The Alpine Neighbors of Stehekin, Washington

To live in such extreme country, neighbors have to help each other. Hikers heading to the summit of McGregor mountain in North Cascades National Park of Washington State. (Photo via Getty Images) Turn any article into a podcast. Upgrade now to start listening. Members can share articles with friends & family to bypass the paywall. I need to state at the outset that I’m not from Stehekin. I wasn’t born there. My family moved to this isolated valley in northern Washington and spent a year there when I was 11, and I later lived and worked there for four summers while in high school and college. Yet while most of my life has been spent elsewhere and I don’t pretend to speak as a true local, no one place has stamped me so indelibly. Jeffrey Bilbro is an associate professor of English at Grove City College and the editor-in-chief at the Front Porch Republic. More Where I'm From