EagleMoon.net Journals

Journals: Week 16 (July 30-August 5, 2007)

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DAY 106: Monday, July 30, 2007 (crater Lake, OR)

This morning, Elena was gracious enough to give me another buzz cut, for better or worse! We took our time getting ready this morning, had an early lunch, then headed out to the crater again. This time, we started our drive around the crater heading westward (which makes stopping at all of the overlooks and trails a little easier, since they were all on the right side of the road this time). Our first stop was the Rim Village, where they have one of the most popular attractions of Crater Lake, the place, according to a recent survey, is one of the most visited places at Crater Lake: the Rim Village Gift Shop! We bought a few postcards and found our way to the Rim Village Visitor Center, which had some great information about the lake. Many spectacular views were spaced between trees as we walked along the rim. We then headed for the true main attraction for our day to come: hiking down to the water and swimming in the 38F degree water.

There is only one "legal" way to get to the waters of Crater Lake: the trail that leads to Cleetwood Cove, where one can go swimming, fishing, and/or take the boat tour around the lake. We had heard several things prior to going down to the water. One was that the hike down and back is not for those with heart conditions. It's a 1.1-mile walk one-way, and a ranger said it was the equivalent of walking up almost 70 flights of stairs! (Good, because I don't do ANY hikes less than 60 flights of stairs!) It was actually about 700 feet down the 1.1-mile walk to the crater's famed icy blue, clear water. Which leads to the second thing we had heard - that the water is barely above freezing temperatures, getting down to an average of 38F degrees in January and 55F degrees in July. As we started our hike to the bottom, some people just getting back to the crater's rim told us the temp was 38F degrees. Below 200 feet, however, the water stays 38F degrees year-round! Undaunted by this news, we carried on.

We got to the bottom of the crater with no trouble at all (why can't both ways be downhill?!). We saw one person fishing, a few people swimming (or, rather, wading around in the shallow end of the water, along the rocky "beach" area). We walked a bit further to see the area where people could jump off various heights of rock (approximately 15, 10, and 8 feet above the water, if I had to guess) into the deep, blue lake. As blue as the lake appears from the rim of the crater, it appears just as blue and clear up close. There were a few girls jumping from the rocks, first the lower ones, then, encouraging each other to tap into their stores of bravery and courage, they each jumped from the highest rock point. Elena and I assessed the situation, both looking over the rocky jump-off points, both looking inward at our own stores of bravery and courage! The water is so clear by the rocks, it's hard to see where the actual surface of the water is, which didn't really help our nerves, as we both agreed it would be easier if we knew when we'd be crashing into the surface of the water. After we gave each other those determined looks that said, "Are you going to jump, because if you go, I'll go, but if you're not going, it wouldn't be the end of the world, but maybe we should go, because we made it all this way, so do you want to go first, because I've got to take pictures of you jumping, so I'll go over here on the rocks where it's nice and safe and dry and warm, so go right ahead, and, um, yeah, I'll go next!" (You know, a single look can say SO much!) A young girl in her late teens (Rebecca, whom we would meet later, pictured on the left) started on the 10-foot-high-rocks despite voicing her trepidations of the scene. Her response as she zoomed back up to the surface of the water was, "It was SOOOO worth it!!!"

Well, if she could do it, WE could certainly do it too, right?! Soooo, we did. Elena begged me to let her go first (ahem), so, um, I graciously stood aside and let her go first. (Ain't I a gem?!) She bravely walked up to the 8-foot-high rock (we both agreed that starting at the lower one would be the best thing for everyone involved!) and she stared down into the water. The bottom of the lake gets pretty steep from the base of the rocks, so there was really no chance of any jumpers hitting the bottom as they plunge into the water, the gentle force of gravity rocketing them downward with the force of a speeding bullet! So Elena waited, and prayed, and waited, and looked over at me with my camera, and waited some more, and then, when there was no more waiting or praying or looking to do, she took a deep breath and... prayed some more. And then she jumped!!! She really did it!!! Very excited to have done it, she exclaimed her enjoyment and thrill. Whether from the adrenaline or the actual temperature itself, she (and others) said the water right by the jumping point wasn't that cold, though as she swam back to the rocks, there were some definite cold spots. Elena climbed up the rocky shore back to the top in triumph, giving me the look that said, "Well?"

