New Years Day 2011.
Thunderstorm Junction is a fickle place. Beautiful and dangerous. A place where decisions are made. Cut in less than a mile below the summit of Mt. Adams, an exposed flat intersection of converging trails. Up to Adams, over to Madison, traverse to Jefferson, down to Gray Knob, go into King Ravine or follow it's rim to Crag Camp. Lowes Path, Israel Ridge, the Gulfside Trail (part of the AT), the Great Gully, Spur Trail, all converge at or near the 6' cairn that marks the junction.
The pile of rocks is a welcome sight, a definitive landmark and a shield in high winds. I've seen a lynx near the junction under a full moon. Hunkered behind the cairn to read my map during a night hike. Sat with my back against the cairn, resting my legs on my way up Mt. Adams in the snow.
Today I watched and waited as a group of Canadian hikers came down the summit cone of Mt. Adams. They had stayed at Gray Knob the night before, and I had seen them on the summit from the Gulfside Trail near Storm Lake and Edmonds Col. I hung my pack on a sign and watched and listened as they scampered down the snowfields and into the flats of the Junction.
"We are so lucky to be here." one said to me in broken English as he approached.
"It's has nothing to do with luck," I replied.
This shot is absolutely beautiful. The light is phenomenal!
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