Enchanted Summer
We're back from another summer of (this time unexpected) hiking in the Cascade and Olympic Mountains. The summer started off with a series of problems and annoyances that derailed our original plans to spend the summer in California, mostly in the Sierras. First, I caught Covid, which--though fortunately a minor case--set our departure back more than a week. Then, two days in a row the bus we intended to take to the California border to start our hike failed to pick us up at the downtown bus stop where we were waiting for it at 3:00 AM (never again, Greyhound). Still undeterred, we instead boarded a train to get to a close enough spot, but by the time we finally made it to our destination temperatures were soaring and fires were breaking out en route, including at our intended destination, Yosemite. So, after just five days of a planned fifty days of hiking we pulled the plug on the whole plan, got back on the train, and headed home to start over.
In the end it all worked out for the best. We somehow scored last minute permits to visit the Enchantments and to hike the Wonderland Trail, and we visited several other places both new and old to us in a kind of Washington's Greatest Hits tour. I had only been to the Enchantments once, in September of 2006, and Mrs. Orca had never been. It's got to be one of if not the most photogenic landscapes I have ever seen, and because of its tight regulation and our M-F visit it was shockingly uncrowded. Even mosquitos, which often plague the high country in midsummer, did not even amount to a nuisance. So, all's well that ends well, I guess.
Mrs. Orca above Crystal Lake (7034'), with Little Annapurna (8440') behind it, the Enchantments, Alpine Lakes Wilderness, Washington Cascades.
Enchanted Summer
We're back from another summer of (this time unexpected) hiking in the Cascade and Olympic Mountains. The summer started off with a series of problems and annoyances that derailed our original plans to spend the summer in California, mostly in the Sierras. First, I caught Covid, which--though fortunately a minor case--set our departure back more than a week. Then, two days in a row the bus we intended to take to the California border to start our hike failed to pick us up at the downtown bus stop where we were waiting for it at 3:00 AM (never again, Greyhound). Still undeterred, we instead boarded a train to get to a close enough spot, but by the time we finally made it to our destination temperatures were soaring and fires were breaking out en route, including at our intended destination, Yosemite. So, after just five days of a planned fifty days of hiking we pulled the plug on the whole plan, got back on the train, and headed home to start over.
In the end it all worked out for the best. We somehow scored last minute permits to visit the Enchantments and to hike the Wonderland Trail, and we visited several other places both new and old to us in a kind of Washington's Greatest Hits tour. I had only been to the Enchantments once, in September of 2006, and Mrs. Orca had never been. It's got to be one of if not the most photogenic landscapes I have ever seen, and because of its tight regulation and our M-F visit it was shockingly uncrowded. Even mosquitos, which often plague the high country in midsummer, did not even amount to a nuisance. So, all's well that ends well, I guess.
Mrs. Orca above Crystal Lake (7034'), with Little Annapurna (8440') behind it, the Enchantments, Alpine Lakes Wilderness, Washington Cascades.