A Memorable Day

Today I commemorated the men and women of the United States armed forces and their fallen comrades by climbing up a mountain.

Actually, the story starts yesterday. I was invited to a pig roast and I was disposed to go, so I went. I arrived a bit late, because I was having some issues with my camera. Basically, it ate two 1GB SD cards in a row, and it's been having problems with my 64MB one. I ended up in the very situation that I was trying to avoid by buying the 1GB card: I had to delete some photos in order to make room for new ones.

Yummy!


Wilbur?


After cutting off and devouring some meat (which, by the way, was exceptionally delicious--moist, tender, and flavorful) as well as some other stuff from the table inside (it was a potluck kind of thing) and a beverage (there were four kegs) in the gerage, I got to talking to some people. By and by, I met a guy named Paul and his girlfriend Traci, who have dogs and like to hike. Paul was, when I met him, a bit drunk, and shortly thereafter, more drunk (I think rum was involved in some way). Paul, being a talkative sort of drunk person, was trying to get me out of my shell and tell him about myself, other than work stuff, which of course shouldn't define who you are. In my defense, I only mentioned who I worked with to explain by inference who I knew at the party, since it was mostly work people and their guests there. Anyway, we got to talking a bit and he mentioned that he liked to hike. I said that I was interested in hiking, being relatively new to the Pacific North West, and there being so many trails in the area (also taking duly into account my (by this point) stated interest in running--I had an interesting anecdote to relate from Thursday and the scabs to illustrate it). He subsequently invited me to an as-yet-unplanned hike the following day, and I agreed. Traci was doubtful that he would be of any use the following morning, but we picked a hike out of their Best Hikes With Dogs book, and also invited others to come along. Jeffrey (my group lead at work) was already hiking, but he was doing an easy hike with his grilfriend and her daughter, but Dan (a co-worker in our group) agreed to come, and it was arranged to meet in the morning.

The hikers: Paul, Traci, Dan
The dogs: [I forget the name] (Australian Shepherd and Black Lab mix) and Freeway (who was found by the side of the freeway). They're very social with people and dogs, very energetic, and enjoyed the hike even more than we did.

HOOM!!!


I really like this shot.


Yes, this is part of the trail (can you see it switchbacking up?). No, that is not the top up there, although when I took this picture, I thought it might be.

Yeah, I wasn't even close. It kept me going though.

There was a little snow

...but hardly anything worth mentioning for this time of year.

Dan and I made it to Silver Summit. This is the only photo on the trip that I'm in, because I set the 10-second timer, which is also why it's crooked, because I don't have a tripod and jagged rocks provide few if any sturdy, flat, and level surfaces.

The summit was actually an afterthought. We had originally planned to do an 8-mile loop, but we opted to go to the summit as a side-track. Everyone thought it was a good idea at the time, and only Traci regretted it afterwards. I'll be feeling it tomorrow, though.

Washington's state flower

There were lots of these, some with red in them.

Pretty red things near the top

My random mind at work: there is a chapter in C.S. Lewis' Miracles called "Horrid Red Things". Everyone should read that book.

More flowers for Jeffrey

Jeffrey will appreciate this because he's taking a photo class so he'll know how to use all the fancy knobs on his camera, and all they will let him shoot are flowers.