"Thousands of tired, nerve-shaken, over-civilized people are beginning to find out that going to the mountains is going home; that wildness is a necessity”
-- John Muir

Another day in the backcountry wilderness of Washington was about to end. I sat on a narrow trail etched into the steep rocky terrain, watching the light slowly fade. As the light beams slowly swirled over the forests below, I felt as far away from the trappings of human civilization as I could ever be.

The sun appeared, albeit for a brief moment, from behind the mass of low-hanging clouds: a blast of bright orange without a mushroom cloud. Plants lit up, trees glowed, and cameras flickered. And then it disappeared. But, in that brief moment of light, it felt as though the mountains were calling to the tired souls inside all of us.

It is time to answer that call, and to go out.

Gifford Pinchot National Forest
WA USA