A Hard Story to Read
Ken at Lost Borders loves walking in the wilderness, but he resists the illusion that nature is ultimately his friend. He knows nature is indifferent to him and could easily kill him if he isn’t careful.
The beauty and benevolence of wilderness is deceptive. The harmony is illusion. The river runs cold through Whitewater Canyon, bears hunt the deer, and my survival, as well as that of bears and deer, depends on me leaving this tall and uncut place before night.
His comments on the terrors nature can bring reminded me of the story of Mike Turner, a Presbyterian pastor from Idaho. He loved hiking alone in the wilderness, and in the end the wilderness took his life — an accident left him trapped for days between two boulders until he died of dehydration. His death at the hands of nature resembles Jesus’ crucifixion, only it takes longer.
The story is hard to read. The link is here.
I have worried about such things happening. On a hike along the Whitewater River last week a friend stood on a boulder next to the river and then stepped off the boulder and walked a few feet away. A second later the boulder fell off the bank into the river.
Ken
April 7, 2009 at 12:41 pm