Crystal Mountain Hike

Near Mt. Rainier National Park is a ski resort, Crystal Mountain.  In the summer time they allow you to ride the gondola up to the top of the mountain. 

Here they boast of the "best view of Mt. Rainier."

So of course we have to take a few photo's.

Our son Joseph flew in from Orlando for his mom's birthday and to have a little vacation time from work.

We opted to take the 9 mile hike back down the mountain.  One person commented that we had color coordinated Florida Gator jackets, dogs also. So off down the hill we go.  Joseph helps Bandit over some rough rocks.

Even on the 4th of July we still get to trudge through snow.

The trail is narrow and traverses a steep ski hill.

Photo opp at the switchback.

And then more traversing.

Mocha does a little hunting along the way. 

Bandit does not have too much trouble in the snow, but then he has 4 paw drive.

There are several snow melt ponds around.

You can't help but stop once in a while and just look around. 

Creeks are still running full with snow melt.  So sometimes you have to take a little hop to get over them.

When Bandit gets tired or encounters something he doesn't like he just sets down, then makes a very sad dog face.  Works every time.

At the six mile point is a pretty little lake.

We lost the main trail in the snow drifts, so improvised by walking down some of the cat trails for the ski resort.  They were quite rocky.

The pups starting getting pretty tired so Joseph helped them out with a little ride.

At last we start to see signs of civilization again.

And finally we reach the ski area.  3 hours, 9 miles of steep downhill walking.  We were sore for 4 days.

Wenatchee, near Leavenworth WA

From Spokane we ambled over to Lake Wenatchee State Park near the Bavarian style town of Leavenworth, WA.  It was a nice little town and found some excellent beer and pretzels.

While there we used the motorcycles to scout out floating the Wenatchee River.



 

Some people use a more basic model. 

 

We found some of the river a little too rough for our abilities.

Most of the river is pretty tame.

At last we are ready, Barbara dresses for the task at hand.  The water was quite refreshing.

We stopped on the way to scout out some fish traps.  It was nice they put up a warning sign, but I never did find the danger.

This bridge is about the half way mark.

We are not the only ones on the river, here is a guided tour stopping at a little water fall along the way.

You would almost think I knew what I was doing.

The only hard part was a hidden hydraulic. We came around a corner and got sucked into it.  It felt like a giant hand had grabbed the back of the kayak and was trying to pull us back into the rocks.  We did some wild paddling and got free.   No pictures of that, way too busy.

And finally we reach the takeout place.

It was an excellent day on the water. 

Spokane

We stopped off in Spokane, WA on our way to Seattle.  Poor planning on our part, we arrived during the 2013 Hoopfest.  The place was packed, we had trouble finding a place to stay and parking downtown was impossible. 

So we went to the north side of town and did a little rock climbing at John Shields Park.

This area was well organized and favorite for many people that just like to rappel. It was tall enough that we had to use the radios to coordinate setting the top rope.  It was also very hot, mid 90's. 
We still got some good climbs in.

 

Later we went downtown and explored around.  It was Monday so there were cleanup crews everywhere.  We did get some good views of the Spokane Falls.

Interestingly enough some residue from Hoopfest made it's way into the river.  At one point there is a back hydraulic that has captured these basketballs that fell into the river.  They keep going around in circles and don't get washed downriver.  I wonder how long they will stay there. 

Savenac and Western Montana

Well June is almost over now.  I have been somewhat remiss in posting our activity so this will be a long one. 

We arrived at the Savenac Historic Tree Nursery for some volunteer work. 

http://www.fs.usda.gov/detail/lolo/specialplaces/?cid=stelprdb5086977

Our duties are primarily to man the visitor center and to mow the grass. 

We are part of the Savenac Precision Mowing Team.  We think of ourselves as the Cartwright’s of Savenac, rather the Cartwright's of Bonanza. 

 

In 1910 there was a huge forest fire in this area that pretty much decimated the forest.  The Tree Nursery was established to create seedling to replant the forest.  Some of the planters here have a standing Guinness record of planting 2000 trees in one hour. 

This is an interesting area because there is so much forest.  Basically the roads follow rivers, then you get branch roads off of the main road that take you up to the ridges on either side of the valley.  This area has several Alpine Lakes.  Our first hike was to Clear Lake. 

 

 

Mocha and Bandit went along for the 4 mile hike.  We had to cross a lot of snow melt creeks along the way.  They were not too sure about it. 

 

Mocha picks her way carefully through the raging river.

 

 

Bandit finally had enough and just sat down.

 

The trails here are pretty easy so we got lots of motorcycle riding in through the mountains.

 

We got new boots, this helped with Barbara’s problem of being able to reach the ground with her feet.

 

 

In our travels we came across this portable saw mill.   The locals here tell us that there are many buildings in the area built from mills just like this one.

 

Another Alpine Lake that was much easier to get to is Moore Lake.  Forest roads take you to within ¼ mile. 

 

Lots of dead falls in the lake.

Someone built a raft to float around on.

 

Over in the dead falls we found a snake that had captured lunch, he had his mouth full.

We did some riding up behind the lake, very pretty country.

About 60 miles west of us is the town of Coeur d'Alene, ID.  There is a rock climbing area at Q'emiln Park.  Of course we had to start out on the Death Fall Wall.

I got stuck on this overhang,

But Barbara got around it. 

We took the dogs into the vet to get their teeth cleaned.  While that was going on we drove up to Revett Lake. 

It was a two mile hike to the lake, still lots of snow on the ground.

Barbara got a lesson in snow melt.  When she was walking across an area like this one she fell through.  Fortunately she did not fall into the creek. 

Because of the snow melt the creeks were all high making crossing them a bit tricky.

And of course there are snow melt water falls.

We took a little ride to the Upup fire lookout.  The forest service has started renting retired lookout towers as primitive cabins.  What a cool place to spend a night or two.

Of course getting there required riding on the forest roads, something we enjoy.

Even if there is a little snow on the trail.

While in Wallace Idaho we found the center of the Universe.

All in all it was a very pretty place to stay. 

Even though it was a bit of drive to get to anywhere the host sites were very nice and our co-hosts were fun and friendly people.