Encounter with Nature

Rising midst North Carolina, Yellow Mountain is one of the most scenic hikes that I have ever been on. When I was a younger lad, my father took me on the ten mile trek a couple days after September 11, 2001. He strapped my shoulders with a backpack that was a miniature toy compared to his, and we were on our way. He took me up to the pinnacle to stay the night as well as spend some time with me. While I was on the climbing adventure I became a transparent eyeball like Ralph Waldo Emerson. I believe that once I read a couple of stories of Mr. Emerson and Mr. Thoreau, I saw an immediate connection between what they said and the hike that I took that day with my father.
When my father and I initiated our hike, I remember first seeing a golden patch of long grass with butterflies frolicking all about and it made me become one with God. This thought was sparked when I read the line from Nature which stated, "The currents of the Universal Being circulate through me; I am part or particle of God. The name of the nearest friend sounds then foreign and accidental." To me this quote means whenever a person is overcome by peace they are almost "in the zone" (not to sound cliche) and become part of nature. We made our way up to the top of the mountain and prepared a small temporary fire. The fire was like a box of Rice Crispies because of the crackling and popping. The contrast of the warm, cozy fire put alongside with the cold autumn air really made me feel like my father and myself were one with nature. The streets of buzzing cities were illuminated by cars headlights and they could be seen from our omnipotent view. In the short story Self-reliance, Ralph Waldo Emerson wrote that, "The eye was placed where one ray should fall, that it might testify that particular ray." This quote to me means that God created the world and the people in it, and it is the people's responsibility to interpret the world's beauty.
There was a small fire tower atop that mountain and in it is where my father and I slept in our sleeping bags. The chilly wind and the rustling bushes were the only things that could be heard in that tower. Although my father was keeping me company, the environment around me made me feel somewhat alone. This can best be put in this quote from Henry David Thoreau: "...some of my pleasantest hours were during the long rainstorms in the spring or fall, which confined to the house for the afternoon as well as the forenoon, soothed by their ceaseless roar and pelting..." In substitution for the "long storm", the cold wind that blew was what made me feel so warm and soothing on the inside.
In conclusion, the transcendentalism brought about by Henry David Thoreau and Ralph Waldo Emerson was brought to life that day when I trekked up the mountain that day with my father. I became a "transparent eyeball" and could see everything around me. Solitude, no matter how lonely I was while I walked up the mountain without talking for a couple of minutes, brought me closer to the environment around me. The fire that may not have been large, soothed my heart and made me realize that I was a particle of God. The cold rickety fire house that kept my father and me out of the cold, was almost a haven for peace. That is how I can relate transcendentalism to that faithful hike.