Lodge Lake

 

I headed up to Lodge Lake, which I normally do as a snow shoe trip since it s a relatively short hike, but today I felt lazy.

On the way up, I passed by Beaver Pond.  I guess there might have been a beaver here a hundred years ago, but now it mainly inhabited by skiers.

And the ever present mosquito which weren’t too bad unless you spent twenty minutes tromping through the brush to get a better picture of the pond.  At this point I thought “do I really need another picture to add to the five hundred or so I already have of Lodge Lake.”  Ah, but it might be the perfect picture. (It wasn’t, but that was not entirely unexpected.) But the flowers were out in full force

lake had some interesting things growing/floating/rotting, what ever.  Nature isn’t always as nicely laid out as your flower beds. Except at my house where nature has laid out my flower beds and I still contend that the dandelion is an under appreciated flower.  what other flowers can you make wine out of?

And there was a lot of green. If you were a grazing animal or something that hunted grazing animals, this would be the place to be.

More Photos

Kachess Beacon

 

I headed up to Kachess Beacon because  it is a ridge walk and the breeze should keep the mosquitoes away. It was also my belief that being on the eastern side of the Cascade divide, it would be sunny.  As the poet said: “The best laid schemes o' Mice an' Men, gang aft agley."

 

But the fog kept your mind of the view and looking at the flowers.

The stone crop were particularly nice.

I carefully worked my way back down the ridge, it was steep

and after avoiding twisted ankles and bruised feet, was safely back at my car and headed towards Mountain High Burgers in Easton. (That might be the only reason one would stop at Easton.)

More photos from hike

Lake Annette

 

Well, I’m two months behind on my postings, but that is what happens when life is busy with hikes, trips to the John Muir Trail, and the birth of a grandson.  But I will try to catch up before I leave for Spain.  I know, retirement is tough, but someone has to do it.  On the sixth of July, I headed up to lake Annette to see if the snow was melted out.

It had, which is good because I ran into a church group looking for a dry place to camp. When I met them, they were standing beside the trail looking a 1000 feet down into a ravine, wondering where down there the sleeping bag of one of the campers had rolled to.  I had a better day than they did.  It was a shaded walk through the trees

along hump back creek

with all sorts of nice shady spots to set and contemplate.

Once I got to the lake I held my sandwich in one hand and swatted away the mosquitoes with the other hand.  The mosquitoes won the battle and I had to move on.

But I didn’t have to move on very quickly and so it was a casual stroll back down to my car watching the shadows on the trees

while enjoying my Oreo cookies, which I had not been able to eat in peace wile at the lake.