Tuesday morning, May 16th
Crisp air, combined with the sun’s special clarity when seen from 10,000 feet in the sky, helped to keep me awake. According to my past forty-eight hours, I should have been feeling exhausted and famished, but life felt comfortable. Everything in my self-contained world belonged. I even knew where I was going.
Around noon I found myself surrounded by the snows of Vail Pass. From where I stood, I could see the marker for the summit—10,662 feet. Everything reflected a dry brightness. The sky’s sharp blue sliced a clean line as it drew a horizon across the crystalline hills. While I stayed in Key West I had abandoned most of my warmer clothes, so I dressed myself with a hodgepodge of shirts, a wool cap and extra socks. These highlands harbored no people, so I decided to take a ramble and bushwhack away from the road.