Paint...

Breakfast at Testy Chef this morning, then our for a geocache, then picked up sample quarts of paint to do a test paint on our house and barn. And I browsed one of my favorite antique stores, and bought wooden bobbins and an old shuttle. I don't need a new hobby, but my niece is into weaving, and I'm intrigued. Plus the antique bobbins and shuttle will make great decor for my quilt studio.



Coming home from my quilt guild meeting tonight, I did a U-turn by the park when I saw the outline of the Issaquah Alps and the Cascades, lit up by the setting sun. The sky was clear and bright, so beautiful... I couldn't resist stopping for a few photographs.

Long autumn days...

We didn't head out this morning intending to drive all the way to Mount St. Helens. But that's where we ended up. By way of Ashford and Morton, exploring some historic places and walking some trails. A few hours turned into a full day of driving back roads, finding places we would never have found if it wasn't for geocaching.

If you've ever driven to Paradise by way of Ashford, you've passed right by the private collection of huge sculptures made from found materials. We've walked around the place a couple of times; it's very cool. The horses are my favorite sculptures.

We were checking out the beautiful restored train depot in Morton when I discovered the virtual cache at Windy Ridge. How could we be so close and not go?



The two narrow roads that lead to Windy Ridge are in bad shape. When we first started coming down to Gifford Pinchot national forest these roads were gravel and dirt, populated more by sheep and deer than by cars. We'd drive for hours without seeing another car. When the roads were active logging roads, they were in good shape. Now that they're paved they get little maintenance, and the frost heaves in winter are destroying them.

WA-25 leads south from the White Pass highway, through farmland and then climbing into dense forest. I love the drive, and used to take the MX-5 on this road. As we turned onto the Windy Ridge road, the first views of St. Helens made my jaw drop. There is fresh snow on the mountain! We took a side road that once led through creek valleys to a trailhead, but is now grown over on both sides. We squeezed through in the truck, barely. I was hoping for more views, but the hills were tall and crowded together, so we eventually turned around.

When we got back to the Windy Ridge road, the clouds had dropped lower and the mountain was almost obscured. I was disappointed, but it was a good lesson to remember. It's sort of like antique shopping. When you find something you've been looking for, don't pass it up. You probably won't find it again. I know that lesson, have learned that particular lesson over and over. I need to apply it to photography... when I see that perfect view, stop and photograph it. You might not see it again.












We still enjoyed our time at the top, even though it was windy and chilly. Thankfully the bathrooms were open (and warm). The mountain played hide-and-seek with us while we wandered around the overlook, and as we drove down through the area destroyed by the 1980 eruption. As we drove back down the road I kept an eye on the viewpoints, hoping that the clouds would rise again and we'd get the same wonderful view again. Unfortunately, as the sun swung west, it was soon in our eyes.



We took our time getting home, wandering the back roads and stopping to enjoy the views, ending up at the Firehouse in Buckley for dinner. It was a good day.

Barns and mountains...

It's easy to get spoiled, living within reach of six of the highest peaks in the Cascades, all of them standing high above the surrounding mountains. The jewel in the range is Mount Rainier, which I can see from just about everywhere, every day. My old farmhouse once had a view of the mountain, before the trees in the valley grew too tall.

So it's only natural that I'm just a bit addicted to barns with a mountain in the background. It's where I would have built my farmhouse and barn, given the chance.

Recently I found several barns on the Enumclaw Plateau with Mount Rainier in the background. And that reminded me of this gorgeous broken gable barn in Parkdale, Oregon... with Mount Hood in the background. I love how the roof of this broken gable farm mimics the shape of the mountain.



The barn is part of a historical museum, complete with an old cabin and several outbuildings, and a lot of farm equipment. It's worth the visit. So is the Parkdale Tavern, with local brews and great food, and this picture-perfect view out the back door.

Linking this one on  Tom's Barn Collective.

Now you see it...

It was supposed to be socked in today, but when I looked at the eastern sky at 6:45 it looked clear over the Cascades. So I waved goodbye and grabbed my camera gear and lots of warm clothes, and headed south.

After days of rain and gloom and not even a glimpse of Mount Rainier, I wasn't going to miss this chance to photograph one of my favorite barns with a mountain backdrop.

As soon as I could pull over, I snapped a few quick photos of the mountain, with the morning colors just starting to show in the sky.



Then on down the road to the Dutch barn I found last week. When I first spotted the barn and the foothills behind it, I knew there was a big mountain hiding behind the clouds and could hardly wait to come back on a clear day.






And sure enough, there it was.



I love how in a climate like ours, even very big mountains can come and go with the clouds, completely changing the landscape.

A day in the mountains...

