Twelve Months at Lake Valhalla

About the Book

Twelve months of visits to a mountain lake tells more than twelve tales. The solitude found during a Wednesday in the winter is completely different than the chaos found on a Saturday in the summer. The seasons make one set of changes. We make the other. The combination produces a much more interesting set of experiences that can't be revealed in one visit or in a page of some guidebook.

Lake Valhalla is perched along the high, rugged crest of the Cascade Mountains. It is wrapped within the Glacier Peak Wilderness and sits along the Pacific Crest Trail. Getting there in the summer can be as easy as a walk. Getting there in the winter can be adventurous and dangerous.

The lake sits along a series of borders: wilderness and civilization, open alpine meadows and thick forests, the wet Puget Sound region and the dry half of Washington state. Dayhiking families and thousand-mile through-hikers visit, mix, and tell different stories.

About the Author

The author is a pedestrian hiker and a barely intermediate skier who has enjoyed living in western Washington since 1980. He believes our world is better for every point of view that gets understood and added to the story of how we should live and care for the planet.