Fortunately for me, we found out that Rebecca's parents, Tom and Mary, who were watching and waiting while Rebecca planned for her next, even higher, jump, happened to be former life guards. That suited me just fine, and gave me that extra shot of courage that led me to the lowest jump point, which was quite high enough for me. With Elena on the camera end of the shot, I stood on the rock cliff, looking at the water, trying to see where the water surface was while contemplating such things as, I better jump because people are watching and Elena already went so I better go or else I'll never live it down and don't worry because there are lifeguards watching and, oh geez, they're watching, and what if I plummet to the bottom and can't figure out which way is up and, oh yeah, wasn't the full moon cool last night and I wonder if House is going to figure out the correct diagnosis of the kid with that thing that no one can figure out but, sure he will because he usually does in the last five minutes of the show, so don't worry, because it'll all be alright!!! Or something like that. So after contemplating all this and my existence for what seemed like a very long time, I took a deep breath, jumped, staved off a quick curse (because there were kids around, you know) and crash-landed into the crystalline water. Thrilling and exciting and adrenaline-pumping... all of these things fit the bill. And I made it back to the surface of the water with no problem.

As Rebecca showed us all what it's like to be a fearless teenager, she was determined to make her second (or was it her third?) jump from the highest jump-off point - the 15-footer! And she did just that, makin' it look easy! Elena and I gave each other more knowing looks that said things like, well, if she can do it, we should be able to do it, and why don't you go first and show everyone that we can do it too, and then I'll go after you, once I know you've survived the fierce plunge into oblivion, and, hey, maybe we should have sandwiches when we're done because sandwiches are good, especially with a good pickle! Since Elena was still wrapped in her towel getting warm from her jump, I acquiesced and decided to jump next (a decision made slightly easier as I kindly asked that Tom and Mary, the former lifeguards and, possibly, my life savers, to stay a few more minutes while I put my life on the line one more time for the sheer "enjoyment" of it), I went to the highest jump-off point, looked over the edge, and then, in the blink of an eye, I was gone. I mean gone, as in: I decided to back away from that crazy death-trap of a high-jump and walk my way over to the lowest jump-off point!!! This is where I made jump number two, just as scary, it seemed, as jump number one, and just as exciting too! You know those nightmares we all have of falling without being supported by anything, like a nice, form-fitting harness, and without a nice rope to grab onto, and without a soft safety net to land on? Yeah, you know what I'm talkin' about. Well, that's what it was like taking that initial deep breath, jumping out into the air, then free-falling thousands of... I mean, about eight feet! Other jumpers, like Rebecca and Elena, seemed to me to be a tad more graceful in their jumps. My mind then went black-hole-blank and my jumping form was not even close to being a consideration as I fell from Grace (the name I gave my jumping-off point). But you know what they say: two-time's the charm, right?!

Not so for Elena. Turns out that one time was the charm for her, which was totally understandable. By the time I climbed out of the water and back to the top where Elena was waiting with camera in hand, she was just about dry and just about ready to head on back to the top. The only thing keeping us down by the water at this point was the water itself. So blue, so clear, so clean. One of the many highlights of our trip with many highlights on it already! We hiked back up the 1.1-mile trail, up the 700 feet back to the rim of the crater, where we then continued our drive along the rim, stopping along the various overlook points, like Cloudcap Overlook and the Phantom Ship Overlook. We topped off the day with a grilled cheese and tomato soup dinner, followed by a campfire and s'mores (of course). A beautiful and thrilling day. This is a place we'd like to stay for much longer than we'll end up staying. We're planning on leaving tomorrow, backtracking a bit to the Oregon Caves National Monument, then northwest along the Oregon Pacific Coast Highway. Not sure where we'll be planting ourselves for the evening tomorrow, but we know our next known destination is Seattle to visit with Elena's cousins. Until then... ~J

DAY 107: Tuesday, July 31, 2007 (Salem, OR)

Today there is not too much to report. We got an early start today- or should I say Jonathan had an early start. He couldn't sleep, so he got up around 4:15am to go for a walk through the campground in the almost-full moonlight. He said later that it was really beautiful- very quiet and extremely bright with the moon shining down. Although I'm sure it would have been really lovely to go on that walk together, I slept soundly and quite peacefully inside the tent instead. When he got back, I went for a jog with him trailing me on his bike. We've been doing this every day for about a week now (I'm trying to get back into jogging, for my physical and emotional health, as well as to be able to fit into my dress for the wedding! New Mexican sopapillas and all those other great goodies on the road have started to do their damage, I'm afraid). Jonathan rides beside me and tells me how far we've gone- he has a little odometer attached to his bike. This is fun, and we get to explore the campground together this way. I'm up to 2 miles now!

