by Uncle Wes, May 23, 2003

I was once married. To a sweet girl, she was smart, pretty and feisty. I gotta tell you I was in looove with this girl. I had it real bad. You know the feeling you can’t wait to see them even if you’ve only been apart for an hour. You just can’t wait to see them again. There was only one problem. If you asked her what she thought of when you said the color blue. Well, her response would be Blue Bloods. Now my response would be Blue plate special.



So as you can imagine we were quite different. But after all they say opposites attract. Now her idea of camping was a motel room on the lake, and roughing it meant, no room service. Cooking out meant we had to go to a restaurant. So as you can imagine, she came from a pretty well off family. You know the type, his and hers matching airplanes, Mercedes, Swimming pools, and Sunday brunch in Reno. But none of that mattered to me, because I was in looove.



Now I had come home from work one day, and evidently she had watched Oprah or some such show as that. And the topic was sharing. The whole jest of the show was to have your mate take you out and do the things that they enjoy, so you can understand each other’s feelings. Are you with me so far? So as she explains this idea to me, I just smile and shake my head and say yes dear. (You see I’ve been around enough to know that agreeing with her will be my best bet) besides that this idea will go away in a week or so, right?



Of course it has already been established that my interests are fishing, fishing, and fishing. So as I sit down on the couch, the barrage of questions begins. Thanks Oprah!

She wants me to think back to all my favorite places that I enjoy fishing at, and what is the one place that stands out in my mind the most... Well that was a no brainer for me. There was this one hike in lake me and my buddies used to go to every year. It was great, a canopy of trees so thick you couldn’t see the sky, ferns with such a dark green color that their hard to describe without seeing them. Birds chirping, squirrels, chipmunks, and a little stream that emptied out of the lake. The type of thing you can only imagine. This is the type of scenery you see in pictures, but you never really believe it exists.



So after further discussion, she decides that this will be the perfect outing for me to share with her. After all she likes to cross country ski, and bike riding. All outdoor sports. Yep, this will be the perfect sharing experience. After all this is my favorite spot, I know she will enjoy the hike in, all the scenic beauty and wildlife. And it’s only about a mile and a half hike. What more could a guy ask for, right? I mean after all if your weekend is going to be pre planned for you, at least it’s doing something you enjoy. Yeah, this sharing thing could work out pretty good. So I let her pick the weekend (like I have a choice) and she decides that the following weekend will be just perfect. Thanks Oprah.



Now we’ve been discussing this for about 4 day’s, I’m telling stories and reliving the moments past. And as each day passed, I started to get more and more excited. I hadn’t been up there for a couple of years and I was really looking forward to it. We’ve got our game plan in place and were ready. One more day to go it’s going to be great. She is going to fall in love with this place and beg me to take her back up there often. What more could a man ask for. Yep, I must have been born under a lucky star. This sharing thing is going to work out perfect. Thanks Oprah.



Well after all the anticipation, reminiscing, and talking about it. The big day is finally here. We wake up about 5am and everything is perfect. She couldn’t be more pleasant. She’s telling me that this is just going to be great. Its honey this and honey that, kiss,kiss, kiss. I’m thinking to myself this is a great start. So we get all of our stuff loaded up in the rig, and were on our way. It’s only a couple hour road trip to the trail head, and were both in high spirits. The day is perfect, the sun is out and the temperature is supposed to be in the mid 70’s. Couldn’t ask for a better day. Yep, this sharing thing is going to work out. Thanks Oprah.



The one thing I liked about this drive was the scenery. It’s just spectacular, and on this particular morning, well I gotta tell you I’ve never seen a more beautiful sunrise. The colors were magnificent, I’m pointing things out to her as we travel on, and she’s just in awe. She was telling me she had traveled this way hundreds of times and never really noticed the things I was pointing out to her. So now you know I’m feeling pretty good about things so far. I’m thinking to myself, you’re a genius. What better way to start our very anticipated trip. The sunrise, the scenery, well its all perfect. Yeah, I was most definitely born under a lucky star. This sharing thing is going to work out perfect. Oprah, you definitely got it together girl.



