oncall sex for life: hiking

Showing posts with label hiking. Show all posts

I was going to post this as a comment, and then I realized it was long enough for its own post, so here it is.

I am driving a 2012 Nissan Altima! I am calling it my Wizardmobile. The last time I bought a car was 2002, and I am SO unfamiliar with all the newfangled stuff that's come out in the decade since then. Apparently you no longer use keys to start a car. They are passé. Instead you just have the keys near the car and push a button.

It's a nice car. The doors shut solidly and it has some good acceleration. I'm used to a manual transmission, so having only the options of fully automatic or weirdly quasi-manual are odd. My hand keeps drifting over to where the shifter should be when I'm not thinking about it. It has something like 10 drink holders scattered all over the cabin. No clue what some of the buttons do, and not about to try them out for fear one is an emergency ejector or flame thrower.

The really nice things about it are that it is a tall enough car that neither Patrick nor I has our heads brush against the ceiling (my usual car is very compact), and it has a nice stereo system. The bass is lovely! But I do miss my car. And it is hard navigating a 4-door sedan around when you are used to a 2-door coupe and you have to park in a very cramped parking garage.

Like this, but in black.

I made sure to get the all the various insurances on it, just in case I had really horrible luck and someone else hit me before I even got my regular car fixed. The claim for this will go to the other driver's insurance along with everything else. They are supposed to contact me either this week or next, and we'll see how that goes. I hope it isn't some long, drawn-out fight. If they try to screw me, I guess I'll just end up getting a lawyer. Fun!

The doctor gave me a prescription for ultrasound physical therapy, so I'll be calling that place today to see about an appointment. The massage yesterday didn't hurt nearly as much as the previous one, owing in part to me mentioning to the therapist that I'd been in quite a lot of pain after the first one. She lightened up a lot this time, and I was able to get out of bed this morning without wanting to shriek. I think massage will work better and better as my hurt muscles heal up. Now it mostly feels like I've had a really godawful workout and I'm suffering through the aftermath. A week ago this time it felt like I'd been hit with a... truck. Oh, right. Hah.

So glad that dizziness is going away. It was just horrid on Sunday. One wave after another of disorientation. Since then it's happened a little less each day, and today isn't very bad at all. The doctor thinks perhaps it was brought on by Patrick and I going for a short hike-walk that involved some elevation gain (climbing). When I climb, I can feel my back muscles working, and the doctor said that it might have occurred from too much muscle tension fooling with my nerves. Either that or the concussion. Or both. Personally I'm going with the "both" theory. Having waves of disorientation and mood changes approximately one week after a concussion fits exactly with the classical profile. At any rate, I am glad that crap is easing off. I've finally quit crying about everything. I bet Patrick is relieved...

Aaaaand there, just set up four physical therapy appointments. I hope they help. I'm relieved to have come out of this without broken bones or some sort of terrible permanent brain damage. Just have to deal with the concussion and whiplash, but I am improving. I'm not supposed to go on anything more than a short, easy walk (no real elevation gain or loss) until I can move around without pain, and I can't carry a day pack for probably a couple of months. I'm hoping I'll be able to pick up the cello again soon (literally pick it up, it's pretty heavy and I can't even clean the catbox without my back arguing with me right now). Maybe in a couple weeks. On the up side, I'd only had one lesson, so there isn't much to worry about losing. It's not like I'm going to backslide after months of serious progress. I guess if I was going to get hit by a truck, this was the time to do it...

Achievable goals

I don't do well with vague goals. I like having clearly defined, measurable objectives, so that when you've reached them you can definitively congratulate yourself on having achieved whatever it is.

Vague goals:

I will lose weight
I will read more
I will get in shape
I will write more
I will make time for myself

Specific goals:

I will lose 5 pounds
I will read one book per week
I will hike to Camp Muir
I will run 5k in a single exercise session without keeling over and dying
I will write five blog posts per week
I will select one hour out of each weekend for myself and spend it however I please

Along with being clearly delineated, I belong to the Make Your Goals Achievable school of thought. I am not about to set a year's goal for myself of climbing a giant mountain, or writing a novel, or singing at Radio City Music Hall. Obviously, without the proper background for any of these things, I'm doomed to failure.

And I really don't like failure. You may have noticed.

