Friday Shoot-Out: Silhouettes

The idea of the My Town Shoot-Out is to post photos of your local community every Friday. This week's assignment was chosen by Carrie from Westport, Washington.

The Cascade Mountains range from northern California all the way to British Columbia; we feel lucky to have easy access to these gorgeous places in northern Oregon and southern Washington. The volcanic High Cascades are where we often go on backpacking trips. There are vast rugged wilderness areas, and every time I go up into them I feel grateful that my legs are strong enough to carry me there.

Before our daughter Jessica went off to Niger to be a Peace Corps volunteer, she and I (plus Eddy--we always take a dog) went on a 4-day, 3-night backpacking trip on the flank of Mt Adams, a volcano just a half day's drive from here. On the second night out we were high above the tree line, nobody else in sight, and violent weather swirling all around us. There were white tufts of mountain goat hair stuck in the stunted bushes, and melted snow running in rivulets at our feet. The wind had just turned icy. Those are the things I think about every time I look at this photo. I wish you could see and feel them too.


By sunset the next day we had hiked to a lower, friendlier altitude. We were just a stone's throw from the Pacific Crest Trail, but we had this cold, clear, little lake all to ourselves. Later, when your days get hard, in your mind you can retreat to places like this.