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Melakwa Lake
ALPINE LAKES WILDERNESS, NORTH BEND, WA: I slipped out of the driveway before 4 AM while the world was still deciding whether to call it night. The summer solstice was close enough that darkness feels more like a formality than anything else, and somewhere on that long, quiet stretch of I-90 with the Cascades beginning…
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Mailbox Peak
MIDDLE-FORK SNOQUALMIE, NORTH BEND, WA: There’s something about leaving the house before the rest of the world has any business being awake that strips a day down to what it actually is. I was on the road by 3:15 this morning, Highway 18 completely to myself, my dashboard being the only light in the valley,…
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Teneriffe Falls
MOUNT SI, NORTH BEND, WA: I’ve always found the hours before the world wakes up to be the most honest. This morning, as I drove toward North Bend under the dark fading night, I felt a familiar pull toward the gift of another journey: Teneriffe Falls. There’s a certain weight to the silence in the…
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Dirty Harry’s Balcony
MIDDLE FORK SNOQUALMIE, WA: As I stood at the trailhead for Dirty Harry’s Balcony an hour before sunrise, the cool, predawn darkness shrank my physical space. The faint glow of my headlamp cut through the misty drizzle, illuminating the path ahead, while the rich aroma of damp moss filled the air. In that moment, I…