So! In an effort to improve myself within well-defined, manageable terms, I have settled on the following goals for 2013:

I will climb to Camp Muir at 10,000ft (this is contingent upon my lungs not having a serious problem with moderate altitude; never having been this high, I'm not sure how they will react)
I will go on one hike per month (at least, might be higher, but this is an achievable level)
I will check out books both digital and physical from the library instead of buying them

It's easy to get carried away and set out 13 goals for yourself. But if you have too many, you'll probably decide they're not all worth the effort after about a week. Remember, there's likely a reason you weren't already doing this stuff, whether it be laziness, apathy, genuine lack of interest (I have a problem with this - doing stuff because I think I should in spite of not actually having interest in whatever it is).

I was tempted to set myself a bunch of other goals, but I tried to stop and think about it, deciding if I really cared enough about each particular goal to actively work at it. I really do want to achieve Goal 1. I've seen pictures of the views from Camp Muir, and I'd like to see them for myself. Also, I apparently have a fascination with mountaineering literature, but with my lungs and panic attacks I don't think I'll ever be able to climb huge mountains myself. Camp Muir is an acceptable compromise.

Goal 2 will help me to achieve Goal 1. Plus I genuinely do enjoy hiking, and since we just bought a bunch of gear for it, I feel that I should use said gear regularly.

Goal 3 is both an exciting opportunity to read a lot more and will save both space and money! I was hampered for years by not having enough money or space for all the books I wanted to read, and it's silly to buy them when you think you might only want to read them once.

I thought about making weight loss goals and blogging goals, but really? If I cared that much about my weight, I'd already be slaving away at the gym. I don't have any health problems related to my weight, and Patrick thinks I'm attractive, so meh. I can't be bothered to set a goal for that. The hiking should get me a little fitter, anyway. On the blogging goal front, I realized that I don't want to regard writing as a chore. I undoubtedly will if I think I'm being forced into doing it, even if I'm the one doing the forcing. Some days the inspiration juice just ain't flowing, you know?

Have any of you come up with goals for this next year?

I'm so glad this had a happy ending

I heard about this story from Patrick, and it first made me absolutely furious, then afterward really glad that I live in a world where there are good people, too.

Everyone working together

Basically the story is that this guy and a friend of his went hiking on some mountains and brought his dog Missy along with them. Dogs have no business on this hike. It's called the Sawtooth for a reason. The poor dog was struggling and eventually the weather turned bad so they just left her there. After a day, they figured she was dead and didn't bother trying to get more help. Some other hikers stumbled across her after a few more days, huddled in some rocks and bleeding, so they tried to patch her up as best they could, fed her and left her with some water, but couldn't get her out as she weighed too much. They went back down and started a Facebook page, along with posting on a hikers' forum about the dog's predicament. People were enraged about the situation, and a search and rescue party of 8 was formed to go get Missy. The rescue group managed to find her and got her out, having to hike through a full-blown snowstorm to do it. Now the creep who left her up there wants her back, but he's being prosecuted for animal cruelty and the rescuers want to adopt her.

Missy being carried out

I hope he goes to jail and the rescuers get to adopt Missy. I further hope that her former owner is blacklisted by all animal adoption places from ever having another pet. I don't know how anyone could bring a dog on a hike like that in the first place, let alone leave her up there to die. Thank god there are still some real men and women on this earth to make up for the miserable failures.

Missy and her heroes

Hiking to Spray Park OR How We Nearly Got Stuck In The Dark MountainsOvernight With A Mountain Lion

This was an eventful trip to Spray Park.

We'd originally planned to go hiking Friday, but I slept horribly Thursday night and woke up feeling exhausted, so we ended up staying in, then deciding to get the last of our gear at REI on Saturday, and actually heading out on the hike Sunday.

Gurgles enjoyed the bag.

I needed to get some base layers for hiking so I wasn't swimming in my own sweat the whole time, and we wanted to see if we could get Patrick another hiking shirt while their Labor Day sale was still on, so Saturday we went down to the Seattle flagship store and had a look around. I got one each long-sleeved and short-sleeved top, a couple pairs of wonderful moisture-wicking underwear (makes SUCH a difference, you don't even know...), and the sports bra of champions. Patrick did end up getting a shirt, and it worked out well for hiking.

We packed up all our stuff Saturday evening and tried to make sure we had everything. We'd also stopped and gotten a bunch of food to take with us. Cashews, dried fruit, these coconut-banana things that were just delicious but had a surprisingly large calorie load, etc.

