Category: Crystal Mountain

Hank and I were up early to hike in a new direction.  Up at 6:30 and out the door at 7:00 a.m.  We went to Sand Flats campground and headed up the trail.
We were back at 11:00 8.2 miles.  We went up and back the same trail.  I think the line shows some separation because in the lower section we were on a hill side in some large timber.  As soon as we got a little higher and into some more open areas the tracks stay the same.

Here is the track for the week.  The single line to the left is our track driving to Paradise on the 7th, I was to lazy to filter it out.

The next pictures are from our campsite in parking lot F going up valley and down valley.

It’s Friday evening and we are home for awhile get to see “Book of Mormon” on Wednesday.  By the way my Fitbit has me at over 26000 steps today.

Here are several more Mt. Rainier pictures.

Pictures (7,8,9)

 

Another great day, does seem like we just got back from our normal two week vacation and we should be going back to work on Monday ???? Hope I don’t forget Monday.

 

 

Another hike into Hen Skin Lake(s), their is actually two lakes about a quarter mile apart. Today was with Brian and Hank, it was a great day.

Upper Hen Skin

Where would we be without camera’s in our phones.

This is Lower Hen Skin from the other side from the trip a couple of days ago.
I have some wild flower pictures but they are on my camera and will have to wait.
We have been here since last Saturday and water is starting to get low. I think we will head home tomorrow afternoon before we are completely out of water.  Weather forecast is calling for rain on Saturday.
Hope this all posts I can not review the first half of what I wrote.

Another beautiful day at Crystal Mt.
Here are some more pictures from our stay at the Paradise lodge.  I am posting these in the order they were taken during three morning hikes.
(4,5,6)

Today I practiced doing nothing: finish waxing the motorhome, conditioned the side seals and took Hank for a 4 mile walk. Did get some hammock time in (thank you, Tanya). Also worked on Mt. Rainier pictures for a while. During the four days we were there last week I took 517 mountain pictures. I am going to post a few over the next weeks.

Here is today’s walk down to Sand Flats horse camp and Half Camp.
Mt. Rainier pictures:
You only get one picture today because Steve Jobs and I don’t think alike. I resized a bunch of pictures on my laptop, uploaded them to DropBox and was going to put them in this blog from my IPad. Problem is I named them in the sequence I want to post them, however once I get the picture/file to IPad I can not see the file name only the picture. Thus I can not put them in sequence because they are mixed in with a bunch of other pictures, oh we’ll.

Second try at this posting.  The first try crashed when I added the second picture, I’ll try this again.

Yesterday was one of those days when the moon is close to the earth.  Here are several pictures I took last night.  
These are all original pictures with not post editing (other than size).
We actually don’t see the moon all that often.
Hank and I want for our first hike up the valley today.  I think we went to far for him.  On the way back down he found a nice shady  tree and laid down for a while.
This picture is from my InReach tracking website, downloaded, saved and resized.  We did see some wild flowers.
This one might make a good puzzle.
Hank was tired:
It is time to pour a glass of wine and cook some Tanya steaks, Thanks Tanya.

Today is our first outing since we retired a week ago.  We got here at 11:45 trying to get out of the heat wave at home.  It is going to be 85 – 90 for the next week. It should be 75 – 80 here.  Hank and I got out for a 3 mile walk this afternoon.

It did seem very strange to leave home and not know when we would be back.  The next time we have to be someplace is July 23 when we see “The Book of Mormon”, it’s just weird not having every day and minute scheduled. Also not having to worry about work projects I should be working on for next week or year end Board Meeting.
Camp site picture.
Do you see the flamingos in the front window?  These are new traveling companions, Jean got them as a retirement gift. The ground was to hard to stick them into the ground.
I have a picture of the flamingo we left at home to watch after the house however my phone WordPress program will not let me add the picture.  I will try later.

Lazy day today, did some things with pictures on the laptop and ordered a DISH satellite tv system.

Pictures: during our trip to Sunrise I took some great pictures of Tanya and Mike. I wanted to got them on a flash drive for TA. Tonight I’ll upload them to Microsoft’s OneDrive, then TA can download the full size picture. I put them on a flash drive so I don’t have to start up the laptop to send them. ( I think I’ll come up with a name for my laptop, the motorhome GPS is Martha ).
DISH TV: ordered satellite antenna, stand, 28 inch VIZIO HD TV, and motorhome grade mounting bracket. I will be removing the 27 inch tube TV we currently have in the motorhome and putting in the HD TV. This and the monthly access is Jean’s 40th wedding anniversary present ( I love you).
I also ordered a Dewalt caulking gun to use when I redo the duel pane windows. I need to do at least the the two front side windows before we head south at the end of August. The instructions that came with seal kit said a powered caulking gun is really necessary for a good sealant bead. I decided to buy this caulking gun because I need to do all the motorhome windows. All the windows have some degree of moisture in them.

After dinner Hank and I walked up to the ski lodge to enjoy nice evening in the mountains. At the lodge we (actually Hank first) got to see the local elk herd. There was at least 45 and could have been 50 or 55. They were spread out over the hill side and can be hard to see and count.

We will be heading home this (Wednesday ) afternoon. We have been here a week and water is getting low. It has been another great week, this retirement thing is actually REALLY good.

Here are some more Mt. Rainier pictures:
16, 17,18.
( I cannot get to my WordPress media folder from my iPad, I will publish this text and add the pictures using my phone).
The dust in the lower center is from a rock fall. After I heard the fall it took me a couple of minutes to see where it came from.

Hank and I hiked up the the right side of the ski runs.  Hiked two hours and this is where we got too

I am here: 46 55.536 N 121 29.595 W http://maps.google.com/maps?q=loc:46.9256,-121.49326

5756 altitude

This is the spot.

This is the altitude at one of the lifts.

And this what my phone said
For the elevation.
Great hike 6 miles and I’m tired.

 

These pictures are actually before the clouds moved in.  We can see about 100 feet now.
This is taken with a HDR camera app.

Looking forward to a great weekend.