Over the Ridge

When I was 16, a friend and I went to Canada and spent a week exploring the deep woods of Jacques-Cartier National Park. What I saw there was both heartbreaking and inspiring. As we hiked the logging roads, we could see a tall waterfall cascading down the mountainside across the river. It looked so beautiful that we decided to take a day to cross the river and see it first-hand.

After crossing the river and hiking up the creek through the dense, evergreen forest, we reached the falls. It was even more spectacular up close. After eating lunch surrounded by the mists of the falls, we vowed to climb its slippery rocks if we could and look out over the ridge to the valley beyond. It was not an easy climb with icy water splashing us in the face and slippery rocks beneath our hands and feet, but finally, we reached the top.

Excitedly, we peered out over the valley beyond. To our horror, the whole valley was clear-cut as far as the eye could see. We might as well have been on the moon. How could all the beauty of the valleys around us have been so devastated by logging in this one? It was an eye-opening experience.