Months of Plenty

There was plenty of summer left after we returned home!

Set up garden beds, built deer & rabbit fencing, mulched and composted, built ADK bridges over the inlet and outlet streams, and a zillion other little things:

Did some work inside the house, too:

 

But there was still plenty of time for wildflowers and hammocks, climbing trees and weeknight campfires:

Birthday parties and goat roasts:

Went back to work, fully embracing the fact that I really, truly, absolutely am not an indoor cat:

And to top it all off, a sport climbing "herd" trip that didn't get rained out:

The first few leaves in the back woods are turning yellow.  There is a hickory directly across from my window; I can't wait for it to turn brilliant.  It will.  I know it will!  First autumn in our home.  Still finding all of the new things.

By all standards, this was an epic summer.  And for the first time in long time, there's nothing big on the horizon.  No Peru, no New Zealand, no trip around the world, no homelessness, no career change, no Nicaragua, no wedding, no home buying, no road tripping.

Just wildflowers and gardens, campfires and hammocks, birthday parties with funny hats and virtual candles, goats on fire, and the happy hum of my treadmill.

And slip n' slides.  Definitely slip n' slides.

(Come find me, adventures!)

Slowing Down on the Olympic Peninsula

The first few weeks of this trip were really hectic.  We'd hike or climb during the day, then drive, finding a place to crash when the sun was low in the sky.  Dave set camp while I cooked; we'd eat, clean up, and crash.  In the morning, the tent came down as the sun came up, and we were on to the next adventure.  With the big Yosemite adventure smack dab in the middle of the calendar, we had so many places to visit, and so little time left.  So we'd go faster and harder.

It rained in Washington.  Not very hard - but constantly.  Big mountains hid in the clouds, and I never did see Rainier, except the visitor's center diorama.  

I spent a few days damp to my core, wrapped in layers of fleece, trying to stay warm.  The car smelled like wet hiking socks, slug mucus, and last night's rice and beans.  All of our gear was sitting in puddles of water in contractor bags.

tent floating in 3-4 inches of water

It was mildly miserable, just uncomfortable enough to make us realize that our deeper discomfort from constant running-running-running-faster was totally self-inflicted.

tent covered in 3-4 inch banana slugs

The Olympic peninsula wasn't on our original itinerary.  But people kept mentioning it, again and again, with intensity.  It was special, they said.

A special rainforest is a good place to wait out the rain.

Time to slow down on the Olympic peninsula.

There's nothing to see except what's close to the ground.

There's nothing to do except that which we are doing right now.

There is time to look at moss.

There is time to count the blades on a fern.

There is time to stand in the rain.

ruby beach

There is time to be with wildflowers.

There is time to make friends with a slug.

There is time to hike ten miles up to a mountain pass, even when you know you won't see anything in the clouds at the top.

There are plenty of mossy green streams on the way up for your eyes.

We camped in the Olympic National Forest,

...walked along Ruby Beach,

......took 2 hours to meander the ¾ mile “Hall of Mosses” trail at the Hoh Rainforest, and

.........hiked to Marmot Pass on the east side of the peninsula.

And I can say I agree with every person who mentioned this place.  It's special, very special.

Married on Marcy

On Saturday, June 15th, I married my most favorite person on the planet (that would be Davo!) in one of our most favorite places on the planet (that would be the summit of Mt. Marcy in Adirondacks!).

It was epic.

awww heck yeah!

And since it was fairly dang epic, I figure it deserves a little trip report.



Day 1 (in blue), Friday June 14th:  Loj to Marcy Dam, Avalanche Pass, Avalanche Lake & the Hitch-up Matildas, Lake Colden, and up the Opalescent River to a tent site near Feldspar Lean-To.

Highlights:
**a sandwich with about 3/4'' of meat and cheese at Avalanche Pass;
**cussing my head off trying to navigate around Avalanche Lake with a pack loaded with champagne and a wedding dress;
**the lovely hike up the Opalescent River, very pretty.