Once we were both cleaned up and packed up, we hit the road and headed slightly south to check out the Oregon Caves- we had heard from a local fellow that these caves were a "do-not-miss" on our tour of Oregon. Along the way, we passed the Rogue Gorge (along the Rogue River), so we stopped for a short walk up the gorge. Then we drove approximately three hours to get to the Oregon Caves and signed up for a 1.5 hour tour inside them. These caves are very deep and very dark, and the tour guide really does a nice job making sure everyone is healthy enough (and brave enough!) to go on this cave walk. Both Jonathan and I felt fine about entering the cave. We were doing great navigating through the damp, dank, eerily-lit caves, admiring the cool air, the stalactites, and other beautiful formations... that is, until we came to the middle of the tour. It was at this spot that Jonathan noticed he was starting to have trouble breathing and swallowing, two things he's quite fond of doing on a regular basis! When you're stuck inside a cave, this can easily lead to an increased sense of anxiety which can lead to more intense case of pure panic! Prior to going into the caves, our tour guide had talked about an "escape" tunnel in the middle of the tour, a tunnel that leads back to the outside and to safety. So we decided to raise our hands as we came to this midway point, and she led us to the light! We were actually quite fortunate that there was such an escape tunnel when Jonathan started feeling this way, otherwise we would have had to walk up approximately 400 more steps (another 45 minutes) to the exit of the cave. Jonathan and I thought it would be best if he walked out on his own (as opposed to being carried out of the cave on a stretcher!)- so that's what we did. And as soon as Jonathan hit daylight and had some water, he was back to feeling fine again.

So we drove the rest of the day, hanging out mostly on I-5 north toward Portland, Oregon. We decided to stop for the night once we hit Salem, Oregon at a nice little Motel 6. We figured it would be nice to have a real bed and shower for one night. We were right- it was pretty refreshing! Tomorrow we head to Seattle to stay with my cousin Marci, and hopefully to connect with her kids and grandkids, the other Seattle relatives I haven't seen in years (and some I've never even met!). It should be great fun!! ~E

DAY 108: Wednesday, August 1, 2007 (Warrenton, OR)

Today was mostly a travel day as we headed west from Salem to the Oregon Pacific Coast Highway (Route 101), north north up the coast. We stopped by Lincoln City (a tad south along the coast) for a quick bite to eat, then north through Tillamook, where we stopped at the world-famous Tillamook Cheese Factory. (Well, if it wasn't world-famous before, it surely will be now that it's on the world-famous eaglemoon.net website!) Free cheese samples and a quick self-guided tour of the factory made for a nice visit, seeing cheese being processed and packaged. We saw many workers in the factory doing seemingly mundane things (like turning the packages of cheese a certain way (the correct way) as countless packages of cheese sped by on the assembly line. Not necessarily my idea of fun, but I suppose someone's got to do it!

We continued our drive north on Route 101 along the Oregon Pacific Coast, most of which had been somewhat inland up to this point, at least from where we started by Lincoln City. However, the drive became more "coastal" the farther north we went, and we began seeing beautiful scenes of the Pacific Ocean on our left, with beaches and huge rocks lining the ocean waters by the shoreline, and low-flying clouds in the distance. This is what we imagined the Pacific Coast Highway to be like. We know we missed many more beautiful coastline scenes since we bypassed Route 101 in southern Oregon and California, but at least we got to see some of them now.

As we headed to the most northwest portion of Oregon, close to the seaport town of Astoria, we found ourselves camping for the night at Fort Stevens State Park in Warrenton, the largest (and most amenity-filled) campground in a state park we've been to yet on this trip. We found out later that most of Oregon's state parks are just as nice (even if not quite as large) as this one. Our camping neighbor, Shannon, who happened to be from Oregon, all decked out in his large camper with his wife and two kids, gave us the low-down on the other state parks. He was also nice enough to "loan" us his propane tank when ours ran out. After Elena made a picture-perfect tee-pee-formed campfire, we called it a night as we plan on heading to Kenmore, WA (just next to Seattle) tomorrow to visit and stay with Elena's cousin, Marci. Until then... ~J

DAY 109: Thursday, August 2, 2007 (Kenmore/Seattle, WA)

Holy cow, can you believe it's AUGUST?!?!?! These months of traveling are just flying by. And we are having so much fun, I don't want it to end (even though I am really missing everyone back home!). It's really sinking in that we are on the flip side of this trip, soon to be heading back east, but I am going try to really stay in the present moment and soak in the incredible miracle of each day we are traveling, not getting too caught up in wondering/worrying about the future (where will we live, what will we do for jobs, how are we going to pull off this wedding, etc.). Instead, I am going to breathe, look around me, and take things one moment at a time. I may need Jonathan to remind me of this every now and then, but that's okay.

