Winthrop 49er's Day Parade.......Winthrop Washington

For several years we have spent Mothers day weekend in Winthrop enjoying the 49er's day parade.....lots of beautiful horses, wagons, firetrucks, mules, outfitters and all kinds of exciting things.....I think my favorite part of the parade is the nice mix of horses... especially the larger draft horse types.....it is really neat to watch them pull wagons, carts down the street....I love all their harnesses, and shiny tack that they wear.....huge crowd of people showed up to enjoy the parade and festivities in the park....the weather was hot.....sitting or standing on the black top was not the coolest place to be...burn city....the numerous fire trucks that rolled through first seemed to stretch the parade out a little longer.....a very slow procession.....by then we had a number of sweaty cranky acting horses....almost had a rodeo or two before they were under control.....but a really fun day...from there we ate and walked through the park....love how the highway 20 is closed and folks have to wait unless they decide to drive the long detour around.....pretty comical....traffic chokes up the highway quiet a ways waiting for the parade to finish and folks to get out of the street....of course the parade goers take full advantage of this and clog the highway on the way to the park.....we walked through a couple of stores and then made our way down the Methow....the Methow river is churning....very very high for this early....it was higher than I have seen it in a long time right at the town of Winthrop....with all the heat the snow is melting out of the Cascades fast.....after our week of heat we are back to normal May chilly evening and morning weather.....Interesting season so far...never know what to expect one day to the next.

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Cutthroat Trail.......Snowshoeing North Cascades Highway

I have a confession to make, I have been having some winter blues. Not sure if they can be officially called winter blues due to we have had little to no winter. I have been very impatiently waiting for the snow to arrive, it comes, blows through, makes the ground white, then its gone. The last few days we have been sitting at temperatures in the 40's. What is up with winter. One thing I can say for sure is I am very thankful for the few trips we made up highway 20 before the silver star gate was closed. Our trip to Cutthroat Trail was back in November, when we had visions of winter coming to the valley very soon. The snow was nice and fluffy and deep. Pleasant day to get out and enjoy it, one of those days where your not sure if the clouds where going to allow the blue sky to show it self or not. We parked right off the highway with a couple of other cars and Snowshoed up the road to the trail head. Wasn't very long and more hikers, cross country skiers, and furry

The Places We Can Go

Life goes on, things change, storms of life come and go. One thing that always remains the same is the feeling and quiet peace I feel from being in the mountains. This was a spur of the moment overnight trip. It was so needed and such a beautiful time. Left the house around 2:30 PM, traffic was so slow heading up Hwy 20, lots of folks heading out of Mazama. Arrived at the trail head a few minutes before 4 PM, and we were off down the trail in a few minutes. Three quarters of a mile down the trail a bee or some kind of flying ant decided to bite my nieces eye lid, talk about hysteria for a moment. I was pretty sure our trip was over, but we were able to move on with a very cold creek soaked multipurpose face mask. The sun was sinking fast and the wind was howling by the time we reached the top. Made some quick decisions on the best place to park the tents, and we set up camp. It was truly an incredible evening, hiked around a bit and watched the sun slip behind the mountains.

Carlton Complex Wildfire, Pateros Washington

The last few weeks have been crazy busy. I spent last weekend moving my animals back home to a mostly burnt out barn yard. We had a small patch of trees and garden space that escaped the fire, which was where my dog pens were located. So they were able to return to a fairly normal life. The horse pen was kind of a hit and miss burnt area, since there wasn't a whole lot of vegetetaion in it the fences took most of the heat. The metal panels got a nice rusty color to them, with some serious scorch marks. Besides my horse having red smudge colored marks on his nose from the fencing he seems to be adjusting to his return home. We have found temporary living close by so it has made taking care of my animals easier, and a stress off of where we be this winter. The town is slowly getting the debris removed and homesteads cleaned up. Lots of piles of rubble and cut down trees piled up in the city lot areas. I understand that Okanogan County and the Confederated Tribes Of the Co

Lost In The Right Direction

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