Water bottles were packed, along with the knife and fire-making stick that I decided to bring, because who knows? You could suddenly be hiking and find yourself in the middle of a zombie apocalypse! We went to bed fairly early Saturday night and got up Sunday morning to a lovely sunny day. I put in my contacts, we had a bite of breakfast, and off we went.

It took about 2 hours to get to the trailhead, but there were so many cars that we wound up parking about half a mile down the road from it (this will be fun later, trust me). The last 15 or so miles of road is this awful, dusty, washboard surface. Makes for an incredibly dirty car, ugh. All the cars parked along the side of the road basically looked the same color after having been coated in clouds of dust, and ours joined the line at the very end. People also camp up at the trailhead, so a number of the vehicles in the actual lot were from people who'd gotten there a day or two beforehand.

After a couple false starts (things forgotten in the car that trips had to be made back for), we got ourselves up to the actual trailhead and started down. Yes, down. Not up. In spite of the fact that we were already at 4800 feet and would end up around 6400, this trail went down very abruptly at first. Altitude hiking (even at these lower ranges, it's still a factor) is an entirely different kind of beast from regular hiking, if you aren't used to it. Your heart starts really pounding on climbs, and everything begins aching at once after a pause of a couple seconds. Your head, lungs, throat, back, everything.

We got carried away at first trying to climb up out of the basin fairly rapidly, and learned that that was a bad idea when everything closed up on me and I had a minor panic attack trying to breathe. Stupid anxiety. It's so irritating. You'll be going along, doing just fine, and then you'll start having issues getting air in and out, and suddenly your brain panics. Then your throat closes up, you can't breathe at all, and you sound like you're having a terrible asthma attack. We waited until it went away, and then proceeded more slowly along up the trail again.

Spray Falls

Eventually, past many tree roots and rocks, we found the turnoff for Spray Falls. It was kind of hard to get a picture of these, as there were some people scattered around closer to the water, but I tried. We stopped here and refilled one of our water bottles, then put on sunscreen and had a bite to eat. The meal here was rather decadent, with cheese, grapes, crackers and a couple of those coconut-banana things. There was so much cheese in each little personal tray we'd brought along that I wasn't hungry for the rest of the day.

I had a blister on my left heel at this point, despite having put moleskin on my heel and securing it (or so I thought) with that athletic wrap stuff that's supposed to stick to itself. I readjusted everything and wrapped it all back up, hoping that it would be fine. When we were done eating, we got back up and pushed on for the last gasp. If you look at the picture labeled Spray Falls, you'll see that big cliff near the top of the picture (the rocky thing with the trees on it). That water comes out of Spray Park, so we could see from the falls how far we had yet to climb.

We backtracked up from the viewpoint until we were once again on the regular trail, and continued upward. This series of switchbacks is exhausting. Not being used to the altitude makes it even more difficult. We'd pause every couple of turns to take a breath and make sure we didn't keel over. Finally, after what seemed like forever, we made it to where the trail starts opening out into clearings. Spray Park seems to be a collection of meadows and water sources that are all vaguely connected, which makes for a confusing time when you're trying to figure out exactly where you need to go to get the best view of Rainier. We tried a little offshoot trail, but it seemed to descend into another basin, so we went back to the one with big stones on it and followed it for a time.

Spray Park

I somehow managed to avoid taking an actual close-up picture of wildflowers, despite that being the primary reason most people go on this hike. I guess you can kind of see them in the picture to the left, but they're in shadow. You get the idea, anyway. Alpine meadows with a zillion wildflowers.

When we got to where we had a pretty good view of Mt Rainier, we decided to call it good, and tried to settle down to have a brief rest...

No. Mosquitoes.

I HATE mosquitoes. We slapped on some insect repellent, but you could still hear the little vampires buzzing around your ears. I couldn't really relax while we were there because of them, so we didn't stay very long. I kept smacking mosquitoes off Patrick's back and my arms, and it wasn't exactly calming. It's definitely quiet up there, though, minus the sounds of bugs. You can occasionally hear a little pika chirp from somewhere in the rocks. Very cute. There are marmots and supposedly a bear was sighted by some hikers earlier, but we didn't ever catch a glimpse. I guess the mosquitoes suck on the wildlife when people aren't around.

