Some of you might know that I do all the design work for Huckleberry’s Natural Market. It’s work that I thoroughly enjoy. They’re a great company with a great mission:

“to produce for and provide our customers with the best tasting, most healthful food possible and to pledge a commitment to social and environmental responsibility.“

Today’s ad (above) features a photo I took years ago on a backpacking trip with my friend James. Nothing pleases me more than getting to use some of my adventure photography for commercial use (insert comment about selling out as an artist here), and then bragging about it on my website!

James and I were camped at a little lake for a couple of days before we decided to spend the last night up on the ridge. We hauled everything (including a few gallons of water) up to a great meadow on the ridge and made camp. The views were beautiful and we could see for miles. It was different camping up high on a ridge vs. by a lake in a valley. We had no access to water and we were severely exposed to incoming weather.

Late that afternoon we noticed very dark and ominous clouds approaching our location. We gathered as much firewood as we could to prepare for rain. We burned all of it waiting for the storm, then we called it a night. Half an hour later we had access to fresh running water in the form of a stream running through James’ tent. Thunder and lighting was cracking and flashing all around us. The sound of the wind and rain was like a freight train. A few hours into it I had to go to the bathroom. I was a little worried to leave the “safety” of my tent, but when nature calls you answer. I only walked a few feet away from my tent because the visibility was almost zero. I turned around to look at my tent and I could barely make it out in the “fog”. We were literally inside of a thunderhead cloud. The moisture was thick as smoke. I took a leak quickly and hurried back to my tent. The rest of the night was spent sleeping lightly in between loud thunder claps.

It was still raining the next morning. We somehow managed to get a fire going using James’ wet wood fire starting skills. The fire was nice but nothing could dry us out in that rain. We solemnly packed up all of our wet gear and bushwacked our way down the mountain for hours in the rain. 10 years later I scanned in some old backpacking photos and put one in a natural market ad. Totally worth it.