A Golden Day

This past Saturday Walter and I went for a beautiful hike up on Mt. Spokane. The drive up and down was absolutely gorgeous. The cottonwoods, aspen, tamarack and little shrubs are all golden and the contrast with the green of the pines and firs is spectacular. It was a fall day that I will remember for a long time.

Again we hiked on the cross country ski trails and did just about 8 miles. A special treat was visiting the spot where I got a concussion while cross country skiing. I know, who gets a concussion cross country skiing? This was one of the instances in which I did not stick to my own personal rules. I have rules for myself when I go out, particularly alone. I love to ski at night by myself but the rule is that on Mt. Spokane I do not go farther than the second trail junction and I do not ski on any black diamond trails. Well, that night in particular I broke both my rules…but I had my radio that was tuned into the ski patrol!!!

Anyway, I was skiing along down a bit of a hill and I was using my headlamp. Visual perception gets sort of screwed up in the dark with just a headlamp and the snow reflecting back and I failed to realize that there was a slight dip in the trail. I mean, a dip of just a few inches. My anticipatory reactions did not jive with my perception and I ended up flying through the air and landing right on my headlamp. Yeah, it hurt like hell. It took me about ten minutes to get myself steady and I slowly poked my way back to the parking lot (my headlamp did not even break!). Halfway to my car I started getting sick but within about a half hour I was feeling ok. The next day sucked though. I was feeling rather loopy and not really concentrating too well. I went to the bank and accidentally left my card in the cash machine and the dickwads behind me in line cleaned my checking account out. So the moral of the story is…don’t be a dunderhead; stick by the rules…and I suppose you should wear a helmet but I will only do that at night.

Seriously, the main highlight of the day was just being out and walking with my best buddy Walter. We only saw two other people on the trails which is always nice. Of course their dog came running up to Walter and I thought there was going to be a fight but Walter chilled out. As wonderful as he is, he does have two problems. The first is that he is sometimes aggressive with dogs he does not know. That is one big reason I always keep him on a leash. His second problem is that he likes to eat rope. One time he ate twelve feet of rope. That turned into a $1400 vet bill. Until next time…

Pictures from top to bottom: Walter tied up at our lunch spot; Mt. Spokane through the trees; the self rescue pack way up in a tree (this always cracks me up...it has a thermal pad and a blanket in case you get hurt skiing. What I have not figured out is how to get it
down and get yourself situated if you are hurt).

Sublime

As mentioned in my previous post, Walter and I headed back up to Farragut State Park on Friday afternoon. The campground we thought we were going to be in was closed but the Snowberry Campground was open. There are really only two good tent sites there and we got one of them. Unfortunately we had to pay the hook-up price. Had I known this, I would have brought an extension cord, space heater, and a reading lamp. Oh well.

The weather was absolutely wonderful, about 70 degrees during the day and probably mid 30's at night. We slept in the back of the Blazer and that was comfy and warm. I stayed up reading until around 2 in the morning. I covered a whole new Smithsonian magazine and started in again on the latest Harry Potter book. Yeah, I have already read it three times but when you are a Potterholic these things happen. I wore out the batteries in my head lamp, then used the dome light of the Blazer for a bit then turned it off after an hour so I would not run the battery down. I was lying there in the dark feeling bummed out about not being able to read until I realized my cell phone has a flashlight on the end. It was perfect.

Of course I ended up sleeping until 10:00 the next morning but that was just fine. We buggered out of the camping spot at 1:00 and went for a hike on the Shoreline trail and the Ridgetop trail. The Ridgetop trail goes up to the top of the mountain across from the bay. It was a nice hike with lots of fall colors. The last half to three quarters of a mile is sort of tough; very steep with lots of rocks to scramble over, which is sometimes difficult for those of us with short legs. But, we made it to the top overlook and then walked about another 20 minutes along the ridge. It was incredibly beautiful up there, with views of the lake, towards the Rathdrum Prarie, and towards Sandpoint. After our hike back down (there were several spots I had to slide down on my butt) we sat on the lake shore and watched some loons for a while, then headed back to the car and drove to a picnic area across from Bernard Peak. Often times you can see mountain goats on the slopes across the bay but I could not see any. I believe the Ridgetop trail ends up on Bernard Peak and there are spots to look down and view the mountain goats, or at least that is what I think I heard somewhere.

It was with a light though reluctant heart that we left. The weather was so beautiful that I wanted to stay another night but had a dog-sitting conflict for the night. I would like to do some winter camping this year, but I find the older I get the more I want to stay warm. I was also laughing at myself because I realized also that the older I get the thicker my sleeping mat tends to be. I have finally upgraded to a 2" Thermarest for car camping. I remember the days when my friends and I would go camping with our sleeping bags and a sheet of plastic! We would only take food that we could cook on sticks or right in the can! Ah, youth.

Photos from top to bottom: Walter in his cute sweater; our campsite; the nest in the back of the Blazer; a tiny island in the lake; the view from half way up; one big ass rock that we eventually ended up on top of; looking down.

A Quick Camping Trip

Since school has started back I have had very little time to get out and do much and less time to sit and post pictures (hey, I still have dial-up). Walter and I have had some small little hikes at Riverside State Park and Dishman Hills, but little new since Wapaloosie. We did, however, take a quickie camping trip two weeks ago to Farragut State Park in Idaho.

I had very little time or patience to drive somewhere far away and most of the Forest Circus campgrounds are closed right now. There are a few places that I like to either hike or drive into that are not established campgrounds but the hunters have pretty much taken over the world, so we (we being me and Walter) decided a state park was a pretty safe place to not get shot.

I have had two experiences at Farragut and both of them were less than ideal. It is on Lake Pend Oreille which is the biggest lake in Idaho. Therefore, it is a fucking circus on summer weekends...filled with big RV's and party boats and jet skis. One summer Nancy and I went there for a weekend and there was this huge party of really drunk people camped across from us. They were terrible. The sheriff even came out but they did not stop. The next morning, after they had taken their drunken asses out in their big boats, we walked over to their camp to just have a look around. Ok, I am not a vindictive person, but it was just too tempting given the sleepless night we had just had. There were a bunch of half consumed beer bottles lying around so...well...we emptied the bottles on their sleeping bags. Ok, it was evil, but it was fun and right now I am smiling about it. Farragut is also a great place to take a pack of ten year old girls which we also did one year for Morgan's birthday (I think I still am suffering from PTSD from that weekend). It is that kind of place...not the place where you would go for solitude and silence. But, the first weekend in October is not too bad. Only the hardy and foolish seem to camp that time of year, and Walter and I are both.

I had a test to study for that week so it worked out great. I took my books and some beer and was able to have the best of both worlds (I got a 100% on the test by the way). I pretty much studied the first afternoon I was there and then we did a small walk down to the lake before taking off the next morning. I am planning on going back this weekend, but I am leaving my books at home. Hopefully I will have some pictures of a hike or two to share (evidently there are over 90 miles of trails in the park). In the meantime, here are pictures of our little camping spot and then one of Walter chewing on this absolutely huge and obscene cow bone. He is so spoiled.