Trek Two.
The bow scraped only slightly as it slid through a thin layer of fine granite until the canoe beached on the dark, loamy soil beneath. Josh and his dad chose this level piece of grassy ledge to pitch camp for the evening after noticing some enticing pools in the river downstream. The afternoon grew warm and dry, stirring grasshoppers into a buzzing frenzy. Castle Mountain towered behind them, its rocky escarpment grungily bearded with blackened whiskered trunks from the Yellowstone fires of 1988. The spawn of Yellowstone Cutthroat Trout lured them into the water, poles in hand.The water had partially numbed Josh's legs, but he stopped suddenly as he was sure something had brushed against his left calf. He stood motionless, staring through the clear water. Another bump! He turned slowly to see a huge fish hovering in the eddy behind him, taking a break from fighting the current. Josh crept on, exhilarated. His first cast landed in a deep pool and immediately the fight was on. Cradling the seventeen inch cutthroat in both hands, he smiled into his dad's camera, forever etching the moment in his memory. He would partake of this mirale of nature tonight and it would become a part of him - a marriage of man and wilderness. They reclined against logs by the campfire, stomachs abundantly full, and told stories of the armor-scaled warriors they had caught and released earlier. They had kept only two, leaving the others to resume their instinctive push upstream. Josh listened as his dad rendered his thoughts. "This is what makes me come alive: this whole experience of getting out in the wild. I don't have to worry about being pressured to be someone I'm not - like at work, or home, or church. I can see me as God does here - no more masks. This journey is going to change my life. I can almost sense God calling me to find out who this man is that He loves and gave His own son's life for."They poked sticks into the coals, staring at the magical glow. After sunset, they followed the trail of drifting smoke to their tent a little more than a hundred yards away and felt the grey air grow cooler each step away from the warmth of the fire pit.