The Day We Almost Fell off the Mountain

So here it is February. After a January chockfull of surprises and of events beyond my control, it’s now time to recover and find an even keel. It amazes me how both our bodies and our minds slowly throw away the piercing pain and the bad memories and what we keep is the good. That’s what I call healing. And so after a few balmy days, we almost forget that we are still in the middle of winter.
Several years ago, Jim and I were on our walking trip. One of our adventures led us to a beautiful mountain town in the Southern Alps of France. In this column, I’ve already described the village of Guillestre and our stay in an eleventh century renovated stone mill. Set in the middle of the mountains, we were both eager to climb the trails that led out from all sides of the town. Guillestre is on one side of the river Guil, which runs turquoise down in the valley. Across the chasm, on the other side, sits Fort Mont-Dauphin, an old french fort and village built in 1693 and finished in the eighteenth century. During our one week stay there, we were hoping to take trails that would take us into all those surrounding mountains and to the fort. Our enthusiastic hostess gave us helpful maps that described the trails very clearly and gave excellent directions. Dazzled by the deep blue sky and sun, on our very first day we decided to tackle one of the longer trails which sounded both manageable and beautiful though it did mention one difficult passage. After a filling breakfast of cafe au lait, bread, Nutella and orange juice, we packed our small backpack with the required water bottles, maps, toilet paper (you never know) and also included snacks and a healthy lunch. We made sure to wear something on our heads to be protected from that high mountain sun: Jim opted for his baseball cap, I wore a green bandanna. We also layered our clothing, knowing that hiking up would make us sweat but cool mountain air would make us chilly. So by 9:45 we were off. We headed out of Guillestre up the hill and onto a forest road which followed the one side of the Guil river below in the canyon. It was a fairly easy trail through piney woods with incredible views of the canyon and the town. The trail took us down to the the river which we crossed on a road. From there the trail climbed back up 1,000 feet, zigzagging back and forth along the side of the mountain. The vegetation here was more brushy and prickly and we saw salamanders slithering through the underbrush. We could smell pine and lavender as the sun shone warmer and we finally reached the top. In a little meadow, we stopped for lunch in the shade. In my journal, I wrote: Very relaxing! The next part of the hike was on a stony trail down the side of the rock with hardly any vegetation except for scrub pines, thorn bushes and clumps of grasses. We followed this trail down for awhile, thinking that it was O.K. to be going down rather than up! And so it was here that all of sudden, we realized there was no longer a trail but rather that difficult passage. What had been a trail that crossed the gorge at its deepest had been washed out by a stone avalanche. Loose shale covered the path to the other side. Since I was leading I took one step and discovered that if I didn’t move quickly and exactly right, I would be the avalanche going down the mountain! Somehow I made it across, with Jim holding on to my back pack! The trail then continued very slippery and very narrow along the face of the rock. Somehow we made it across and down that mountain, happy to finally get our feet on solid ground in the next little village. We decided to walk the rest of the way “home” on the road. After a quick stop at the grocery and bakery, we got back to the mill at five and sat down to a snack of apples, raspberry tarts and Orangina. We still talk about the day we almost fell off the mountain but in my mind, the fear that made me sore from head to foot the next day has been replaced by the memories of incredible peaks covered in snow, craggy canyons with a thin turquoise line, villages tucked into the mountains and fantastic weather. Time heals and so does food like this spaghetti recipe from a friend in Barcelona.

Spaghetti a la Carty

1 1/2 lb. ground beef
1/2 lb. ground pork sausage
2 medium-sized onions, diced
1 large green pepper, cut in thin strips
5 tomatoes, chopped
5-6 cloves of garlic, minced
1/2 lb. mushroom, sliced
3 celery sticks, diced
1 can tomato paste
1/2 c. red wine
spices: basil, oregano, chili powder, pepper, salt

Fry meats under medium flame with a little olive oil. Add onions, garlic, celery and spices. Fry until meat is coked and veggies soft. Add green pepper, then mushrooms. Add tomatoes. Mix tomato paste with one can of water. Add to mixture. Let simmer 10 minutes then add wine and bring back to temperature. Serve with spinach spaghetti. Serves 6.