Ice Hike

I went hiking today (Sunday, February 7, 2010) in the Linville Gorge Wilderness Area. Our goal was the summit of Shortoff Mountain. It's hard to describe a hike like the one today. It was something like magic, I think. That would be the best way to grace it with a word.

Here are a few images until I can write more about it.

She breathed on water. Ice glazed the land. Like music, it played across the winds.

The forest was alive with the sound of creaking and falling ice. A very strange and wonderful kind of music from the voice of Nature. (Turn the volume up for the full effect!)

Self portrait at the summit of Shortoff Mountain. The heights and depths of Linville Gorge were revealed behind me, coated in snow, in ice.