Our friends Shelley and Andrew are staying here with us this week as they make their way toward Montana and Glacier National Park for a seven-day backpacking trip. No underachievers these two, Andrew is a Fulbright Scholar and Shelley recently graduated near the top of her class from law school at UC Berkeley. Looking for a way to decompress from highly demanding lives, Shelley and Andrew could certainly go to Mexico and lay on a beach (I think that would be my inclination) but instead they’ll shoulder 40- or 50-pound backpacks and go out to walk among grizzly bears.
Though there is no getting around the reality that I should be staying home this week assembling wedding albums for my clients, my house guests have lured me outside to play. It’s rainy and foggy here, but my friends and I have done two very enjoyable hikes in the nearby Olympic Mountains. Wednesday we walked a lowland forest trail only 40 minutes from my house, and yesterday we trekked into the high country, teased by cycles of rain/fog/sun, rain/fog/sun. Our walk took us to a pass where rocky spires rose into the mist, reminding us that beauty takes many forms.