So it's Thursday and we are leaving Fort Steven's State Park. We had hoped to spend some quality time on the coast of Oregon, visiting the beautiful beaches and taking a dip in the Pacific, but it's pretty cold and windy to be swimming in the surf. Also, apparently the water here can be quite dangerous. California and Oregon boast some fatal rip tides, not to mention warnings that great white sharks live in these waters; signs warn visitors about the perils of swimming in the ocean. So we drove along the beautiful coast, and checked out the beaches from several scenic overlooks.

On our way to Seattle, we stopped in Astoria, a really pretty coastal town at the tip of northern Oregon. We stopped for lunch at a really neat little spot (recommended by our gas station attendant) called the Urban Cafe, a great place for vegetarians!! I had a delicious veggie quesadilla, and Jonathan had the veggie burger. We shared a delicious truffle for dessert, and then headed over the Astoria-Megler Bridge to Washington. What a sight! This bridge is extremely long (21,466 feet) and goes right over the bay. The drive on the way to Seattle was just gorgeous. For most of it, we hovered right on the edge of the Columbia River, where we saw some windsurfers (right) enjoying the day. Parts along the drive were quite sunny, while other areas were very foggy. It was really a lovely drive.

We arrived at Marci's place in the early evening. Loni, Marci's daughter, was there with Marci to greet us, and we talked about our trip and caught up about family stuff. Then Tracy, Marci's other daughter, came over, and we did more of the same. We were pretty exhausted from our trip, so we made plans to see each other again soon (since we'd be staying with Marci through the weekend, at least), and we hit the hay. It is so great to have made it all the way to Seattle, and to get reacquainted with these cousins of mine. (I haven't been to Seattle to see them since I was 8 years old when my family flew out for Loni's wedding!! Loni and her husband, Tim, have now been married for 20 years this year, and they have two teenage kids who are older than I was the last time I was out here- how awesome is that!?!). This is going to be so much fun!! ~E

DAY 110: Friday, August 3, 2007 (Kenmore/Seattle, WA)

This morning was spent updating some of this website (even though we haven't been able to publish it yet due to not having an internet connection), paying some bills, and doing some laundry. We had lunch with Marci, Loni, Kelsey, and Dylan at a local burger joint called Kidd Valley (which was apparently started back in the 1950s by some University of Washington students). Dylan had a beautiful-looking bacon-double-cheese burger; fortunately for Elena and me, garden burgers were also on the menu. As far as garden burgers go, this place does all right by them (though it's no bacon-double-cheese burger!). They also had sweet-potato fries, which were also delicious. By the time we were done, we needed something to do to burn off all we ate...

Good thing we've got our bikes! And it's a good thing we've got Marci who knows all of the great places to go biking around these parts. So we drove to a nearby park and began our afternoon of biking. One mile down, then another, then three more, then five more, then... Well, nearly twenty miles after we started, we were back at our cars ready to call it a day (though I think Marci could have gone another 20 miles if us "youngsters" didn't pull the plug on the ride!). By the time we got back to Marci's house, it was just about time to wash up for dinner with Marci's family (Loni, Tim, Dylan, and Kelsey, and Tracy, Bob, and Garrett, and family friend J.J.). After we ate a wonderful fresh caught Alaskan salmon dinner with all the fixins (these guys sure know how to cook!), they each went around the table and gave us an engagement toast - even the kids, which was quite impressive. It was a very sweet moment for Elena and me; these west coast cousins have been so welcoming to distant-cousin Elena and total-stranger me. It has been great for me to get to know them, and it seems just as wonderful for Elena to reconnect with them as well. We're definitely glad we made the time to see them on our trip, and that they have been able to make time to spend with us. After dinner, Marci, Loni, Tracy, and Marci's other son, Neil, helped us assemble our wedding invitations. It was great to have the extra sets of hands helping with that. Thank you so much for your help everyone!!

