Hiking Scott Mountain by Devils Mountain and Little Mountain via Mount Vernon, Washington, near Ten Lake, Devils Lake, and Big Lake.

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Hiking Scott Mountain by Devils Mountain and Little Mountain via Mount Vernon, Washington, near Ten Lake, Devils Lake, and Big Lake.
ok so I'm not very good at photography, no training and I don't do it often, but I went on a trip out west last summer and took these on my phone. I think they're pretty :)
Devil's Mountain Part 2
Laura felt uneasy about her best friend going out alone with a man they'd never even met. "Jess, you can't be serious! You literally don't know this man and you're going on a date with him?"
"Isn't that how everyone starts out? You and James were strangers before you started dating."
Laura didn't know what to say to that. "Dude, back me up here."
"I say let her go."
"Are you insane?"
"Cleary, I'm not the one who's insane here, L."
"I'm assuming I am." Jess scoffed.
Amidst his girlfriend and the girl he used to call his best friend arguing, he shoots Laura a text: "Honestly, why are we even friends with her? She does whatever she wants no matter how dangerous, and has no regard for anyone's safety, not even her own."
The text struck Laura as odd. James had grown up with Jess, and he was the very reason they became friends in the first place. He's always known how reckless and impulsive she is, and it's never bothered him before. Why now? Her eyes flicked from Jess to James, her mind now flooded with scenarios, none of which she liked. She pushed the thoughts out of her mind.
"At least tell us where you're going." Laura pleaded.
"We're going to that new restaurant that opened up at the end of the block a few months ago. Neither of us have been there, so we decided it'd be perfect for a first date. Now, please stop with the twenty questions and help me figure out what to wear."
She held up her favorite black mini dress. It was tight around her waist and clung to her hips, making them appear slightly larger. However, her favorite part of the dress was how it accentuated her cleavage. The dress was a little too tight at the top, so her breasts would stay lifted without a bra, giving the man she wore it for the perfect view of her nipples. "What about this one?"
James started to fidget in his seat, knowing damn well what dress she was holding up. His temperature rose, causing him to sweat. He couldn't get the images of her in that dress out of his head. "God, this is stupid." He stormed out of the room before anything else could rise, leaving them in an awkward silence.
"What the fuck is his problem?"
"I don't know. He's been on edge lately, and all we ever do is fight."
Jess knew why James was upset. She's always known about his attraction to her. Did she find him attractive as well? Yes, but she never gave him the satisfaction of admitting it. Jess had too much power over him, and she'd never been ready to give that up until recently.
When Jess stepped into the dress and bent over to slide it up her body, Laura caught her off guard, causing her to stumble and almost rip her dress.
"Did something happen between you and James?"
She shot Laura a defensive look. "Of course not! How could you even ask me that?"
Laura didn't believe that. She had been friends with Jess long enough to know the type of girl she was. She took what she wanted and rarely ever asked for permission, and that included men. James was hot. He had neck-length wavy brown hair, dark brown eyes—almost black, and a muscled body that all the girls drooled over. She was surprised that James even liked her enough to be her boyfriend, but he asked her out (which meant it was only a matter of time before Jess made her move. [She'd always found unavailable men much more attractive and the sex much hotter]).
"I just get the feeling he's hiding something from me. We used to tell each other everything, but now he's either working a shit ton of hours or we barely talk. I never get to see him anymore."
The door to her bedroom opened, cutting the conversation short. James reentered the room, zipping his pants, and Jess caught sight of him in her vanity mirror, giving him a smirk only he could see. She got off knowing he'd just been in the bathroom jerking off to whatever fantasies were playing in his head.
Jess started applying her make-up and met his gaze in the mirror "What took you so long?"
"I had to take a piss."
She swiveled around in her chair to face him, staring curiously.
"What can't a guy take a piss?"
"That was a pretty long piss." Jess said with a wink.
"Okay, I didn't just piss." His cheeks flushed red, hoping Laura wouldn't figure out what he had actually been doing in the bathroom.
"Oh, I bet; we had tacos for dinner." She added, lazily trying to hide her implications. Part of Jess wanted Laura to know that she and James had had sex. She knew Laura deserved better but genuinely didn't want to hurt her.
Laura let cackled as she watched James' cheeks grow redder.
"Okay, how do I look?"
Despite knowing she was an attractive woman she struggled with her insecurities. Jess was slim and petite, only standing at 4' 11" at twenty-eight years old. No one could understand why she was so insecure, and she was often made to feel worse if she brought it up, so she no longer did. She coped the only way she knew how: with men and validation from her friends.
"You look incredible!" Laura exclaimed. Jess could always count on Laura to hype her up. She made Jess feel beautiful and human.
"You look good." James said, standing by the door attempting to look uninterested, avoiding making eye contact with her.
They refused to acknowledge James' negativity and changed the subject to "so, when will you be home?" and "I should be home by 10." simultaneously. They laughed, as they always did when they read each other's minds.
"God, I love you, L." She said, slipping on her heels as she hugged her best friend. And she did. Laura was irreplaceable to her. She didn't think she'd ever find another person like her. She often wished there was a way she could really show Laura how much she truly meant to her, but emotion and affection weren't Jess' strong suit.
Laura and James escorted Jess out the door, locking up behind them before heading home themselves.
"I really hope she has fun and stays safe."
"I'm sure she'll be fine. Jess is always fine.
Scheduled part 2 of Devil's Mountain to post on Halloween! 🎃 🥳
Jess Gough
this is the closest I have ever come to being able to capture the dreamworld through a piece of art.
truthfully, living on teufelsberg is just this beautifully surreal every day.
I’m so happy to be able to share this chunk of my heart with you through this movie.
thank you, jono, for the music. thank you, hunter, for the garden. thank you, schweini, for the interspecies companionship. thank you, shalmon for the opportunity.
and thank you dear friends for floating with me in this dreamworld for a little while…
The most interesting place
Yesterday we visited Devil's Mountain. A man made hill and the tallest hill in West Berlin. Teufelsberg, as it's called in German, is made up of about 34,000,000 cu yd of rubble from around Berlin. Much of which is from the destruction of the second world war. Even more curious is that buried beneath this mountain lays the never completed Nazi military-technical college (Wehrtechnische Fakultät). The college proved to be built so sturdy that burying it was easier than demolishing it with explosives. But wait, it gets even better! Perched way up upon the top of the hill are the abandoned remains of one of the largest NSA listening stations used during the cold war. It was used to listen to the military traffic of the nations who were part of the Warsaw Pact. This abandoned military compound is where we explored today. Hiking up dirt trails through the dense forest where wild boar are known to roam we finally came to a small plateau where we were greeted by three rows of chain-link fence. At various spots in the fence are holes cut just big enough to climb through. So after working our way through all three rows of fencing and climbing up some precarious rubble covered slopes we made it to the compound. There are multiple buildings, all covered in graffiti and broken glass. Three or four massive canvas covered domes designed to amplify the tinyest of sounds sit on top of the buildings. We climbed our way to the top of the tallest building, up a sometimes pitch black stair well that wrapped around the central elevator shaft. At the top, inside the still preserved dome, every whisper, every breath and minute movement is audible. The only light coming from a doorway sized hole on one side of the dome where a couple of other explorer/delinquents sat drinking beer and playing with the surreal sounds effects. After a while we made our way back down and explored a few of the the other building, all strewn with bent metal and shattered glass. We eventually said goodbye to this strange and intriguing land and squeezed ourselves out through the holes in the fences. After catching part of a beautiful sunset from the hill above Grunewald forest we made it back to the train just as night was setting in.