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Nicholas Carle Mrs. Gardener English 10 HON, 0. 1 September 2013 Tower Peek In Yosemites great forest, every trip up the old trails was new and different. Not because I hadnt been their but because of its immense space and rugged terrain they extended to. The great fast flowing streams of the snow melt water had that distinct trickling noise and a deep crashing noise as it reached the bottom of the waterfall below. The great meadows stretched below the towering peeks above, blowing in the wind like waves in a storm. Tower peek which raised itself high above everything in sight could be seen far away in the distant. It was in these places that raised my understanding of the world. Growing up with the tall granite mountains was a challenge because of the difficulty of the environment. I never thought I would go back as many times as I did because of the constant unbearable difficulty of trekking around the mountains. Growing up I remember being told stories about the sacred Indians who once lived in Yosemite and how they gathered and hunted food just off the land. Fascinated by the skilled Indians, I always looked for remnants of their weapons they made. I would find chards of obsidian the Indians had used to make their arrowheads out of, but I could never find a complete arrowhead, I always bound to find. As I got older I began to appreciate the uniqueness that Yosemite offered and I wanted to venture the land as the Natives did. It was until a memorable event had struck me that I realized I had a hidden devotion for something only few could stand.

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Sitting on a rock surrounded by towering peaks, I sat slowly letting my fishing line out to get my fishing pole rigged up, when I heard a recognizable sound. The repeated ticking noise of line being pulled out could only mean one thing, that someone had a fish on their line. Confused of dismay I looked to my left only to see a tall skinny man wearing a camouflage hat, a ragged T-shirt and a pair of boot cut shorts standing on a bank by the willow trees next to the sparkling blue lake. The sun beat down on the glacier polished rock faces of the peeks towering over the shore of the lake. The trees began to sway in the whistling wind and the birds began to squawk repetitively. All of a sudden the man gave a holler! Hey boy can you come help me with this fish I got on the end of my line I ran over to the help him get the struggling fish thrashing against the line off the razor barbed hook it hung from. He turned and glared at me trying to make out my appearance. When I got the fish off the hook and onto the fresh cut v-shaped willow stick, I looked up at the mans face and my heart sunk. I froze speechless, unaware what to say or do. His left ear had a small bend in it and he had a long jagged scar across his forehead which had the appearance no different than mine. The man turned and gave me a good look in the eye. He questioned Whats wrong boy, did I scare you. I didnt mean any harm. At that moment the man looked confused with dismay. His facial appearance suddenly changed and it looked like he too realized he was looking at himself from the past. He looked like he recalled a time as a boy rigging up his poll in the same exact place and time of day. I took a deep breath and thought threw the events which happened and muttered, If youre me in the future wouldnt that mean you could tell me the future of my life? My older self-replied, Son if I told you your future, then you would have nothing to live for in life. Your life would be dull as a grain of sand in the open desert.

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At that moment he put his hand on mine and I felt a sudden warm touch. He let go of a hard like object into my hand which I then clenched in to a fist. I gradually pulled back my hand and slowly released my grip that clenched the object tightly. The sun shined onto it only to reveal a large shiny arrowhead sharp as a razor blade. My older self-spoke in a deep tone I have decided to give you this arrowhead instead of having you wait to find it yourself because I want you to know there are more hidden mysteries here that only you have the potential to discover, far greater than this arrowhead which will unlock you to new potentials Amazed with dismay I questioned, What will I discover and how will the arrowhead guide me there? The man gave a chuckle and replied You are older now and capable of figuring it out yourself. Ill need to get back to my camp before nightfall I tried to say something back but nothing came out. I wasnt sure, I thought maybe what he said was meant to be left alone and not questioned. I watched my older self-walk across the lakes edge over the shiny granite boulders gleaming in the sun. He never looked back as I glared at him disappearing over the gully. I looked up at Tower Peak, high above all the other granite mountains and asked myself about the unexplained events of encountering myself, but the peak itself was just as unexplained as I was. I never told anyone about these events. I thought they would be best to be kept to myself, for they were only really meant for me to know. I never thought I would have continued hiking Yosemites mountains but the sight of my future showed I had a hidden deep passion for such a unique place. I was at the beginning of the end and I had no way of changing that because I truly had fallen in love with such a place that few could understand.