…get a cold in June. I don’t know why, but it always happens around this time. Lame. So instead of celebrating the summer solstice by watching the sunset on some gorgeous hike somewhere, I find myself supine on the couch inhaling several cold medications (and, let’s be honest, chocolate) to try to get better before Saturday.
Oh well – at least being sick = being bored = scrapbooking = a chance to try out my awesome new mountain dies from Quickutz. Here is a total scraplift of a layout by the fabulous Moon Ko:
A few days after our trip to Mailbox Peak, the photographer we met sent us this photo – huzzah! By the way, I appear to already have forgotten the PURE HELL my thighs were in after that hike and am planning to go back once the wildflowers start blooming.
I’m stupid.
The weather this weekend was fantastic. We celebrated by going on my favorite dayhike so far – to beautiful Colchuck Lake (near the creepy faux-Bavarian town of Leavenworth):
See that pass on the left side of Dragontail Peak? That’s Aasgard Pass, and we have to hike up that thing in order to get to the Enchantments in September. JK could probably run up it right now if he wanted to; I have yet to see him winded on a hike. I, on the other hand, will have to devise some sort of evil, rigorous training plan in order to even entertain the thought of making it to the top (with energy to spare to explore the Enchantments and, horror of horrors, get back down again – all without coughing up a lung).
(By the way, the reason this hike was snow-free (even though it is over 2,000 feet higher than where we went last weekend) is because it is located on the magical, happy, sunny eastern side of the Cascades. But since they also have rattlesnakes and ticks galore, so I would rather live here on the we(s)tside.)
Nothing more exciting to share. I’ve been feeling under the weather and what was left of my scrapbooking mojo has disappeared. Methinks a trip to Norway without access to paper, photos or glue might be just what I need…
On Sunday we braved the gloomy weather and headed to Talapus Lake near Snoqualmie Pass and were rewarded with *drum roll* actual rays of sun!! It disappeared again after our hike, but there have been several confirmed sun sightings throughout the week. The forecast for this weekend is looking ridiculously good, so I’m crossing my fingers that Juneuary might be over for this year (bah, now I’m probably jinxing it)…
Ok, so can someone explain to me how to take photos of snow without it looking either grey or totally blown out?? I’ve read about it several times but apparently my brain can’t seem to process the information.
Take a look at the snow levels – Talapus Lake is only at 3,250 feet!
Bobby’s poor little Italian paws were getting a little cold in the snow, so we tried his booties for the first time. They may look absolutely ridiculous, but they did stop the shivering!
I’m off to plan hikes for the weekend, so I’ll leave you with my layout for this week’s challenge (flowers flowers flowers!) over at Scrappedugnad. Don’t ask me why (uhm, because we’re weird?), but we’ve started calling Bobby Miguel.
The gorgeous paper is from the Norwegian company 3ndypapir :D
I had never heard this expression before moving to Washington (go figure), but man alive is it ever appropriate. Juneuary can mean one of two things; the freakishly warm and sunny weeks of January or the horrible, horrible, horrible #%@&ing weeks of COLD BLOODY RAIN in June.
The Pacific Northwest boasts a long and honorable tradition of rain-soaked misery. [...] The stuff puts you on edge. It feels as if nobody’s showered or shaved in three days. The civility that Northwesterners wear like a hand lotion washes away; some snap at one another, some just snap. About the ninth or tenth day, everybody looks at each other and says, “Goddamn it’s been raining.”
Even running intervals at the gym isn’t providing the necessary endorphins anymore. If anyone knows a better cure than I have found (burrowing under blankets on the couch, inhaling vitamin D, fattening foodstuffs and copious amounts of alcohol), please tell me now. My thighs/liver/friends will thank you.
I seem to have neglected my road trip recap, so here’s part three. After our beautiful hike in Zion, we drove southeast to Page, AZ. The main goal for our stay there was to see Antelope Canyon, probably the most famous (and certainly the most photographed) slot canyon in the world.
Antelope Canyon is located in the Navajo Nation, so if you want to see it you will have to go with a Navajo guide. Unfortunately, there are 5-6 different guide services and they all cram as many people into the canyon as possible. Instead of getting to explore this amazing canyon on your own, you’ll spend most of your time waiting in line and looking at this:
By the time our tour was over, we were so sick of other human beings that we decided to go where they weren’t – the beach! Lake Powell was formed by the damming of the Colorado River and is the second largest man-made lake in the U.S…and apparently it is insanely cold in April. No wonder we were the only ones there :o)
JK captured our looks of horror/hypothermia as we braved the water:
Before driving on the next morning, we stopped by Horseshoe Bend. I have to say, this is one of the most awesome things we saw on the entire trip – even more breathtaking than the Grand Canyon. The drop-offs are insane though – if I ever bring kids here, they’re all going to be on leashes!!
