The Giant's Path 2- Granddad Morgan

The following is the second installment of the Giant's Path.  I finished it a little early.  I hope y'all enjoy it .

 ABR

Once outside in the open, the spring air helped everyone think a bit clearer. They were about half way up the west side of Hinkey Summit. The cave entrance was about 15 ft behind them and about 100 yards off the deer trail they had been following when they saw the cave. They were standing on a 45 degree slope making it necessary to stand sideways in a stair-step stance to keep their balance. The cave was dug into the face of an enormous granite outcrop partially berried by the side of the mountain.

The Nevada air was fresh and the smell of sagebrush was a welcomed relief from the dank dungeon they had just left. Here and there were small patches of snow left over from the long cold winter. The song of the Mountain Blue Bird echoed off the huge granite outcroppings that protruded from the mountainsides. The sky was a beautiful blue and a gentle breeze rustled a near by patch of yellow Mule Ears that grew wild over the mountain slope. It was a excellent day to start an adventure.

Twelve-year-old Elizabeth started lining up the pieces of the puzzle. "Dad, that wasn't a bear or any other wild animal. It looked human." She shifted her weight then continued, "But it couldn't be! Did you see how big it was?"

Nine year old Joshua thought it was Bigfoot and was sure they were all going to be rich.

Kent sat down on a small waste high boulder to think. He was pretty sure he knew what it was. "Granddad's Journals really are journals." He thought to himself. This reality, more than his tired legs, made him take a seat. We should have known. Everyone believed they were simply stories written in journal form. "But now?..... Well?.... The proof is sound asleep in that cave."

"It's not Bigfoot" Kent informed them, You could hear the excitement in his voice. It's a giant! An honest to goodness Fee-Fi-Fo-Fum Giant!

"A what?" "Are you sure?" Elizabeth wrinkled her eyebrows, and spoke in a tone that clearly communicated that her father had lost his mind. "I was kind of leaning toward the Bigfoot idea"

" A giant?.... Cool!" responded Joshua, "Even better!"

"Do you guys remember me telling you about your great grandfather, Granddad Morgan?"

"Only a thousand times"

"Good! How about his journals. Do you remember those?"

Elizabeth had a vague recollection, but Joshua had no idea.

"How about the giant stories I sometimes tell before you go to bed. Do you remember any of those?"

They both nodded in agreement.

Kent stood up and started down to the deer trail, Elizabeth and Joshua followed suite.

"I got those stories from Granddad Morgan. In his journals he tells about finding a giant in a cave just like this one. He stopped, turned, and looked at them, giving that information some time to sink in. Then to clarify his argument he added, "Granddad only wrote about real stuff: nature, people, wildlife, things like that!"

"You mean the giant stories are true?" Asked Elizabeth, in astonishment.

Kent turned and continued his trek to a group of rust colored boulders piled helter-skelter near the trail "It looks that way," he said as he bent over and started piling the rock into a pyramid shape, "But we need to be sure."

"We'll finish this hike another day. We need to mark this spot so we can find it again later. I need to get back to town so I can take a new look at those Journals."

What if the giant wakes up? asked Joshua, hoping more than wondering.

"Well? If he does, he does. There is nothing we can do about it"

"We could wake him up now." Joshua was tossing a fist size rock up and down. His look revealed a devious plan was being hatched."

The idea of the giant waking up made Kent's toes curl. Clearly he had not read Granddad's Journals "NO! He said adamantly, "Not until we know more. For all we know, he may be violent, In a flash of inspiration he added, "He might crush our bones to make his bread."

"True" agreed Elizabeth with a mischievous smile, clearly undaunted. "But, I bet we can get out of that cave a lot faster then he can."

Kent shook his head in denial. It was hard to believe that his children were capable of being so diabolically evil. His look communicated sarcastic amusement. "Come on you two, quit plotting trouble. We have work to do.

Great Granddad Morgan

Granddad Morgan loved to tell stories about his time as an adventurer. In his youth, He mapped and charted many of the worlds tallest mountains. He later wrote stories about his adventures. Stories that made him famous. They had a childlike appeal to them that made you feel as though it was the first time you were seeing a tree or a deer. The forest was his home, and he made you feel at home in his forest. He was a wonderful man that saw life in everything he wrote about. He was an avid outdoors man and a philosopher. He was responsible for the love that Kent, and Kent's father before him, had for the outdoors. That same passion that Kent was passing on to Elizabeth and Joshua.

Granddad Morgan once wrote that "A man's shadow outlives him. Good or bad, in the right light, it will stretch across mountains, oceans, and right into the next generation." He died when Kent was around Elizabeth's age, at 98 years young. The life he lived and the shadow he cast was still stretching some 30 years later. A tribute to the quality of the man.

At the time of his death no one knew about the Giants of Morgan or the Journals that told their story. They were found as they went through his stuff after he died. He had kept them hidden away, never to be published or even spoken of. They documented a 25 year period in which he supposedly traveled with a giant named Clarence. Clarence was from a town called Morgan, located somewhere in the hills of northern England along the Scottish boarder.

Ancient records indicate that a village called Morgan existed some 500 years ago in Northumberland, England, near the present day village of Kielder. Little else is known about the town or the people that lived there. However, the journals give us an eye witness account of Morgan's demise. One journal even had a map revealing it location. But no one believed the journals were based on reality. So the information was never taken seriously.

It was generally believed that Granddad was secretly trying his hand at fantasy. But this was difficult to believe. If Granddad was anything, he was practical and lived in the present. His writings and his life had always been firmly rooted in reality. The Journals pre-dated his later writings causing some to speculate that in his youth he wanted to escape reality. He wrote fantasy stories, but abandoned make believe as he fell in love with nature.

Adding to the mystery is the possibility that the journals were written by two different people. But this couldn't be proven. The handwritings are very similar with acceptation of a few entries in the earlier journals. The writing style is clearly Granddad's. It's a bit unusual, but it is more likely his handwriting changed as time passed.

It is believed that Granddad started journaling in his late twenties. Most of what we know about him comes from his writings. Kent's father was killed in a car accident when Kent was 15, taking with him anything he might have known about Granddad's childhood, and making Kent and his children Granddad's only living descendant.

What is known is, he was an orphan. His official age on his death certificate is 98. That was based on his best guess, and giving him a birth year of 1882. He didn't have a birth certificate, nor did he know the month he was born. So he picked March 25 because spring was his favorite time of the year. His place of birth is unknown.

Research on the Morgan family tree has proved to be uninformative. No direct descendant to Granddad was able to be found. He married in 1922, His wife died 5 years later while giving birth to Kent's father. He never remarried. It is known that growing up as an orphan in the late 1800's was difficult and painful at best. Perhaps he did not write about, or speak of his childhood because he simply chose to leave it in the past.

For all the answers Granddad's journals provide, they create a whole new set of questions. Why did Granddad keep their existence a secret? Why haven't more people found giants in caves? Most intriguing of all, given the family history, it can't be a coincidence that Kent and his children happen to be the ones to find this giant. Is the hand of providence at work here?