What a week....with the weather turning extremely hot, our phone lines at work were jumping with calls from folks roasting because their air conditioners decided to stop working for them....Man what long busy busy week.....and to top all that off I had to catch a cold or some kind of nasty flu right in the middle of it that almost put me out of commission......but we are on the mend.....so last weekend...seems so long ago.....a nice beautiful blue sky weekend we ventured up the highway to Driveway Butte trail......the trail head starts in the Klipchuck campground area....lovely campground....started off the morning fairly warm but not to hot.....we didn't get too far up the mountain and I knew I was in trouble with my shoes.....blisters.....the trail is a pretty good incline all the way up.....so we stopped and I put on sock liners and we continued.....it wasn't looking to good for my feet.....made another stop or two to change socks, lace shoes differently.....nothing was helping and we still had miles to go....the sign at the bottom says 4 miles to the top......I was ready to turn around at the first peep from any of my fellow hikers.....but we trudged on....I was in misery.....by the time we hit the burn area at about the two and half mile mark we parked it for lunch....I pulled my boots off and rested my feet....the views on the way op were fantastic of the mountains looking up towards the North Cascades.....clear sky's.....the farther you climbed the more mountains came into view.....the Ponderous pines had very bright orange bark....the were gorgeous.....there is some very old trees on this dry hillside.....we were just a little early for the balsam root show....a few here and there blooming....I am sure after this heat wave they are pushing big time.....there was a verity of flowers blooming here and there across the face of the hill.....it seems a long ways up from the highway that you can see as you hike the switchbacks at a steady incline.....after a nice leisure lunch in the shade at the edge of the snow line we took a vote and decided to head back down....the steady breeze is the only thing coming and going that made the temperature fairly pleasant....a steady pace down the hill made for some serious pain in the legs for the next few days....I can't complain too much I was the smart one that picked the trail....I think I paid for my choice....coming down didn't seem to cause me as much trouble on my heels as the going up part.....My nephew said he would do it again....I about fell over.....The trail does provide nice views.....I can see that it would be a pretty spectacular show once the balsam roots are in bloom and other flowers....I think I would try it with a different pair of boots next time......
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