View from Mosquito Heaven

The mountain looks gigantic up close. Although strangely more attainable than when it's miles away. I guess when you see it from Shoreline, it looks like it must be infinitely high in order to be visible from that far away. Up closer, you can see the rocks and glaciers and appreciate that, while they're enormous, they're still finite. Maybe one day I will climb that beast.

Patrick had evidently done something to his left knee either when we were just arriving in the meadows or shortly thereafter, which did not bode well. We think now it was just a twist or something, nothing serious, but when you're staring down the last half of a total 7.5 mile trek, it is pretty alarming to have pain starting up in your leg. We packed up our stuff and slowly headed back down the trail. As we were going along, it got more and more painful for him.

View out to the right of Rainier

We stopped a couple times to rest it, but that didn't really seem to make it any better. I kept looking around for a stick he could use as a prop, and finally found one that seemed like it would do the job. I broke it off the tree it was attached to, snapped off the spindly end with my foot, and gave it to him.

It did seem to help a little, having something to lean on, but his knee was still very painful. He had to keep it straight when he put weight on it, as if he tried to bend it with any weight on, it was excruciating. Poor guy. I felt so bad for him. I tried to be encouraging as we went along, but there wasn't a lot I could do to help. He's just too big for me to haul him anywhere or be of much use other than trying to catch him if he were to lose his balance. Eventually he got some pretty bad blisters on the hand he was using to hold the stick with, and I had the thought to get some more moleskin out of our bag and put it on his hands, then cover up the stick with the leftover athletic wrap I had brought along. I guess it helped a little. The moleskin didn't stay on very long, but I think the wrap padding cushioned the stick a bit so that at least one of his blisters didn't burst.

The brown area is a boggy sort of place. More mosquitoes!

The switchbacks until we got back to Spray Falls were particularly bad, since they were so steep and covered with rocks. This trail is basically filthy the whole way. I realize that sounds stupid, because it's outside, but most trails we've been on are not this dirty. It's just piles and piles of dirt. I guess it's from all the people? I don't know what the reason is exactly, but it makes for very treacherous footing, even with a stick and good hiking boots.

Fortunately we'd left the park a lot earlier than we'd planned (pre-mosquitoes, we'd thought to eat a bit and relax for an hour once we actually made it to the meadows, but that quickly became an unpleasant option), and that ended up working out really well. Had we left any later than we did, we'd have been trying to hike out of a basin on a bad knee in pitch black. There are no lights around, as you're out in the middle of nowhere. I suppose we could've used the fire stick in a pinch, or the phones we carried.

Looking at the trail home

We went very slowly and carefully, and gradually made our way out. I was so proud of Patrick. He was in pain and had a horrible time of it, but he was determined and got himself out of there. There were a few people camping here and there, but not many. The sun looked like burning fire coming through the trees as we got closer to the trailhead, and the last of the light was fading just as we dragged ourselves up the last climb.

Fortunately there was a restroom at the campground, so we made use of that and then I asked Patrick if he wanted to wait for me to go get the car and come back for him. He wanted to try coming with me, but it was very painful for him, so after a little while he decided he'd wait. I took off for the car (another half mile, UGH) at the quickest pace I could manage. It was getting very dark very quickly, and I couldn't tell which car belonged to us. I found one that I thought was ours, and stopped to get the backpack off myself. I ended up having to cut the waist straps with my keys in order to get them loose enough to step out of, and then tried the key in the car only to find out that it wasn't even our car. No. This dirt-colored thing belonged to someone else. Good thing I didn't set off their alarm...

Okay. So. Pick up the pack again and keep going. More road. More dirt lumps. More cars that weren't ours.... FINALLY. There was our car. Mind you, this was Patrick's car, not mine. So I didn't know where anything was on it. I got it open and threw the pack in, ripped off my boots and foot wrappings to put on sandals, and tried to get it working so I could go get him. I was trying to find the stupid emergency brake release and accidentally popped the hood, so I had to go slam that back down (this must've looked hilarious to any animals watching me). Eventually I got the car going and turned around in what was probably the slowest three-point turn ever. I didn't want to run off a cliff or into a ditch, so I had to be very careful. My car is not an automatic and his is, and I'm not at all used to cars that just start moving forward the second you release the brake. Yikes.

