We drove to the Cascade Mountains. Hiked for four hours. When we came back, the boots were all muddy.

Maya planned it.

She said we needed air. The garage was getting to me. I'd been staring at the same jacket for three days. Couldn't figure out why the shoulder seam felt wrong.

So we packed coffee and sandwiches. Drove east.

The mountains looked different in October. Less green. More gray. The kind of quiet that makes you lower your voice without thinking.

We parked at the trailhead around nine. Mud everywhere before we even started. I almost turned around. Didn't want to clean my boots later.

Maya just started walking.

The Hike

Two hours up. Two hours back.

Nothing dramatic. No near-death experiences. Just rocks and roots and that wet Pacific Northwest smell. The one that gets in your nose and stays there.

I slipped once. Caught myself on a tree. Maya laughed. I told her the trail was poorly maintained. She said I just wasn't looking where I was going.

She was right.

At the top we sat on a log and ate our sandwiches. Bread got squished. Coffee went cold. Neither of us cared. You could see the whole valley. Hood in the distance. Clouds moving slow.

We didn't talk much. That's how it works with us. She takes photos. I sit there. Good enough.

The Way Down

Harder than going up. My knees complained. The mud got worse. At one point I stepped in something that pulled my boot halfway off.

Maya stopped to photograph a mushroom. I waited. Ate the last piece of sandwich even though I wasn't hungry.

Got back to the car around one.

The Mess

My boots were wrecked. Mud caked up to the ankles. Laces stiff. Soles packed solid.

Maya's too. She didn't care. Said they looked better that way.

She's probably right.

We drove home with the windows down. Put on some old blues record. I don't remember which one. I made soup. She cleaned her camera lens. Neither of us mentioned the mud until the next morning.

What I Thought About Later

Boots clean up. Leather dries. Mud brushes off.

But that quiet on the trail? The way Maya just started walking without waiting for me? That stays.

I'm not being deep about it. Just saying.

Some days you need to stop looking at seams and go outside. Get your boots dirty. Come back and figure out the jacket tomorrow.

The jacket still has that weird shoulder by the way. I'll deal with it next week.

Maybe.