Summer is a-bloom

The bluebird family in my parent's garden is back with another clutch. Caught this photo the weekend I was home for my sister's college graduation. 

Two slideshows below tell you a visual story of my first two hikes this season. First, a solo trip up Salmon Butte, near ZigZag, Oregon. Great stretch of the legs, but no view on the day I did it--a week ago, today. 

Today, on the other hand, we would have had a view, but Lemei (old woman, in Chinook jargon, according to Sullivan's guide book) foiled us again. A couple of years ago, my significant other and I hiked in on the Lemei Trail in the discordant sounding Indian Heaven Wilderness (SW Washington). On that occasion, all the old woman gave us was fog. Today we hiked all the way in to Wapiki Lake, albeit on some hefty chunks of unmelted snow. Just that, the snow eventually turned us back. We met a gentleman on our way out that was on his way up, and seemed ready for the elements--with a pair of snowshoes strapped to his backpack. For us, it wasn't so much about the white slushies peppering the hillside, is was more...where the heck is the trail under all the slushies?! I am an armchair woods-woman at best, or I would have whipped out the compass. Even if I had, we decided standing in a snow drift at the base of Lemei wouldn't be as fun as basking in the huckleberry and heather later on in the season. We'll be back old woman...

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