Baby, take a walk on the wild side

Oh, for a lodge in some vast wilderness,
Some boundless contiguity of shade,
Where rumor of oppression and deceit,
Of unsuccessful or successful war,
Might never reach me more.
William Cowper

Today I wanted to get away. Not far away, but just away enough that I didn't need to worry myself about deadlines, writing dreary tales about the problems of others for the sake of a small reimbursement payment or two. Not that I don't like what I do, but sometimes I just have to get away, to remind myself there is a world out there. Not a world assaulted by war, starvation, terrorism, crime and pestilence, but a world where all that exists are those elements that have existed since the earliest dawn in a mythical garden at the beginning of all that we know.

What I needed was pastoral. Indeed, what I needed was a shot of wilderness. In that I am fortunate to live where I do. The wilderness is never far away. I couldn't afford an entire day away, but I could give myself until early afternoon. Therefore, Mt. Washington beckoned.

Mt. Washington, in the Beaufort Range of Vancouver Island is wilderness enough from me. And the scene pictured here, in the beautiful Paradise Meadows of Strathcona Park is just a little over a half hour drive from my front door. It's a mere matter of getting out of town, through a few miles of lush farmland, then up through the woods, and then the climb up the hill, virtually to the top, and there you are. At 4,000 feet the air is clear, and the sky is blue. The trees, bedecked with huge inundations of snow in the winter (this is a primo ski facility, second only to Whistler on the BC Coast) are tall and never bedecked in lateral branches because the snow will break them off.

But, a walk through the alpine meadows or into the hinterland lakes restoreth the soul, for me. There are birds, so-called 'whiskeyjacks' (gray jays), who will take food from your hands and land on your shoulders; sparkling rivulets boast tiny rainbow trout, gaining in size before they head to the heavier competition downstream, near the lower levels. And, there are other wild animals, squirrels and raccoons, and maybe even "lions and tigers and bears, oh my." Well, no tigers, but lions of the 'mountain' sort, sleekly wonderful to the eye, and as unpredictable and dangerous as a tiger shark, and bears, oh yes. I have never seen a cougar (mountain lion, puma, or whatever in the wild, alas) but plenty of bears have crossed my path. They have always nodded obligingly, and continued on their way.

As I said, I did not spend a vast amount of time up Mt. Washington, but was there long enough to restore my perspective on the world and to realize what a blessing I have in being able to access such a place so quickly.

Time was up. I drove back down the mountain -- at one point on the downward trail (actually a beautiful bit of roadway) a vista opens up to reveal the waters of the Strait of Georgia, the Mainland mountains (over there in North America, we Islanders call it), south to Vancouver, and eventually Seattle, and north all the way to Alaska if you were to keep going.

Not such a bad place to be. Thanks.