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).