It had just been 3 days since the overdue hike to the large hill with a spring running through it and I was sitting down examining a wall during my lunch break at work when I got a text from my new adventure partner Blserp. Blserp had found a hike we could go to next, one that was not as easy and short as the hill. An idea started forming in my ever enlightened brain because there was something I had been wanting to do for a long time. That something was trekking to the top of a mountain, waving a Pakistani flag, taking a cool picture and putting it on Instagram (we brown people are just extra like that). Pakistan day was also coming up on the weekend and everything felt like one of those moments when all the stars are aligning for a certain occurrence, with a dramatic warner bros tune playing in the background. The plan was made, the plan actually worked out and here is what happened…
We arrived at the ever beautiful frozen Barrier lake with a majestic view of the mountains and began walking towards the direction of what I hoped at that time was the hike. It started just like any other trail in early spring when the snow is melting, there is mud everywhere and you are uncertain of whether you should save your clothes or just give up and roll in the mud. After dense forestry and some beautiful narrow trails, we abruptly came across a beautiful view of the mountains and lake as well as the trail we would follow to get to the top. The top was ridiculously beautiful and I put the Pakistani flag on the pole in order to get ready to complete my bucket list goal. I built up a lot of momentum waving the flag around at the top of a mountain and right as I got the flag to the very “cool” waving position at the edge of the cliff.. the wind died down. It felt like one of those moments when you have used your lung capacity to blow a balloon and are about to tie it but instead, it leaves your grasp, flies around, smacks your forehead and falls down on your feet. After waiting a couple of minutes, Blserp took the flag and did the exact same thing I did but of course, the wind was back. My hopes were renewed and once again I took the flag in my hand walked up and…. nothing happened.. again. The picture with the flag became the longest time I had ever posed for a photo, even beating the time when an uncle was trying to figure out which way to hold a phone when taking a picture at a wedding.
After this, things became interesting. As we were walking down the mountain, in a loop back to the start of the hike, we crossed a bridge with a giant frozen waterfall that was beginning to melt. On the frozen ice itself, there were some rather large paw prints, which I assumed were from a bear (I always go with a bear). Once the path opened up towards Barrier Lake we decided that we had been normal humans enough and it was time to walk on the thawing lake itself. On the lake, we came across a random gigantic log sticking up, that we decided to climb. We then noticed that around the log there were scores of tiny ants. The ants had somehow built a house in the middle of a lake on a frozen log. As we were examining the ants, Blserp received a fright because his foot went in an area where the ice was getting thin and melting. We quickly started running back to solid ground in case a titanic moment happened, since there was only one log after all and as much as girls love him, I did not wish to be another Jack.
This is when a weird event started. After getting back on solid ground I noticed a glistening white shape in the trees and moved towards it. It turned out to be half a skull of some sort of large animal. After going in further, we found the rest of the body parts, in different parts of the forest. The interesting thing was that we also found something else. In two of the places near the dead animal, we found perfectly intact ceramic plates, cups and bowls that were half buried in the dirt. As well as a red ribbon in every area where the tableware was. It was getting dark at this point and we still had ground to cover so we continued walking. As we were walking, I kept hearing noises in the trees but every time I would inspect them, I would not see anything and they would stop. After passing the thick forest we were on the tall grasses again and I stopped hearing the noise. We got back to the car with a little more Vigor to end the 14+ km trek which by the way is called Prairie View to Jewell Pass.
Hasnain Raza Baloach 