Strange But True Tales

It was early summer several years ago, National Nude Hiking day to be exact that I found the priceless doll. Enjoying my new life living on the edge of the last great wilderness in the lower forty-eight, pictures of the jagged peak mountain range make it look like I live in Sweden. So how on earth did I find a mermaid on a cliff sitting thousands of feet above my house usually covered in snow three states away from the ocean?

I went hiking.

Spending my life in locker rooms either by gym hobby or career army, I had outgrown being shy before I can remember. Not to mention my free spirited nature loving self often enjoys the wild push to feel how vulnerable and confident one can be at the same time. Bird of a feather, just like swimming in the ocean, this is called forest bathing. How else would you find magical creatures?

The Overlook, a two hour steady switchback trek to howling cold cliffs above the canyon and winding river face the backcountry, and rows of more mountains. Their tops give way to sliding gravel before the tree line of pine and Tamarack.

Though the road can be treacherous at time to the trailhead I have been lucky enough to encounter it's wonder and beauty in all seasons, even having an incident with a bear one winter. Oh yes, my nine lives are up exploring the backyard rich with hiding eyes and slippery ice waiting for one wrong step. Stories for another time.

This was a golden sunny day but I had no intention on getting entirely naked. Not wanting to run into anyone without my shirt I waited until I reached the top to take it off and explored areas of trails in different directions where common foot traffic would not usually be.

I spoke too soon. A family group was walking up the side of the mountain straight towards me so I backtracked to where some large rocks sat on the cliff and ducked under one. I fumbled for the shirt I previously shoved through two traps on my camelbak and just as I was pulling it over my head I noticed some cloth sticking out from under the rock. I am not even sure how I saw it, the dark hole blacker than black offset the faded black shirt catching my curiosity, otherwise I would have no inclination to stick my hand in a small abyss.

With my shirt on and unbothered by the small family I laughed pulling it out and unwrapping it like a diaper. The t-shirt was shredded in places, a graphic logo I do not remember. Opening it, I could not believe my eyes. Just when I was guilting myself for not being home writing on the second zombie mermaid book, I accidently find a porcelain Betty Boop mermaid Barbie doll. I could tell right away it was vintage, the look, the smell, she had a cloth red and gold sparkling tail.

Decades ago I played a little game with friends in Texas called Geocaching. A worldwide treasure map available to anyone with a device for locating longitude and latitude plus sorting out clues for prizes. The rule is take something and leave something. I left a little pocket knife, one of a few I carry. Before, playing the game I found a tiny porcelain chicken like one you would find among trinkets in a Hallmark store at the mall. I found an amethyst crystal and even two tickets to a movie.

For someone who wrote her first mermaid book at eight years old and spent her childhood in the water this was quite the find now, a time I was re-finding the mermaid in me, in the mountains. Mermaid in the Mountains, the original name of this web page until this same year (2018 I think) a random women in my town published a book by the same name. The coincidences keep going....