With all the madness in the world these days my thoughts drifts back to one of the most beautiful places I remember--Jefferson Park in the Mount Jefferson Wilderness. It is a basin on the north side of Mount Jefferson made up of meadows, small lakes and patches of forests. The Pacific Crest Trail goes through here. My first backing packing trip into this area was on a weekend in the early summer of 1988 by myself. There was still snow in places making it hard to explore much of the park, but what I saw of it made me only want to return and see more. I returned three more times, including with a friend and family members over the next few years. Rustic camp sites were secluded with adequate water and much firewood available in the surrounding forest. The only menacing wildlife was the Canada Jay, better known as the camp robber that would fly into camp every time we started cooking. They even took to landing on my daughter's hand when she stuck it up in the air. The wildflowers were abundant in the meadows after the snow was gone making us think heaven was not far away.
Sure wish we could retreat there now and make the troubles of the world go away.
Sounds heavenly! Would love to be there.
ReplyDelete“The clearest way into the Universe is through a forest wilderness.”
ReplyDelete– John Muir