1 ... Gabriel Morrisoffice, and then spent another five days in the back country, hiking
high up into the Grand Tetons. Though usually it didn’t bother me,
I found myself a little concerned about encountering bears—perhaps
because I was informed of one nearby on my first night, right in the
middle of cooking up a big pot of chili. But by the last day of back-
packing, the fear had mostly left me as I became more open and at-
tuned to the calming, comforting vibrations of nature.
I came out of the woods feeling clear, centered, and focused. I
decided not to look for a job in the park after all; it wasn’t what I re-
ally wanted to do with the rest of the summer. I felt strongly that my
next step was to go investigate the community I’d previously corre-
sponded with in northern Washington. I was being urged in that di-
rection. I had a sense that another valuable lesson awaited me there,
and that it would be more rewarding than my previous experiences
of the summer.
I continued north through Yellowstone National Park and into
Montana. Once I reached Interstate-90 I made it rapidly west, leav-
ing Montana and crossing the thin finger of northern Idaho. About
halfway through the state of Washington, I left the Interstate and
went north.
I slept that night at an abandoned spa resort beside Soap Lake in
Central Washington—a shallow, pristine lake imbued with naturally
occurring minerals, which apparently gave it healing properties that
had made it a sacred place for the Native American tribes of the re-
gion. I slept in the grass at the lake’s edge, took a cold, invigorating
swim the next morning, then continued hitching. I figured I would
make it to Twisp (the closest town to the Methow Valley Collective)
by that evening, sleep near town somewhere, and then give the folks
at the community a call the following day to see if I could come by
for a visit.
That afternoon, I got a ride from a kind, middle-aged woman
and her daughter, who took me to Chelan Falls, about an hour from
Twisp. The woman invited me over to her house for a late lunch. Of
course I agreed, always grateful for kindness from strangers while