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Category Archives: hike

Blue Lake Views

The trail to Blue Lake is easy to get to and the short distance – 2.2 miles – makes it a popular destination. From my house, it’s less than an hour to the trailhead, all on paved highway. No bumpety bump roads to contend with. Yesterday’s weather forecast showed thunder and lightning all morning and into the afternoon but, like as often happens, the forecast was wrong and the storm passed by ten am. I met Juliet in town and we were off to relish a few moments in the mountains together before we both get busy going in opposite directions.

 

 

The lake is just over that ridge
Blue Lake lives up to its name
White heather flowers
Considering a swim
We can’t get enough of this view
Whistler Meadows
This is where the mosquitoes come from
Backside of the iconic Liberty Bell formation
Heather
How old was that tree when it died? What kind was it? How long ago since it died?
Backing up to get the shot
The outlet
An old cabin. What an amazing place to spend the short summer.
Two boys and their dad watch trout in the small outlet stream
This image does not do justice to these delicate flowers
Lupine
White rhododendron, a native wildflower, very unlike the rhodies seen in NW gardens
Hemlock with its telltale tipping over top
The outlet stream
On the trail
A lousewort
Polemonium, Jacob’s Ladder
A little pond near the trailhead
Elephanthead, another lousewort

Back to the Mountains

Life has kept me busy here at home with lots of work in June followed by visitors for ten days. While I am grateful for lots of work and happy to have our visitors from far away, I missed getting out in the mountains in the early summer when the snow first began to retreat leaving wildflowers in its wake. Yesterday I got up to Harts Pass and hiked on part of the Pacific Crest Trail and enjoyed vast views and flowers and a few remaining snow patches. Luna and I were joined by her pal Wyatt Ann, my friend Lindsey and her three dogs – Moose, Mavi and Little Bear. We were a pack. The weather was perfect – not too hot and we had a lovely day in the mountains again.

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Fabulous rocks with wonderful lichen patterns

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Slate Peak lookout in the distance

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Buttercups

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I think this is a Veronica or Speedwell

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A succulent sedum

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Polemonium sp?

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Such a beautiful shade of blue

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One of the many penstemons

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Lewisia Columbiana

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Great patches of the Lewisia

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Contrasted with burned trees on the far hillside

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Castilleja or paintbrush

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The creeks in this valley are already drying up.

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Little Bear is both playful and independent

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Wyatt Ann is a deep thinker

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Cairns don’t always point out the way

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Mavi is happy for the snow to cool his belly

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Wyatt Ann is wondering where do we go next?

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Phlox

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Dead trees tell stories

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Rocks are maps

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What stories do you see?

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Anemone

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A waterleaf

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Crossing the big talus slope where the pikas and hoary marmots live. Little Bear is leading the way. Behind Lindsey are Mavi, Luna, Moose and Wyatt Ann who has come back to check on me. Normally Moose and I lagged far behind.

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An old log with character

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Two Women, Three Dogs and a Horse

This is my busy season. I’ve had two weddings to photograph within one week so that means LOTS of computer time. It is important that I continue to get out and enjoy the beautiful place where I live for my overall fitness – both physically and mentally.

Last week Jennifer and her horse and two dogs joined Luna and me for a walk on the four mile long Black Lake trail. It follows Lake Creek on a gentle grade making for easy walking without huffing and puffing. This was a test for Luna to see if she could tolerate being around a horse. She has a long-standing fear of large ungulates stemming from an incident when she was less than a year old and managed to anger a large draft horse so much that the normally gentle animal turned and appeared to try to run Luna into the ground. Never mind that the horse was behind a fence and Luna was barking her fool head off. You can imagine how immense this draft horse was from her point of view. And those hooves! Luna turned and ran all the way back to the house where she waited under the porch til Betty and I went back for her. So now, along comes Jennifer and her horses and she suggests that we all go riding together. Luna is friends with Jennifer and her dogs so when they were all fine with the big animal Luna sort of fell into step with the rest of the group although she did not like it when the Whiskey, the horse fluttered her lips and made that funny horse noise and she was mostly sure to keep a good distance between herself and the horse.

