This time of year, once the sun heads south, temperatures drop and moisture-laden storms start stacking up in the mountains, the Evergreen State becomes anything but. After the first big snowfall arrived a week before Thanksgiving, I set out into the wilderness with my camera, a case of water and four-wheel drive; there, in a narrow valley on the east side of Stevens Pass, I found an empty grain train cruising downgrade along Nason Creek through a Cascade Range conifer forest covered in a clean coating of fresh white snow. Welcome back, winter; we have missed you.
