Postcard from Mt. Rainier

I took this photo on my one and only trip to Mt. Rainier National Park in Washington. It was a beautiful day and I was trekking through a beautiful forest. It just seemed like a natural place to stop and take a photo.

I love this image as it reminds me of the hundreds of trails I‘ve been on throughout my life. I have a fascination with unexplored trails, ever since I was a little boy. I used to stand on them and wonder where they went…and what was over the next rise or around the bend.

I drove my poor parents crazy as a little boy. I would see a trailhead with a destination sign on it and just take off. Mostly I was up in the high country of Yosemite, near White Wolf Lodge. There was a trail sign there that had 8 destinations on it…and I wanted to go to them all. The trail began in a lovely meadow and disappeared into the forest. I took that trail several times to distant lakes and meadows…and oh yes, forgot to tell my parents I was doing it.

Boy, did I hear about it when I got back. I feel sorry for them having a son with an incurable wanderlust. On that sign, there was one destination I really wanted to see, a place called Ten Lakes. It was a 10 mile hike one-way, and I was told it was very difficult, mostly uphill with some severe switchbacks near the end. As a little boy, I never got to take that hike as no one would go with me.

But a few years later when I was in college, I did that hike and made it all the way up and back. And they were right…the trail was a bitch, especially those switchbacks! But I did it! When I got there I had a terrible blister on the back of my foot. Then it started to rain. It poured on me for 10 miles, all the way back to my car…barefoot. That may be one of the prouder moments of my life…setting a goal as a kid, then later making it come true, no matter what the hardships.

So a simple trail like the one you see here reminds me of all the trails I’ve  been on and the many goals I’ve accomplished. And you know what? I am not done yet.   

(To see a larger version of this photo, just click on the image)

To see more of my work, both in photography and digital painting, please visit my website, www.corkrum.com.