Clearing Trail

Remember a couple weeks back when I mentioned the new/old hiking trail we're reopening on the museum and nature center grounds where I work? Yesterday, Andy, I, Andy's aunt and cousin, spent our Saturday afternoon clearing the end of the trail to the scenic overlook where the trail will now end. Initially, the trail went past the scenic overlook and into a federally designated wilderness, but for maintenance reasons (aka, you can't use chainsaws in a federal wilderness), we're ending the trail before we hit the wilderness border.

The trail is about a mile, maybe a mile and a quarter, long and the first half had been cleared out in March. Because the trail's been unused for nearly 15 years, there's all sorts of undergrowth that needs to snipped away from the trail, not to mention a slew of fallen trees (from a windstorm and a forest fire) that need to chainsawed off the path. Believe it or not, the picture below is of the cleared path: 

There might be a little work to do yet . . . .

I always get swamping duty because I can't be trusted with chainsaws and I actually really enjoy grabbing bits of charred tree truck and hurling them off the trail.  There's such visceral satisfaction in taking a hiking path that's all tangled up with deadfall and undergrowth and making it passable. 

 

No matter what the path looks like getting there, there's always one heck of a view at the end of the path.

 

It's still too early for wildflowers to be popping out, so I contented myself with taking some pictures of lichen.

As we stomped back through the woods, chainsaws on our shoulders, backpacks filled with empty waterbottles and cookie bags, we found a moose hiding out in the brush. Can you spot her?

Soon Andy and I will be clearing another trail, so to speak. We leave tomorrow to go visit my brother in southwestern Michigan. It's a 15-hour drive (one way) and I'm already having nightmares about crossing the five-mile long Mackinaw Bridge. Still, I'm excited to see a new part of the country (the only time I've been in Michigan's lower peninsula was to change planes in Detroit) and catch up with my brother.

I'll be popping in and out during the week as time allows and I have a guest post or two for you to enjoy during my absence. Have a great week!
 

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Word(less?) Wednesday: What I Wore

I'm always stumbling upon fun, cute "what I wore" posts on the blogsphere.Unless we're considering L.L. Bean wool pants fashionable, my lifestyle doesn't really lend itself to "fun and cute" what I wore posts, but when I was looking over pictures from the past week, I realized last Thursday I'd actually done a pretty good job of capturing what I'd wore. 

It started out pretty well. It was so warm and sunny in the house on Thursday, I actually had to put on a lightweight summery top I pulled off the Kohl's clearance rack last summer.

The delightful weather inspired Andy and I to have the season's first cookout. Of course, as soon as we got over to the campground, the sun went behind the cloud. Enter the ancient polarfleece Old Navy pullover and my North Face down vest. Although it's hard to tell, yes, I am totally rocking a brown top and a black vest in this picture.

The only issue with the polarfleece/vest combo is that they're both made out of rather "melt-worthy" materials. Since I didn't fancy melting while I tended the campfire beans, I pulled on one of Andy's wool shirts (probably Woolrich). For a further fashion statement, I made sure my handknit hat (circa X-mas 2009) masked my eyes. And let's not forget my mud-stained Canyon River jeans and those graceful waterproof hiking boots (L.L. Bean)! Cute eh? ;D

Happy Wednesday!

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Turning Towards Home

Today we pulled out of Portland, made a pit stop at a foggy Mt. St. Helens, before dropping our luggage at the night’s hotel and heading into downtown Seattle to return the rental car. After one last tour through Pike’s Place Market and impromptu stop at the Elliot Bay Bookstore Café, we took a somewhat shady bus ride back to the hotel and here we sit. Tomorrow we return to the Midwest: for me, it’s just a rest stop before next week’s NYC trip; for Andy, it’s the return to home and everyday life.

