The Girl on the Top of the Mountain

Ever since I can remember, I have always loved the mountains; even before ever visiting them I can remember looking at photos of them, watching them on television, or reading about them and thinking how wonderful it must be to live in a region where you could wake up in the morning and the first thing you see is a majestic mountain range! By around the age of twelve, I had become obsessed with the idea of visiting the mountains with the future goal of moving to a beautiful ‘mountain town’.

My dream of visiting a mountain range came to fruition a few years later when we went on a family trip to the Appalachian mountains, and I was beyond excited. I drove my parents crazy with every hill we passed, asking, “Is that it? Is that the start of the mountains?” Normally I do sleep in the car, but I do not think I slept that entire trip, because I didn’t want to miss our entrance into what was to me, a fantasy world. When we arrived, I was in total and complete awe. Our campsite was nestled in a valley which surrounded us by mountains on all sides, and each morning I would wake up and take a hike up one of the mountains, surveying my surroundings and taking in the landscape — it was everything I imagined it would be.

Since then, I have been in the mountains quite a lot. I have visited the rocky mountains in the western United States as well as exploring the mountains in Hawaii including Maui’s Mount Haleakala, spent some time in China near the great wall, and explored various areas of Europe including Bavaria, Austria, and sections of Switzerland. I have always had an adventurous spirit, never afraid to just jump in the car and go somewhere, even if it was by myself. It never mattered if it was a different country or if the people there spoke a different language; I was always up for the adventure. And I continue to do the same to this day, particularly if it involves a mountain excursion.

I am still waiting to settle down in a mountain town. Sure, I have visited mountainous regions and I have even spent a significant amount of time there, but they were never what I would call a true ‘mountain town’. You know — one of those towns where everybody walks the downtown streets in safety, people attend the local farmer’s market as the sole source of produce and they see going there as a social event, having lunch at the local town’s Ma and Pa lunch joint instead of McDonald’s, and meeting your neighbors in passing on the town’s only ‘main street’ — do these towns even exist anymore??

As the wife of a military man, we moved around approximately every 3–5 years. Sometimes we would be stationed in, what I would call, the foothills, as was the case in Germany, where we resided for 5 years. The mountains were always close by, but it was not a mountain town. Our station in Oahu Hawaii was the closest I ever came to living in a mountain community, as there were small-scale mountains on Oahu and the hiking was great! Opportunity presented itself to visit Maui where we were able to hike to the top of Mount Haleakala — we also paraglided off of the mountain as well, which was the single most exciting and memorable thing I have ever done. The icing on the cake was that the owner of the tandem jump also was owned by a duck, who flew with us to the bottom of the mountain — it is an experience I will always remember.

Fast-forward to the year 2009 I moved to British Columbia Canada, and I once again had the mountains at my back door. Our location wasn’t a particularly mountainous region, but Mount Baker could be seen and, on clearer days it was very beautiful! While we did not live in what I would call a ‘mountain community’ we did have easy access to the mountains. I have visited the provincial parks of Jasper and Banf, and also spent some time in Whistler. I have travelled around the province pretty substantially, and have driven the Coquihalla Highway to Kamloops often, as well as taking the costal highway back down to the lower mainland. I have visited the small mountain towns that dot the area, and secretly wished we could just stop at one and grow roots there.

While I am no longer in British Columbia, I have very much maintained a love-love relationship with the place; I find it to be very spiritual there, much more so than any other place that I have visited or lived. I know that eventually I will get my opportunity to fulfill my dream of living in a mountain town — even if my vision of them is not entirely accurate. It has not happened yet, but I know that it will. In my heart, I will always be that girl on the top of the mountain, looking for the tranquility that can only be found in the middle of a majestic mountain range.