Feeding the Flame

It was the summer of 2012 that I was returning home from a month of once-in-a-lifetime sights and experiences in Europe. My climb to the top of the Schilthorn left me yearning for more and I felt a powerful flame inside me - anxiously burning for new adventure. I had two close friends awaiting my return that I knew wouldn't object to some time in the woods, yet never would I have thought that they would be as gung-ho as they turned out to be. The three of us took the trails by storm that summer. Before I knew it we were waking up at 4:30 in the morning, leaving from our hometown of Snohomish by 5, and cruising to the trailheads on every available decently-forecasted day, We have to climb with the sunrise, we thought. We had to be the first hikers to the top. No other alternatives would allow us to enjoy the view with a sense of peace and accomplishment that the others - the ones we crossed paths with on our way down, to whom we would always wish "happy hiking!" - would miss out on. With every hike we felt both physical and spiritual improvements and were increasingly inspired to do more. Our friendship was unbreakable and we were unstoppable. In retrospect it was easily one of the best summers of my life. I had found my one true love that I knew - through all of the unpredictable changes in life - would be the one burning passion that would never waver.
It has been three years since that summer. Three years in a lifetime doesn't seem like much, but as I write this, I realize not only how rapidly, but how drastically things can change before you even notice them changing. Three years down the road, the trio that was then is now broken. I'm living in an entirely new city, much farther from those hikes that we used to love. Three years ago I hiked Mount Pilchuck 4 or 5 times within a few months and now I can hardly visualize the view from its lookout. I have an entirely new array of friends, a new job, and new opinions on matters I formerly didn't care about. I'm a very different person with a very different life than what was three years ago. Despite all these changes, as I write my CamelBak is laying on the floor near my closet ready for its next use. My boots are posed neatly by the door and my wall is filled with photographs of both recent and earlier adventures. Three years have passed and I'm still eagerly awaiting my next trip to the woods. It will be soon. And the flame will burn on.

Lake 22

Wallace Falls

Mount Pilchuck

Beckler Peak