Closing Window

Day 343: The window on hiking season is creaking closed as wet-weather systems stack up along our coast and a chance of snow at higher elevations sets the Mountain to shivering. But all things considered, it has been a greener year than most others in the last decade, meadows remaining lush right up to the last, the first "typical" Pacific Northwest summer we've seen in a long time. I have one more MeadoWatch patrol to do on Naches Loop and then like many other high-country mammals, I'll begin moving down in range as temperatures drop and snow depth pushes me onto lowland trails. Rabbie Burns said it, and I'll be humming his words when you find me on Bud Blancher or in Pack Forest:

Farewell to the mountains, high-cover'd with snow,

Farewell to the straths and green valleys below;

Farewell to the forests and wild-hanging woods,

Farewell to the torrents and loud-pouring floods.

My heart's in the Highlands, my heart is not here,

My heart's in the Highlands, a-chasing the deer;

Chasing the wild-deer, and following the roe,

My heart's in the Highlands, wherever I go.