First of all, perhaps the best thread in weeks.  So many places come to mind from the beautiful desert of New Mexico to the wonderful hills of the eastern seaboard.  Each spot has its own distinct power but for me the most intense spot had to be the the Grand Tetons of Wyoming.  Being from Montana I have climbed many a mountain but this was a very sprecial trip.  The year was 1985 and I was almost finished with highschool.  My brother had just returned from his first sabattical to the east and he funded a journey from my home in Missoula to the base camp at Jackson hole. We left out of Missoula with a an ounce and a half and about 20 hits of dica, plenty of  food, music and good vibes to keep us fueled.  We hit made a pit stop in Bozeman to pick up some fellow dreamers and we were on our way.   The trip was a three day backpacking excursion that revealed a new natural marvel the further you stepped.  We were way in the middle of nowhere on the  second day when we dropped uncle cid.  We set up base camp at 9,000 feet.  After throwing off our packs the immediate goal was to head up to the top of the next, nearest peak.  We scrambled to an amazing broken frozen landscape.  To the left Rocky Mountain sheep ran in a field, under our feet we leeped over iced filled crevices.  When we settled in we looked over a place called battleship mountain.  That was probably the one time that I understood our true insignificance in regards to the age of our earth.  As far as you could see there was nothing but nature.  Grains of sand in the beach..time marches on....

I could write all night about this...

Much peace to all you Baerwaldians!

Robert