I'm writing this on day two of our journey and it is around 9 o'clock. I woke up at 5:30 this morning to bright, natural light and the surprisingly close chirping of a bird. For some reason, I slept like a baby, which is surprising because all the other times I have camped outside I have woken up achey and grumpy. I got to see the sunrise while everyone else was asleep, and just got to enjoy my situation. It seems like like goes by so fast everyday, but when you wake up early outdoors everything seems to slow down. I think there is a passage by Aldo Leopold that has a similar observation. Although when my tentmate woke up he informed me that I snore very loudly. Not good.
We are in the Badlands right now and the closest thing I can compare them to is glaciers. I think they are called hills, but they look like miniature mountains that are light brown. It almost feels like I am on Mars. The hills are made from sediment from a sea that used to cover the area way back when, so the soil is really soft and crumbles when you walk on it. They are like glaciers because they are eroding from rainfall much like the glaciers are melting from increased atmospheric temperatures. The hills are eroding at a much higher rate than hard rock like Mt. Rushmore. The hills are becoming a fading memory of what used to be in South Dakota. I am kind of sad that the hills are not going to be there for much longer, because it was so magical to be in an other-worldly environment that was beautiful and exciting, and I warm other people after me to enjoy the same thing that I did. However, the world is always changing and you can't hold onto things in the past. The hills will erode and then there will be a different landscape. The new landscape will most likely be just as amazing but for other features, and you just have to appreciate life for how it is. If Mother Nature wants to change then change is going down whether you like it or not.
I don't like to learn the terminology for soil types and geographical stuff because it confuses me and it also confuses people who I'm talking to. I like to explore the area by climbing and wandering. When people are lecturing to me, I only really pick up about 30% of what they are saying, but when I am exploring I am taking in so much more. I don't know if it's because the far out geographical terms are above my knowledge or because I have a tendency to zone out really hard. On the first day, we stopped by the side of the road and had time to wander into the hills on our own and I had a flipping blast. I found a cave with my new best friend Kelsey. Well, I don't know if it was a cave, because I could see the sky from above, kind of like the Sistine chapel except longer and wider. We called the place Narina because we had to crawl through a little hole to get there. See it's moments like these when I'm not 100% sure that I'm going to live that I feel most alive. I I could care less about what the soil is called but I still have a massive appreciation for the land in times like these.
