Hiking the Rogue River Trail – 1972

By RD Armstrong

I remember the images
Better than the story

Our failed trip to Toronto
Your aunt would have to wait
The bus ride back from
The Canadian border
Seattle in the rain
Hitchhiking thru Oregon
Getting stuck in Grant’s Pass
A field of Mustard flowers
Some helpful hippies
Hiking 25 miles on an impulse
With my first love
The future still looking bright
Some water snakes peering over
The rocks at us in the cool
Of summer shade
Tromping mile after mile
Day after day
Happy as pigs in slop
In our hard labors
Toughing it and proudly so
Even as our plans to hike
To the coast were thwarted
The old truck that the ranger
Had resurrected giving us a lift
To pick up the road to the coast
Fresh picked Blackberry’s on
Camp fire pancakes
And more friendly folk
A ride to the coast and then
All the way back to SanFran
Two hippies in a van with a
Box of cassettes and a shotgun
Bong with weed to share

Something reminded me of
Those mad yellow Mustard
Flowers this afternoon
A thin yellow mist floating
Over a field of green stems
Only visible as they undulated
In the wind