Loop hike today. Mountain bikers fixed scary trail.
Today Karen and I hiked 5.5 miles in the mountains, gaining 1,200' of elevation. I thought I missed alpine wildflowers with a broken toe in May and June. Nope.
With a remarkable sense of direction, Karen explores random trails and always gets us back to the car. She led me on a wide loop through the mountains between 4,000 and 5,000' elevation.
For 1/2 mile, the trail was so steep I scrambled uphill on hands and feet twice. It mystified me how Karen could walk. She hikes every day.
"I want to get you through the scary part of the trail before we stop for lunch," Karen said.
Picture this: a narrow, about 8" -wide path across a steep hillside with a huge drop-off, rolling rocks and crumbling edge. Previously I edged through it, terrified.
Lo and behold! With shovels, mountain bikers had cut out the trail, widening it so a bicycle could get through. Now that section of the trail is three feet wide.
"This isn't scary anymore!" I exclaimed. But the steep hillside is irrevocably eroding, with rocks and gravel sliding downhill. Karen used her boot to scrap out the trail in spots.
"Follow the Yellow Brick Road" I thought when yellow sedum flowers edged the trail.
Blueberries! "These bushes are ripening early," Karen said as we gobbled. "Bears are happy."
I feel happy like I always do after hiking.
Photos:
- Pink Wintergreen flowers
- Flowering Sedum, yellow flowers
- Enchantments Mountains from upper trail
- Pippipsewa flowers
- Purple Monkshood flowers
25
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Blueberries! "These bushes are ripening early," Karen said as we gobbled. "Bears are happy."
My favorite are Mountain Blueberries: large sweet fruit with an exquisite taste.
Last August about one mile from Janus Lake, we came across a glorious swath of ripe berry bushes in the sun loaded with two types of blueberries and huckleberries, along a sometimes-flowing creek. That's when I first tasted wild Mountain Blueberries. Instantly smitten. August 20, 2018.
Local people jealously guard their favorite wild huckleberry and blueberry patches like a favorite fishing hole.
"It's near Stevens Pass," Cheryl said vaguely. East or west side?
"Can I go with you?" I asked. No answer.
LiterateHiker
Level 9
July 20, 2019
1
I remember, many years ago, being held by my feet by someone squatting on narrow ledges, whilst I lay flat on my stomach, head downwards on almost vertical slopes in the high Swiss Alps, using a camera fitted with a close-up lens to photograph a series of minute Alpine flowers.
Later I had the photos converted into a set of much prized drinks coasters. Unfortunately, they were looted from my house in Uganda in 1979, during the invasion that overthrew Idi Amin.
Petter
Level 9
July 20, 2019
2
Scrambling up on hands and feet! You are a badass girl. I’m impressed.
JacobMeyers
Level 6
July 19, 2019
4
Thanks for the compliment. I am nothing if not determined.
nice photos. i was into photography in a big way decades ago. used to develop & print my own photos. now that it's so easy to get good results digitally i hardly even think of taking photos.
just a week or two ago i could have got some great photos of new born fawns on our GC if i'd had our phone or my camera with me.
sadly, the creative juices dry up with old age.
callmedubious
Level 8
July 19, 2019
2
IF you let it happen. But for me, there's so much photography I haven't done yet. I have an unlimited number of artistic shot inside me that I'd like to try...before time's up.
@mischl ,
good for you.
Sometimes .
My photos are improving as I get older ( she said modestly).
"Your photos are getting better," my artist ex-husband said. "You have been simplifying the composition. I am doing the same thing with my paintings. It makes a better painting."
High praise.
@LiterateHiker ,
you are just a mere youth.
We all have our obsessions and some of us are lucky enough to indulge in our obsession whenever we want. It takes effort to have a decent garden just as it takes effort to be a serious wilderness hiker... things don't always go as we plan - yet when we stumble we just keep putting one foot in front of the other. It's not where you're going so much as how far you have come to be where you are today...
FrostyJim
Level 8
July 19, 2019
2
Glorious photos! 
I'm glad you can hike, now that your toe is better. 
BestWithoutGods
Level 8
July 19, 2019
2
Thank you so much!
@LiterateHiker I do wish you the best!
Our beautiful PNW!! So glad you had some pleasant surprises and a fun hike.
tinkercreek
Level 8
July 19, 2019
2
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