Memoir Writers Homework.Installment 3.

Here is the third of the memoir writers homework series,based on the topic "mountains"from the session opn Monday,May 7.

I live on a continent that has mountains on both sides and I have been fortunate to see both of these wonderful mountain ranges,both very different from one another.In part it was the desire to see the Rockies that led me to the west,and they have never disappointed me.They inspire awe every time I see or pass through them.The first time I ventured into the Rocky Mountains would have been in a frightfully hot August of 1979,near Jasper Alberta.The road,the main highway that is was impassable for the many heards of mountain goats.I thought I would have to walk far into the backcountry to see them,but they venture right out on the road and show no fear of humans or cars.Later that evening I made camp on the west side of the Rockies near Blue River ,British Columbia.The rain came quickly at sunset and I was forced to abandon the idea of sleeping in my tent and lay out across the front seat of my car.There I got to see the most violent thunder storm I'd ever seen light up those majestic peaks as I drifted off to sleep.In the morning the world was fresh and clean and very cold as mountain mornings can be even in summer.Sunshine returned and burned off the fog as I drove onward into the mountains of the interior of British Columbia.Those mountains turned from cool and wet to very dry in the Okanogan Valley to wet and thick with trees at the Pacific coast.A couple of years later I visited Mount Ranier in Washington state.It was and remains the single largest thing I've ever seen and to be truthfull,it filled me with awe and made me realize how very small I was.

The other side of North America has smaller mountains.People out west would call them hills,not mountains.But really,I think of them as my favorite mountains,a place I would like to live in the way of people from long ago.Back in the hills where there are no Homedepots or Walmarts.Just the sounds and sights of the Applachians.They may not be as big as western mountains,but they are more embracing,more like home.