Poor Patrick was waiting for me, and I managed to get up there and fetch him. I guess he'd started walking again after it dawned on him that maybe it wasn't such a good idea for me to go trekking off into the mountain dark on my own, so he was a bit closer than I'd expected. I drove us out, going about 25 on the horrible washboard road so as not to zoom off a cliff and die or run into some gigantic creature...

Speaking of gigantic creatures. We were going along when suddenly something ran across the road. At first I thought it was a deer, because it's always a deer. But then my brain sort of stuttered and fell over itself with this train of thought:

Deer in the road!
NOT DEER.
Runs funny....
What is
MOUNTAIN LION

Yep. An absolutely gigantic mountain lion had just run across the road probably 30 feet in front of us. Unfortunately we didn't get any pictures as it happened so quickly, but it was a gorgeous cat! Running so smoothly and fluidly.... It must've been 400-500lbs of apex predator. Such a beautiful coat, complete with the black tip on its tail. We didn't see anything ahead of it, so maybe it was just traveling and not actually after something. That really woke us up. We'd seen signs everywhere telling us that we were in bear country, but nowhere had I seen anything about mountain lions, although I suppose I should've known.

Yep, this is what we saw.

After that, all the stuff we saw in the road (couple of little rodenty things scurrying along, one raccoon looking to hitchhike) seemed like very small potatoes! I'm so glad we weren't going faster. I'd have felt awful if we'd hit the lion. It took about 2 hours to get home, and we dragged ourselves out of the car and into the shower to get rid of the insect repellent and tons of caked on dirt before going to bed. I think we were finally asleep about midnight.

Patrick's knee feels much better after a day of rest, although we are both still really sore. Getting up this morning we basically just hobbled around for a while until the worst of the stiffness wore off. I tried to get a bunch of chores done yesterday while Patrick rested, and I think I got most of them done. I even made a giant pile of roasted veggies! Green beans, rainbow baby potatoes, mushrooms and garlic with smoked salt and a bit of olive oil, along with some Chinese sesame egg noodles. I was totally Domestic Girl, I tell you.

So glad we made it out of there. I wasn't sure what we were going to do if he couldn't have hiked back. Just tell some other hikers to call for a MedEvac when they got back to civilization? There's no reception up where we were. I was glad I thought to bring along the fire stick and knife, though. Just in case.

What a weekend this has been!

Pictures of stuff I got and another medical update

I have an appointment with a neurosurgeon on Tuesday, Sept 4. So we'll see what that doctor says. She's supposed to tell me if it's advisable to operate on my back or not. In all likelihood it won't be, but she can tell a lot more from an MRI than my general physician. With that out of the way, behold our loot!

Rain pants! REI Ultra Light Pants

Rain jacket. Marmot Minimalist Rain Jacket

Polartec layer. Arc'teryx Covert Cardigan Fleece Jacket (it doesn't have that weird light pattern on it in person, that's got something to do with the size of the picture from REI's website. It's just plain.

Patrick's rain jacket. Mountain Hardwear Stretch Typhoon Rain Jacket

We are so very stylish, I tell ya. Or at least dry. Wandering around in the wild soaking wet is pretty miserable. Cannot WAIT until Friday. I'm so looking forward to having an outing. I must remember to look for bug spray at Fred Meyer. Just my luck, I'd forget to buy any and then come back from the hike with welts all over my face. Attractive!

Patrick has some sort of stick bug repellent, but it would take forever to cover myself with a stick, not to mention the giant man I married. Hopefully they have this kind I used years ago in Texas. It was great! You just spray it on and it's not stinky or sticky. Kept the hordes of mosquitoes off. Please still exist, miracle stuff!

Update on my horrible back pain

Well, I went to the doctor today, and the MRI showed that I have a bulging disk that is probably pressing on the nerve and causing my pain. I was given a bunch of steroids that are supposed to get rid of the inflammation so I can heal, and I'm to take them in steadily decreasing doses, making note of when the pain returns.

He said something about giving me a steroid shot once we know where the pain starts coming back. I also have a referral to a neurosurgeon to see about possibly having it surgically fixed, but I'd rather not be cut if I can avoid it. Hopefully these steroids help and my back heals itself!

In good news, my nerves are not being smashed, sliced or otherwise damaged beyond repair. This is a source of great relief to me, as for a while the pain was so severe that I was sure I was going to cut a nerve and end up paralyzed or something. I also worried it might be another tumor, so learning that it is not was very comforting!

