Big Four Ice Caves Trail

Good afternoon, my friends. We had a beautiful day of weather for our hike. It was some distance away...not mileage wise, but time wise. It was about 36 miles from where we are, but it took nearly an hour to drive there because of all the twists and turns. Along the way we passed by this barn. (Sorry about the buggy windshield.)

And we crossed this red bridge. How do you like that color? We figure it must have been a good buy on that color of paint. Also, just beyond the bridge, we passed a sign directing visitors to the "Red Bridge Campground."

So, let's talk about what we're going to see, shall we? This bulletin board had a couple of signs of interest. I've cropped the text parts out and included them below the corresponding sign image. It explains how these caves are formed and why they are so dangerous.

The next two images are cropped from the one above.

Here's the second sign, explaining the trail and the history of the area.

And, finally, this one. And they're not kidding about this, my friends. Stay on the trail.

Okay, so this was an easy hike, immaculately maintained, and easy to follow. We were walking on a boardwalk about half the time.

Looking up, we could see a small glacier. It also looks as if there's a dusting of snow at the top.

And this is the range known as the Big Four.

The pond below was formed by beavers. If you look toward the upper left corner just to the right of where Mike is standing, you can see a beaver lodge.

Here's a closer look at it.

And here, you can see where those naughty beavers have chewed off branches to build their lodge.

We didn't see any beavers on this day, but if you've been reading for a long time, you know that we've yearned to see beavers for a long time. We were happy to finally see one in the wild when we visited Denali National Park last year. It was a fleeting glimpse, but we could check the box on our list after this.

We crossed this bridge over the South Fork of the Stillaguamish River.

Looking to the left, you can see a man fishing at the bottom of the image.

Looking to the right, it looks like this.

And, wouldn't you know it? We take our eyes off our shadow selves for a minute, and we find them in the river. We had to wait for them to get out and towel off.

Continuing on, the trail was gravel/dirt most of the way.

At particularly slippery spots, they'd added this stuff...whatever it's called...for better traction. That was very much appreciated.

It's late in the year for blooming things, but I enjoyed the droplets of water on next year's lupine.

And these tiny white flowers...my phone says they're yarrow, but I doubt that.

We've been blown away by the loveliness of the forests here in Washington.

Continuing on, we marveled at the near-vertical face of the mountains.

As we approached the ice cave, we were warned once again about the danger present here.

Beside the yellow sign was this sobering marker.

Just a few more feet, and we were there. Here's the whole of the mountainside. I left the people there for scale.

Zooming in...

This isn't actually a cave that extends into the mountainside. Instead, it is formed by the piles of snow falling from avalanches. And it's easy to see why there is so much avalanche activity here when you see the steepness of the cliff face.

In spring, other hikers have told of a beautiful waterfall here. This late in the year, it's just a trickle.

Here's another look at the face of the mountain.

Turning directly around from there 180° it looks like this:

And then we headed back to our Jeep and back to the RV for lunch and naps. 

The only other thing I did this morning was to take the first stitches on the center sheep block.

We have another shorter hike planned for tomorrow, and we'll be traveling in the opposite direction for that. I'll say more after we've done it. We'll also find a grocery store to pick up a few things. With the smallness of this rig, and limited space in our refrigerator, we're visiting the grocery store every couple of days to pick up just a few items. Hopefully, I'll have a little more time for slow-stitching as well.

Tomorrow's hike will be less strenuous, and more park-like. You can probably wear your regular walking shoes for that. Get a good night's sleep. You've worked hard today, and you'll want to be refreshed for tomorrow's walk.

Snohomish, Washington

 Good afternoon, my friends. I wrote a one-sentence post a couple of hours ago in which I indicated I wouldn't be in touch for a couple of days. If you're old enough to remember Gilda Radner in her Emily Litella character, please remember her voice when she said, "Never Mind." (And if you're not old enough to remember Gilda, just know she was very, very funny, and she died way too young.)

We find ourselves in Flowing Lake County Park in Snohomish, Washington, this afternoon. We're in an area with dense forest canopy, and so Starlink is out of the question. It needs to be able to see the satellites, or it's nothing but an expensive hunk of plastic. 

When we know we won't have internet access, we check our phones to see how much cell signal we have. My initial check of mine gave me two bars with only LTE service. And who knows why? When I checked it about five minutes later, it still gave me two bars, but 5G service, and I think I can work with that. It really depends on how long it takes to upload pictures. So let's just give it a try. You can set your stopwatch now, if you like.

Okay, here we go. And IT WORKS!!! INTERNET ACCESS LIVES!!!

Ahem. Settle down, now. 

Backing up to yesterday, we knew it was going to be a dark and stormy day. And it was. It rained, and rained, and rained for most of the day. And you know me...when the going gets tough, I bake a pie. This is a Dutch Apple Pie for Two. I was happy to be able to use some homemade apple pie filling that was getting a little old. Also, I'd made too much of that streusel topping at some point in time. There was a sandwich bag of it in the freezer, and I brought that along too. Add one Pillsbury pie crust, and you've got yourself a delicious pie. For a while anyway. Ours is history now.

