ended up that I had a wonderful day with the sound vibration of mantra and brief dialogues with an officer and a trucker.
I’m reminded of the verse from the Bhagavad Gita that happiness and distress come like winter and summer seasons and that we are meant to tolerate them despite the duality.
46 kms
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