A worrying e-mail from my sister. A splitting headache. Geocaching in Auburn, and finished up the 2016 geocoin challenge. A trip to the fish store, and lunch across the road at Dixie's. Aspirin for the headache, which seems certain to blossom into a migraine (but it didn't, thank goodness). A tentative suggestion that we drive up to Mount Rainier for more geocaching, maybe drive up to Crystal Mountain. Fresh air... that sounded good to me!

Before this summer, I'd never been to Crystal any time other than ski season. This year we've driven up four times, to check out the views, to ride the gondola (missed it by four days), and to geocache. Taking up skiing isn't very likely, but it would be fun to drive up one brilliant winter day and hang out on the patio, and enjoy the snowy scenery.


The new patio-covering umbrella at Crystal Mountain

At the end of the day, after exploring horse camps and trails and driving up to the top of Chinook Pass, we ended up at the Greenwater Tavern for an early dinner. We ended up spending a few hours there, chatting with the bartender, one of the accountants at Crystal Mountain (who we met earlier), a forest service crew, and the owner. It always surprises me (in a good way) that people in small towns are so friendly and outgoing. It's such a contrast to how people act in the city, even a fairly small one like ours. I love spending time in small towns, where people remember how to be neighborly.

Our afternoon in the mountains, near my favorite national park, was the perfect way to chase away a headache on this cold day.

The weekend starts on Tuesday...

One thing I love about retirement is that the word "weekend" has no meaning anymore. Saturday and Sunday are just two days of the week. In fact if anything, they have a negative meaning now. They are days to avoid if we want to head out and do anything.

Caching trips and photography trips are best on those five days in the middle of the week, sandwiched by Sunday and Saturday, when most folks are at work. And this week was no exception. With three days free in the middle, we hatched a plan to head north on the back roads toward Baker Lake, up on the North Cascades highway, then to Bellingham for a couple of nights.

The day was filled with lots of geocache challenges to find, logging roads to explore, wildflowers to photograph, and views to appreciate. And then a relaxing evening at our favorite brewpub over a pint of Cabin Fever, then a Reuben sandwich and Caesar salad.

Working my way back home...

Oatmeal at my favorite restaurant in Bend. Browsing through quilt shops in Bend, Sisters, Redmond, Terrebone, and Hood River. A purple and green and cream jelly roll, and some gardening-themed fabrics. Some new back roads to explore. Hay fields that made me sneeze, and sparkling water. Mount Jefferson and Mount Hood, both sharp peaked and close together. A boulder-strewn glacial valley with hikes toward the mountain that we didn't have time for. An early dinner in Parkdale, looking at the most perfect view of Mount Hood you'll ever find.

My kind of day.

The edge of the wilderness...

Geocaching brought us back to Oregon. We're in search of the oldest caches that still remain, and since geocaching started in the Pacific Northwest, some of the oldest are here. Today we're hiking about ten miles to get two of them: numbers 12 and 16, placed back in early 2000 in the mountains west of Mount Hood. We've poured over topo maps to try and get a sense of the terrain, and read the accounts of those who've gone before us, and we think we're ready.

  The original log book in the 12th geocache ever placed

What those accounts didn't say, and which prove the old adage about pictures and words, is how beautiful the hike was. I expected a faint trail through a clear cut, in the hot sun. But once we made it over the roller-coaster terrain of an old road to a rock quarry and onto the official trail, we found a spectacular trail through the forest.



We started out on a stretch of the Douglas trail, through deep woods at first, then along a vast river valley. The native rhododendrons, which had already finishing blooming in the lowlands, were in full bloom.

We climbed steadily up along the knife edge of a ridge until we reached a junction. Straight ahead would take us into the Salmon Huckleberry Wilderness, but our path led us to the left, onto the McCarthy Ridge trail, with stunning views of Mount Hood.

Our cache was near a bench on a wide saddle carpeted with wildflowers, with the mountain in the background.





We stayed a while to enjoy the view and take pictures, and I wished we could keep on walking down this trail, to see where it went, and what other spectacular views we'd find. But we didn't have time today. Maybe one day, we'll come back with packs and spend a few days here.

At the Point

We met the family for breakfast this morning, at one of Tom's favorite cafes on the Point. The rest of the family headed back to the States, but we're staying on a few days, so we can pick up the new kitten on our way home. We admired Val's paintings at the local gallery, then changed to warm clothes for a walk and some geocaching.

It was cold and icy again today, and it felt more like winter than autumn... a beautiful day for exploring. There were eagles everywhere today, and autumn leaves shining in the sun. The bright afternoon light was beautiful on Mount Baker and the North Cascades.

Favorites...

