We continue on and up as the flat land is seemingly nonexistent from here on. It's a steady climb up and around the bend in the river. A side trail is seen about another 500 feet up in elevation and the noise of the falls is still all encompassing. We move along the trail and it descends slightly back to the water. We are now overlooking the falls we just witnessed from the base. Like so many times in mountain hikes, we discover it’s just a break in the falls. We are again also at the base of another set of falls. These rocks are not as worn, more jagged and squared, but there are more than 20 falls making up the whole and like kids our curiosity is peaked as we can’t see the top. Again photo time to record the incredible scenery, falling, twisting, water shining in the now full blown sun sparkling like champagne pouring off the mountain. We decide to make this our lunch stop and recharge after a fully satisfying trek to this amazing spot of earth.
After lunch and a foot soak in the drinkable clean clear water, we pack up and hit the trail once more. We head back this short side trail to the main thoroughfare as it were. Ah yes the incline, its steep now not quite touching our face on the rock in front of us it is nonetheless the steepest incline I have been on since Tuckerman's Ravine. We slow our pace to gain stability and keep our less than perfectly toned bodies from overloading a muscle or two. We are not alone as we pass many at this spot of the trail stopping and resting, moving, stopping, resting. it’s an hour to get this section accomplished, and the effort proves so worth it when we come over the rise and see the hut, a huge cape style building, solid, with a large porch, about ten feet above the ground. We make our way up the steps to that elevated high porch and when we turn around, the view before us made us think we were in heaven. Looking out across the sky were two mountain ridges with a mile-wide gorge between them. Below lush green forest, beyond waves of mountains blending into the horizon, all tempered with the passing shadows of a few clouds. We had completed a 3000 ft. elevation gain over 7 miles, and reached this endlessly inspiring piece of our incredible planet. We would spend hours here, and be forced to leave earlier than is fair, but the return trek is not an option because night will not be denied and for that we did not prepare. This is a place on the return list and until then, our minds will reflect and revisit often always bringing feelings of success, accomplishment and unadulterated joy of just being alive.
Ah fall is approaching. Soon we will hear the crunching of fallen leaves under our feet, the smell of apple pie baking in the oven, that distinct aroma of autumn as summer passes and our flowers and vegetable gardens decay into the fertilizer for next year. Then too, there is that smell of new leather coats and shoes. The post summer hair cut looking fine. Earlier to bed, earlier to rise. The inundation of school bus yellow and the children waiting to hit the books for another school year. It conjures up excitement, goals, learning, plans for the future, and the dread of expending financial resources for books, pencils, paper, electronics, clothes, and backpacks to hold them all. As we pass from summer to fall and dive into this season of excitement or dread known as BACK-TO-SCHOOL, here are a few thoughts that I hope will enlighten you or encourage those already aware to continue improving on.
B-T-S is the second biggest clothing shopping season in the year. It is a great time to reinforce or educate people to our clothing life cycle, and the need to change it. The average citizen in North America disposes of more than 70 lbs. of clothing each year, totaling 26 billion lbs. annually. Up to 95% of that amount is completely avoidable through recycling/reuse. Thrift stores can lessen the financial burden and help our planet as well as offering sustainable assistance to many community nonprofit needs. The clothing industry has become one of our world’s biggest contributors to pollution. The clothing industry is also an enormous drain on our resources. For example, it takes 700 gallons of water to make one cotton t-shirt.
Shopping at thrift stores will lessen the financial drain on tight budgets, save precious natural resources, keep our planet healthier by reducing the enormous volume dumped in landfills, and yet there is more than that. By getting the “f” out of refuse, and letting clothing become a part of reuse, the clothing will have an opportunity to fill someone else’s closet, if it doesn’t sell that way, most items at thrift stores make it to a recycler where most is directed to countries and communities in desperate need of basics, some is repurposed by grinding it into other goods including insulation. Thrift stores have several different operation bases, some are for-profit, but directly help non-profits through very sustainable and consistent funding for their programs, others are their own nonprofits helping the programs they have created. Almost all additionally help local nonprofit and in need programs such as schools, churches, or disaster relief. A simple search locally will provide you with the options to what aligns with your beliefs the best.
One additional thread of awareness is in the long term financial effect shopping at thrift can have if followed. Beginning from a new born, and continuing through graduation, if you purchase the clothing items from thrift stores versus regular retail, then deposit the difference into a college fund, the savings for that child can substantially reduce the out of pocket expenses for the tuition of that now college-bound student. So this fall, as we dig into the hot cider, hot chocolate, stuff our scarecrows, dig into the closets, attics, basements or garages and turn your unused items into someone’s treasure. Then learn or renew the efforts to help our planet by shopping thrift, helping local communities, and in many cases, someone around the world you will never meets. REUSE, REPURPOSE, RETHINK, REACT.
http://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2014/07/where-does-discarded-clothing-go/374613/
http://www.triplepundit.com/2012/01/textile-waste-be-banned-landfills/