Getting up early to do some local hikes and trail runs, I have been treated to a ton of wildflowers. They won’t be around too much longer due to the heat, but they are amazing right now! Even the weeds were pretty photogenic. Taken with my camera phone so excuse any photographer’s errors – Joel would do a much better job!
And no, I do not know the names of them all!
Just a few pictures of the latest harvest;
After the short Mount Walker hike, I decided to find a longer hike, with less of a grade. The Tunnel Creek Trail is relatively flat for the first 3 miles or so and then gets steep for the last mile up to Harrison Lake. The most recent trail reports indicated that there was snow about 1/4 mile from the top so I added my microspikes to my pack.
The trail was enjoyable and then, just as promised, it got steep. Near the top I found that as the weather was warming up quickly, the snow was not icy but mushy and I started post-holing up to my knees. The guidebook said it was 4.1 miles to Harrison Lake and my GPS said 4.1 miles but I never saw the lake. I suspect that it was just a bit further but when I realized that the freshest tracks in the snow I was following were from a bear, I turned around!
With the many miles of trails around Bob and Larina’s house, on those days that I didn’t feel like venturing out in the car, I was able to hike/trail run several loops right out their front door – Osprey, Talbot, Rainier and Timberton Loops provided 5 – 6 miles of enjoyable, heavily forested terrain.
Venturing further from their house, I headed to the town of Quilcene and hit the Mount Walker trail for a repeat of a hike I did last fall. The hike is a 2,000 ft climb over two miles to the top, averaging close to 20% grade. With a 33 lbs of water and weights loaded in my pack, off I went. A bit of drizzle and rain at the top and no view so turned around and stopped at the local coffee shop to warm up. Tons of Costal Rhododendrons in bloom made the otherwise grey day pop with color.
One of the garden staples that I never mention is the lone rhubarb plant that Joel brought with him from New Ulm. Amazing that it went from the wet, humid Midwest to the dry Southwest and survived. There are actually two plants but multiple attempts to kill the second one have not worked. It produces maybe 3 pencil-like stalks a year. Every year I just pile more mulch on top of it and it pops right back through. The biggest plant got hammered during a hail storm early this spring but just kept on growing, enough to harvest about 4 cups of chopped rhubarb.
I never really do much with the rhubarb except let Joel pick it and freeze it and then when it is time to harvest the following year’s crop, I sneak into the freezer and throw the prior year’s bag out. There just isn’t enough off of one plant for me to spend much time messing around … except this year. We were invited to a neighbor’s for dinner and they asked me to bring a dessert.
Allow me to introduce our first batch of Rhubarb Crumble Ice Cream with Roasted Rhubarb and Crumble Topping … YUM!
Spent one morning looking at the items in the storage unit in Newcastle, trying to determine what will get moved to the new apartment. Sort of a daunting task! Needed to recover at the favorite nearby Mexican restaurant – El Tapatio, where the food is always excellent and plentiful!
Weather forecasts indicate 5ish days of 100 degree weather in Northern Utah which will probably send our swamp cooler into orbit.
Ninety eight degrees in the shade, but at 7% humidity, it is indeed a “dry heat!” HAHA
So, what is a cat to do? Go downstairs where it is cool? No, pile on top of each other. Why? No clue, whatsoever.
A little Tiger time and time to relax on a beautiful PNW afternoon with Mom and Dad … so much to see in the little bay behind the house – ospreys, eagles, herons, otters, seals – we were occupied for hours!
In no particular order I will be adding several posts from my recent house sitting/cat sitting/parent visiting trip to WA. Staying in Port Ludlow gave me a lot of opportunities to explore the amazing trails within close reach. Larina and Bob left me a bike, kayak and paddleboard to use but I was so busy hiking that I never got around to even taking them out of the garage!
One of the hikes I went on was the 11 mile hike from the Dungeness Recreation area out along the Dungeness Spit on the Strait of Juan de Fuca to the New Dungeness Light Station National Historic Site. Of course, arriving early I found the restrooms locked at the parking lot so I had to hike another 1/2 mile through the campsite to find an operable bathroom. Always annoying to have a rather long hike further extended before you even get started!
It was a beautiful sunny day and along the way there were tons of shorebirds as well as juvenile and adult bald eagles. Not a lot of people on the way out to the lighthouse as I left pretty early but quite a few enjoying the beautiful weather as I headed back.
If you have been following our blog, you probably have realized that I have not posted anything since last September – not that nothing has happened since then but just being lazy, I guess. So a big THANK YOU to everyone who has blog-shamed me recently, I will try to be better 😁
Since early this Spring, Joel has been busy planning and planting – we have already enjoyed arugula, kale, spinach and snap peas with much more on the way including beets, tomatoes, potatoes, peas, tomatoes, squash, chard, kohlrabi, basil cucumbers, cabbage.
Joel and Alison's Excellent Adventures 