Forest in the forest

I'm a big believer in mending fences and trying to sort out differences I've had with people.

For nine years my next door neighbor hated me. I was watching his dog Forest, and Forest bit a kid and subsequently had to be put to sleep. I paid to have Forest cremated even though my neighbor was hardly speaking to me at the time.

But in the past few months we have become "friends" again, largely, I think, because he's in therapy. He'd been asking me to go with him on a hike to scatter Forest's ashes, and Saturday I finally had a free day to do that.

We left Denver at 9 am and planned to go to a trail that my neighbor really likes that's outside of Nederland. He thought he knew where he was going, but he didn't. The trip took 3 hours, with us going the wrong way on 73, 58, and other roads. At one point we were driving down a narrow dirt road that looked like it hadn't seen traffic for years. I was waiting for my neighbor to murder me or for us to crash into something and die, but all that happened was we ended up back in Nederland (do all dirt roads in Colorado lead to Nederland???).

When we finally arrived at the trail it was noon. The temperature was in the forties, it was overcast and gloomy, and there was snow covering the trail. I was like "shit!" because I was wearing running shoes. My neighbor was like "shit!" because he was wearing running shoes AND shorts.

He had a plan of which trail he wanted to take, and he said he would know where to scatter Forest's ashes because he would get a feeling that it was the right place. Forest's ashes weighed about 30 pounds and that became a challenge as we were going up and down icy terrain and I don't think my neighbor has that much experience carrying weight in a backpack.

Anyway, some weird things happened on the trail, specifically - we encountered the weirdest people, but we finally arrived at a meadow and both of us knew instantly it was the place to put Forest. We scattered him near a stand of trees. My neighbor had brought a friend's dog along and as soon as we spread the ashes on the snow the dog, Oz, ran through them. I spread some rose petals from my yard and then the sun suddenly came out and lit up the meadow and the temperature got noticeably warmer. It was such a hollywood thing. The only thing that could have made the moment even more unrealistic is if a rainbow had suddenly appeared. And my neighbor apologized to me for all the shit that went on after the biting incident and even admitted that he felt bad that Forest bit someone while I was watching him. I also found out he had been in touch with the family and that the kid Forest bit was fine, which was a huge relief to me because all these years I've worried about that.

So Forest is free in a good place now. He has the best views. And when we headed back down the trail the sun had melted the snow in all of the hard spots. I know that sounds like bullshit, but it's true.

It wasn't until we got back to the parking lot that we realized we had forgotten to take a picture. But maybe that's for the best.

We headed back to Denver after one last wrong turn at the Nederland traffic circle, but stopped at a cafe for some food and a drink. We toasted Forest as the sun set over the mountains. My neighbor has gotten very spiritual lately and he was ruminating on souls and reincarnation and karma.

My take - life is short, don't fuck it up, and when you fuck it up make it right. And don't give up on people or hold grudges, they can change and do the right thing.

finis