Riding the Pause Read Online Free

Riding the Pause
Book: Riding the Pause Read Online Free
Author: Evelyn Adams
Pages:
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dancing a little in the cold and then packed her gear. She knew she’d be warm once she started hiking again. She refilled her empty bottle with water from the creek running it through the purifier the outdoor guy sold her.
    The new stove might be dodgy, but the water filtration system was so much better than the iodine tablets they’d used as kids. Opting for a protein bar and getting moving, she cinched her backpack, shoved her feet into her boots and hefted her pack onto her back. She looked at Cash’s sleeping form just long enough to make sure he was breathing, murmured good-bye to the hairy old man and took off down the trail.
    She had a map in her pack but she didn’t need it. She knew which way to turn and then she just had to stay on the trail and keep walking until she reached the next shelter at Bryant’s Ridge. There was something so soothing about simply following the trail, putting one foot in front of the other and walking without thinking or worrying about where she was going and how fast she was going to get there.
    Climbing the gentle incline to the top of the ridge, she forced herself to let go of everything but the feeling of her legs working hard to take her to the top. By the time she stopped for lunch, leaning her pack against a downed tree and sitting in the soft leaves, she’d found a tangible sense of peace. Other than to wave at a few hikers as she passed them, she hadn’t talked to anyone and the rhythmic repetition of putting one foot in front of another managed to quiet the thoughts that normally circled in her head.
    She ate her slightly flattened sandwich and sipped her water, tipping her head back to let the sun warm her face. For the first time in as long as she could remember, she didn’t have to run off anywhere. She wanted to get to the shelter before nightfall, but there was plenty of time and no reason in the world not to enjoy the sun.
     
     
    By late afternoon the light was changing, sliding toward dusk and her legs were burning from hiking downhill. Careful not to lose her footing on the narrow rocky trail, she wove her way back and forth along the switchbacks and through enormous thickets of rhododendrons, towering over her head. It was like something out of a book and tired as she was, she couldn’t help but be charmed.
    The rhododendrons and steep descent gave way to more open gentle rolling hills with trees that looked like they’d been deliberately spaced out. Leaf litter covered the sloping curves of the hills and the path widened so she could walk without using her poles for balance. There wasn’t another soul in sight and with the exception of the swish of the leaves under her feet, not a sound.
    Worries tried to crowd her head. What was she going to do next? She didn’t want to be a failure. How could she have gotten fired? Everything she’d done since high school had been to prepare for the career she’d had. If she didn’t have her job what was she? What did she want to be? Every time a thought circled like a buzzing bee, she swatted it away and forced her concentration back to the step swish of putting one foot in front of the other in a walking meditation.
    As she hiked further down into the valley, the light dimmed, the blue sky going gray and the air felt colder and damp. By the time she could hear the sound of running water that meant she was getting near the Bryant Ridge shelter, she was zipping her fleece up to her chin, glad she hadn’t taken it off when she stopped for lunch.
    She reached the small stream with the sign pointing out the path to Bryant Ridge, and she grinned to herself as the almost fairytale like structure came into view. She’d spent the night in the two story timber beam shelter with her Girl Scout troop when she was in middle school and had lots of good memories of noisy girls giggling and climbing up and down the rung ladder to the loft. Keeping her gaze on her feet, she stepped gingerly over the tops of the rock to cross the
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