One of my favorite views of Mt. Adams is from the overlook on the way to Sunrise. On a clear day with no haze along the horizon, you can see four of the Cascade peaks from here: Rainier, Adams, Glacier, and Baker. On this beautiful day near the end of June this year, we were lucky enough.

It's the second tallest of the volcanoes in the Washington Cascades, and (I'm told) the easiest to climb; more of a hike to the top (although a tough hike). On this bright June day, I loved that it was so covered in snow and ice, in spite of a winter when snowfalls were scarce. From this vantage point, it sits in a cradle of jagged peaks, just as Rainier looks when viewed from the high ground near our little farm.

Landscapes...

Earth and sky, woods and fields, 
lakes and rivers, the mountain and the sea, 
are excellent schoolmasters, 
and teach some of us more 
than we can ever learn from books.  
John Lubbock

Where the Rockies meet the plains, north of Waterton Lakes National Park

It's what I miss... crave... the most, living on the outskirts of a big city. Those sweeping landscapes you see when you get out and away, over the mountains. Those places where you can look back and see the huge sky, the towering peaks. Wave after wave of dark evergreens flowing down the river valleys toward open grassland, where the wild things graze.

Looking toward the Anthony Lakes Wilderness, from OR-7

It's why I keep going out on the road, in search of those vistas that fill me up like a glass that's full to overflowing, spilling over the rim. Filling me with wonder and delight, with absolute joy. With peace.

Colorado aspens, between Ridgway and Telluride

I've been reading a lot of landscape photography blogs lately, getting inspiration from amazing photographers like John Clement and Jason Savage and Michael Frye, among others.

Heading into winter, when access to my favorite landscapes will be buried in snow, it's a time to dream about other back roads, other places. A time to plan. Next year, a workshop with one of these photographers is definitely on my bucket list.

Chasing Aspens...

We headed out early this morning with one goal: search out the best fall colors we can find. When we went to Telluride a few days ago, the aspens were starting to turn from yellow to orange, so decided to head in that direction again. When we turned west out of Ridgway, the morning light was just reaching the top of the San Juan mountains, ready to spill light down the valleys. We couldn't have had better timing.

We joined a bunch of other photographers at a wide pullout, each ready with tripod and some with huge telephoto lenses. I'd have preferred a wide angle landscape lens; maybe when I get home I'll invest in one. But my 18-250mm Sigma lens plus polarizer is great for this kind of light and bright landscape.

We stumbled upon Last Dollar Road by accident; it was a good parking spot to photograph a hillside with a rustic wood fence in the foreground. When we decided to drive up the road just a ways, to see what was back there, we struck photographic gold.

It's miles and miles of dirt road through broad parkland with creeks and grazing cattle, old homesteads, and the occasional cluster of ranch buildings. We forded creeks more times than I can count, and the road got steep and rutted and a bit dicey in places. It's not for the faint of heart, or those without four-wheel drive. I was glad to be in the Tundra.

We leap-frogged with a group out for a photo tour, and when they stopped to walk through this old and twisty stand of aspens, we joined them. These trees were huge... for scale, check out DW on the hillside taking a picture.

The more we drove, the more beautiful the mountains and rivers of aspen trees, flowing down the ravines. And as we climbed, the colors deepened from gold to orange, copper to burgundy.

I could have spent all day here. As it was, we were out on the back roads more than six hours, just chasing aspens.

There are more aspen photographs to come.

Triple digits

This weekend we headed for the Yakima Valley by way of Mount Rainier. A good idea, the "head to the mountains" part, to try and escape the heat wave that hit Western Washington.

Going to the hot side of the state, right into triple digits, was an accident of planning... not exactly the best idea to head into the heat. But we had a good reason:  a wine club party at Cultura, our favorite winery.

But a stop in Enumclaw changed the focus of the weekend just a bit. After breakfast at The Kettle, we grabbed a geocache and learned about a new series of cache, to celebrate the 100th anniversary of Mount Rainier National Park in 2016. While we waited to get DW's lifetime National Parks pass at the forest service office, we planned out our route to get as many of the caches as possible. It's going to be fun!

The views from the Sunrise road were amazing today. You can see three other Cascade mountains volcanoes from the viewpoint halfway up: Adams, Baker, and Glacier Peak. Most days you can't see them; any clouds of haze at the horizon obscures them. Today we could see all of them.

The view from above Tipsoo Lake was even better. For years I've wanted to take the MX-5 to the overlook and photograph it with the mountain in the background. Either the mountain is hidden behind clouds, or the roadway is crowded with cars. Today I got lucky.

But best of all were the wildflowers, weeks early because of the mild winter and the warm weather. We walked down into the meadows around Tipsoo Lake, surrounded by flowers and the heady fragrance of the lupine. I wanted to lay down and drink it all in, but I settled for a half hour of photography before we headed east.