We kept ourselves occupied in various ways. I had word games and crossword puzzles to catch up on, and I had this little bit left to stitch on my embroidery project.

It didn't take long until I had it finished. This is Block 12 of 12 of the "Snowmen and Reindeer" project. When we get home in a couple of weeks, I'll put it with its brethren and move the whole thing to the "Quilt tops to finish" portion of my white board.

So, next up will be the center block for "Home is Where My Flock Is." Originally, I'd planned to stitch this one last, but realizing it was a good take-along project, I decided to do it next. There are still a few smaller blocks to finish.

And with the party just a few days away, I'm making this my project for October's...

Like a boy scout, I like to be prepared. It's hooped up and ready to go, but I have not done any stitching yet.

Today was our day to move along. The beginning of the drive had us driving the interstate which was as hectic and slow as ever. We drove past the city of Bellevue.

You can read more about Bellevue at its Wikipedia page right here. In short:

Bellevue is a city in the Eastside region of King County, Washington, United States, located across Lake Washington from Seattle. It is the third-largest city in the Seattle metropolitan area, and the fifth-largest city in Washington. It has variously been characterized as a satellite city, a suburb, a boomburb, or an edge city. The population was 151,854 at the 2020 census. The city's name is derived from the French term belle vue ("beautiful view").

Bellevue is home to some of the world's largest technology companies. Before and after the 2008 recession, its downtown area has been undergoing rapid change with many high-rise projects being constructed. Downtown Bellevue is currently the second-largest city center in Washington state, with 1,300 businesses, 45,000 employees, and 10,200 residents. In a 2018 estimate, the city's median household income was among the top five cities in the state of Washington. In 2008, Bellevue was number one in CNNMoney's list of the best places to live and launch a business, and in 2010 was again ranked as the fourth-best place to live in America. In 2014, Bellevue was ranked as the second-best place to live by USA Today.

More than 145 companies have been located in Bellevue; companies currently headquartered there include PACCAR Inc, T-Mobile US, and Valve. The technology company Amazon was founded in Bellevue by Jeff Bezos. It's also the home of Ann and Nancy Wilson, co-founders of the rock band "Heart."

Okay, and when we finally left the interstate, the off ramp took us into Monroe, Washington.

This is what Wikipedia tells us about Monroe: 

Monroe is a city in Snohomish County, Washington, United States. It is located near the Cascade foothills at the confluence of the Skykomish and Snoqualmie rivers, which form the Snohomish River. The city is part of the Seattle metropolitan area and is 30 miles (48 km) northeast of Seattle. Monroe's population was 19,699 as of the 2020 census.

The confluence of the Skykomish and Snoqualmie rivers had originally belonged to the indigenous Skykomish tribe, who predominantly occupied the area between modern-day Monroe and Index. The confluence itself was known as Tualco (Lushootseed: squa'lxo), and a nearby Skykomish village named S'dodohobc acted as a trade post between several Coast Salish groups. A separate settlement near modern-day Monroe was used by the S'dodohobc band of the Snohomish people. The land around the confluence was cleared into a prairie and used to cultivate berries, hazelnuts, and other plants. The Skykomish were among the tribes to sign the Treaty of Point Elliott in 1855, effectively ceding their traditional territories, including the Tualco and confluence areas.

The original name of Monroe was "Park Place."  The original Park Place post office and general store were abandoned and replaced by a new building that opened in 1890. John Vanasdlen, operator of new store, petitioned for the reopening of the post office but was rejected by the U.S. Post Office Department, which only allowed a single-word name for new offices. "Monroe" was chosen by Vanasdlen to honor of U.S. President James Monroe. The new post office for Monroe was granted by the U.S. Post Office Department on March 19, 1890.

Okay, and finally, we were into the rural areas I was expecting when we started the day's journey. We saw a few barns along our way.

I was surprised I could capture this one, it was a distance away and behind me when I took this shot.

And then this one. Is it a barn? Hard to say, but that bale of straw that says it is.

Okay, so that's all I have for you today. We're here for the next three nights, and we have a couple of hikes planned. I'll say more about those as we do them. Today I'm just happy to be back online. We were in a good area at our last spot, until the storm knocked out power to the campground. Apparently the park is on a well because we had no water either. (The well pump is electric.) So I paid for a site with electricity and water, but we only had it for one of our two days there. Since it wasn't the fault of the park, I'm not expecting any compensation for that. When I make reservations, I'm looking for the least price per night and the best ratings. I'm just glad I didn't reserve a site in a more expensive park.

And now, the weather is significantly improved. We should have good weather for the next several days. I'm looking forward to getting out and doing some more hiking. Don't put your hiking boots away just yet, my friends. We'll get out there again tomorrow.

