First, it was a car. A two hour drive in and out of town. Grocery stores, doctors offices, restaurants and malls. Traffic lights, stop signs and four-way intersections. All the comforts of urbanity unlocked by the hum and whir of the family four-seater. A sprawling mountainscape fills the skyline for the first fifteen minutes of the drive. Its valley dips low, peaking in flatheaded caps. Several sharp turns and steep hills later, you get real close to the water.