The Mountain gets Bigger

Even free range chickens seldom get too far from the roost. True to that standard I spend most my flights within a 30 mile radius. Auburn is so close to Seatac that the westbound transition is made almost immediately after a Vx climb from 34 at S50. I use the terminal chart more often than a sectional. The mountain is over 30 miles but still on the bottom right corner of the Seattle terminal .For the last few flights I have been exploring up the Carbon & Puyallup river valleys. Flying below 4,000 most the time the area has been logged in areas with plenty of roads in convenient locations below me.After circling the little hill just SE of Enumclaw at hilltop level, we head south to Burnett, Wilkeson & Carbonado, our last big landmark. Fairfax is not even noticeable below as we follow the Carbon river valley South. The terrain rises as the river turns East and enters a narrow valley that I am wise enought not to fly into. The hills on each side rise to nearly 6,000 (as big as a mountain back east), and from our low level tower above us. I have plans to fly in at a higher level on a calm day & return by descending down the valley. Paralleling the hills we fly on South Through a saddle and into the Puyallup valley. My son spots one of the very few structures ,and there are still some roads below, but the entire valley is uninhabited. There is a water Pipe line snaking along the valley, but nothing else. Maintaining 4,000 MSL I fly as close as I can parallel to the Mountain while still having a few hundred feet AGL. The water is low and the river seems benign from our height but looking to the left the great Mt Tahoma looms above us, ever growing in the windscreen. What normally is visible on the horizon from all of the Puget Sound region, now dominates the scene. From the Carbon it seemed big, now it appears huge. I have to move my head to see to the top. The valley still extends SE ahead of me, but the hills all around appear to also be growing, to the south the ridge is over 4,00 with a peak of nearly 5,000, our only escape is to the west, then NW. When we reach the fork in the river, very near the end of the green terrain on the terminal chart, we are treated to the view of a verdant green valley, unseen & unknown to the millions only a few miles behind us. It is calm ans we are enjoying a smooth ride as we cruise along the East edge of the main Valley. Well before the end of the canyon looms ahead I begin a right turn away from the hill, reversing course and descending to 1000 AGL as I follow the Puyallup. After I exit the last peaks of the foothills I turn west. Instinctively I slow as I reach the edge of the Plateau, where it drops off to the Ohop/ Kapowsin lakes, and it helps smooth out the inevitable bump as the bluffs below swirl the winds. From here the Mountain is again large on the horizon, but no longer does it fill the entire windscreen with its magnificent beauty.