I have been living here in the Pacific Northwest for over three years now. I love this place, it's beauty truly haunts me. When I tell people where I am from, they often ask me, what am I doing here or do I miss home. I love my country, I love our culture, I love the simplicity that is the way of life. I miss my family and close friends but I have seen enough Sun, sand and sea to last other people’s lifetimes. I wake up everyday and see mountains. On my drive to work and back home, there are ten story high evergreen trees across the highway and sometimes clouds creep across. It is utterly amazing and humbling.
I recently started hiking more. The wonderful thing about living in the Pacific Northwest is that there is so much to see and experience. A few weeks ago, my best friend and I decided to tackle Twin Falls, which is on the south fork of the Snoqualmie River. This would be my very first time and her third, but first up the back trail. I am an island boy at heart, so admittedly I am not used to real hiking preparedness. In the Bahamas as a kid, we called hiking “exploring.” It was just wandering out in the back of the bush, eating Coco Plums and Guana Berries. You know to this day I still do not even know what the Guana Berries were...we just ate them and they were tasty.
Nicole was on top of things though, as she is an avid hiker. So she had all our gear packed. Snacks, water and crampons for our shoes. I did not know or understand what crampons were until we got to the trail-head and it became apparently clear that we needed them. As soon as I stepped out of the car after we parked I was sliding all across the place. The spike son the crampons allowed us to walk without fear of breaking something. We got ourselves packed and headed on out. I was beyond excited. The hike was not very long, but it was an absolute blast. Some people on the hike had to actually slide along the ground on their bottoms because they were just wearing regular shoes.
Even though it was a short hike, calling it an eye opening experience does not do it justice. Being in nature, the sights and sounds, the feeling is just beyond invigorating. I am a photographer, I see the world quite differently. I see light...I see how it shapes things, how it brings things to life a world that people don't ordinarily see. Close your eyes, hold your breath...empty your mind. This is the Pacific Northwest and what you see here is a small parcel of what it offers. Click on the images below and share the experience.
