we were night hiking through mt rainier national park, the sunset was great. we walked up through a pass, and the moon was illuminating this lake below us. buttercup decided the bluffy looking mountain beetling (note the classic man from snowy river vocab) over the lake looked like an old man, gazing out over the hills... as we walked further around the ridge he decided it was in fact a woman, leaning back with her arms above her head and one knee up, posing for the man in the moon... very entertaining listening to all of this in broken english with a strong german accent...
we walked out of snoqualmie late (i had a migraine and the others waited around for me to recover), and the mist was descending on the pass... it felt epic walking up these craggy knife edge ridges, cliffs dropping away into white nothingness... at one stage we paused and the mist was rifling up a really steep ridge ahead, and i said 'woh, look at that, it looks awesome - cool and epic', and wiz said 'you think that looks cool, i think it looks like hell'... often i'd look ahead or back and think the others looked like hobbits with their ponchos or jackets silhouetted in the gloom... and when i said to buttercup: 'you guys look like hobbits', he said 'i don't feel like a hobbit, i feel like a cold, wet, hiker...'
this is mowgli disappearing into the mist...
we're at a trail angel's house in skykomish (actually it's in baring, 8 miles down the road from skykomish - but skykomish sounds way cooler - kind of like some vague adjective), and they have loaner clothes for while we're washing our clothes... this is buttercup looking rather fetching...
on the way out this morning we walked past a whole past (and through) a whole lot of pristinely clear creeks tumbling down through washington rain forest. huge trees towered above an understorey of green leafy stuff - still huckleberries and salmon berries, and buttercup kept saying it looked like jurassic park...
this is us earlyish this morning... [mowgli, wiz, buttercup and i]... we got up at 5ish so we could make it to the bavarian theme town cos we thought it would be funny to take buttercup there... by the time we got to skykomish we were cold and hungry and we ate there and came straight to the excellent trail angels place instead...
Hope and pray the head's a lot better.
ReplyDeleteWe would think you were making up these cool names like Skykomish but we have your notes and the map so we know they're for real!
Great shot of the 4 of you.
To the Pedestrian-extraordinaire
ReplyDeleteBy the time you read this you may have already moved out of the lower 48 and be sitting in a canadian internet cafe where , after having rejected the coffee on offer, you will no doubt have settled for the national dish, a bowl of clam chowder. Those of us who have shared your adventure [albeit vicariously] are a bit disappointed that its all over. We have shared your excitement and wonder as you explored new and exciting places and have eagerly looked forward to each new blog instalment. Thank you for taking us with you and sharing the experience .We look forward to your return to the wide brown land---Pa