Showering Off the Fjords

After day 4 of our fjord hike through the northwestern curve of Norway, I finally took a hot shower. Never had I felt so relieved, so grateful for the invention of water falling slowly down our backs in cleansing. The water came from a spout on a hose in the basement of a red barn that sat on top of a hill overlooking a dark green forest that ran along the base of a towering black mountain dusted with snow. We had walked to that barn, up that hill, through that forest and over that mountain. Before the mountain was a lake, clear as glass, and on that lake was the cabin we had stayed at last night. This was the way of it. This was what we had done. We'd wake up each morning and eat bland oatmeal decorated in raisins, crystallized pineapple, nuts, granola, and cinnamon, and dark coffee. We'd stretch our legs and backs and pack our packs full to the brim with our food and clothes and hats and books and we'd set out onto the trail to walk our day away to the next place we would sleep.

I thought about these days, these trails, these hikes, the bright green moss and the trickling rivers, the crisp skies and the snow as I washed the four days off my skin. I thought of the way the sun had slanted its never-setting rays on the four of us - Seb first usually, then Robbi, then myself and then Weston. The order of our Lord of the Rings-style walking established itself a few days in, after we encountered our first snake. That way, Seb could spot them, Rob and I could scream bloody murder and run off the trail and then Weston could get excited and take a picture. We wound ourselves around copses of black alder and beech trees, enormous rock faces, enormous blue fingers of the fjord, and our conversation wound around through the delicious Norwegian air as well. I laughed in the shower as I realized how many topics you can cover when there are four intelligent, like-minded people spending minute after minute, hour after hour, day after day together, discussing - literally - everything. From the farms and people that Robbi and Seb have worked with this past year to each member of each of our families in detail to global warming to South Park to the Rally to Restore Sanity to Maine accents to Wisconsin Accents to Northern Norwegian accents...

I thought about our ability to withhold a conversation for four days straight, about the ease of the transitions, the lengthiness and the breathiness and the silences in between. I thought about each of our thoughts during the pauses - four individual bubbles above four heads, following the landscape, loving the beauty, contemplating what's next on the trail and what's next in our lives, remembering the trails that brought us here.