Walking in a Winter Wonderland

Mt Rainier, 1/25/09, 3 miles, 500 elevation

There are few things better in this world than sharing an outdoor adventure with your friends. We were able to do this recently on Mt Rainier at Paradise. In the summer, the meadows above Paradise become a calliope of color as wildflowers fill the scenery. When winter comes, snows blanket the meadows in a thick carpet of white. Trails become irrelevant as seems time when you're wandering through the snow.

I was practicing my leadership skills as I explained to our group the route we'd take through the meadows and trees and then started off up the hill. Flurries obscured most of our views throughout the day, but added an air of mystery and fun. We roamed up the hill and down another direction, followed the winter nature trail and fox prints as the snows became heavier.

Finally we made our way back to the visitor center and some semblance of warmth to laugh about and share our adventures. We didn't wait long before heading back down the mountain because we knew that blackberry pie awaited us at the Copper Creek Inn.

Conspiracy Theory

Memories - Death Valley

Close your eyes and imagine. You’re riding in the passenger seat of a fast moving SUV through the moonless desert night. The only light visible on the dark stretch of highway is coming from the high beams of your own car. You hope, as you hurtle through the black, that no stray nightlife, or cows stray onto the road.

Just as the sun was setting, several hours before, your driver motions out to the great expanse of desert beyond to low-lying hills and informs you that this is where Area 51 is. The same Area 51 that holds the remains of aliens and spaceships. You find the thought interesting and watch as the hills become more inky in the darkening light. Soon the only movement you see is the jostling desert weeds as they are pushed to and fro by the gusty evening winds.

A few more hours pass and the only thing you can find in the radio is some conspiracy nut-job and his theories about extra-terrestrial life. Time and movement seem to halt, as your eyelids get heavier. You hope that your destination soon arrives, for you know you can’t stay awake much longer to help look for obstacles in the road. Then it appears. You think it is only a reflection from a light in your car. Then it disappears. You glance around the dash to see if you can distinguish which light was momentarily reflected in your window. You look out again and there it is; a tiny spot of light at eye level traveling through the darkness at the exact speed you car is traveling. Then it flicks out again only to reappear a few seconds later.

Your heart starts to race. You are now wide awake, searching the darkness for any clues to this hovering light, listening to the static-y talk radio and alien cover-ups. You look out the driver’s side window and there’s another light! You start to panic. Holy **** you’re surrounded! Another appears. And another! And, wow, that one looks like a four-pane window.

That’s when you realize, that you’re driving through ranch country. The floating lights in the darkness are no more than lights from a ranch house or barn. You feel kind of silly but you let out a long calming breathe and laugh a little at yourself. At least you’re awake now. Your destination, a campground inside Death Valley National Park, is getting closer. You’ll have a few hours of sleep before sunrise.

There's a big hole in the tire

Memory - Crater Lake

Early in our relationship, Michael & I started road-tripping. We both enjoy the open road and find you see so much of the world while exploring the roads throughout the countryside. Our first weekend together was spent driving the North Cascades Loop. A few weeks later we drove to Alaska & back in three days - but that's another story. And that is in fact one of the things we collect while on road trips - stories.

This story begins on a Labor Day weekend. We had 3 days to play and the open road before us. The Oregon Coast sounded like a good place to head, but wait, I had never been to Crater Lake before and Michael hadn't been there for years. We had the time - no schedule actually - and turned off the highway to drive into the South Cascades towards this wonder created by nature.

As we drove along the road around the crater, oohing and aahing at the scenery, Michael forgot to mind where he was going and for a brief second drove off the road. He quickly recovered but the damage was already done - volcanic rocks are very sharp and they cut right through the tire. The sun was setting and I wanted to be up at the overlook for the color show. Michael pulled out the donut tire and jack while I grabbed the dog and camera to head up the road to the overlook, hopefully making it before sunset.

I made it and just as the sun was setting, so did Michael. But there was another problem - the donut tire had very little air in it. The best wee could do was drive 5 miles an hour around the rest of the crater and hope , just hope, that the gas station at the park village had air. Time and dark scenery seemed to go on forever. We were saved at the park village as they did have air, plus we were able to get sandwich fixin's for the trip to Medford. Hopefully we could get our tire fixed there.

Ever try and get a tire fixed in a smallish town on a Sunday? Forget it. We had to continue the rest of our road-trip on the donut. Stay tuned for that great story.

Memories

With all the wet and unusual weather here in the northwest lately, I've taken to the indoors. Not that I like it all that much but hey, what can you do? To occupy my time, I've started scanning my very large collection of slides. What wonderful memories of great places and adventurous explorations. To fill in the gaps for the time and between adventures for the rest of the year. I've decided to tell the memories that are brought about by the tedious work of scanning.

I hope you enjoy!

A New Year, and Snow!

Longmire, Mt Rainier

Nothing beats a fresh coating of powder for the 1st winter outing. Skiers in the Rockies understand the beauty of powder. Here on the wet side of the cascades, powder is a gift we rarely receive. So imagine our surprise as my sister and I made our first few steps around Longmire Meadow. The snow had drifted into nice large piles of powdery snow - perfect for a pair of juvenile middle-ages women to start making snow angels and finding any excuse to "trip" and fall into it.

So much fun! After a loop around the meadow, we decided to head over to the Nisqually River through the forest. We had to play around down in the fresh unbroken snow along the river banks. I broke trail first and sank up to my knees. Then Kristi broke trail; I had to laugh at how much snow her snowshoes were kicking up onto her back - she looked like an abominable snow-woman heading up the river.

Not ready to quit yet, we then crossed over the river on the bridge to make a loop through the old campground. Never knew why the park stopped using this campground, but we played and laughed and stood silent amongst the trees before returning for some much needed hot chocolate.

Snow season has begun.