Ingalls Lake

Today was bliss, sheer bliss. It was the kind of day that rewards your soul with rest and your eyes with visions. I had the day off and what a day it was- perfect weather- almost 70 degrees! I decided to go visit one of my favorite places and see if the larch trees were turning their brilliant orange/yellow. Everywhere was stunning with fall colors. After my self portrait... treated myself to a little sunny snooze on a rock. It won't be long before that rock is under deep snow, but this day... it was warm and wonderful.

Mt Si Speaks

Mt Si had a few words to say last night. There is nothing that can compare to a sunny, fall sunset!

Paved Driveway and grass!

After years of waiting, we finally have a paved driveway! It's so nice to have a level surface for little things such as taking the trash cans out and for big things...like driving and walking! Recently we planted the grass to the left on the photo below. For those of you who have never planted grass...it was dump truck after dump truck of compost soil (it smelled like a cow farm for a while), then a yard roller uphill and down hill, raking, rolling, planting, rolling raking... then spreading the straw! We managed to knock all of this tough work off in a couple of days- (thank goodness for a hot tub). Anyway, it's finally coming up now and it's super exciting...yup...we've been watching the grass grow around here. Here are some pictures of a work in progress. There is much left to do, but what a summer for moving landscaping forward!!

And..of course,now that we know where the driveway is...we will reseed the sides of the lawn to the edge.

The pathway that will lead from the driveway to the front door will be constructed with the big stones you see laying up against the steps. It matches the porch stone. A project for next summer!

Yes, this big rock does have our house number on it, but I've edited them for safety/privacy.

Mama and darling cubs

The little cubs are getting bigger! The last time I saw them was near the of August and she was teaching them where to forage for blackberries along the power lines. Our neighbor, Chris, took this today and you can see how those berries have helped make the little ones rollie-pollie. So far, no problems with any encounters. She seems to keep the babies out of harms way and clear of people for the most part. Hopefully folks up here continue to be good bear-neighbors and follow all the rules for living in bear country (no bird feeders, take garbage out on garbage morning, etc.). Such a wonderful sight!

Bridges

Backcountry bridges are so interesting. Usually, it's a log with a make-shift railing over some sort of 'shoe-soaking' creek or hazardous, angry water. The Eastside Trail on Mt. Rainier has lots of water crossings and I grabbed my camera at quite a few. I couldn't help but think of the Park Service crews who faithfully come to these areas at snowmelt and replace many of these bridges, year after tiring year. When Mt. Rainier decides to re-decorate and re-arrange, she often uses water as her power tool. Since the weather folks are calling for a La'Nina year, we are predicted to have more rain than usual. This may be the last we see of many of these bridges as we head into winter, then again... I marvel as how many of these have worn faces and have weathered the storms.


In November of 2006, 18 inches of rain fell in 36 hours causing 36 million dollars in damage in the Park. Many of these trails were impassable including this one. Since then, volunteers, the Army Corp of Engineers and Park Service officials have worked tirelessly to replace many of the bridges- big and small. Below is one of the new ones.
This one was really interesting. You can see the pillars where they are building a new bridge. The old bridge is washed up downstream. This is a deep, wild canyon and the thought of the Park Service putting this log over this creek was a little harrowing. It didn't bounce and I felt safe on it, but it was very skinny. By the way, this is the Ohanapecosh River, which flows from Indian Bar headwaters right above here. The Ohanapecosh headwaters are near where we saw the goats and had the snow crossings on the Wonderland Trail.

The Eastside Trail

In my attempts to squeeze the last drops out of the summer season, I opt'd to do a solo overnighter on the Eastside Trail on Mt. Rainier. I made it a through hike, and asked V to pick me up at the other side. The first day, I wander up to a place called Owyhigh Lakes, a beautiful pair of shallow forested lakes named after a Yakima Indian Chief (Owhi) who loaned his horses to Theodore Roosevelt in the 1800's. Everything about the area, including the weather screamed of fall. I was treated to great views of the Cowlitz Chimneys and Tamanos Mountain. As I wandered, I enjoyed the colors and the forest and ended up spending the night 18 miles from the trailhead at a place called Ollalie Creek Camp. The night was really cold, but I slept well in my zero degree sleeping bag. The next morning was cloud free with a layer of frost on everything. It won't be too many days before the snow covers all of this until late spring. It was good to get back out there!

There were still ripe berries! This is really late for blueberries, but since our spring was so wet and cold, they are a little confused. The bears know they are ripe too- I saw 3 bear "rumps" because the second they see me they run. No pictures, but I much prefer 'those' kind of encounters.

Pink Wintergreen

Fungus among-us

My little camp.