First Snow

After a happy youth spent bumper-car-ing between snowbanks in Colorado, I have fallen out of touch with driving in the snow. Won't do it. Don't really have to. Sometimes, though, it sneaks up on you.

What happened was, Trish and Cairo lured me off the couch to hike up Larch Mountain. It was your average astronomically rainy Sunday. We thought we were prepared. We had an umbrella, a carload of people, and a carload snacks, along with a plus-sized dog to eat if things got really bad. What we couldn't predict was that on the way up the access road, the temperature would dive 15 degrees in as many minutes. No one saw the big fluffy flakes coming. No one thought they'd do anything more than harmlessly melt against the wet, dark road.

Now, snow is very beautiful. It makes the branches hang heavy. It collects the light. Everything is well defined, except for the treetops, which are buried in cloud ...

But eventually my tires stopped doing that thing they're supposed to do—making the car go. We peeled out a little, we floated around a corner on prayer alone, and when the road tilted slightly in the direction of a ditch, that's exactly where we went.

Getting stuck can be fun when you're only stuck for a little while and don't have to call a tow truck. It reminded me to buy new tires. It reminded me that the future is unwritten. It reminded me to always have at least one bad ass in the crew who will just fucking take charge and handle it—whatever "it" may be (thanks Mark!).

This is what the Columbia River Gorge looks like in November, and I ain't mad at it.

We found a new hike at a reasonable elevation. The fall colors were just fine.

Another day, another boring waterfall.