Skip navigation

Tag Archives: dogs

Love Where I Live

What a place! We left the house at 8 am and drove for less than an hour on a paved road to a trail that took us to this gem of a lake! And we had it to ourselves. Amazing!

It was the last fun adventure in what has been a lovely staycataion – sharing good times with old friends and visiting some of the highlights of our neck of the woods. The time was interspersed with some work (one wedding and some gallery stuff), a couple of big rain storms and the resulting washed out road that serves our little neighborhood and dealing with a contractor for the repairs. But mostly it was lots of fun with Mary and then Kim and our beloved dogs. Let’s do it again soon!

White heather catches a patch of sunlight
Rhododendron albiflorum
Sun shining through native rhododendron
Outlet creek
Sky says ‘quit looking at that creek, the lake is right up here!’
Ziggy wonders about Sky and her obsession with fetching
Luna enjoys the water, calmly
Lots of little trout jumping all the way out of the water to catch the bugs
This is the life!
Throw it again
Nature at its finest
Shake
Even Luna gets into the spirit of fetching
Clark’s Nutcrackers called back and forth
Aster
Heather

And Another Great Hike

These last couple of weeks I’ve been very lucky to share so much time in the mountains celebrating summer with dear friends and our dogs. On Wednesday Kim and I took our dogs up above Harts Pass and did an afternoon amble around a basin below Slate Peak. It’s a wonderful wildflower walk with lush green meadows and meandering streams. We climbed out of the basin to visit the lookout and take in the 360 degree views of the North Cascades. My dogs got to be in snow again in August. Last year I could not find any for them late in the summer. It is my goal to find snow for my dogs every month of the year. Luna loves snow. It’s a great relief to see it lingering into late summer once again. What a gorgeous day!

Ziggy
Pink monkey flower
Western anemone seedhead and lupine
Getting that close up flower photo
Elephant head
Magenta paintbrush
sedum
Orange paintbrush
Cooling her feet
Slate Peak
Canada is out there, not too far away
Layers of mountains of the North Cascades
Ziggy makes my dogs look small

Another Day, Another Mountain

Mary had to cut her Washington vacation short rather abruptly when a wildfire threatened her community and even her home. So far her place is safe and hopefully will stay that way. She was able to get some stuff out when she returned and then stayed at a place out of danger. With fires threatening people and landscapes all over the west, we all seem to live in a state of fear during the summer.

But for one day, before the fire, we enjoyed a beautiful hike in the high country, going to the top of 8000 foot Tiffany Mountain. It was sunny and cool and NOT buggy! Once again we had incredible views – this time into the Pasayten Wilderness, the Sawtooth Mountains and even into the Okanogan Highlands. A perfect mountain day.

On the trail through the meadows
Prairie Smoke, my favorite little wildflower these days.
Luna resting in the lupine
Sky on a rock
What bird is this?
Are you going to eat that Mary?
Views!
Can I help you?
Luna sees something
Sky isn’t sure about the puffball.
It’s the black dog gang!

Lake Time

What’s more fun on a hot day than time spent at the lake? While Mary and Gus were here we went to Patterson Lake a few times. She brought one of her new stand up paddle boards so everyone got to try it – me, Ken and even Sky! It is not the kind of thing Luna wants to do. Mary and Gus already are experienced with this water sport. With only one board, someone was always throwing sticks or balls for the dogs so everyone enjoyed the water.

Gus looks pretty relaxed
It was good to get my kayak in the water too
a female Common Merganser
There I go!
I’m Up on a SUP with my Pup!

Sunshine, Snow and Skeeters

My friend Mary came to visit from Montana last week. You might remember that we went to visit her and Brad last month when we went to Big Hole and Bannack. She brought her dog, Gus and we had our pack of black dogs to accompany us on our adventures around the Methow.

One day we hiked to Maple Pass, a perennial favorite hike in the North Cascades. It is a great loop hike offering some of the most easily attained stunning views of our rugged landscape. On the top of the ridge there was lots of snow to cool the dogs and even a nice pond for swimming. Unfortunately all this melting snow produced a bumper crop of mosquitoes and they were hungry for new blood – ours. Even the dogs were going nuts. All of used some herbal bug repellent which gave us a little relief but still we hardly ever came to a complete stop. That didn’t stop us from enjoying the sun and the views and having a good time.

The trail climbs steeply and the views unfold in a grand way
Luna cools off in the shady heather along the trail
Even Sky needed a break
Rainy Lake
Lots of water flowing off the mountains
heather
Western anemone seedhead
Luna found a little seep to cool her belly
Luna loves snow!
Ahhhh!
There’s the top!
A few switchbacks gets us up there
Even Sky got into rolling down the snow patches
Gus jumps for joy!
Luna is just happy!
Glacier Peak
That had to be cold water.
And so quickly we went down.
Lake Ann
Altogether on the trail