There and Back Again!

You'd think that he had power over the elements, the way Tim can choose to take a day off weeks in advance, to go up into the mountains and it is the one weekend that the sun comes out! Our weekends seem to be so scheduled that we have to set a date for a backpack trip way out in advance and go not matter what. So I am particularly grateful that it was dry and sunny even for our trip June 11 and 12!

For Mother's Day, (I am pretty sure that was the excuse) Tim gave me a new pair of hiking boots. My old pair had worn through the heel on the insole and were causing problems. You like? I do! Tim's boots on the left, mine on the right. They are called Breeze LT by Vasque with Gortex liners. They are waterproof and I did a field test! stepped in a couple of creeks (one on purpose) and yes, my feet stayed dry! Yeah!

Here's Peggy crossing Royal Creek (comes down from Royal Basin) on the first bridge crossing. I am so glad these bridges have a rail or I would be in the river every time!

A look up one of the tributaries. Man we live where in a place where you can go see beauty practically in your backyard! Wow!

I really need to take my glasses up hiking with me. I thought this picture was perfectly in focus. Sorry my love. --Entering the Buck Horn Wilderness.

Bridge number two over the Dungeness River. Once again sorry about the out-of-focus... you get the idea however.

I had been this far before on a day hike. We are just coming into Camp Handy and we could see the sky was clear finally. Even though the weatherman says sunshine, I can never quite trust the forecast!

Here's Tim at the Camp Handy shelter. Inside people had written messages in charcoal and some were even carved into the wood. One said that a few days earlier in the week a couple had gotten engaged in the shelter. Cozy. If you look carefully to the left of the shelter you will see a log, it was hollow about halfway down and still intact. I thought it was kinda cool. Also in front of the shelter was a big fire pit. I thought we were done and going to camp here. It was about 3 1/2 miles thus far. We were the only people in sight. Tim had a feeling that with the sun coming out, Camp Handy would be packed. So he took me off trail, through the holes and trees and awkward spots back up to the trail to Marmot Pass. GRRRR He has got to read a couple of psych books to stop doing this to me!

Fortunately it was only about another mile to a place Tim had read about but never visited: Grindstone Camp on Heather Creek. Beautiful and worth the extra distance.

Had he dared to weather my wrath we could have hiked another 100 yards to a larger meadow, but he thought it best to make camp here. You couldn't see the river, but you could hear the birds singing and feeeeeeel the sun. It was glorious!

The next day we day hiked a couple of miles up the river. I move slowly up hill so we didn't go that far. It was a place in the Olympic Mountains that Tim hadn't been so he enjoyed it too!

Lots of moss tells you that this place usually is wet and dark. Beautiful in the sunlight however!

My sweetie took a moment to filter some water. It was nice and cold and tasted good!

Here's our campsite. It had a huge fire pit but we did not opt to build a fire. It wasn't that cold when we went to bed. However, we awoke to frost all over everything. But once again the sun came out and warmed our bones!

The mountain peaks were beautiful and we were just ahead of the wild flower boom. Too early in the season for bugs too! It was a nice overnight trip. We took a nap in the sun at lunch time and then packed up and headed for home. We counted almost 10 tents in the meadow as we passed our original destination, Camp Handy. A mere hour and a half later we were at the car and on the way home!

Thanks for the sunshine! I hope it comes to visit again while Heather and the kids visit us!

Love,

Momala and Dad