Heather Lake

Last Thursday Chris & I wanted to do some sort of outing.

I preferred to not drive if I could avoid it, and if Chris was driving here first and home after, then she didn't want too much driving in between.

We voted on doing something in the Mount Pilchuck area, along the South Fork of the Stillaguamish River - someplace I used to hike as a Boy Scout and with my family in the early 1960s. We ended up opting for Heather Lake.

This cirque lake lies on the slopes of Mount Pilchuck at about 2400 feet elevation. The trail there lists at 2 miles and 1000 feet elevation gain - which represented a greater challenge than I had tackled since my diabetes and various foot problems.

For evaluating some available alternatives, we used my my earlier edition of Best Hikes With Kids: Western Washington. which does a good job of providing information appropriate to my physical limitations & mental needs.

It turned out that Schmoo (who has mobility issues) had the most problems, though my hiking shoes were discovered to be coming apart when I changed out of them back at the trailhead.

The woods were wonderful, the variety of fungi intriguing, and the views of the lake and the mountains in the mist delightful. Note the last patches of year-round snow on the far side of the lake in the top image.

I hope to be doing more of this soon - in my new ankle-high boots.

Having actually gotten out on a trail should help me better enjoy my trail guides.

Fun stuff.

No fire

The first siren could have been an ambulance.

The second siren was obviously a fire truck and stopped nearby.

The picture above is from our front yard and shows the firetruck stopped across 85th.

When I checked the 911 web site, it showed a '4RED - 2 + 1 + 1' respnse - two engines, a ladder truck, and a batallion chief - but I only heard the two sirens & the web site showed the incident as closed within a few minutes - soooooooooooooooo apparently no fire - or the first folks there put it out with a hand held fire extinguisher.

The truck in the picture is probably standing by to run hose from the fire hydrant if needed.

Woof.

Melvin was very excited.

King Melvin

Turkles

I like turkles.

Carkeek

On my way back from Richmond Beach yesterday, I stopped at Carkeek Park for a little woods walking & peering into the creek.

Note the springboard notches in the stump.

Firetruck

We had a firetruck in front of our house (not an emergency).

Melvin was entranced.

He says he really really really needs a firefighter hat.

Mothers Day

I took mom for a bit of a Mothers Day outing.


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We went East on i-90 to High Point (a bit past Issaquah) where we diverted to side roads via Preston, Fall City, Snoqualmie Falls, Three Forks Park, to North Bend. She particularly enjoyed the tree lined roads, the views of rivers and hills, and Mount Si - she was very impressed that Eliza and another young woman had climbed Little Si a few days before without male assistance or escort.

At North Bend we went to the recently remodeled Taco Time (it was closed for remodeling at the time of our last outing). She had a Fish Taco and some Mexi-Fries, dipping the latter in ranch dressing & salsa. She thought it was all wonderful, including the view of Rattlesnake Ridge.

From there we drove to the Cedar River Watershed Education Center, where the level boardwalks and paved walkways were an easy walk with great views of Rattlesnake Lake and the Rattlesnake Ledges.


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Leaving the Watershed, we went down and drove around the Riverrbend neighborhood, got back on I-90 to Hwy 18 for some alternate woodland scenery, to the Hobart-Issaquah Road for some more rural scenery, back on I-90 to Seattle, past the Sound Transit Light Rail facility with its fleet of parked light rail vehicles (streetcars), wandered through some backstreets of old industrial seattle, and back to Merrill.

Long day for me, and I still had to drive home. Maybe in another day or two I will have recovered.

:)