Mountain Fever, Timberline Lodge , Mount Hood
Road Tripping
Okay the sun was out in the middle of a gloomy week and the prediction was for more mentally paralyzing fog to sweep in. What better way to break the doldrums and head up above the clouds.
Leaving suburbia behind to see how the outliers are surviving on the edges of civilization is always an experience. The true star is of course nature with its brut power that sticks its fist right into your burning retina.
Trees kept fading in and out of cloud banks that hadn't gotten the notice yet to buzz off. The air seemed to be sweeter as if all the monoxide had given it a bitter note.
after an intense climb along winding pre-sanded road the sky opened up with unprecedented vistas. Snow banks melted furiously cascading down cliffs as if to escape the approaching winter. The lodge was almost deserted a group of snow boarders had just finished a meeting in one of the old halls and played a game of relaxed table tennis. Time had lost the race up here.
This could have been the 1960 ties. Just the $17.50 all you can eat buffet looked very contemporary with its hyped cup cake display and organic vegetable platter.
The mountain looked pristine through the huge picture window as if so embody with a giant broom had swept it clean of people.
photography by Richard Schemmerer
