<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The first surprise was the creek\u2019s unexpected width.
My guidebook had said 80 to 100 feet. Then, I couldn\u2019t see
where to pick up the trail on the other side, and didn\u2019t want to be
aimlessly splashing back and forth over there with
forty pounds on my back, clueless about where to climb out.
And where were the rocks? I\u2019d imagined hopping, boulder
to boulder. What I saw was a sheet of jumpy, fast water
that would mean a mid-calf to knee-deep ford, no doubt.
So, I sat, took off my boots, tied them to my pack,
rolled my socks into a ball, and stuffed it deep into a pocket,
velcroed sandals tightly\u2014stalling\u2014still taken back
by what I\u2019d not foreseen, then eased onto a submerged rock (it
held without wobble) and started sloshing toward a gap
in the far bank\u2019s brush through a rippling wash of whitecap.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The first surprise was the creek\u2019s unexpected width.My guidebook had said 80 to 100 feet. Then, I couldn\u2019t seewhere to pick up the trail on the other side, and didn\u2019t want to beaimlessly splashing back and forth over there withforty pounds on my back, clueless about where to climb out.And where were the rocks? I\u2019d … Read More<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2521","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-poetry"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pa867U-EF","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/underwoodpress.com\/ruescribe\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2521","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/underwoodpress.com\/ruescribe\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/underwoodpress.com\/ruescribe\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/underwoodpress.com\/ruescribe\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/underwoodpress.com\/ruescribe\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2521"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/underwoodpress.com\/ruescribe\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2521\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2527,"href":"https:\/\/underwoodpress.com\/ruescribe\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2521\/revisions\/2527"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/underwoodpress.com\/ruescribe\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2521"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/underwoodpress.com\/ruescribe\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2521"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/underwoodpress.com\/ruescribe\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2521"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
Charles Weld is a retired mental health counselor\/administrator, now working part-time in an agency treating youth, He lives in the Finger Lakes region of upstate New York.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"