We plan to stay here in Kenmore through the weekend, possibly even a few days after that. Several people have made some great suggestions of things to do while we're in this area, and, as usual, though we can't do them all, we know we'd like to do a few. One of those things is hike around Mt. Rainier (still an "active" volcano!) National Park, about two-and-a-half hours away from Marci's place in Kenmore. Hopefully we'll be able to do that while we're here. Until then... ~J

DAY 111: Saturday, August 4, 2007 (Kenmore/Seattle, WA)

So Jonathan forgot to mention one totally MAJOR thing about our bike ride yesterday, which I will fill you in on. Since the beginning of this trip- or should I say since as far back as I can even remember- I have wanted to see a bald eagle in the wild. I had the chance to do this once on the Housatonic River in CT, but I could only see the eagles very far away through a high powered telescope. I have seen other bald eagles in zoos and nature preserves, but they were always in cages of some sort. I have never seen one just flying overhead, so this has been a dream of mine for a very, very long time (okay, so in my real fantasy, the eagle lands on my arm and can talk to me because it's enchanted, of course, but you get the picture). We have been looking for them everywhere on this trip, especially in places where they are known to nest, but have not seen any, unfortunately.

When we arrived in Seattle, my cousins told us that eagles can be spotted all along the lake near Marci's home. They see them all the time flying, fishing, and generally just doing their eagle thing. I was pretty psyched that the possibility for eagle sightings seemed good. So when we were riding our bikes along the 20-mile path Jonathan described yesterday, we were looking up every time we saw a large bird flying. Several times we thought we might have spotted an eagle, but it always turned out to be a hawk or vulture. I was starting to forget that we were even looking for eagles, especially as the bike ride became longer and my legs started burning!

We were starting on our way back toward the park where we had begun our ride, alongside a river and in between patches of tall Douglas Firs and other pine trees when we saw a very large bird flying right overhead. Jonathan and I instinctively looked up at the same time to check it out. We stopped on our bikes to gaze up and get a better look, and Jonathan said, "Honey, is that an eagle?"- like he usually does when we see large birds as we're hiking or driving when large birds fly by. I'm so used to saying, "No, that's a hawk" or "No, that's a vulture," that I think I was in shock when I saw the white head, white tail and yellow talons shining just above us in the sun. I said "Oh my God, that IS an eagle!!! Oh my God!!!" Marci caught up to us and we pointed out the bird as we watched it fly to the very top of a pine tree across the river. It sat on the very top of the tallest branch, and we could still see its white head. As we watched this eagle, we noticed a second eagle also flying above us, over the river. I just couldn't believe it! They were SO beautiful, and just amazing. We watched the second eagle fly out of view, and then watched the first eagle take flight out of the tree and back over our heads until it was also out of sight. It was such a great moment, which Marci said was ordered just especially for me. I rode my eagle-high all the way home, and still get excited just thinking about it.

So that's that. As for Saturday, we had a really great day! We woke up and began to work on drawing a family tree with Marci. For you family therapists out there, we made a nice long genogram on butcher paper. Marci racked her brain trying to remember the names and ages of all the distant relatives, fourth cousins, ancestors from Norway, folks in Alaska, and all the good people back east. I was very impressed with her memory, but I shouldn't be surprised. Marci has an incredible ability to stay connected with her family from all over the country. I think she actually knows more about what's going on with my extended family back in Connecticut than I do, and I live there! But she is wonderful, and everyone loves her so much. It's easy to see how so many people continue to stay in touch with her, visit her, invite her to stay with them, etc. She has been so gracious to us, and as it turns out, she is one of the most helpful, giving, generous and hospitable people I have ever met- ever!

Marci made us Swedish Pancakes- which are a lot like crepes- for breakfast, which we filled with her homemade jelly, fruit compote, and other delicious goodies. Marci has really got the Martha Stewart thing going on here. She sews, makes blankets for people, sends hand-written letters to all her many family and friends, bakes a new batch of cookies every singe day, jars her own famous spicy pickles (which are out-of-this-world-DELICIOUS!), jars her own peaches and pears, and takes care of everyone she knows as if they are her very own kids (us included- we are SO LUCKY!!).

After breakfast, Marci took us all over so we could run our errands. She drove us to the post office and Staples so we could get supplies for our wedding invitations, and then waited for us (she sewed in the car, and wrote two letters for friends) while we did some business at the Cingular store. We grabbed a Jamba Juice and headed back home to get started on our invitations.

While Jonathan and I got ourselves situated in the dining room preparing our list of addresses, Marci prepared some totally fantastic salmon tacos for us. She has the most incredible fish that a family friend sent her; he caught them in Petersburg, a tiny island in Alaska, freeze-packed them, and sent them to Marci. This is the freshest, most unbelievable fish. We have had it every day since we got here- grilled, in tacos, and on sandwiches. This friend also sent Marci fresh halibut, clams, and mussels. She is stocked up!

