Sometimes, you need to get away from home to recharge the personal batteries.

That’s where the RV comes in. It’s amazing to have a tiny home on wheels available at a moment’s notice to serve as an impromptu escape hatch.

That’s how it was for John recently when he took our RV up to Mt. Baker Ski Area for a quick overnight adventure and to exorcise a few personal demons.

Here’s his story:

It has been a long road back for me and my injured knee.

Last winter, I was skiing a lot at Mt. Baker Ski Area, the legendary snowy resort 50 miles from Bellingham in the Northwest corner of Washington. It was an epic winter, and I racked up dozens of powder days.

Then in early February, my 64-year-old right knee twisted the wrong way during one of those rough-and-tumble days. I didn’t know it at the time, but my ski season was over.

I spent the next three months resting, hoping I could get back at it. No go. During my less-hopeful days, I wondered, “Is this the injury that ends my days as a skier?”

In May, I started physical therapy and I could feel myself getting stronger. June arrived with some warm days, and with 10 feet of snow still on the slopes at Mt. Baker, I said to Leslie, “I have to see if I can still do this.”

I loaded the gear in the RV and headed up to the Heather Meadows area of Mt. Baker, where I strapped skins onto my alpine touring skis and started climbing up to Artist Point, a beautiful spot overlooking the high peaks of the North Cascades. The knee ached a little as I settled into a slow, steady pace, but I climbed onward.

I made it to Artist Point, took in the glorious view and had a picnic lunch, then carefully headed back down to the RV on the sun-washed day, all smiles. The mountain where I hurt myself so badly four months earlier had been vanquished, and now it was time to enjoy the beautiful weather.

I hung out at the ski area parking lot late into the afternoon, basking in the mountain views and then spent the night at Silver Fir Campground off State Route 542 just a few miles away.

Silver Fir, like a lot of National Forest campgrounds, was closed last summer because of the pandemic. It was exhilarating to pull into the reopened campground, one more sign that the worst days of the pandemic are over.

I settled the RV into a beautiful, well-managed site on the banks of the raging Nooksack River. That night, the river roared, the campfire flickered, the trees swayed, and I didn’t even mind when I got the first mosquito bite of summer.

I was just happy to be back in action, knee on the mend, everything right with the world.

When you buy an RV, your thoughts are of the grand tour ahead, traveling across the country to some imagined glorious sunset overlooking some imagined, impossibly beautiful viewpoint. Sometimes, however, the best adventures are just a couple of hours from home, every bit as fulfilling and life-affirming.

This week’s Going Mobile question: Where do you go for a quick RV getaway? Mount Spokane? The Columbia Basin? Lake Pend Oreille? Tell us about a time you got away for a quick recharge in an email to goingmobile@spokesman.com and we’ll share your story in the next column.

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