A mountain soliloquist
hile climbing Wright to bag my first of the 46 High Peaks, I couldn’t help but notice several pairs of birds, invisible in the lush, hysterically chartreuse leaves of early spring, calling back and forth to each other from what seemed a few inches away at most. My hiking partners asked impatiently if we could continue up the mountain rather than stand in the same spot while I searched in vain for the invisible birds. On the hike down I heard them again and
