Outpost

Quite disappointing. Self-indulgent and quickly losing its initial focus, it felt pulled together and lacking in any real insight. Some nice writing but overall very dull.

To our left the open slope fell away to the lake whilst above us, hidden by the waves of forest, rose the peaks. We walked our arid line for an hour. Grasshoppers clicked, stones skittered, pine-cones splintered underfoot and our packs, now settled, began to weigh and our skin began to prickle. Occasionally the path would descend into lusher shaded gullies with enthusiastic streams racing down from on high and the air would freshen and we’d meet stepping stones and balance pole bridges. Some parts of the trail were damp and fuggy but mostly the woods were tinder dry. As the trees grew thicker the path became a rich and bouncy humus of mossy soil, rotted wood and fallen needles bronzing the ground – a tawny road to follow up through ferns, pines and cedars rising straight into vapour, green vaults or a maze of massive pick-up sticks. And when we reached the Desolation Peak trail proper – the spot where Kerouac landed – and turned up and away from the lake, the needle bed was like a rainbow of basmati thick and springy, dusted with rot wood powdered by termites and innumerable similar saw-toothed beasties unseen. Here we met the big trees, Western red cedars and Ponderosa pines with huge trunks a couple of metres across, trees so high that the Pacific silvers below were mere ankle-biters and we were good as ants. And here began the gentle switchback slaloms which would steepen and snake us up the mountain for the rest of the day. The area hadn’t seen rain for months and the air was close and perfumed vanilla and sap.

Top floor, a short flight of metal stairs – a strange aberration, new sounds – then a sudden inundation: the lantern room, a crystal world of prisms, glass. The sound expanded, the view exploded, the sea, the sea; the Atlantic spread red, green and blue to the ends of the curving Earth.

the ‘overview effect’ psychologists have identified in returned astronauts; a cognitive shift towards custodianship following an experience of awe.