Category: Nature

Across the Hours

~ Crystle ~ 4 Comments

Lately, it seems that time has been slowing down and speeding up simultaneously. I’m sure I know why, but I’m not in a position to say as of yet.

With certainty, the soundtrack to this changing era in our lives is Beach House’s newest album “Bloom”. It’s exactly as Lindsey Zoladz with Pitchfork says, “‘Bloom’ is also what these 10 songs do, each one starting with the sizzle of a lit fuse and at some fine moment exploding like a firework in slow motion.” Truly profound.

I also expect the passage of time to be indicated by the life expectancy of my 12-year-old Beagle, Yango. The vet gave him only a few months to live this April. It’s now August, and he’s better than he’s ever been (although I can’t say much for his internal malignant tumor). He’s more active, happy and spry than when I first adopted him. Thanks be to Iggy. Our newly adopted dog won’t take no for an answer at playtime. They will run, they will scrap. Joy overwhelmed me when my friends who visited this summer commented on how great Yango looked. I’m optimistic that he’ll be hanging around for at least another year. R-e-l-i-e-f.

There are some major changes in our household afoot. I really haven’t been feeling so hot lately, which explains the recent blog hiatus. I’ll be posting less frequently this month as a result. Rest assured, I’ll be sharing more at a later time.

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AND! We shall not forget, the giveaway winners! I used the random number generator to pick two readers from the comments on the last post. Lucky ladies # 2 and 6 are the winners. Lauren and Ashley can email me their mailing address and a pretty little necklace will be coming their way from South Africa via Washington State!

Glacier Basin Trail – Mt. Rainier National Park

~ Crystle ~ 5 Comments

Today’s seven mile hike was wonderfully scenic, albeit a bit more snowy than we expected.

Earlier this week, Jay and I scouted out the Glacier Basin Trail from my favorite hiking guide for hiking Mt. Rainier National Park. We even checked on the trail conditions to make sure it was a reasonable expectation to reach our goal of seeing the Glacier Basin Camp.

In short, two valuable lessons were learned.

Lesson #1: When the trail forecast calls for 30% snowy conditions, it’s bound to be the highest elevation of the hike.

It was, and none of us had gaiters, trekking poles or crampons to help us trapeze the snowy trail. We managed, but it was a bit more difficult without these essential mountaineering items.

I hypothesize that with this gear, I would not have spent as much time sprawled out on the snow. Snow is cold, even in July.

Lesson #2: Sunscreen, sunscreen, sunscreen!

I should have learned the sunscreen lesson on my whale watching tour  last weekend, but alack. We all have red farmer’s tans on our left arms and now sit around the living room with taut, stinging sunburnt faces.

On a side note, summer has finally hit Tacoma (today it was 82). Since our house isn’t equipped with an AC, as the local climate doesn’t really call for it, the obvious solution for our mandatory sunburn cool-down is a big batch of Sunday evening margaritas. Call it a post-Mountain Margarita and make it a tradition. We just did.

  Regardless of our snowy slip ‘n’ slide defined hike, a great time was had by all.

Mt. Rainier National Park is never a disappointment. The season should remain fair for another 8 weeks or so. Hopefully we’ll get in several more hikes, with sunscreen, before fall!