Every year we go through this ritual of mourning the loss of summer. Northwest summers are precious and fleeting. Where most of the country enjoyed (?) a hotter and drier summer, here in the land of green, it was cooler and wetter and now basically over! First a short indulgence: a quick tour of the things that I love so I can look back on this blog and remember what I love about home in the summer...
These white flowers that I can't remember the name of that a neighbor blessed me with one day just because...
Petunias flowing out of the red buckets on my old kitchen chairs on the back of the house... all gone very soon...
But fear not! Dad and I did not go down without swinging! Despite Marc and Jes being gone house and baby sitting for the Pecks, despite Tim and Sarah not getting a flight to visit us, despite Katie being at conference and Heather and the troop living in all the warmth of SE Colorado this time of year, (we feel so abandoned and left alone in the dark...sob and boo hoo...) and despite the fact that we woke up Saturday morning to a very thick marine layer, we went "over the mountain" to find the sun (hey its conference weekend...)
Yup, yup we headed for Chinook Pass to hike up around Twin Sister's Lake. Here's that great old entrance to Rainier...
The mountain was out. We were so excited to get to the hiking that we kept driving by and I snapped this shot out of the window. Never, never, never assume that you can stop and get a better picture on the way back. This is the Pacific Northwest...silly people...
The colors we so pretty and just beginning up the pass. Once again, this picture is taken from a moving car....
I added this one because you can clearly see where the glacier that made its way through the mountains. We drove up this really rough road in our little white car, made it to the end only to find out the bridge across the river was washed out. No hike today! So we ate lunch, regrouped and found...
The lake was low enough that we could walk out to one of the islands. This is Dad inviting everyone to come hike the Pacific Crest Trail next summer (just 13 miles of it from White Pass to Chinook Pass).
Evidently Bumping Lake had a natural lake on it until about 100 years ago when they built a dam at one end. These locks are on the dam gate on the dam road. Sorry, there's no dam tour...
So the day was about over, and there was no hiking. We came prepared just in case so we camped on Bumping Creek next to a sweet swimming hole. If there hadn't been so many hunters in the area, there might have been a little....um...swimming...rats!
I didn't think there was any place that you can just pull off the road and camp. However, in this wilderness area, people were everywhere! Lots of horse trailers too...oh yeah and lots of hunters out looking for elk. Bumping Creek watershed is a wintering place for huge amounts of elk. Did you know that elk know the days of the week? Not a one in sight; poor hunters...:)
Next morning we started for home in the near drizzle. Did you know that mountain ranges can breathe?
As we drove back over the pass we entered the western, wet side of the mountain. No pretty colors to be seen, no Mount Rainier peering back us, just fog! Now you see it...
At the top we stopped at Topsee Lake and walked around it. Dad took this nice shot when the fog lifted a bit...
And I will end our adventure as it started, with the last of the mountain flowers. Notice even the spiders are getting busy for winter. I hope you enjoyed General Conference. We got home in time to catch the last session. Awesome! We love you all and hope you are enjoying which ever season you are in!
We love,
Mom and Dad XOXOXO
oh Dang it, I was really ready to on that "dam tour" too..I loved the photos you shared..never seen anything like it..thanks for taking me on the trip with you..have a great week ahead..did you get my 2 emails?
ReplyDeleteGoing to church in the Mountains... I LOVE IT! I wish we had some of those around here....
ReplyDeleteI love that you blog now, Mom! It is so much fun to see what you and Dad are up to. Your pictures are amazing. I'm going to get one of them printed, it is already saved to my desktop. I also loved the pictures of the mountains breathing. It's always surreal to see that, even when you've seen it your whole life. You almost expect to be blown over by it, but it just creeps around you and then goes.
I miss home. I miss you guys. So glad you will be here in three weeks!!!
Mom you are getting way good at taking pictures with your camera. I wouldn't have been able to tell that some were taking from a moving car. Glad you had fun!
ReplyDeleteKatie