To my pride, this week I backpacked 25 miles of Adirondack mountain terrain in three days, including 2 High Peaks: Mt. Colden and Mt. Skylight.

To my shame, I feel more sore than I have ever been in my life. To quote E.T., “Ouuuch.”

While hiking, I noticed I was walking over an exorbitant amount of exposed tree trunk roots. Colossal ones. Holding giant tress to the sides of sheer-rock faces, buffeted by high winds nearly all year long.

When people walk on your exposed roots, do you flinch?

Is your growth altered?

Do you wince?

Better still, do you stop growing altogether?

While these exposed roots are there for a reason, they aren’t the ones that count. I have a number of beliefs, philosophies, ideas, and opinions that people can step on, disagree with, and even cut at. But they don’t move me. Its the roots you don’t see–the deep ones–that hold me to the mountain. And those are settled.

Untouchable.

Untraceable.

You want to access those, and you’ll have to kill the tree.

(Good luck hauling up the stump).

Q: What are your most sensitive roots? And are they easily accessible or hard to reach?

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