I told him about the numb patch on my back, and he said that was a hallmark of what the MRI says is wrong with me. Hopefully it will go away. Also, having surgery could just make it worse for a while as the nerve would likely be bruised and/or stretched during the procedure, and I suspect that would make work excruciating, so if I can realistically avoid surgery, I will.

We are planning to go on a 7.5 mile hike (that's the roundtrip distance) up to Spray Park in the foothills of Mt Rainier on Friday in order to see the wildflowers, and it should be gorgeous. I think my back will cooperate, as long as I don't have to clamber over boulders or anything, and from trip reports we've read, the trail seems fine. Just a bit of snow here and there.

Yesterday we went to REI and got ourselves some goodies at their Labor Day sale. I got a rain jacket, rain pants, and a polartec fleece kind of underlayer/jacket thing. Patrick got a rain jacket as well, and we both got fire-making sticks. They're mostly made of magnesium, with a sparking strip down one side (I think it's flint or some relative).

Rain jackets for hiking aren't like raincoats that you think of normally. They're a lot lighter, as when you're out in the field you don't want to have to carry more weight than absolutely necessary, and they also allow moisture to escape that builds up inside. The seams on our rain stuff have been sealed, so they're waterproof, and all the various openings have storm flaps so they won't blow open in the wind.

We were lucky to get it all on sale. The cream-colored polartec fleece layering item I got was originally very expensive as it's Arc'teryx, which is a really fancy hiking brand. They make splendid outdoor gear, but you really only need stuff that high-tech if you're wandering around in the arctic circle or summiting a real mountain (like Rainier or Everest). Fortunately for me, though, it was slightly more than half off, so I was able to get it! I love clearance sales. It will be excellent for hunting season. My jacket is Marmot, and a beautiful deep cobalt blue. The pants are REI and black. I'll show you pictures when I have a chance. This Blogger app doesn't do links.

Honestly, Patrick is right: the Marmot rain jacket looks for the most part to be just as good of quality as the Arc'teryx one I tried on (with a few obvious bells and whistles excepted), but for about 1/3 the cost. AND it was on sale. So it was a smashing deal. Yay!

Cannot wait to get out into the mountain air and see some wildflowers! There will be some gorgeous views of Rainier as well, provided the weather cooperates. I'll see about snapping some pictures for y'all so you can come along with us! <3

Old Sauk River Trail

We were lazing around on Saturday afternoon when suddenly I felt that some exercise was in order. Should we do what normal people do and have a walk around the block, maybe go for a swim? Of course not! We decided to go on a six-mile hike.

I found a lovely little trail that looked promising (hardly any elevation gain, lots of old growth), and we set off. We didn't even bother wearing hiking boots, opting instead for running shoes since the trail was reported to be in pretty great condition without a bunch of logs and rocks to climb over. (This nearly proved to be a poor decision near the end, when Patrick almost twisted his ankle, but ultimately managed to avoid it.)

It took about an hour and a half to get to the trailhead, since it was a goodly way up I-5 (past Everett, for those of you who know) and then east out past Darrington, a very tiny town featuring signs such as Sheep For Sale and TNT! Buy One Get One Free!, on the Mountain Loop Highway. The hike itself took a couple hours. 6 miles isn't much when you're walking on pavement, but on windy trails with things to step over and maneuver around it is a significant distance. We did it all! I am so proud of us. I like how we go weeks without doing anything and then suddenly decide to go on a long hike. /shrug At least we made it back before dark.

After our hike, we decided a meal was appropriate and tried Anthony's Seaport in Everett, which was actually really good. Patrick had Dungeness crab fettuccine and I had scallops with green beans and rice. Yum! Their chowder was pretty good as well. It's right on the water, and the wind coming off the waves at 9pm is very chilly when you're covered in a full-body slick of sweat from a hike. Brrrrr! I had some herbal tea to warm up, and the chowder helped a lot too. If you live on a boat, they offer free moorage while dining. So there's that. I love living on the west coast. We're all so strange.

I took numerous pictures (Patrick took a few as well), so I am including them here but throwing in a page jump because otherwise they will clog up the entire first page of this blog. Enjoy!

Driving there you can see the north Cascades.

Farmhouses! We done be country now.

Sunlight through the trees on our hike.

Sadly this is a bit unfocused (digital zoom on iPhones kind of fails still), but the fungus was delicate and beautiful looking, like little ghost dresses rising out of the green.