Sierra Club: The Stations of Still Creek

A naturalist and author (Prairie Reunion), Scot, driven at the age of 54 to examine her inner self, spent nearly a year in the cabin she and her husband, Jim, owned at Still Creek, within the stunning beauty of the forest preserve on Oregon's Mount Hood, an hour away from their home in Portland. Choosing the Roman Catholic Stations of the Cross as an analogy, Scot found seven natural formations within walking distance of the cabin, where she went to meditate about her life. Interspersed with her personal ruminations are vivid descriptions of the changing seasons: of the salmon that spawned in the creek during the fall and of the winter snowstorms that decorated her stations with dazzling ice and frost. The major issues Scot confronted during this period were the state of her marriage and the certainty of death. Although she and her husband were united by their love for reach other and for the natural world, as well as by the deep pleasure they both took in mountain climbing, Scot refers to their relationship as ""containing an unspoken agreement to avoid anything in conversation that matters"" to their lives. Although Jim wanted to stop working to devote more time to mountain climbing, he kept his job in Portland and paid the bills while Scot retired from her teaching job and lived in the cabin. After their year apart, however, they went to Bolivia and hiked to the top of Cerro Charkini, a harrowing climb that, for the author of this richly expressive account, reaffirmed their relationship. (Oct.)