Shabbat shalom everyone!
I’ve said this many times, and I’ll say it again. In this crazy, mixed up world full of hate and manmade ugliness, there is still beauty to be found if we get away and look for it. I find shalom, sanity and Yehovah Elohim in nature—especially in the mountains. I’m not the only one to discover this. The Gospels record that from time to time Yeshua got away from the crowds and city and went to the mountains to be alone with his Father.
My kids and I just returned from six days camping and hiking in the High Cascade Mountains of the Northern Washington State in the Mount Baker-Snoqualmie National Forest in the area between Mount Baker and Mount Shuksin.
We hiked seven to eleven miles every day with elevation gains of about 1400 to 2000 feet on each trail. Our highest point was more than 6,500 feet above sea level.
Mount Shuksin from near Picture Lake
Mount Baker
Another shot of Mount Baker
Table Top Mountain from the Chain Lakes Trail
The stream coming out of Bagely Lake
Glacier Lake and Mount Baker
Mount Shuksin from near Artists’ Point
A mountain stream along the trail to Ann Lake
Snow and ice covered Ann Lake
Mount Shuksin from Ann Lake
View from the top of 6,531 foot tall Winchester Mountain
Looking down on one of the Twin Lakes atop Winchester Mountain
A 1,250 year old western red cedar tree (center) at Silver Fir Campground in the Mount Baker-Snoqualmie National Forest
I’m 6 foot 2 inches tall. This cedar tree is nine foot, one inches wide at breast height!
Kaeli inside the tree. Four of us crawled into the tree and fit comfortably inside with room to spare!
Here I am inside of an old growth cedar stump that was probably cut in the early 1900s.
“The voice of my beloved! behold, he cometh leaping upon the mountains, skipping upon the hills. My beloved is like a roe or a young hart: behold, he standeth behind our wall, he looketh forth at the windows, shewing himself through the lattice. My beloved spake, and said unto me, Rise up, my love, my fair one, and come away.” Song of Solomon 2:8–10
