A Welcome Rendezvous, Indeed!

When times are tough there is great comfort in the welcome smiles of old friends and new. Our annual Rendezvous of friends, members and the board of the HUPC is always a fine time for such reunions. Drifting off among the trees offered a quiet time for a poignant High Uintas morning at Mirror Lake. Once again, on September 14, the intrepid came to the mountains, ambling along the trail of needles through the pines, the hardy friends who for years of rendezvous have joined together for a half day of laughter, sobering talk of plans facing the Uintas, and a welcome chance to calm our lives under the sweet whispering evergreens.

It was a reunion much anticipated, but it was the spirit of the Uintas that drew us to the mountains, in this case, perhaps, because of the pending state of war our nation wages on Iraq.

We were pleased not only to see some long distant friends like Dave and Ginger Jorgensen but WNF Supervisor Tom Tidwell and family. Your presence made it a memorable day, friends.

What power of ancient time the peaks and vast forests of the Uinta Mountains emanated. The running ridgeline of the high country is a timeless connection to the fact that wild places persist, that we not lose the quiet of these places some consider holy in their ancient tie with what the earth is and always will be. The Wild could not have been more beckoning in its soothing of souls, harboring of bear and goshawk, gentian and lily, spruce and salamander.

Our wolf howl from the ledge overlooking the headwaters of the Duchesne River was full and rich. It is a call for peace in this most wild place - and for all creatures.

Margaret Pettis