Mount Jefferson (Oregon) photo by Jsayre64 on Wikipedia Commons
Departure
By Walter Rice
I left the Cascades in late September when the sun was sliding south and the chill of the night hugged the timber. The first rain after a long drought was snow higher up. Mount Jefferson put on its winter coat, and I began thinking of wearing mine again. My last day there, the red salmon were swimming home to spawn. I drove to the valley, but wasn’t gone.
