The beckoning morning sunshine summons my inner adventure. A compulsion to climb atop a pinnacle overtakes my focus. My Capricorn mountain goat awakens and inclines to the summit. When I lived in Fairbanks, I would steal away to Denali, never to summit, but to step into the majesty held in her mass of stone. In the Driftless, I’m never too far from steep rugged landscapes, and some of these I can actually summit. Today we paused at the outcrop of Black Hawk Rock for the view, fresh air, elevation, and thrill of inching toward the edge (and churning Rufus’s nervousness).

~Joy