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it's the beginning of a wildflower summer
It's officially summer, and time to spend at least two days a month on day trips. I went to Sunrise on Mount Rainier Thursday, on a beautiful sunny day, with the obligatory picnic and Alphasmart. The picnic was lovely -- had a ground squirrel climb up on the table and get within about six inches of me. I probably could have reached out and petted him if I wasn't smart enough not to.
After lunch, I put everything in the car and went for one of my favorite walks, which is the loop around behind the ridge behind the visitor center, along the trail that used to be the road to the old car camp, and back around by Shadow Lake. The flowers are really early this year because it was so dry in this part of the world last winter, and there were at least fifteen different kinds carpeting the ground -- lupine and paintbrush and veronica and asters and penstemon and potentilla and others I can't remember the names of and, most of all, carpets and carpets of lavender phlox. About half a mile from the visitor center I came across a family of marmots, one full-grown and three half-grown kits. Not surprising, I've made this walk about a dozen times over the years, and I've failed to see marmots maybe twice. But I've never seen a whole family of them together before.
After I got back to the visitor center, I thought I'd drive down to the White River Campground (where I could find some shade) and park and work on the rewrites some. Only to find when I got there that the Alphasmart's batteries were dead (sigh). So so much for that. No paper and pen to do things the old fashioned way, either.
It was getting late, anyway, so I drove on home and wound up doing that day's scribbling at 11:30 pm. Amazingly enough, the little bit I did wound up reading coherently the next day.
I wish I could spend the whole summer up in the mountains...
BTW, Jerrie, Sunrise is where I want to take you and Marty in September -- but I forgot to ask. Do you *do* the outdoorsy stuff? How long a walk is too long for you???
After lunch, I put everything in the car and went for one of my favorite walks, which is the loop around behind the ridge behind the visitor center, along the trail that used to be the road to the old car camp, and back around by Shadow Lake. The flowers are really early this year because it was so dry in this part of the world last winter, and there were at least fifteen different kinds carpeting the ground -- lupine and paintbrush and veronica and asters and penstemon and potentilla and others I can't remember the names of and, most of all, carpets and carpets of lavender phlox. About half a mile from the visitor center I came across a family of marmots, one full-grown and three half-grown kits. Not surprising, I've made this walk about a dozen times over the years, and I've failed to see marmots maybe twice. But I've never seen a whole family of them together before.
After I got back to the visitor center, I thought I'd drive down to the White River Campground (where I could find some shade) and park and work on the rewrites some. Only to find when I got there that the Alphasmart's batteries were dead (sigh). So so much for that. No paper and pen to do things the old fashioned way, either.
It was getting late, anyway, so I drove on home and wound up doing that day's scribbling at 11:30 pm. Amazingly enough, the little bit I did wound up reading coherently the next day.
I wish I could spend the whole summer up in the mountains...
BTW, Jerrie, Sunrise is where I want to take you and Marty in September -- but I forgot to ask. Do you *do* the outdoorsy stuff? How long a walk is too long for you???