My Everyday Photos

Goat Peak

On Saturday there was a lot of rain and I was able to finish up most of my work inside. Sunday I worked outside. And so that gave me a free day yesterday to go for a hike! What a relief to get out in the mountains again. Isn’t that what summer should be all about?

I guess today is the first day of summer and yesterday didn’t feel particularly summer-like, but on this hike, it is good to have a cool day. The trail climbs steeply, going pretty much straight up the north face of the mountain. It’s not a long hike – five miles round trip but for me it seems grueling even going down. My knees complained with every step on the downhill stretch.

But the views. They are terrific. And that’s fitting for the site of a historic lookout that continues to be staffed in the summer months. The trail also provides lots of opportunities to look at wildflowers early in hiking season. Later it will be dry and dusty. And there was lots of old snow to satisfy the dogs.

Rather dismal trailhead

That’s the mountain but you can’t see the lookout.

North Cascades

I enjoyed watching this bee on a flower that looks like groundsel.

Noisy Hairy Woodpecker. I wonder if she had a nest nearby.

Glacier lillies tell you that the snow just melted

Nice to see you on the trail Luna

Yellow-rumped Warbler

Finally past the steep part and now a view of the lookout

Mt Gardner. I was worried about the misty rain that moved around but never did get wet.

Looking down valley, more light rain

This took about ten tries.

Outhouse with a view

Crazy clouds

Penstemon

Larch

Buttercup.

Spring beauty and glacier lily

Buckwheat

How many kinds of plants are in this small patch of ground?

Forget me not

Clematis

For more information about this hike the WTA website.

2016 National Juried Photo Encaustic Exhibition

June 5, 2016 – 7:08 am
Posted in encaustic
Tagged 2016 National Juried Photo Encaustic
Comments (4)

I am very pleased to announce that one of my encaustic pieces was accepted into the 2016 National Juried Photo Encaustic Exhibition at the Sage Gallery in Portland, Oregon! It was a very competitive field with over 500 entries and only 27 selected for the show. If you are in the Portland area this month, I hope you can find time to see the show.

Montana Ghost Town

We left the Big Hole Battlefield and stopped at Jackson (home of Bubba the nearly fifteen year old basset hound at Rose’s Cantina) before our final destination – Bannack.

Bannack was Montana’s first territorial capital and the site of Montana’s first major gold strike. You just imagine its wild and woolly history. It is now a well-preserved ghost town along Grasshopper Creek with over sixty buildings to explore. Being a holiday weekend we found the parking lot to be quite full. However it never seemed crowded while we strolled through the town and poked around in the old buildings. Many visitors brought dogs. Not us. Mary and I took many photos and Ken enjoyed learning to pan for gold along with a bunch of kids. Volunteers were leading tours and demonstrating gold mining and performing music of the era.

This looks like a map

Grasshopper Creek

This dog dressed up for the occasion

This dog jumped in the creek

Church

Probably cold in the winter

School

School downstairs. Masons’ meeting room upstairs is still used.

Big Hole Battlefield

June 2, 2016 – 12:55 pm
Posted in Montana
Tagged Big Hole battlefield, Geum, prairie smoke
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In Montana, we stayed with friends in the Bitterroot Valley. They welcomed us with good food and hot showers! Sky and I got to do one day of agility (where she earned her first NADAC title) and the next day Mary took us on a big field trip! Our first stop was the Big Hole Battlefield National Historic Park.

Big Hole is the site of the biggest battle between the Nez Perce Indians and the US government. It is a sad and beautiful place. The Indians, native to the areas of SE Washington and Idaho, had camped there to regroup in a camas meadow along the stream before traveling to Canada where they hoped to escape. An attack in the wee hours of the morning left many dead. After burying their family members, the people continued to try to get to Canada but they were caught at Bear Paw and forced to reservations in Oklahoma. Later their Chief, Joseph, and some of his followers were sent to the Colville reservation in north central Washington where he died and was buried in Nespelem.

Prairie smoke, Geum sp.

Tipi poles mark the sites of the original tipis where the Indians were camped.

Some of the tipis have the names of the occupants

Camas, a staple of their diet

Lots and lots of ground squirrels

St Joe River, Idaho

June 2, 2016 – 12:30 pm
Posted in camping
Tagged Avery, Idaho, Marble Creek, St Joe River, trestle
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We left Lost Lake and drove east and south to explore the St Joe River watershed in north Idaho. We’d never visited that area before and were not sure where we were going to stay. Fortunately we found a very pleasant campground about ten miles out of St Maries and settled in for the night. It was unusual for a US Forest Service campground because it wasn’t in the forest. It was in a meadow of tall grass that was mowed for the camping areas. The river is wide and slow there, not the mountain stream that we were expecting. Across the river there was an active logging unit with folks starting work early in the morning. We discovered that the logging industry is still very active in this part of Idaho and we saw and heard many log trucks coming and going starting before five am!

The next day we explored Marble Creek – an area that once held millions of board feet of white pine trees. The history of the area was fraught with danger in the form of terribly hard work and sometimes criminal activities in order to take over the prime old growth forests. They are still logging there although most of the white pine is gone due to harvest and disease. Much of the drainage is now in a mixed stand of second growth. We were surprised with the diversity of the forest and rate at which trees grow there. We read that north Idaho gets on average, 45 inches of rain a year! That’s a lot compared to our paltry 12 or 15 inches of rain per year. No wonder the forest was so dense.

We drove on upstream to Avery which was a very busy railroad town for many years. The electrified Milwaukie train had a major stop there. We traveled up the North Fork of the St Joe following the route of the train tracks through several tunnels and across one old steel trestle. It is amazing to think of these huge projects that were accomplished in the 1800’s!

The next day we headed to Montana via Forest Road 50 along the St Joe and Gold Creek. When the asphalt ended we had left Idaho.