Thoughts on a Rainy Evening

     I sit listening to the rain.  Unlike earlier in my life, I can enjoy and find peace in the rain in the wilderness. I know it is a disappointment to visitors and campers who only have a short time here at Glacier National Park. I do want them to have a marvelous experience and go home to work to keep the wilderness safe and wild. 

     The rain, however, means life. The amount of rain we receive in May and June determine the severity of the fire season which begins in August. People who live in the east have no idea what that means to us. Rain is good. 

     Campers are quiet. The sky is still quite light, even though it is almost 10pm, but Mt Cannon is shrouded in clouds and rain. I can not see it.  

     Nitsitapiisinni, our home, sits in the heavy rain forest of 3-500 year old cedars and hemlocks.  This is the farthest rain forest east. It is the last of the rain forest here. Many of the trees are 12-18 feet or more in diameter and over 150 feet high.  This is where we live and work. This is home.  It is my safe haven. It is where I escape from so-called civilization.

     I sit at the table looking out our big back window at a magnificent panorama of green. Our water comes from the side of the mountain; pure and refreshing. Our power comes from the sun. We run Nitsitapiisinni on 12 volt. Some people use inverters to create 120 volt power like a house, but it takes ten times the energy. Everything we have that requires electricity runs on 12 volts. 

     Sitting in Nitsitapiisinni I have every comfort I could need or want. We are twenty feet long and totally self-contained. Our furnace, hot water heater, stove and refrigerator use propane, so we do have to buy that every 3-4 weeks. Nitsitapiisinni is very efficient. We have been warm and cozy when the temperatures were in the 20s. Our furnace actually has floor ducts which keeps the holding tanks under the floor from freezing while keeping us nice and warm.  I have a kitchen with a double-sink, three-burner gas stove with a nice oven and a small but adequate fridge. Who could want more?  In Willy - our 35 year old 16 ft trailer - we were happy with a bed that was 4 inches wider than a single. You can imagine how palacial it is to have a full queen sized bed. We're spoiled.  We have 160 square feet of living space! We don't need or want more.  And it goes where we want to be!!

      It is so wonderful being out here. There is no television. The park radio, our only connection to the outside world, works most of the time but dispatch closes down at mid-night. Some of us leave our park radios on at night in case someone has an emergency. We have no internet or telephone. That's great!  The nearest cell signal is 16 miles away. Remember the old saying "silence is bliss"?  Honestly, I don't want this horribly damaged world in my face.
     Our way of life is daily threatened with extinction in the name of so-called 'progress', which is a euphemism for 'destroy nature'. But nature is true life. It is real life.  Without nature, without this reality, there will be no life at all.
     For now I sit and listen to the rain, enjoying the comfort and solitude of the wilderness trying not to think about what tomorrow will bring if Americans don't wake up to reality and take action.