SCOTT SIMON, HOST:
When NPR's Brian Mann travels on assignment, he looks for wild and rugged places to explore. Sometimes that means winding up in places he never expected, like the Cascade Range in southern Washington state. Brian sent us this audio postcard.
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BRIAN MANN, BYLINE: I set off early, hiking the mountain trail - my goal high above, a ridge of rock.
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MANN: Climbing up through towering spruce trees, everything's just lush and green.
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MANN: I have a map, and my plan is to reach the summit of Silver Star Mountain. At first, I'm hiking fast, checking my wristwatch, trying to stay on schedule. But soon I find myself wading through waist-high ferns and asters, and I slow down.
(SOUNDBITE OF BIRDS CHIRPING)
MANN: Deep in the forest, I find myself stopping to listen to chickadees tustling in the trees. I set off again, moving more slowly.
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MANN: Soon, I find myself in a maze of pathways, and I slow down even more. Even with my map, I'm not sure which way to go.
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MANN: I've been just kind of piecing together sections of trail, marking them carefully so I know my way back. But it has kind of the feeling of exploring, a little bit.
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MANN: I've spent enough time in mountains that this kind of ramble feels less like being lost and more like realizing this is exactly where I want to be. And it's then, after I've stopped really trying, that I'm suddenly above the tree line.
There's a huge meadow here, and there's a cathedral structure of rock. And there's just mountains in every direction, and you can hear it's perfectly still. Really lavishly beautiful.
This is why I climb - not summits or points on the map or schedules, but this silence, these moments when the world reminds me to slow down. I don't make it to the top. Instead, I sit and just laze for a while on a balcony of rock surrounded by peaks.
Brian Mann, NPR News, on Silver Star Mountain in Washington state. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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