Saturday’s rest day proved highly effective: it’s been a busy couple days. On Sunday we had a chance to catch up with a friend. After brunch in a restored Victorian house, we headed out to the Multnomah Falls. Located about a half hour outside of in the Columbia River Gorge, Multnomah Falls attracts pretty much every Oregonian and their grandma on a sunny Sunday. On the ride out to the falls, we caught a great glimpse of Mt. Hood in the distance. Unfortunately, the pictures Andy snapped of the mountain turned out about as well as my pictures of Mt. Rainer from my Sept. 2008 trip to Seattle.

I swear, there are mountains in those pictures . . . somewhere.

While it certainly wasn’t meant as such, this trip’s turned into something of a Twilight trip. Multnomah Falls which plunges 542 ft and then another 69 ft makes a cameo appearance in the Twilight film during the baseball game.

It’s a steep mile-long hike with 11 switchbacks to get to the top of the cliff where the fall makes its dramatic drop. Wood sorrel and trillium dots the cliff's side.

Headed back to the guesthouse for a round of National Parks Monopoly and a cookout in the backyard.

We weren't quite done with the Columbia River Gorge. Yesterday we did a circle tour of sorts, out of Portland, down around Mt. Hood and back up into Portland via the Columbia River Gorge. Although it was apparently snowing on top of Mt. Hood - we didn't get spectacular views, we had some nice hikes in the Multnomah Falls: one at the Horsetail Falls where you actually get to hike underneath the rock the waterfall plunges off of and another short poke through a gorge.

Had a lovely dinner at Jake's Famous Crawfish in downtown Portland last night. Today we took a slight detour to see some Mt. St. Helens stop. It was far too foggy to see any of the blast zone (a real pea-souper, so to speak) but we had a nice stop at the interpretative center near Silver Lake. We will have to go back sometime when the view is better.

We've seen a ton over the last week and a half. I'm anxious for a chance to catch my breath, but there's a part of me that sad to see the trip end.

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Cookouts and Changing Seasons

In February 2005, I sat on the bus on my way back to my cottage after the first weekend trip of my semester abroad in County Mayo, Ireland. As I watched the stark winter landscape pass by, I started to wonder what it would be like to truly come home to this harshly beautiful place where trees only grow on the side of the hills safe from sea breeze. Those musings turned into a short story which turned into a rough draft of a novel and on Tuesday, turned into a completely revised (and hopefully logical and compelling) first draft. Now the printout sits in a three-ring binder: it’s a little bit like having an elephant in the room.

In a month of so, I will return to the three-ring binder. I will read the novel over in its entirety and make tweaks and edits. Then it’s time to research agents and write queries and synopses. Five years of work (there were some interruptions), and the hard part’s still in front of me!

Andy’s had the last couple days off so we’ve been out and about. The spring weather seems to have inspired something akin to “touring season.” We’ve spent a good portion of recent free time popping in to catch up with various family members.

Although the weather has turned colder this week and yesterday evening it decided to spit rain and snow, it still look a lot more like May than March outside. So on Tuesday we went for hike. We walked about a ½ mile down an old road bed and then we climbed to the top of a huge boulder.

It was quite the view.

Andy’s been waxing poetic about cookouts for a while now. The plan has been to have a cookout when the walleyes start to run in May. But since it was a sunny 55 degrees on Tuesday, it seemed silly to delay a cookout. We threw together some kebabs and beans in the Shack kitchen and headed over to our neighboring campground. Andy built up a fire with birch wood and we got the beans burbling happily and kebabs grilling.

When the sun went down, the temperatures dropped a bit, but that was okay: there was a fire to huddle around.

March 23rd is absurdly early for even the earliest season cookout. There’s still quite a few inches of ice covering the lake, but along the shore, it can be hard to tell where land, water, ice and sky separate. The ice is reaching a state of rot that inspires people to start making bets on when the ice will go out.

Worked my last night shift last night. I tucked the tip money away in the envelope of funds for the Pacific Northwest trip.

I have several articles to work on today as well as some other freelance work. After a couple days of play, it’s hard to get myself back on task. Without the focal point of the novel to lend structure to my writing days, I’m feeling a little adrift. But those are just excuses. The work won’t get done unless I do it.

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