The Mountain

For most of my adult life, beginning in 1965 when I came to the University of Washington on a football scholarship, I have lived in the Puget Sound area and in the shadow of one of the world's most amazing peaks, Mount Rainier.  On September 1st my friend, Chuck Salmon, and I will spend ten days walking around that mountain on what is delightfully named The Wonderland Trail. 

We have already sent two caches of food to ranger stations. 

Besides carrying lots of expectations, some fears, and high hopes I will be carrying a good camera so the idea is to share some of the adventure here after I get back.  There is something very tangible, of course, about that mountain.  There is also something quite symbolic, I think.  Each of us lives in the shadow of some mountain or mountains.  I feel that I was lucky enough to "walk around" one of mine in the ten years after my dad died.  (He died in May of 1997)  It will be something to remember and combine those internal, spiritual experiences with the very big experience of walking around my longtime neighbor, Mount Rainier.