Back to Life

We are back from our tramp around the Northwest! Almost 3,000 driving miles, close to as many pictures, and several bear scares later, my body is still three hours behind while my mind is dreaming up the days ahead. It was a good trip, full of unexpected reunions with friends, amazing vistas and varied terrain (glaciers, mountains, subalpine fields, rainforests, the Northwest Pacific coast), BBQ shacks and espressos galore, a minimum of showering opportunities, solitude in the backcountry and teeming cities that I've long desired to see and dreamed of moving to (we shall see). Throughout, I had an intense feeling of gratefulness for the ability to go and see so much of the world; I know that's a gift not to be taken lightly. Gratitude and the desire for many more kinds of people to have the financial ability to appreciate the vastness of wild places == these are my souvenirs.

And no -- to my twinned regret and relief, we encountered not a single bear (nor any other predator, for that matter). The closest we came were some distinctive claw marks on an unfortunate tree and some early-morning tracks. After seeing those, I think even Bryan agreed that THAT is close enough!