Wednesday, April 27, 2011

Mt. Defiance

Last weekend, to continue with training for the upcoming Mt. St. Helens climb and undeterred by the forecast for rain, 6 hardy souls (meaning myself and 5 awesome friends) took it upon themselves to hike Mt. Defiance. Mt. Defiance is just as hard as the name implies with, count them, 5000 feet of elevation gain! Luckily, the rain held out and after 9 hours on the trail, 6 happy hikers were successfully back at the trailhead with sore legs and good memories. Too bad the alleged Sasquatch sighting ended up being a tree stump.



The mystical forest trail before hitting snow at 3000 feet




A tier of friends




Happy at the summit of Mt. Defiance
Not a great view and lame man-made objects but we had great cell phone reception




A rainbow to greet us as we came out of the woods on our descent

Thursday, April 21, 2011

The Box Knockers are Back


Spring softball has begun! We've already won one game by forfeit. Here's hoping we win one for real!

Monday, April 18, 2011

Gleneden Beach


Craving a recharge after the long winter, I decided to take a solo sojourn to the Oregon coast last weekend. As my little, old CRV took me on roads west, I realized the coast is a place I don't visit nearly enough as I'm usually drawn to Mt. Hood in the east. While visiting Gleneden Beach, I took a run along the shoreline, watched an amazing sunset, ate crab, killed a bottle of Ken Wright wine (thank you Sis) and thought about all the facets of life. It was just what this little soul needed.



A place to lay my head




A local looking for treasure in the form of clams or oysters (not sure which)




Yumm!




Driftwood cemetery




New recruits slowly making their way in

Wednesday, April 13, 2011

Playin' Hooky

Last Friday, I quite coincidentally took the day off from work on what happened to be the best spring day of the year so far. The sun was shining, warm on our faces and the air had the crispness of winter's end.

My awesome friend, C-lin, joined me on a training hike to help prepare for the upcoming Mt. St. Helens Mother's day climb in May. Hoping to reach over 3000' of elevation gain, we stopped and turned around about 2000' up after running into tracks in the snow that put an image of a big cat ambling along the trail in front of us in my mind.

So what are two girls with extra time on their hands to do? Why, we stopped at our favorite watering hole, Edgefield, for a post-hike drink in the sun. Just lovely.



The trail leading up to Nesmith Point taking us past mossy rocks and vibrant trees...eventually it was covered with snow




Cute as a button




A sea of daffodils at Edgefield

Monday, April 4, 2011

A Hike in the Woods in Kentucky

Last week, I visited my home state of Kentucky for my grandmother's 90th birthday. I love that I have longevity in the women of my family and I was pleased to go help her celebrate. While there, I spent a lot of time enjoying my parent's awesome Southern hospitality and playing with my niece and nephew. Below are a few shots of our hike in the woods behind my parent's house. While exploring, we kept an eye out for ticks and cougars and came home with some found antlers that had been shed by a deer.




Spring has sprung in Kentucky




Cutie Pie!




On the lookout for a big cat