Mountain Miracle

Mountain Miracle

I am looking down from high on the mountain.  The frost lies like a royal garment of silk and silver dropped casually on the valley floor below.  I am surrounded by the same fall colors that have defied the description of poets, writers and lyricists for thousands of years.  I stand frozen in that moment of time between the youthful joy of discovery and an old man’s regrets of time lost.  Here in this timeless place I get a glimpse of what it will be like to live without the dogged footsteps of lost opportunity; to live without the constraints of time.

I see the dogs about a third of the time, the rest of the time I know where they are by the sounds of the bells.  Two dogs, the sound of two bells working back and forth in the mountain mist.  I don’t know if I sensed I was not alone or had caught some movement in my peripheral but off to my left, crouching tight to a large rock was a large cat.  I’m far enough north that bobcats are often as big as a linx and this could be either.  

I’m close enough to see the cat working his claws in and out and sort of stepping in place anticipating the sprint.  And then I see the target; a large hair half brown, half white, frozen with me between two seasons.  The dogs must have moved him from the comfort of his bed and exposed him to the beauty and the dangers of the morning.  The cats first leap was an amazing thing and I stepped it off latter at about thirty two feet.  Even aided by the mountain slope and the height of the rock it was still a joy to behold.

The hair feeling vulnerable in the open was on high alert and was in motion with the leap.  The hair ran full out with his ears laid back tight to his shoulders and the cat was close very close as they went out of sight below me.   I waited for that terrible bone chilling scream of a captured rabbit and when it didn't come I was relieved and it set a tone to the morning.

When I was stepping off the cats leap the dogs came back to check on me and I took a minute to love on them a little and just enjoy.  I could sense the presence of the creator and didn't want to rush that moment.  I have been blessed with many moments like this.  I know what makes a sunset or a waterfall and you could say that is no miracle just the way the world has evolved.  I was not there when Missy was born as I didn’t meet her mom until after she was born but when I held Tracy for the first time and later Erich I was overwhelmed.  In my youth I masked those feelings with foolish humor but when alone I still tear up with the memory.  You can explain all these moments away in the cycle of life but no thinking person can dismiss the feelings of awe and joy they bring as anything but a miracle.

I follow the music of the harmonizing bells down, down, down towards the valley floor.  I can see Ruby when she locks on point and Thicket backs the silence of the bell.  I move in with gun ready and two grouse flush going straight away.  My gun comes up as it has so often before and I know that this is as good a chance as I’ll ever get to add a third double on Ruffed Grouse to my lifelong score but I pull high and fire once in the air for the dog’s sake. 

If you are a true hunter you know there are no words to explain this age old paradox of killing what we love.  I know that given the chance this afternoon I will shoot with no apology but this morning I will not be the one to introduce death into this life giving moment.