Yes, hello!

I know.

It’s

been

(quite)

a while.

What can I write right now – just hours before embarking on the next adventure?

The last few years have been… interesting. I’m still making sense of them and writing helps me do so.

When I set out to walk the Oregon Desert Trail (in fall 2019) a dearly beloved colleague told me that I was endeavoring to recalibrate my existential compass. Those words became a bearing for me in subsequent seasons and continue to resonate with my entire being. They continue to ring true.

At some point, I may brave my personal wilderness and write more of what these last few years entailed. Yes, there were beautiful trips in the mountains and desert rambles. There was also a lot of unpacking burnout; perfectionism; never feeling like I’m enough; abandonment, instabilities and other hard stuff from childhood; overcoming multiple injuries and health issues; becoming a caregiver to dying loved ones; becoming a caregiver to loved ones through their acute medical events; turning to mindfulness; studying neuroplasticity; reveling in daily right-in-the-moment bird encounters and pondering the immensity and constant change of geology. It was awful and painful. It was affirming and delightful. It was a little bit of everything. The experiences and teachings from the last few years continue to fill me with gratitude. All part of the gritty and wondrous human experience.

After so much change, some things remain the same. Being out in nature, the opportunity to traverse landscapes, and paying attention to the natural world is where and how I feel the deepest sense of connection, ease, delight, and awe. Gabriel likes being outside and roaming too. So we’ve been thinking about how we’d resume the sorts of long adventures we both love and decided that circumnavigating the six volcanoes we’ve known all our lives was the best way to begin.

We both grew up in the Portland/Vancouver area with views of Hood, Adams (Pahto), and St. Helens (Loowit) on the eastern skyline. Today we live in Seattle and look often to Baker (Koma Kulshan), Glacier (Dakobed), and Rainier (Tahoma).* When we’re anywhere in the mountains, in town, or even the deserts of central Washington – we’re looking to these high snowy peaks as bearings of direction, indicators of landscape and watershed health, the weather, and our overall sense of place. Oh, they are just pretty too!

Circumnavigating Hood, Pahto (Adams), Loowit (St. Helens), Tahoma (Rainier), Dakobed (Glacier), and Koma Kulshan (Baker) will total about 400 miles (640 km) of walking, some 130,000 feet (3900 m) of gain, over 25 days. Most of these volcanoes have trails around them to traverse moraines, roam lava fields, and cross the headwaters of streams. There are a few shoulders of Adams and Baker without trails where we’ll be traveling on glaciers, rocky slopes, and forests where “the route goes”. The first three loops in NW Oregon and SW Washington are each 30-40 miles long and will take about 3 days each. The second set of three loops in northern Washington range from 75-110 miles and will take about 6 days each. In between mountains, we’ll be traveling via our trusty car to reach the next trailhead. (Apologies to the uber cool kids that we aren’t hiking or biking between loops, that just woulda upped the anti too much. Hopefully, I’ll get back on a bike after this endeavor. And yes, I’m still working through a sense of never being enough. Maybe this endeavor will help me remember that I am.)

Getting ready for this trip has entailed the usual processes of route research, mapping, permitting, amassing and assembling food for resupplies and such. But a few things have changed since 2019. We feel the absence of our beloved Gracie Cat all the time and especially in packing for trips. My Grandmother is still here and she helped me with resupplies this time, but her life situation has changed and we both feel the absence of my Grandfather. And I’ve been recovering from a cervical spine injury and torn shoulder tissues which have changed how I move about the mountains and what I can do in the mountains.

Six loops around beloved volcanoes. Close to home. Some terra incognita, but mostly familiar terrain and even beloved miles along the Pacific Crest Trail. I like that we are literally and metaphorically walking in circles and coming right back to the beginning after traveling so far. This seems like a great way to resume some marmoting adventures.

More to come. Realistically after we get back. These days I’m trying not squeeze and compress life, instead savoring the savoring of being in the moment and writing about it afterwards. :- D

*I’ll be using both the Traditional Indigenous names for these mountains and the given names on U.S. Geological Survey maps.

Hood – no specific name attributed to this mountain by the Confederated Tribes of Warm Springs (including the Wasco, Paiute, the Klickitat Peoples), Yakama or other First Nations of this region. Wy’east appears to have been made up by settlers romanticizing the construct of the “noble savage”. Kinda blew my mind learning about this recently!

Adams/Pahto – Standing High, High Sloping Mountain attributed to the Yakama Nation.

St. Helens/Loowit – Fire Mountain, Lady of FIre, Smoking Mountain attributed to the Cowlitz, Klickitat, and Puyallup Peoples.

Rainier/Tahoma – The Mother of Waters, The Snowy Mountain, Sky Wiper, One Who Touches the Sky attributed to the Puyallup, Cowlitz, Yakama, Nisqually, Muckleshoot, Squaxin Island, and Coast Salish Peoples.

Glacier/DaKobed – The Great Parent attributed to the Sauk/Suiattle, Stillaguamish, Tulalip, Swinomish, and Upper Skagit Peoples.

Baker/Koma Kulshan – The Great White Watcher, White Sentinel attributed to the Nooksack People.