Walking Stick

About ten years ago, my friend Dal Lord and I took a hike up the East Inlet Trail in Rocky Mountain National Park to visit his favorite spot on mother earth. I call them Dal's Falls and very few people have ever been there. You have to bush-wack off the trail and then cross the river using a tree that has fallen to get there. A few years ago a blow down below the trail made it pretty much impossible to get down to the river. I did come across a photo taken by W.H. Jackson in the 1800's and he called them the falls beneath round top mountain(Mt. Baldy, or Mt. Craig as it's officially called).

Dal and I decided to hike up there one sunny afternoon and look for a walking stick. It seemed like the thing to do after a breakfast of mushroom soup and I took my trusty notebook along to write down what ever clever 'Dalisms' might spring forth from 'The Shaman' as we trekked. Actually everything was pretty hilarious at that point and I wrote as we hiked along.

What came about was a great afternoon at those spectacular falls and the song, "Walking Stick". Lines such as "find the path of least resistance" and " I think my soul can comprehend this, but my mind doesn't stand a chance" were Dal's and made it into the song. Other lines such as "don't try that with a chipmunk" and "that's a butt load of snow water" didn't.

We never did find a walking stick(at least a material one) but I brought back a lot of good memories and, of course, a pretty good song. So next time you listen to 'Walking Stick', think of Dal hiking along in his flip flops(yes, he wore them the whole way) and remember...."don't try that with a chipmunk!"