La Grande is such an incredible place to live. Last Friday afternoon, July 16, Bob Carter and I drove two hours to Lostine River trailhead for the Eagle Cap Wilderness. Two hours and fifteen hundred feet later, we were in the incredible glacier meadow that runs three miles up into the lakes basin below the Eagle Cap monolith. I have been in this area many times, but never this early in the season. By late July and August, the air becomes hazy because of forest fires in the northwest, and because of local field burning. However, now it is crystal clear, deeply blue and sharp-the visual counterpart to the most delicious, refreshing spring water. All this beauty was reached in about four hours, from home to meadow!