 

For the life of me, I cannot find this flower in my field guides. I know I’ve looked it up before and figured out its ID but not this time

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It is a vine with clematis-like flowers

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Riding through the burned forest

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My, what big eyes you have!

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Lovely wildflowers in this burned forest

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Since it is a burned forest, every year, more snags fall across the trail. Here, we were near the lake but were turned back by the deadfall.

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Jennifer manages to keep the dogs’ attention with a good story or maybe the promise of treats

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It burned in 2003

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Paintbrush and lupine and Luna wondering why I have to stop to look at all the flowers!

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The dogs found comfort in this old beaver pond. Unfortunately, Luna chose to get out in a mud hole, and emerged coated in mud up to her belly.

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Jennifer got a good laugh out of that, especially knowing I’d have to take Luna down to the raging creek to wash her off before we could get in the truck.

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Lake Creek

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Walking in the Rain

This month started out unseasonably hot and we worried that the green hills would soon be brown. The weather gods have taken care of that worry. There has been rain most everyday for the last couple of weeks, it seems. Maybe I only remember the wet days and have forgotten that some were sunny? I have gotten used to wearing my rain gear. Yesterday by the time we returned to the car, my shoes sloshed. But still, it was gorgeous – green lush grasses and lots of wildflowers still in bloom. Our dogs enjoyed the temperature and ran and ran and ran.

 

Mary Ann has told me about these delicate flowers that are found along the lower part of the trail

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Geum triflorum also known as prairie smoke or old man’s whiskers

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A large patch of balsamroot

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Old aspen trees

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Frida

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This majestic pine tree is slowly dying

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Aphids on a Lomatium seed head

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Another seed head without aphids on the same plant

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Looking back, to the south. You can see tiny Deadhorse Lake in the distance

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Tiny yellow composites with bitterroot buds surrounding

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Blue penstemon and the yellow composite

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And with a buckwheat

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Same type of buckwheat with tightly closed buds

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Blue gray sky. Green hills. In the foreground, the pale pink spots are all bitterroot about to bloom.

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Frost Lake, known by other names is just one of several lakes that dot these hills

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Grouse droppings

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Thompson’s paintbrush

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More Hiking with Dogs

Luna and I missed our hike last week and so we were happy to get out today with friends and dogs. Starting early at the Patterson Mountain trailhead we joined two other women and four other dogs for a very pleasant hike before it got too hot. The weather has been unseasonably warm (not that we are complaining mind you) these last few days – up into the high eighties, so it was good to start at 7:30 am and enjoy the morning air and beautiful light. Only one other party started up before us. After the trouble I’ve had with Luna recently I put her on the leash and kept her there all the way up and down, only letting her off when we came to a little creek where she could wet her whistle and at the top of the mountain. She was very well behaved and even when I let her off she returned when called. I was much relieved. Of course the other dogs were fine. Well Cassidy had some barking issues but he and Kathryn worked through them and he was fine. We were rewarded with fine mountain and valley views at the top, wonderful wildflowers and at the end, the dogs got to cool off in the lake. It doesn’t get much better than that.

 

Patterson Lake and Mount Gardner

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Luna stops to smell the flowers

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This sign always seems out of place to me

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It’s really hard to get three people and five dogs in a photo all looking at the camera at the same time.

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Really, really hard

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Little Bear doesn’t like crowds so he is hanging out behind the bitterbrush

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Luna likes to be in the middle of everything

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Cassidy always has something to say. He is very opinionated and frustrated when we don’t understand him.

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There’s Little Bear. He’s a sweet fella

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Dexter and his person Amy and their friend Peter made the hike this morning too but they had to race off to get to work on time.

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Pretty death camas

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How pretty is that?

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We love our big ponderosa pines

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And our balsamroot

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My first bitterroot flowers this year!

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With wild onions growing in the background

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Moose really relaxed in the cold water

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And Luna was ready to play

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