The Narrative Landscape | Lakeside
In the outdoors we find stories—ones that deserve not only our memories, but also our record-keeping.

That afternoon on the flat, wide, perfectly firm sand of the Olympic coast, one of my classmates fell asleep on a log, his legs dangling, his hands held across his bare stomach. He was there for hours. When he woke up, the sun had burned his torso a furious red—and had left two fair handprints on his skin, just above his belly button. They were distinct. Sharp, even. In that moment, I didn’t quite realize how sharp those outlines were. Didn’t realize, until now—until I sat down to write—how much of an impression it had truly made on me.

Uncharted Territory | Lakeside
In the annals of Lakeside’s long-bending arc of experiential learning, “Quest” was distinctive. It was the only class that combined nature writing, philosophy, expedition planning, personal reflection—and the space to discover one’s place in the cosmos.

At the summit of the Angel Trail—after a climb away from the calm and milky brown of Utah’s Green River, through the reeds and reddish sand of Barrier Creek, past where Mars-like sandstone rolls over into an endless table of pastureland—there’s a marker called “Doelger’s Stick.” Perhaps marker may be too aspirational a designation. It’s just a stick, really, pounded into the ground, with an overturned tin can on top. Carved into the stick are a collection of names: Lakeside seniors, all of whom ascended here in the past, sometime during the trajectory of a three-week outdoor trip — and a semester-long class—called Quest.

Work with Evelyn

Evelyn Spence is a Seattle-based writer and editor and the collaborator, with marathoner Keira D’Amato, on an upcoming memoir.

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