Skip to main content

A Wonderful Year 2013..................


I am very thankful for the wonderful year we have been allowed to have in the great outdoors. 2013 Brought us many new experiences some that were fun and some that were painful lessons. We have crossed creeks and walked through mud and trudge through snow with dry feet. Thanks to good hiking shoes, we have learned the painful lesson between good hiking boots and bad hiking boots the hard way. We have climbed hills, scrambled up mountains and crossed valleys and still stood in amazement at the beautiful views around us. We have saw animals great and small and still managed to be intrigued by them all. We have laid in our tent and wondered if the horse would still be there in the morning and if the wind was ever going to stop. We have found that you can never have too many Cheetos or jolly ranchers in your backpack on a long hike. We ventured out in the rain just to say we did it. We drove dirt, gravel, busy and scary roads and lived to talk about it. We have got up close and personal with the forest floor whether by accident or just exploring. We learned how a government shut down effected us and it gave us new meaning to using the bushes. We have returned again, and maybe again to the same trail and always found something different each visit. We have arose early to get to a trailhead even knowing that we would have to hike without any coffee running through our veins. We have had the privilege to say hi to many hikers along the trail in passing through out the year, and felt privileged to be out there. We waited for spring to arrive with all it's flowers bursting with color, then we watched it fade into summer and moved to higher ground, fall came early in the mountains and with it a great disappointment that we might miss all the color. We embraced the thought of starting winter early and trekked out into the snow for spots of color, and now we just can't wait for winter to really begin down on our valley floor. I want to thank Brooks Shoes for the wonderful trail running shoes that made my hiking life a enjoyable trek this summer and on into fall. I would also like to thank Nikon for the beautiful lenses that they allow us to put ourselves into debt for so that we can document those beautiful memories for raining days. I would also like to thank my fellow hikers, family members and especially my nephew who has hiked most of these trails with his Aunt, even when she has said she is not in the mood for jokes this early, he has still gave it his best shot and hiked many miles with me. I would also like to thank Washington Trails, and all the folks that work hard to maintain the trails and submit trail reports. And lastly all the hiking blogs that I stalk, thank you for all the wonderful inspiration, information and beautiful photos that continue to help feed my crazy addiction for hiking and photography. Happy Trails 2013.

Labels

Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

North Cascades Hwy 20, Snowshoeing

Since we don't take snowshoeing very serious and it's just another way to get out in the great outdoors and have some fun, we snowshoe highway 20 from the parking area up the pass quiet often.  It is a busy snowmobile area, but if you just be aware of whats going on around you, it is safe.  There is so much room to have fun, snow covered slopes, snowshoe up the road, or venture off the road.  It is a gradual climb up the road, we never get very far before we run out of gas and are ready to head back down.  I would love to some day take a snowmobile to the top of the pass...and snowshoe....I keep dreaming.  This is a easy location to just get out, stretch your legs and enjoy the fresh winter air.  I have always been a little bit apprehensive about  snowshoeing where there is snowmobile activities, but so far we have met only super polite folks and very respectful to keep their distance of folks snowshoeing.
Post a Comment
Read more

Yellow Jacket Sno-Park.......................

December 29th, 2012 came along with some beautiful weather in the Mazama area....broken blue skys and a nice 21 degrees.....with my little brother and his wife up visiting through the holiday season we ventured out to play in the snow.....We originally headed up to snowshoe the Cedar Creek trail....but Hwy 20 wasn't plowed past the first sign at the bottom.....and when we came across the Early Winters bridge we could see trucks and cars parked on both sides of the road....somewhere between 25-40 rigs.....lots of snowmobile trailers.....we decided that we needed to locate another snowshoeing spot with a little less traffic since my brother wanted to do a little snowboarding if possible......so we headed to Yellow Jacket Sno-Park....Large parking area with just a few vehicles parked....we strapped on our gear and headed up the trail....nice easy hike up a groomed snowmobile track....lots of places to step off the trail and explore...we pretty much stuck to the trail on the way up.....
Post a Comment
Read more

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 aroun...
Post a Comment
Read more