August 20

August 20, 2011 ~

Fire, leaves such a scar behind! I had not been back to Cloud Cap since the big fire four years ago. I never imagined how much damage was done to the forest. Acre, upon acre of charred snags and fallen trees! Where I used to drive through the woods for miles on a road with switchback after switchback, we see views I never knew were there. As I neared the historic Cloud Cap Inn, I wondered what I might find.  I remembered hearing or reading in the paper that they were fighting to save the inn. As I rounded the last corner before the Inn, I looked up and saw that truly they had saved the Inn! The fire came right up to it and there it stopped.  We climbed up the ridge behind the inn and looked out over the valley and could see that the only part of the forest that was saved on the east side of the Elliott Glacier area was Cloud Cap Inn and Tilly Jane Camp Ground.

Sin is like fire. It damages everything it touches, but, just like those fire fighters that so feverishly tried to save the Lodge and camp ground, God comes and puts the fire out! Sometimes there is damage that has to be repaired but He saves His children! 

Happy For A Reason Reasons:

1.       A wonderful hike on Mt. Hood.

2.       Cloud Cap and Tilly Jane were saved! These are two of our favorite camping/hiking places on the mountain.

3.       The ablilty to hike.

4.       The spectacular beauty that I have enjoyed today, in spite of the damage caused by the fire. Sometimes a picture is worth more than a thousand words!

5.       A God who repairs the damage sin causes in our lives, as well as the damage done in nature by a fire that was started by a strike of lightning.