What is beyond Indian Ridge? That's the question in my mind right now, and that's what I'm going to answer today. I'm not asking what the meaning of life is here, or why the sky is blue. Those are important questions, but they don't draw my curiosity like that big hunk of rock does. Something about the mountains draws my curiosity just as cheese in a mousetrap draws the little rodents to venture from their cozy homes between the drywall. I'm an explorer at heart; I've always been that way. In my youth I spent hours riding my bicycle alone through paths in the forest. I knew the paths of the forest better than I knew any person. I'd been lost in the woods many times. For me there was no greater pleasure than getting lost in the woods, for getting lost was the meaning of exploration. I haven't changed, but now I'm working on a bigger scale.

It's not so much the thrill of being lost that's driving me towards Indian Ridge. If it was, I wouldn't have brought the topo map. There's another aspect of exploration that draws me in, which is the sense of place. I'm a place-oriented person. To me each place has a personality of it's own. Just as a "people-person" goes to a party to explore the great variety of human personalities, a "place-person" goes to the mountains for the unique feeling that accompanies them in each place they visit. To me, the mountains are indeed a potpourri of personalities; a party of places.