- Whitehorse Mountain (summitpost.org)
Whitehorse Mountain has it all: The mountain itself is spectacularly beautiful, especially from the little town of Darrington at it’s base: The views from the summit are world class in all directions; the hike in and the climb are difficult enough to be forever memorable; and the solitude, especially considering this mountain’s proximity to habitation, is remarkable. On this last note: During my five trips up Whitehorse’s slopes over the past few years I’ve yet to encounter a single other hiker or climber save a herd of mountain goats in one of the meadows! As if that isn’t enough, there are stories of a mad Bulgarian hermit that lived for years in a campsite on the mountain’s lower slopes and there was even a TV movie with scenes filmed on the summit icecap. (see below: Misc.) Other accounts vary slightly but I measured the round trip as a relatively short 10.6 miles, but in this distance, starting at the 912 foot trailhead you will gain over 5,900 feet to the summit and another approx 1000 feet due to several ups and downs in the middle portion of the trail for nearly a 7,000 foot total gain.
- William Blake (Wikipedia)
William Blake (28 November 1757 – 12 August 1827) was an English poet, painter, and printmaker. Largely unrecognised during his life, Blake is now considered a seminal figure in the history of the poetry and visual art of the Romantic Age. What he called his “prophetic works” were said by 20th-century critic Northrop Frye to form “what is in proportion to its merits the least read body of poetry in the English language”. His visual artistry led 21st-century critic Jonathan Jones to proclaim him “far and away the greatest artist Britain has ever produced”. In 2002, Blake was placed at number 38 in the BBC’s poll of the 100 Greatest Britons. While he lived in London his entire life, except for three years spent in Felpham, he produced a diverse and symbolically rich collection of works, which embraced the imagination as “the body of God” or “human existence itself”.