Climb Every Mountain

Once I was invited to ride horse up a mountain trail in Utah. It was a pleasant ride with good horses and a nice trail. Wildflowers were blooming all along the trail offering many little vistas of beauty as we rode the better part of the morning to reach the summit where we would stop to rest before going back down. As we rounded a curve in the trail that brought us to the final plateau, we were greeted by a glorious field of wildflowers spread over a couple of acres of the summit. A wave of satisfaction and delight swept over me as I slowly scanned the scene before me, drinking in the dazzling color and heavenly fragrance. Never had I experienced such a scene of total wonder and yet, it was nothing in comparison to what I was yet to see or had ever seen.

North Dakota sits on the western edge of the great plains by Montana, on the eastern edge of tree-filled and lake-covered Minnesota, on the northern edge of the United States, on the southern edge of Canada and right smack dab in the middle of North America. The northwest corner of the state is relatively flat plains, rising and falling in gently rolling hills broken occasionally by tiny one and two-acre run-off ponds called Sloughs and dotted here and there with clumps of trees in the miniature valleys called Coolies. The northeast side of North Dakota looks more like Minnesota with plenty of trees, the Red River which runs into the Mississippi, and even a small range of hills they call the Turtle Mountains. The southwest corner of the state is called the Badlands. Jagged sandstone towers and pillars cover the desert-like terrain for hundreds of miles. There is little water, even less plant life, and a sparse population of hardy little animals who live on who-knows-what. This is the state where I was born and raised.

Well do I remember my first trip through Montana and seeing 'real' mountains for the first time. I just kept saying “Wow, wow, wow.” I spent the entire trip with my neck craned out the window looking up at the mountains and wondering at the power behind their creation. When I was a small child, riding in the car on the flat road with nothing but sky ahead, I would imagine in the clouds a scene of mountains, lakes, trees, rivers, islands and even the ocean. As the sun was setting or rising the clouds would spread out thin across the sky and I could see all of those things above the horizon. I could not have been more happy when I later found myself actually living at the foot of mountains whose grandeur I had only imagined.

When I was invited to take the trail ride to the top of 'Ben Lomond' in Utah, I thought I had died and gone to heaven. Looking at mountains was amazing, but to set my own foot on the summit of one was a pleasure I had imagined to be one of the best things I could ever experience as a mortal. Thus I rode in a sort of reverence to the top of one of the largest mountains I had ever seen. Our ride took us from the canyon between the mountains, along the east face and through brush and trees that afforded little or no visibility except for our nearest surroundings. I had no foretaste then, of what it would be like at the summit. The tallest hill I had climbed before this time had been a tiny knoll near my home called Strawberry Butte. I have seen houses that are taller.

I was in raptures over the wildflower meadow we had found at the summit when my companion nudged me and suggested that I take a peek over the western edge of the mountain. The meadow rose slightly to the edge, so you could not see the view from where we stood. Unwittingly I walked easily to the edge of the peak. Instantly I caught my breath. Nothing in my life had prepared me for that moment. Shock, surprise, wonder, awe and amazement shot through me like electricity. It wasn't just beauty, it was something more. I knew in that moment why people climb great mountains. I have never been the same. Like the Grinch at the top of Mount Crumpett whose heart grew three sizes , I felt my heart grow. Here was life at it's highest and best and I didn't want to leave. However, I also knew that I had other mountains to climb. All the mountains of life awaited; all the climbs, all the views, all the challenges. But now I knew that it would all be worth it.