Thor and I recently celebrated ten years together by repeating one of our favorite outings, the first hike we made together in 2007, from the Artist Point staging area below Mt. Baker (above), along Ptarmigan Ridge Trail, and down into Chain Lakes. It’s been a wonderful ten years, full of hiking, travels, teaching, writing, adventures, remodeling our bungalow to make it into a “bungaloid,” and of course sharing it all with our sweet critters Worf (now departed) & Bear dog and Tucker & Turtle cats.
It was a big snow year, and even though it’s melting fast in our unusually hot summer, Koma Kulshan (the original native name for Mt. Baker) still wears her magnificent white cloak. We were lucky to have a clear “anniversary” day between waves of forest fire smoke from British Columbia and Washington/Oregon.
Lots of lovely wildflowers on the rocky slopes and boggy meadows.
We dropped down into the basin of cold, clear mountain lakes for a picnic, with Tabletop Mountain as backdrop.
The otter in me is always activated by the beautiful clear water. After a (very cold) swim, your whole body tingles and you know you’re alive!
Fir trees stand as sentinels.
More wildflowers along the trail back.
Bear dog loves to romp in the snow patches and take a few cold bites.
Remembering our sweet Worf:
Mt. Shuksan (on the other side of the staging/parking area) is melting out fast.
I greet my favorite Ravens on the road down. The base is made of the ubiquitous local volcanic columnar andesite.
Thor and I ten years ago. We feel blessed with our “midlife” romance.
*****
You will find The Rambling Writer’s blog posts here on alternate Saturdays. Sara’s newest novel from Book View Cafe was 
recently released in print and ebook: The Ariadne Connection. It’s a near-future thriller set in the Greek islands. “Technology triggers a deadly new plague. Can a healer find the cure?” The novel has received the Cygnus Award for Speculative Fiction. Sara is counting down the days before she returns to Greece this fall for more research on the sequel, The Ariadne Disconnect.