Month: August 2016

We spent from Tuesday, 8/16 early until about 1pm today, 8/19, at Lincoln Rock State Park, in eastern Washington, outside Wenatchee, camping and having various kinds of fun.

I did four kayak trips along the Columbia River (which is dammed up in this  area so is more like a lake) including one today that we mapped.  We headed out at 5:50 am on a beautiful summer day, had the water mostly to ourselves, and got a good workout and had a great time.

Right after we pulled in after the outing I looked at my Garmin and it said 5.1 miles.  But the actual track, represented on Google Earth above, was 5.7 miles.  Whatevs – paddling a kayak is not overly strenuous, unless you want it to be.  It is just fun.  And what sights along the way.

The moon lately has been so beautiful.  We watched it rise over the hills at night and there it still was this morning, but on the other side of the sky and going the other direction.

Not every view is sublime, but if anyone is unclear on what kayaking is:

That crane had a nest on a rock in a rocky area that we aimed for, having visited it the day before.  It is fun to be able to get close to this area, at a leisurely pace, and enjoy the birds enjoying nature:

But now the little vacation is over and we will sleep in actual beds – those tents are fun but beds are OK as well.

Hopefully we can do this again next year.

 

No usable pics from last night – I took several pictures of a very cool lizard or salamander we saw on the trail but none of them turned out so I found a photo from last year (albeit looking northwest, we mostly looked northeast) taken from near where we were.

Derek, his brother Ryan and I hiked up to Hall’s Point last night/early this morning to watch the Perseid meteor shower.  One word review: wow!

We pulled into the remote parking lot about 11:30 pm and were astounded to see our headlights reflecting off an almost full set of tail lights.  Watching the Perseid in the dark was a popular plan.

However, none of the cars belonged to hikers.  There were a lot of people on blankets and sleeping bags hanging out in the picnic area of the South Fork of the Snohomish river where we parked.

We strapped on our headlamps and gear and headed up.

Those of you who have hiked Change Creek trail can vouch for the fact that it is narrow and rocky and steep.  Not an easy hike to do in the dark.  It was about 70 and felt muggy so we were sweating like whatever sweats a lot (do pigs actually sweat?) in short order.

We took a few breaks to rest our burning calves and gasp for breath along the way.

But in a bit more than an hour there we were, about 3,000 feet up on Hall’s Point with a terrific 360-degree view in the pitch dark.  Watching the meteor shower.

I estimate I saw about ten times more meteors last night in two hours (we were up there from 1am to just past 3am) than I had seen in my entire life before.  Every minute or so we were oohing and aahing at the streaks of fire in the sky.

There must be a word stronger than ‘fun’ that cuts the mustard here but I am not sure what it is.  I just have to thank Derek and Ryan for humoring an old man’s goofy idea to hike in the dark to see meteors, and Derek for picking out Hall’s Point, a perfect spot for viewing.

I am going back next year  to do it again.

Another Cedar River Watershed Education Center (CRWEC) tour, ‘Among the Ancients’ led by Clay Antiou to visit old growth forest stands in the watershed.  What a fun and educational day.  We left about 9am and did not get back until 4:30.  It was worth it.

We drove by Chester Morse Lake on the way to our first stop, a second growth stand so we could see the difference between the newer and the older trees.

As we walked through the forest Clay continually pointed out interesting facts about trees, lichens, mosses, ferns – and fascinating little plants like these Indian Pipes:

The first old growth stand we visited was the Lost Creek stand:

We then drove east at about 4,000 feet (along a very rough road) to the Findlay Lake stand:

We got to this beautiful little sub-alpine lake via a nice little steepish hike of about a half mile.  And at the trailhead was a challenging peak.  Too bad this area is off limits, or I and a few other hikers I know would love to give this one a try:

As always, a great tour.  I look forward to September and my next one, a reprise of last year’s ‘Adventures in Forest Ecology’.