Text of other pages in this issue: 1 2 3 4
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I Was Thinking. . .
One of the best ways to see the most beautiful parts of the Northwest, and particularly of Oregon, is to attend a few of our summer camps. The last five of them - Husband Lake on the west side of the Sisters; Spirit Lake in Washington; the Tetons in Wyoming; Green Lakes on the east side of the Sisters; and the Wallowas in Eastern Oregon, have provided the opportunity for us to enjoy a large part of our country.
Many people see our Northwest every year. They travel the roads and look at the "scenery". But to enjoy the real beauty one must become a part of the land, a native, even if only for a few days.
For us that means, of course, leaving "civilized gadgetry" behind and becoming, as far as possible for people of this modern age, a part of the wilderness. We travel as the natives travel, live (to some extent) as they live. The wilderness becomes our home - we live in it and with it.
It reacts, of course, to our presence in it; but I think we react much more profoundly to our experience there. In a year or two our campsite is as much as ever a part of the wilderness; it has forgotten us; but memory of that wilderness experience will never disappear from our hearts and minds. And who knows how much influence it will have in our subsequent lives, in our thinking and doing?
WE have only touched the wilderness, and it has, in return surrounded us, sustained us, calmed our minds, strengthened our bodies, given us vistas of wonderful beauty - the Wilderness is a true friend.
And when we leave, it is as leaving a friend - as Lloyd Plaisted said, that Sunday morning when we were taking the final look at Horseshoe Lake, "It's sort of like leaving home, isn't it?"
Mike
POTLUCK PICNIC AUG. 28
Everybody come to the picnic potluck on Thursday evening - 6:30 at Weiser's Grove. Paul and Helen have graciously invited us to picnic, play softball, and just visit around the campfire. Let's go!
Ed Keller in Mountain Troops
(These are excerpts from a letter to Gene Sebring)
"Thanks to Paul Lafferty's suggestion to write to the Commander at Camp Carson plus a great deal of fortune, I was able to pull duty with the Mountain Troops beginning in October instructing in casualty evacuation in mountains and cold weather medicine. I'm sure looking forward to this break. Perhaps my skiing will improve next winter!
To make things even more interesting, I was chosen to accompany a large Army Reconnaisance expedition to the Arctic this summer and early fall. We leave loaded with immense packs of Arctic gear for the operations in several days from Camp Kilmer. The work will be top secret - many details I know nothing of as yet. We are to be accompanied by eight French Arctic experts, several of whom were members of the Franch Alpine Club and French Mountain Troops during the last war. They are glacier experts as well, and I hope to get some good pictures of crevasse rescue work.
Tomorrow I go down to Washington to the Surgeon General's office to get a last minute briefing and to read some of the Byrd reports and other Arctic papers. All in all, I couldn't have gotten a better assignment - one for which I will be forever grateful to the government.
If the Obsidian paper is looking for any news of its boys in service, please give this letter to the editor. I've spent a lot of time thinking of the pleasant climbs with the club and of the many friends among its membership.
Sincere regards to them and to you!
Ed
His address is:
1st Lt. Edward H. Keller
Heavy Sled Detachment
APO 23, c/o P.M. New York, N.Y.
SECT. 34.66 P.L.&R.
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28 Aug 2009
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