After our fabulous dinner, we took a short drive over to Loni's place to print the envelopes for our invitations. We are so lucky these guys all live so close to each other. Loni was kind enough to show us how to use her printer, and let us use all the ink we needed. We got the addresses done, and were one step closer to getting our invitations in the mail! We're hoping they'll be out by Monday. We got back to Marci's and finished up a few more invitation details before heading to sleep. We couldn't ask for better hosts than these Seattle cousins, Marci especially. They are just the best! Tomorrow some of us are going to go exploring on Mount Rainier, an active volcano about two hours from Kenmore. We heard the views are spectacular. Can't wait to see it and spend more time with the Seattle crew. ~E

DAY 112: Sunday, August 5, 2007 (Kenmore/Seattle, WA)

Today, Marci, Loni, Tim, Dylan, Elena and I went to Mt. Rainier National Park to hike a trail or two around this active volcano. After the two-and-a-half hour drive to get there, we headed to the lesser-traveled area of Sunrise, about 6,400 feet above sea level (vs. the more popular trail is the Paradise area). After we tailgated by the van for a bit, we headed out for our hike around and up the snowcapped volcano!

After seeing the various trails we could hike, we decided on a moderate one called the Sourdough Ridge Trail, which leads to Frozen Lake, a lake which wasn't actually frozen (it is summer after all), but was lined with a cliff of snow and a beautiful color of turquoise along the edges. The hike to Frozen Lake was a moderate 1.5-mile hike with a 500-foot elevation gain from the parking lot at Sunrise. Though I thought this was going to be our endpoint for our hike, it wasn't to be. Looking up ahead in the distance from Frozen Lake, we could see the edge of a mountain cliff with the huge "wall" of Mt. Rainier behind it. It looked as if we could hike up along this mountain edge and, just around it, have a spectacular view of the volcano just beyond the rim. Tim was excited to see if this was true, and each of us followed suit (even though Dylan expressed more of a desire to head back and see the spectacular views of the Sunrise parking lot again!).

So up we went, this time along the Burroughs Mountain Trail that led to the 1st Burroughs Mountain (there are 3 Burroughs Mountains, the second two being much further and higher than the first). It turns out that the hike to the 1st Burroughs Mountain, which would be our eventual endpoint for our hike, was another one mile (approximately), but, more importantly, another 400-foot elevation gain. Tim led the way, with Loni and Dylan close behind, and Marci, Elena, and I pulling up the rear. Whether due to the thinning air at 7000+ feet above sea level, or my near-daily regimen of ice cream, I started having a little trouble breathing and swallowing (a-la the Oregon Caves National Monument) about half-way up to the 1st Burroughs. The air became very cool as the temperature seemed to drop 10-15 degrees with the increase in elevation, not to mention the increasing wind gusts. I was nursing my bottle of water so as not to run out. At this point, Marci and Elena had passed me as I began taking more frequent breaks. I finally called out to them that I was going to head back and that they should continue. Elena walked back to where I was and, by the time she did, I felt a little better from the rest. So I decided to continue upward. We were so close, seemingly, and it would have been a shame to come all this way and miss such a great view. (Of course, I was completely aware that it would be a shame to see said view and then pass out from lack of oxygen, but what the hay!) So we continued onward and upward. The rest of the crew, who had been up there for a while at this point, were starting to head back and saw us coming closer to where they were at the top.

So after many breathing breaks and possible turn-around points along the way, and with a little encouragement from those at the top, we finally did make it!!! The view at the top of the 1st Burroughs was spectacular and worth the trip, even if we didn't stay too long once we got there. After a few minutes of wonder, and a picture or two, we headed back down the mountain, hiking the two-and-a-half mile trail (and 900-foot decrease in elevation) back to the Sunrise parking lot, where we regrouped, eating a bit more, relaxing in the sunlight and enjoying the views of the mountain. By now, it was about 5pm and we began our long drive back to home base in Kenmore. (Thanks to Tim for driving and allowing the rest of us to close our eyes a bit on the way back!) After picking up Kelsey (who couldn't come with us on our hike because she had to work) and Bella (the family dog), we headed back to Marci's home where we had a delicious halibut dinner. All in all, a pretty wonderful day (except for the nearly dying part - oh, the drama!). Though it's Monday tomorrow, I'm going to call it my day of rest. Until then... ~J

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