The latest adventure: Snowshoeing in Sun Peaks, about 45 minutes outside Kamloops, BC. It was fairly impromptu so we weren't dressed properly and they rented us some giant 1980s clunkers with barebones straps that were starched stiff with years of absorbed snow and that dug into the tops and back of our feet. But it was a great time. We went as far as we could go and ended up at a frozen lake at the top of the mountain. Three of us were alone in the forest, clumping up the mountain, but when we stopped moving and the snow crunching stopped there was complete silence. There is a quote from the book Hatchet that has stuck with me since I read it in grade 6. I couldn't have quoted it but I think of it often when I'm outside, especially where it is quiet. I found the quote:
"I'm hungry." He said it aloud. In normal tones at first, then louder and louder until he was yelling it. "I'm hungry, I'm hungry, I'm hungry."
When he stopped there was sudden silence, not just from him but the clicks and burps and bird sounds of the forest as well. The noise of his voice had startled everything and it was quiet. He looked around, listened with his mouth open, and realized that in all his life he had never heard silence before. Complete silence. There had always been some sound, some kind of sound.
It lasted only a few seconds, but it was so intense that it seemed to become part of him. Nothing. There was no sound.
I don't think I had heard complete silence before. There's usually something - wind, leaves, birds, vehicles in the distance. But in the forest on that mountain there was complete silence. We paused a few times to bask in it and it felt like a spiritual experience. Freshness in the soul to go along with the fresh smell of trees and snow and water.
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