Adventures in Independence

Wally and I were hoping to get out and get a hike in today (July 4th) but aside from a small stroll around the hood we have been occupied with other endeavors. Yes, I dove back into the world of home improvement. I just spent five hour installing a ceiling fan in my kitchen. It only took two trips to Home Depot. The problem with having a 120 year old house is that nothing is square or even and a lot of the modern widgets that are available in the home improvement stores do not fit houses that have actual timber framing. But, with some improvising and using my left brain I was able to complete the task with minimal leftover parts and a small amount of blood loss. And I only have to make one small repair on the drywall.

This evening I am having dinner with friends and maybe watching the fireworks downtown. My internship is going great and I am not feeling so overwhelmed this week (this is only my second week).

However, this past weekend Walter and I were able to get up to Mt. Spokane for the day and put in around 8 miles. Yeah, I was darn tired when it was over with. We parked at the parking lot on the hairpin turn and walked 6 miles on a pretty gentle uphill grade to the back of Mt. Kit Carson and Day Mountain to the saddle and big trail junction between Kit Carson and the Mt. Spokane peak. Wow, that was quite a walk and we did it in three hours. It would have taken us much longer if we could have stopped and had a nice little picnic but the three times we stopped for a rest the bees and horse flies started biting. A horse fly bit me through my shirt and I think Walter got stung in the mouth. So we just sort of had our lunch while we were walking.

I have only been on parts of the Loop road and even though it is a road (but closed to motorized vehicles) I highly suggest it for a hike. It is a bit sunny in places and on the back of Day Mountain there is a small bit of forest that is owned (and wrecked) by a timber company. But, with raping of the forest comes some great views of the surrounding mountians. After we got to the big trail junction we took trail 110 down to the trailhead parking lot. That portion of the trail is only about two miles. There are several streams that intersect the trail and I was so hot that every time we came to one (the trail crosses one of them several times because of the switchbacks) I drenched myself. Walter just

stands there and looks at me like I am crazy. On the whole route we only saw one other person and that was when we were coming down 110.

Pretty soon (maybe even this weekend) Walter and I are going to start back on our 50x50 hikes. I have a lot of catching up to do and now that Nancy is back I have someone to look after the dogs on the weekends.

The first picture is of course the new ceiling fan and then some random shots of hiking on Mt. Spokane. The ones with the view of the mountains in the background are of the Cabinet Mountains, Selkirks, and the Bitterroots way in the distance and the one that looks like a bulldozer attacked the hillside is where a bulldozer apparently attacked the hillside in the logging area. And one of the cute little mile markers along the Loop road.