It’s good to go outside with the dogs at night. Sometimes they see something, like a deer, that brings on a fit of barking and they need to be corralled. Other times I see something interesting. Last night it was the clouds. They were thin and illuminated by the waxing moon that was low in the west. These views are looking north. The dogs went inside long before I did.
This is another great fall hike! We started at the Cutthroat trailhead and hiked five and a half miles to the pass where we connected with the Pacific Crest Trail (PCT) and hiked down another five or so miles to Rainy Pass where we had left a second car in the morning. We did not have the blue skies and sunshine of the previous week’s hike and that made the dogs a lot more comfortable. Also there were numerous stream crossings, especially on the Rainy Pass side, where the dogs could wet their whistles. At the pass we saw quite a few PCT through hikers who were nearly to their goal on their hike from Mexico to Canada. The ones we talked to said they should reach the border in just four more days. They were all cheerful and looked healthy and hearty. After such a long journey on foot, I think I expected them to look gaunt and tired.
At Saturday’s Phoenix Festival in Twisp I spent some time watching Samantha Carlin create a glass vase. Samantha’s studio, Lucid Glassworks, is located on the TwispWorks campus and she was doing glass blowing demonstrations. I’d never watched the process from start to finish before. She explained each step along the way and it was obvious that she really enjoys what she does!
The Maple Pass/Heather Pass loop hike may be one of the best, easily accessible fall hikes in the North Cascades. The fall foliage colors are outstanding. Combined with endless blue skies and surrounding mountain peaks and throw in a couple of brilliant tarns and it is sure to take your breath away.
My friend Cindy drove 2 1/2 hours to join me and all along the hike she kept saying – look at that, isn’t that just the prettiest sight. She was right. We did this seven-mile loop in a clockwise direction. This took us up the steepest part and down the more gradual sloping trail. We find that this is better for our feet, ankles and knees. Most other hikers went the other direction. We heard lots of pikas and got good looks at one of them. At the top of the ridge, a dark falcon went whizzing by us at top speed. It was so close we could almost feel the wing beats.
This is a lot of images. You should see what I left out!
This is how it looked from my house last night. Did you get to see it? What was it like where you saw it?
My Everyday Photos 