You’ve Got Your Head in the Clouds (part 3 of 4)

After almost two hours of some pretty serious hiking, we came upon the first of the cottages. When Colleen said the cottages were on top of a mountain, she wasn’t kidding. With about 100 feet between them, the cabins form a meandering line along the ridge of the mountain. Each cabin is small –about 250 square feet- and made out of squared-off field stone. Each cabin has a flat roof with a slight pitch so that it collects the rainwater and stores it in a cistern for later use.

We left the main trail and walked a narrow foot path where we had to push our way through some thigh-high grass to get to Colleen’s cabin. Her cottage has an amazing view: in three directions, the mountain dropped away from us affording us spectacular views; in the fourth, the ground gently rose another fifty feet to the actual peak 800 feet from her cabin. An almost-constant wind was blowing in from the ocean.

After Colleen unlocked the front door, we all helped open the windows and unlock the storm shutters that protected against the occasional typhoon. The cabin is rustic: it has running water, but no electricity. Since the water comes from an outdoor cistern, we had to boil it, let it cool, then run it through a filter before we could drink or cook with it. Colleen’s cabin not only has running water, but it is one of the few that has a flush toilet.

Looking at this cabin with its poured cement roof, cast iron sink, and large metal bedsprings, I couldn’t image how the builders ever hauled the necessary materials all the way up here. It must have been p.o.w. slave labor, because I can’t imagine anyone undertaking this endeavor willingly.

With no lake, no bikes, no t.v. and no internet, we thought the girls might be bored. But they and their new friend Ethan got busy exploring and playing. The cabin was built into the side of the mountain, so that the kids could walk up and around the back of the cabin and basically walk onto the roof. Even I made a couple of trips up there. It did make an already-spectacular view even better.

We arrived at noon and by mid-afternoon, Colleen and her nephew had to head back. The four of us ate an early dinner because we knew that it would be getting dark by 7:00 p.m. We made preparations for bed by rolling out the sleeping bags onto the queen-sized bunk bed: Mom and Dad on the bottom; girls on top.

But before we turned in for the night, we pulled the plastic kitchen chairs outside and alternated watching the sun set in the West, looking at the city lights in the East, and watching the clouds roll over us obscuring our view of both.

Why is it that a tomato you’ve grown yourself tastes better than all other tomatoes? It must have something to do with the fact that you worked for it. I’ve enjoyed several mountain views, but they have usually been courtesy of a cable car or a tour bus. There was something pretty unique about enjoying the view from the top of a mountain that we’d just hiked up ourselves.

Looking up the ridge at the string of flat-roofed, stone cottages with a steady wind sweeping across the mountain ridge, it brought to mind pictures I’ve seen of Nepal and Tibet. I suddenly had an urge to string a long line of multi-colored Tibetan prayer flags all the way to the peak.

We found an old kerosene lantern and managed to get it lit. The four of us played cards until it was time for bed.

Now the only question was, would we be able to get ourselves back down the mountain in the morning without our host and guide?

-Jack