Sunday, August 11, 2013

The Washington State Postgame Show

We arrived home early Thursday morning just after midnight, and for the first time in 18 days we had internet service fast enough to download some ridiculous videos from our trip.  Actually, we have combined some video clips into short movies for these.

Surviving a night on the Skyline Divide
with a little help from "our friend"
 
Day hikes don't get much tougher, or more beautiful,
than Maple Pass Loop, which actually crosses
three passes
 
Star calls it the Pacific Coast Trail, but then again, she calls Revco Pharmacy "CVS."
After driving 19 miles on a rock and gravel road from the nearest store,
you are in deep wilderness at the trailhead.  We have now backpacked
 on the PCT in both California and Washington.
 
 
Some Miscellaneous Photos
 
               Ptarmigan Ridge Snow Patterns

We ate at Graham's Store twice, where you can
"Dine in simulated luxury underneath the 
Willow Tree in the backyard"         

    Spent our first few days at Mt. Baker in this
    wonderful custom cabin by the Nooksack River
                            Thanks, John!

 

 
 
 
Our Final Thoughts
 
Despite my ad nauseam postings filled with photos and videos of hiking trips, Star and I have been discussing how the people we encountered were the most fascinating part of this trip.  Every summer, we go west to hike and backpack, but travelling in Washington State this particular summer we met people on much bigger, tougher, and grander adventures.  We met people who inspire, provoke, and challenge our way of doing things, and people who are kind, thoughtful, and more than willing to lend a hand or reach out for one.  May each of you be blessed in your journeys thru life.
 
Ben 
 

Tripping, 2013

We were aliens, easily

ID’d by our foreign accents

even though we disguised

our big ears and furry toes

with traditional hiking garb.

 
There were others, of course

like the elderly blind man from

Massachusetts on a snow-covered trail. 

He was so terrified of heights

he couldn’t see that he trekked

with tears running down his face.  

And the tripper from Arizona whose

companion waited patiently for breakfast

leftovers in his covered doggie

carrier on the bicycle. 

 
The natives were friendly, even the

Boy Scouts who invited us to share

their camping spot.  For privacy, we

ignored the storm and found another

half an hour down the trail, marked HERE

in the dust by a couple from the parking lot.
 

Once in a while, we met someone

who knew we weren’t exactly from the

planet where Deliverance was filmed.

One even had hiked along the Chattooga

although he had shared it with copperheads

and dangerous denizens in overalls.
 

Thanks to the gremlin in Graham’s who sent us

to the village of trees at exit 42, older than anything

created outside of nature and the real giants of Washington. 

Thanks to JaNae, with her children as illegal as ours

Marta and a sliver of minke whale we chased

through the Salish Sea, and a friendly hitchhiker. 

A final thanks and sigh of relief for divine intervention

which led us to Ben’s wallet under our car seat and

the computer almost turned in with the rental pod.

 
And so we’re back in home territory, happy to

find it just as strange and wonderful as any trip.
 
Star

 

 
 








 

No comments:

Post a Comment