P E O P L E tj|tl|in|ca|st
P E O P L E
tj|tl|in|ca|st

B R I A N

Portland, Maine

Saturday, August 7, 2004

I meet Brian while hiking up Bunsen Peak in Yellowstone National Park. For a while he's a little ways ahead of me but I soon catch up to him as he stops to put on his sweater, for the wind has really whipped up and is a little chilly. We exchange greetings then just stand together admiring the view. He then asks where I'm from. I tell him "Portland" and he responds "Portland, Maine?" I say, "No, Portland, Oregon." He looks at me a little funny and exclaims, "I'm from Portland, Maine!" We both think that's kinda funny. What are the odds of that?

He invites me to hike with him to the top so up we go. During our upward traverse, I learn a number of things about Brian that parallel my own situation. Like me, he's on a cross-country road trip with bike in tow. Like me, he has quit his job (copy editor and page layout designer) and is exploring both internal and external landscapes. Like me, he's single and has no family. And to top it off, he's from Portland, Maine! It's like we're both looking into a mirror and seeing the other. It's quirky.

He tells me a funny story about his visit to Glacier National Park in Montana. He was hiking Mount Brown near Lake McDonald, and having made it to the top, took off his sweaty shirt and hung it over the railing of the mountain's observation platform to dry. He then climbed the stairs of the platform to get a better view of the surrounding scenery.

That's when he spotted a bighorn sheep coming his way. The animal was intent on something because it boldly walked up to the platform. Brian thought he was safe because there was no way the ram was going to climb the steps and get him. Well, the ram had a talent, and that talent was climbing stairs. As the ram started to ascend the stairs, Brian ran over to the top of the steps and tried to keep it from coming up on the platform. Once on the platform, Brian feared he would be at its big-horned mercy.

Fortunately, he was able to change the rams mind, but not without consequence. The ram figured if he couldn't have Brian, he'd settle for second best, Brian's wet, sweaty shirt. So the ram walked over to where the shirt was hanging and proceeded to sniff, lick, then chew the shirt. In the end, the ram made off with Brian's shirt. Too bad Brian didn't get a picture of the spectacle, it really would have supplemented his story. Surely, material for Ripley's Believe It or Not!

Not counting his current cross-country road trip, Brian has seen quite a bit of New England and portions of Canada. In the future, he would like to travel to Southern France, Italy, and somewhere in Africa. Yellowstone is as far west as his trip will taking him. His plan is to do a clockwise swing back to Portland, Maine, with a trip completion date of mid-September.

I hope I keep in touch with Brian, it'll be interesting to see if there'll be any parallel experiences in our futures as well.


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