Winter Tramping Poem by Craig Steiger

Winter Tramping
“...every storm has something fine to show you.” -Muir

Trudging through hip-deep snow
along the Truckee River
showered with blowing snowdust
from the close pines
I stopped to catch my breath
and glimpse a winter half-moon
between swirling snowclouds-
what exhiliration I felt
in that chance moment, like
any reckless tramp
bogged down in the middle of nowhere,
snow in my boots, the going rough:
out on the edge that is everywhere,
out in the cold waver of pink twilights,
baptised by ice, the elemental shakedown
civilization builds itself against-
the adventurer lives for that edge,
seeks it, walks it, courts it,
where all roads end, trails end, time ends,
the blue glimmer of the forever beyond
he finds irresistible,
forsakes for it all other loves,
Where he gets lost he finds his life...