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Category Archives: hike

But it sure feels like it, looks like it, smells like it. Temperatures have plummeted and there’s been significant rain for the last week or so. The dust is gone, replaced with dampness and even mud. Some things seem greener but maybe it’s just that the rain rinsed off the dust and debris of summer days. It is good hiking weather as long as I remember a hat and gloves.

It was 41 degrees when we got out of the car today and everything was wet from yesterday’s rain. Skies were kind of blustery looking with no real patches of blue. The sun made a brief appearance on the uphill part of the hike. There was no need to carry water for dogs today. I wasn’t planning on Sky going swimming today but she rolled in something unmentionable and it seemed like a good idea at the time.

A family of Canada Jays had a fondness for dog treats and when they dropped them, Sky and Luna managed to get them before another bird scooped them up. Don’t tell the Audubon Society.

Well, what do you do when your dog has her sixth birthday? Get some friends and go for a hike! If you’d ask Sky, she probably would have voted for a lake but it was Saturday and the lakes were busy.

It was a new trail for us and we were all impressed with the flowers, the views, the pollinators and the huckleberries. It’s one we will do again.

We did this hike a month or so ago with Molly and Mary. It’s fun to see the changes during the season. There was less water and different wildflowers and it maybe wasn’t as green but it was still beautiful. Rozie and Kim joined us this week.

Last week, while we were camping, the girls and I went in search of a cool place. We drove down the Lewis River Road towards a bunch of waterfalls I saw on a map. We went as far as a day use area at the lower falls where a Forest Service employee turned us away saying that the parking lot was full and there no room for me to park. Hmm, this was on a Tuesday and seemingly, a long ways from anywhere. So we backtracked to the middle falls where there were also a lot of cars parked. Gosh. People were looking for a place to cool off just like us. So we ended up at the upper trailhead for the Lewis River Trail and walked downstream about a mile to the highest waterfalls. It was a beautiful sight but pretty dangerous with un-fenced overlooks that provided potential for falling dogs. Or people. I got a few photos before we backtracked to a shady beach by the river.

We did a short, steep hike to the top of Council Bluff last week. Most of the trail is an old jeep road in bad shape. When we came to the end of that, there were 3 or 4 switchbacks til we reached the top and had views of Mount St Helens, Mount Rainier and Mount Adams, in addition to Council Lake, where the trail started. The air was hazy from wildfire smoke and high pressure. I think on a clearer day we could have seen Mount Hood too. Sky would tell you, the best part of this hike was jumping in the lake when we were done!