hike | My Everyday Photos

Tag Archives: hike

Two Women, Three Dogs and a Horse

June 9, 2013 – 11:23 am
Posted in hike
Tagged burned forest, hike, horse, Lake Creek, lupine, Methow photography, paintbrush, trail
Comments (3)

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

It is a vine with clematis-like flowers

Riding through the burned forest

My, what big eyes you have!

Lovely wildflowers in this burned forest

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.

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

It burned in 2003

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

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.

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.

Lake Creek

Walking in the Rain

May 30, 2013 – 7:15 am
Posted in hike
Tagged Frost Road, hike, Methow photography, Thompsons paintbrush, wildflowers
Leave a Comment

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

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

A large patch of balsamroot

Old aspen trees

Frida

This majestic pine tree is slowly dying

Aphids on a Lomatium seed head

Another seed head without aphids on the same plant

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

Tiny yellow composites with bitterroot buds surrounding

Blue penstemon and the yellow composite

And with a buckwheat

Same type of buckwheat with tightly closed buds

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

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

Grouse droppings

Thompson’s paintbrush

Wednesday Walk

May 17, 2013 – 9:41 am
Posted in wildflowers
Tagged balsamroot, hike, Methow, sawtooth mountains, Wildflower photos
Leave a Comment

Someone else coined the term ‘cardio Wednesdays’ and I’ve taken it to heart. Three weeks in a row Luna and I have joined other dogs and women for a brisk uphill hike to someplace with a great view and wonderful wildflowers. This week we went down-valley to hike with Lindsey and her three canine companions in a canyon pretty much in her backyard. We walked an abandoned road up, up, up til we came to a tremendous viewpoint of the snow-covered Sawtooth Mountains underlined with banks of yellow balsamroot sunflowers. Then we followed the ridge to a flat spot, the site of an old hunters’ camp, where we rested before heading down the other side of the ridge. It was a great morning hike.

Ponderosa pines have a wonderful scent when the sun hits the bark

A puffball emerges from the forest duff

The Sawtooth’s lie between the Methow Valley and Lake Chelan

Evidence of old logging activity

Luna catches her breath

Balsamroot

and more balsamroot

and still more

Moose is an old dog who still loves his walks

A relic, possibly from an old hunting camp

Arnica lines this forest floor. I missed getting photos of the blooming patches.

A tremendous wildlife tree

and another one

Down through fields of balsamroot

Lindsey points out another trail we could have taken

Shiny beetle on lupine buds

Looking back up

More Hiking with Dogs

May 8, 2013 – 5:58 pm
Posted in hike
Tagged dogs, hike, Patterson Mountain, Winthrop photography
Leave a Comment

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

Luna stops to smell the flowers

This sign always seems out of place to me

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

Really, really hard

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

Luna likes to be in the middle of everything

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

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

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.

Pretty death camas

How pretty is that?

We love our big ponderosa pines

And our balsamroot

My first bitterroot flowers this year!

With wild onions growing in the background

Moose really relaxed in the cold water

And Luna was ready to play

Another Hike with Dogs

April 25, 2013 – 4:02 pm
Posted in hike
Tagged dogs, hike, Lewis Butte, lupine, wildflowers, Winthrop photography
Comments (4)

Yesterday four women and five dogs set out for Lewis Butte, a popular spring trail near Winthrop. It’s on a south facing slope so the snow melts fast and the wildflowers come early and may not stay long in a dry year. All the dogs, except mine were on best behavior. Well, maybe Trip was ready to help Luna in her quest to scare every bird on the butte. Other than that, it was a good day, topped off with lunch at the Rocking Horse Bakery.

On the way up we were passed by two other women with four dogs! Here are two of their dogs and four of ours