By Sean Van Cleve (Hours Per Mile)
‘Pines’ -Watercolor on postcard, Beth-Ann Wilson
Mountains. During the infant stages of dating my then girlfriend, now wife, had her first exposure to trails, scratching below the surface beyond the board-walked trails like that in Bushkill Falls, Pennsylvania. It was in Harpers Ferry, West Virginia where painter Beth-Ann Wilson got her first taste of gritty trail. Now, having conquered the summit of Mount Washington, Aasgard Pass in the Enchantments, the Highline Trail in Glacier National Park, the Maryland Heights overlook near the Appalachian Trail hardly even registers on this oil painter’s Richter Scale…
Becoming fortunate enough to secure an overnight permit into the Enchantments of the Wenatchee National Forest this past summer, I began to assemble an unforgettable squadron of hikers, ‘The Six-Pack’- most coming from Baltimore, MD. My wife and I had decided to loosely plan a road trip to the Cascade mountains and back by compact car, transforming our trip into a life-impacting voyage.
Beth-Ann, being trained at MICA (Maryland Institute College of Art) as an oil painter, she took to her watercolors over this cross-country run for their superior portability. Watching an artist capture alpenglow on the scene shows an aspect of backpacking I had never experienced. After decades of visiting national parks, section-hiking many parts of the Appalachian Trail, I had never experienced such wild inspiration as seeing this wicked painter do her thing.
Now this, is relaxation…
‘Alpenglow’ -Watercolor on postcard, Beth-Ann Wilson
‘Aasgard’ -Watercolor on postcard, Beth-Ann Wilson
About the Author: Sean Van Cleve is a certified Leave No Trace Trainer, and certified Wilderness First Responder that has been backpacking recreationally for over thirty years. He currently resides in the Mid-Atlantic east coast of the USA, working part-time as a private product reviewer, and backcountry guide.
