Quiescence
Oregon · USA
Cool fog cloaks a quiet forest of Pacific silver fir along the Larch Mountain Trail, enveloping us in welcome reprieve from a seemingly endless onslaught of uncharactceristically hot and dry weather in the Summer of 2015. It proved to be quite a bit cooler here than any of us had anticipated even at that elevation, and the payoff of a 360-degree panoramic view of five majestic Cascade volcanic peaks never materialized at the fenced-in viewpoint atop blustery and socked-in Sherrard Point. But in the midst of good company and an enchanting old-growth forest of towering Douglas-fir and western hemlock, erupting from a pillowy-soft forest floor carpeted in wavy-leaved cotton moss and wood sorrel with abundant salmonberry, salal, Oregon grape, vanilla leaf, and the heart-shaped leaves of false lily of the valley, you'll never convince me that my time would have been better spent anywhere else but here.
