From the top of this outcropping rock-slab, the valley below and many more distant peaks are exposed before me. Yet despite the grandeur of my view, all my attention is drawn to a tiny trickle of water that flows beneath my feet.
A large section of the rock is wet, and 30 feet below, the water comes together to form ripples just before falling over a sharper edge where it is lost from view.
Scattered distantly across the rock face are what appears to be stream beds, except that they all point almost straight down — there merely to guide the water as it falls, rather than direct it to lower creeks and rivers.
And as I stand and watch the fleeing droplets below, the sky reveals that many more are to follow shortly in their path. It starts with a gentle mist that coats everything with a thin layer of moisture, then rapidly progresses to a major storm complete with lightning and thunder that hastens my retreat to safer ground.
Copyright (C), 1998, by Ashley Guberman
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