Hells Canyon

We took off from Walla Walla around noon today. After a gorgeous drive along the Oregon Scenic byway through the canyon, then a brief drive along the canyon rim, we arrived at our campsite, outside the J2 Ranch. We've got a beautiful overlook of the canyon and a great setup here where we'll be for the next four nights. Jay, Season and Phil have worked really hard to ensure that we have a perfectly functioning internet connection, kitchen, tent, shower and bathroom system and we're living plush!

Today I realized what David Bayles meant when he says, "You are already at the center of the West." Each place we drove through today was the "Westernmost" of any Western place I've ever visited - Walla Walla offering free rodeo tickets and the billboard saying, "Don't let Seattle steal this election," the bison farm outside Enterprise and the Wallowa River gorge. I anticipate that this will be the case for the rest of the semester. And today we didn't even talk to anyone. I think this will be a semester of understanding, illumination and great questioning.

Hell's Canyon is a beautiful place to get acquainted to the West. The view is scenic, the weather is beautiful (so far, though we're expecting a storm tomorrow) and the company (as usual) is great. I can't wait to meet Mary and get started on the first assignment!

In The West?

The final chapter of this year of travel has begun. Currently, the Westies are living up at Johnston Wilderness Campus, about half an hour outside of Walla Walla doing various orientation activities, getting to know each other, and getting accustomed to living out of a duffel bag (yet again) for the next four months. We've had only one academic discussion so far, involving our perceptions of and thoughts about the West, which turned into a funny sort of defensive stake claiming of each person and their home state. The group is varied in terms of home, but not so much in terms of interests and viewpoints. For this, I am excited to get on the road and talk to other people. But so far we get along great and are similarly terrified and excited to get going.

Tomorrow we leave for our first adventure! It's off to Eastern Oregon for Ecology with Mary O'Brien. I can't wait to get started.

last week of summer

It's hard to believe that summer is already over. I leave for Walla Walla next Tuesday to head off on my next (and final) great adventure for my 21st year. This fall I'll be exploring some of the biggest environmental and political issues of the Western United States under the guidance of Phil Brick, an environmental-politics professor at Whitman and with 20 other students who I cannot wait to meet and get to know.

During the last 6 months, I traveled to Tanzania and Ecuador with school-related programs. The people I met and the things I saw and learned in these places are forever ingrained in my memory and will inspire me to be a more compassionate and active person for the rest of my life. To the friends I made in these places, I can't wait for our next great adventure.

So here's to the next page. I'll try to keep up with this as much as internet access allows, and I'd love to hear from anyone and everyone along the way.

Also, we have a website...www.semesterinthewest.org so you can follow our progress there!