Why I keep an Open Schedule

I keep an open schedule for moments like these. I’m not much of a planner. You never know when you’ll be biking along and a friend will call you to say “Turn around! We’re at Draught Works.” The next thing you know, you’re on top of a peak shivering in the dark. Who would want to miss that!

There were a lot of firsts for me today. I’m lying on a pile of boulders cuddled next to two friends. We are as close as possible. Pressed against one another for warmth. Michelle is in the middle, and Elliott and I are on the sides. A friend sandwich on top the narrow peak of North Trapper.

Our bed is a pile of rocks sunken a little lower than the rest. It is barely wide enough for three people, but hopefully it will provide some shelter from the wind.

“You know in the morning there’s going to be a cave beside us. Right?”

We laugh. It’s too dark to try and explore. We move rocks to make the bed as flat as possible. We roll the most uncomfortable ones away, finding smaller rocks to fill their voids. Elliott flakes the two climbing ropes on top to make a mattress. They are piled where our hips and shoulders are. Our pillows are chalk bags sitting on a large boulder we could only rotate into an acceptable position.

We started our trek earlier today, camping at the trail head, and beginning our approach at 5am. It’s not a conventional trail. It’s more, sometimes a trail and most of the time a bushwhack. Maybe you’ll find the path, maybe you won’t. Our directions were pretty…