Out of Range

 Ima hafta catch up with y'all in a few days.

Auburn, Washington

Good morning, my friends. Sheesh. We didn't travel very far yesterday, but it seemed as if everything took longer than expected. It was still a good day with some interesting things to see along the way. As we left Port Angeles, we noticed the spooks have arrived at this house.

Just down the road, we passed through Sequim (pronounced "Skwim").

We visited Sequim a few years back for their annual lavender festival. You can read my post about our visit right here.

There's more fall color appearing along the way.

The image below shows a couple of totem poles we saw as we passed through the Jamestown S'Klallam Reservation. (We saw many totem poles in Neah Bay and along the way from there too.)

I was curious about the "Jamestown" part of the name. The Google informed me that “S’Klallam” is a Salish term for “The Strong People.” It goes on, saying:

In 1855, the S’Klallam leaders signed a treaty with the Federal government with the understanding that they would always be able to hunt, fish and gather in their “usual and accustomed” grounds. As increasing numbers of non-Indian settlers began to arrive in the area desiring the same abundant lands and waters that were so important to the S’Klallam people, the S’Klallam people living in the Dungeness area decided that in order to survive, they had to adopt a new value system that included property ownership.

In 1874, under the leadership of Tribal citizen Lord James Balch, they pooled $500 in gold coins and purchased the 210-acres along the Strait of Juan de Fuca, now called Jamestown. This provided a geographical center for group identity and independence, and was the start of the Jamestown S’Klallam community.

On down the road, we crossed over the Hood Canal Bridge.

The Hood Canal bridge is a floating bridge that carries State Route 104 across Hood Canal in Puget Sound and connects the Olympic and Kitsap Peninsulas. At 7,869 feet (1.490 mi; 2.398 km) in length (floating portion 6,521 feet (1.235 mi; 1.988 km)), it is the longest floating bridge in the world located in a saltwater tidal basin, and the third longest floating bridge overall.

And there's Hood Canal.

We had a couple of things on our agenda, including a visit to a chocolate shop in Bremerton. When we arrived at the chocolate shop, we found a parking lot that was, unfortunately, too small for us to be able to get turned around. Bagging that idea, we drove on to our second agenda stop. The Bremerton connection worked out because...like an oasis in the desert...we found our home-town grocery store there. 

We picked up a few grocery items and filled the fuel tanks on both our vehicles. I left the fuel prices in that image intentionally. Happily, we got a discount with our "valued customer" points. It's still too effing expensive, even with the discount. 

Okay, but we weren't finished crossing historic bridges yet. We still had to cross the Tacoma Narrows toll bridge. They nicked us $11 to cross. The usual toll is $5.50, but they must be counting axels. The toll both operator asked us if we were towing our Jeep. Yes. And that doubled the price. 

So here we go. It's a fancy bridge with an interesting and somewhat amusing history.

The original bridge collapsed only months after it opened when it got into an oscillation that tore it apart. You can see video and hear how it gained its nickname of "Galloping Gertie." If you can't see the video, click right here.

And here we go...crossing the Tacoma Narrows strait.

Below is the Tacoma Dome. We've attended a few events here.

The Google tells us that it stands at 530 feet (160 m) in diameter and 152 feet (46 m) in height, the arena seats 20,722 for basketball games, with a maximum capacity of 21,000. It was the largest arena with a wooden dome in the world by volume at the time of its opening. (The Superior Dome in Marquette, Michigan, opened in 1991 with a larger-diameter geodesic dome at 536 feet (163 m), but is 143 feet (44 m) high and seats a maximum of 16,000.) The Tacoma dome's roof weighs 1.44 million pounds (650 t); some of the planks that form the roof were sourced from felled timber following the 1980 eruption of Mount St. Helens.

And not long after that, we pulled into the municipal park where we'll spend two nights. It's a nice park here, and relatively inexpensive. There is a nearby riverwalk where we might walk today.

Beginning about bedtime last night, it started raining hard, and it rained a good part of the night. We're expecting rain off and on for most of the day today. Originally, we had a hike planned to the Franklin Ghost Town. After spending some time reading more about the trail, it sounds less appealing than when I first learned about it. For one thing...they had me at "ghost town." In my reading, I've determined it's really just an abandoned mine, and that the trail is overgrown with thorny blackberry vines. If the weather clears enough, we might still do it. And if it doesn't, a day of relaxation and perhaps a walk along the river sounds just fine to me.

The weather is expected to return to sunshine and little chance of rain by tomorrow. By then, we'll be heading north to Granite Falls, and we have a couple of hikes planned for that area. For now, we'll probably sit tight, stay dry, pet kitties, read, and slow-stitch. Sounds like a good day, no?

So, I hope you have a relaxing day planned for yourself. The weekend is coming. Be like a boy scout and be prepared.