As we come to our turn off I just keep thinking this is going to be great. I’m here at last. It’s been 2 years. I never thought I’d get a chance to come back. Only 5 more miles down this all to familiar gravel road and we’ll be at the trailhead. As we get there she asking questions about where we camped and I assured her that I would show her what we had set up. At last, were here, we grab our day packs, and I walk her over to our camping site. She’s very impressed with the fallen logs that we carved seats out of and the huge fire pit lined with flat river rock. Even our lean to we had lashed together so we could stretch our tarps over just in case it rained. Yeah, this sharing thing is going pretty well so far. Maybe this wasn’t such a bad idea. Thanks Oprah.



Before we start I head back to the car and grab my fishing rod, after all I might as well make this a great trip. She pulls her camera out and were both ready to start our trip into Gods country. We get about 330 yards up the trail and I stop and tell her to listen. You can here the stream in the background, the birds singing. Looking to our left you can see the golden rays of sunshine glistening on the lush green ferns. She couldn’t resist taking a couple of pictures. Well we push on and about a quarter of a mile up the trail we encounter our first little detour, a fallen cedar tree across the trail. Not a problem, we just go around it. We drive on, birds singing, and a big old ear to ear smile on my face. This sharing is great. Thanks Oprah.



As we get up the trail another ¼ mile we encounter about 3” of snow. She begins to grumble a little bit, I figure know problem it’s got that sheen of ice on it so we’ll be able to walk on top of it with very little effort. So we continue on about another ½ mile and the snow has been getting a little deeper, when all of a sudden we come to a point where it’s about a foot deep. Well needless to say this did not go un-noticed, the grumbling got a little more vocal and the expression on her face was not the same happy face we started out with. But I’m still full of anticipation because I know what’s at the end of the trail, Gods country. But were not going to let a little snow stop us, right? We continue on, but now she has noticed that the trail is no longer distinguishable. Well now she is voicing her opinion a little stronger and much louder. Telling me I’m lost and don’t know where I’m going. And now her eyes are shooting daggers at me. I feel a storm a brewing. Her sense of humor is at the ragged edge. Now she is complaining on a regular basis. In general, making my life hell. This sharing thing is beginning to suck, thanks Oprah.



But we push on, I assure her I know where were at and we are just about there. But now she is beginning to break thru the snow on every step and she is not happy. How this 98lb lady can step thru this layer of ice every step is beyond me. But I can tell you her language is now getting very rough. I didn’t think she new words like that. But we kept going. All the time I’m praying to myself for god to strike me deaf, at least until we get to the lake. But to know avail, he wasn’t listening to me. Then I started trying to think of a plan, like maybe if I just started running up the mountain I could escape this abuse of my character. But then I came to my senses and realized she’d hunt me down until my dieing days. So we push on and there was several time’s I had to turn around and see if my sweet, caring and loving wife had been replaced by a truck driver. The language coming out of this lady was getting quite colorful now. Yeah, this sharing thing really sucks. Thanks Oprah.



Finally we come into the home stretch. I know we have less than a ¼ mile to go. Of course by now I’m not quite sure what my name is now, as she has changed it quite a few times on the way up. As we trek up the hill and she steps thru the layer of ice on the snow with every step, and at the same time letting me know what she thinks so far. I keep telling myself it will all be worth it once we reach the top. When suddenly I notice a clearing in the skyline, and a last little pile of snow. Are my eyes deceiving me? Could this be it? At last the promised land, something I’ve have dreamt about for the past couple of years. Yes it is, after all of the abuse, were here. We step out of the tree lines and onto the shore around the lake all of the snow is melted around the lake in the background is a snow covered mountain and trees for miles and miles. A breath taking scene, just as I had remembered it. As my wife steps out onto the shore I can see the look of awe and amazement in her eyes. She can’t believe it, here it is just as I described it. And what do you know, she admits the trek up here was all worth it. Once again things are back on a happy note, just as they were before we started the hike. Yes this sharing thing is all right. Thanks Oprah.