Green Water

Mom is ninety now, so we try to return her as often as possible to her most sacred personal sites. One of these is Stehekin at the head of 55-mile long Lake Chelan, accessible only by launch or air.

One of our family’s treasured memories is together circumnavigating Glacier Peak in the summer of 1969. On that trip, we hiked high up above the timber line, but dipped down on the Pacific Crest Trail to camp above Agnes Creek Gorge where it roars into the Stehekin River.

On this trip, we were able to drive up valley to that intersection and revisit this remarkable place, now saved in perpetuity by the grace of North Cascades National Park.

Peter wrote a poem called “Green Water,” and I used it to make a short video using iPhone imagery taken at this perfect place.

It had to do with how it felt to be in the wild. With what it was like to walk for miles with no reason other than to witness the accumulation of trees and meadows, mountains and deserts, streams and rocks, rivers and grasses, sunrises and sunsets. The experience was powerful and fundamental.

It seemed to me that it had always felt like this to be a human in the wild, and as long as the wild existed it would always feel this way.”
Cheryl Strayed, Wild: From Lost to Found on the Pacific Crest Trail

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