We drive about an hour from our hotel to the Cascade Head Nature Conservancy Trail. It’s cool and rainy without rain. The forecast says we’ll be ok.
The forest is covered in ferns; the path muddy. We find sticks at the trailhead and dig them in the dirt. Logan gets a phone call from a recruiter and I feel relieved. The only reason we've been able to make this spontaneous trip is because Logan got let go the week before. "Is now a good time to talk?" the recruiter asks, and Logan says "Sure, but I’m hiking in Oregon so I may be a little out of breath." I wonder what the recruiter thinks about this, whether he's calling from an office or a house. Maybe he's on a mountain. But I absolutely know he's not on this trail, and that makes me feel lucky. This is it. This is what I wanted. “Well, babe, this is what you wanted," Logan tells me when he hangs up. "We’re hiking in Oregon.”
We hike for at least an hour and then arrive at the vista. Logan says “Wow! Wow!” as I fumble for my camera. The grey sky touches the ocean horizon, and sheer rock face drops to a cacophony of crashing waves. We follow a descending trail until we come to a fence protecting the fragile habitat. I sit and eat a banana and a donut in the cool breeze. We return to the hill and FaceTime my dad. He smiles. This was his Oregon, once, back when he was in his 20s and spent seasons at the ski resort.
Logan already feels tired and is concerned for rain, but I want to press higher and higher, so we go. We walk over prairie into the woods, old-growth forest with tall, tall trees. It's incredibly beautiful, and I don’t want to leave. The path is brown and spongy and everything feels dense and delicious. I'm thinking how relationships do this, how partners always have to compromise. But I get it. I’m tired and hungry, too, and eventually we turn around. The descent is hard--I forget how hard it can be, balancing shoes, balancing on rocks, mud. My ankle hurts. Logan rushes ahead of me, propelled by greater inertia. It looks like it’s going to rain.
It doesn't.