An end of a trip is the beginning of friendships

This past weekend, I co-led a Penn Outdoors backpacking trip with Dan to Acadia National Park in Maine, from Fri Oct 7 to Mon Oct 10.  I had been looking forward to this trip the entire week, because Acadia National Park was one place that I had been meaning to go to all along.  Yet, because of school, work, and some complications with the car rental, the trip did not start as smoothly as I had wanted (Dan and I didn't get to the pre-trip dinner until an hour later, when they had all finished dinner).  We started on our drive to Hartford, Connecticut, where we would spend the night.  On the car ride there, we had a really interesting conversation about linguistics, accents, and how certain ways of pronouncing certain words reflected specific regional influences (Aaron was a linguistics doctoral student).   By the end of the 5-hour car ride, I was already feeling glad that I had a bunch of great people on the trip.

The next day, we began on the remaining 6-hour drive from Hartford, Connecticut, to Mount Desert Island, Maine.  Along the way, we stopped by Portland, Maine, for a great seafood lunch.  Again, we had great conversation, though I can't exactly remember about what.

Isn't memory such a frail thing?  
We remember the nice warm feeling of connection, 
we remember the excitement and joy 
of good conversation, 
we remember the sunshine
glowing and melting into our skin,
we remember- 
the smiles,
the laughter,
the twinkle in each other's eyes,
but yet
we don't recall
what words we said,
what we laughed about,
or even what we ate.
Does it matter?
All that matters -to me-
I remember you, and
I remember us.


Finally, we reached Mount Desert Island in Maine.  We only had an hour before the sun set, so we hiked around a little bit near Echo Lake, and did some trail-running on the way back.  It was exhilarating -trail running, hopping from rock to rock, deciding how to land in that split second when our feet still hung in the air.  And then we rushed to Bass Harbor Lighthouse to see the sunset.

It was too late; the sun had already set.  Or was it too late?  We could still catch the dying rays of the already-set sun, trickling like blood across the purple sky, dripping down into the crashing waves below.

Why do we always try so hard to meet certain deadlines, certain times?  Does it matter that we got there by 6:39PM, just to see the sun dipping down into the horizon?  What matters is that we were there, we felt the sunset together, even though we may not have seen the sun physically set.


That night, we set up tent, had dinner by the campfire, roasted s'mores, and had interesting conversations (mostly about linguistics) by the campfire.  Some of the interesting words that came up were: "labial dental glide" and "gluteal injectives" (I think).  No we were not just a rowdy bunch of college kids creating obscene euphemisms; these were actually valid linguistics jargon!  After awhile, we went to sleep, surrounded by the lack of city noise and the soothing sounds of Nature.

The next day, we woke up to see the sunrise.  We couldn't really see the sun physically rise, since mountains obscured our view.  But looking at the pink-tinged sky and feeling -smelling- the crisp morning air of dawn, was fantastic.  Under Justin's guidance, Sean and I even attempted to do yoga (the Sun Salutation).  If only I could wake up every morning to see the rosiness of dawn, to be surrounded by trees and peacefulness, to smell clean fresh air, and to be with friends doing yoga.  I would be so content.  And I was thoroughly content, there and then.  Happy.

Subsequently, we spent the rest of the day hiking amidst the beauty of Acadia National Park.  Pictures speak louder than words, so...

And all too soon, we were coming to the end of the trip.  It was Monday, and we had to leave early in the morning so that we could get back to Philly by the end of the day (it was an 11 hours' drive).  Nevertheless, we were able to go to Thunder Hole - one of the famous landmarks in Acadia - and spend some time feeling the ocean breeze, hearing the gush and roar of the waves, and do some meditation under Justin's guidance.

(This has got to be my favorite trip picture).

And we headed back to Philly.  So long, so long.

What I remember from the trip-
friendships,
deep connection,
spirituality,
insightful conversation,
beautiful Nature,
clean fresh air,
waves,
rocks,
sunsets,
sunrises,
leaves turning yellow,
campfire,
s'mores.

The end of the trip doesn't have to signify the end of interactions; to me, the end of this trip merely signified the beginning of friendships and more adventures together in the future.