Thor, Bear dog, and I celebrate our beautiful Mount Baker Wilderness, and send best wishes to the those fighting the terrible wild fires burning our U.S. West.
2020 continues its ravages on so many levels, but there is still so much beauty in the world to appreciate. Thor and I have had our share of challenges! Earlier this summer, in Take One of Return to the Mountains, we decided to test out our recoveries from leg/hip injuries, and enjoyed a mild hike in the foothills below Mt. Baker. Then came a surprise cancer diagnosis and major surgery. Just as I was getting my strength back for more walking, in the last couple of weeks, the devastating wild fires all over the West, especially California and Oregon, caught up to us even in our green corner of the Pacific Northwest. We were blanketed in officially Hazardous smoke for days, a bit scary after my lung surgery. I’ve never smoked, but our air was giving us all smoker’s hack. So when the air cleared with a wind shift, and before an offshore storm “river” brought us days of wind and rain deluges, we decided carpe diem called for escape to the mountains. I thought maybe I’d just hike the first, level part of the Ptarmigan Ridge Trail at the top of the Mt. Baker Highway and see how I did. Then I became intoxicated with my return to the mountains and said, “Let’s go on down to Chain lakes!” It involved some rough landslide terrain and a steepish climb back up from the lakes, but with a lot of huffing and puffing, I made it! We seized the heck out of our day!
The first of the Chain Lakes lured us on.
Ordinarily, nothing would keep me from stripping down and plunging into the clear mountain lakes, but my upper body isn’t yet recovered enough for swimming, and there was a brisk breeze under partially cloudy skies. So I figured I’d save that plunge for another day.
Another of my special spots: I call this the Elven Grotto.
A view back toward the volcanic plug of Table Mountain. The trail crosses the landslide slope below it and continues around to the other side, where the trail head is located, so that was the climb facing me on the way back. “Uh,” I told myself while I took some deep breaths, “remember, your doctor told you that you were one tough cookie.” Maybe a bit crumbly around the edges….
We’re hoping to get back before winter snows cover the trails, especially to catch the spectacular fall colors just starting. But the heat, drought, and wild fire smoke have already affected some of the foliage, dropping browned and shriveled leaves, so we’re not sure what kind of color we’ll get this year.
Just in case, here are some autumn color photos from 2018 at another of our favorite hikes, Yellow Aster Meadows:
Bear dog is always ecstatic to get up to the mountains…
…and he doesn’t mind munching a few wild blueberries along with Thor and me.
Thank you once more, Mother Nature, for your gifts.
*****
You will find The Rambling Writer’s blog posts here every Saturday. Sara’s latest novel from Book View Café is available 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 Chanticleer Global Thriller Grand Prize and the Cygnus Award for Speculative Fiction. Sara has recently returned from another research trip in Greece and is back at work on the sequel, The Ariadne Disconnect. Sign up for her quarterly email newsletter at www.sarastamey.com