Conditions were pretty good along these sections of trail; everything was about as muddy as I expected (and not nearly as bad as later in the trip).  A thunderstorm rolled through in the early evening, but otherwise the weather was decent.  Didn't experience too many blackflies, either.  The hiking was more tiring than I was expecting; not only were we carrying four days worth of food, we were carrying nicer (i.e. heavier) food, plus some champagne, plus all of our wedding clothes and stuffs, etc.

looking back at Avalanche Lake

Day 2 (in purple):  Marcy, Skylight, and Grey

Highlights:
**Holy guacamole, we got married!!

The quick story...  we had been watching the weather obsessively since late May, and it looked like 6/15 would be clear and cold.  That'll do!

We got up early and left camp by 7:00.  I did my hair at Lake Tear of the Clouds, source of the Hudson River.  This is about the point that the butterflies started in my stomach.
The hike from Feldspar Leanto to Marcy is straight forward.  I half regret not trying for the summit at dawn, but then again, I like sleeping and wanted to be mentally sound for such an important day.  I washed my boots at the timberline so they wouldn't wipe mud all over my dress, and then we finished the hike to the summit.  Putting on makeup 10 miles from the nearest road is a surreal experience.

And then it was time to get married.

So how did this all work?  We were legally married in the State of New York in early May, so we did not need an officiant for our ceremony.  In our experience, involving God or the government in a promise between two human beings does not seem to improve the odds of success.  Instead, we had a self-uniting ceremony (legal in Colorado and Pennsylvania!), reading our vows to each other and exchanging rings.

It was one of the most important, emotionally charged, memorable, and special memories of my life.  :-)

The weather at the summit was great - clear, cold, and windy, but not so bad that I couldn't take off my coat for a few photos!  We stayed on the summit, just enjoying the views and relaxing, for about two hours.  We both ended up with sunburn on our noses.

Finally, it was time to drag ourselves away from the summit.  We put on our awesome "Just Married!" shirts and hiked back down to Four Corners.

The hike up Skylight was straightforward, and we lingered on the summit, talking to some other hikers.  The hike up Grey was also straightforward, though a bit messier, and with fewer views, so we didn't linger quite as long.  We returned to camp in the late afternoon, having taken something like 9 hours to cover the 6 mile day.

We greeted a DEC ranger, who would be the last person we would see for the next 36 hours.  That was one of my favorite parts of the trip - time totally alone with my new husband, getting used to the feeling of being married.

Good thing we like each other, because our weather window got smashed with a baseball bat on Sunday.

Day 3 (in yellow):  Redfield and Cliff Mountains

Highlights:
**We didn't get hypothermia or zapped by lightening.  Count yer blessings.
**The trail on Redfield was more fun and more interesting than I was expecting for a "trailless" peak.
**Laying in the tent with my new husband, playing the letter game to pass the time while it rained.
**Running around, collecting our stuff in the rain, and sprinting to the lean-to to set up a dry camp - hilarious!

Tried to wake up early to beat the afternoon thunderstorms, but man Day Three always kicks my butt.  We got a decently early start, slightly after 7:00 a.m.  The hike up Redfield was straight forward, following a river that turned into a creek that turned into a drainage, the trail joining and splitting from the water.  We didn't stay long at the top, expecting the weather to turn, and by the time we reached the junction for the Cliff Mtn. trail it had started to drizzle.

Conditions on Cliff were pretty bad - extremely muddy.  There were a few times that I was thankful for my climbing skills, as it was more secure to throw in a hand jam than attempting to palm a wet sloper.  We did our best to climb carefully, not to pull on vegetation, not to slip all over the place, in a lame attempt to minimize erosion, but I don't know if there's much that can be done when the trails look like ^that^ (other than come back another day, but I don't know if this mountain is ever not a huge pile of muddy cliffs).

By the time we reached the top, it was raining.  I was not psyched for the descent.

Back at camp, we stripped off our wet clothes and hopped in the tent to dry.  2:00 p.m.  Lots of time until dinner and bedtime.  Good thing we like each other.

As soon as our tent started doing this:

I knew it was time to make a break for it.  We grabbed all of our stuff and moved over to the now vacant Feldspar Lean-To.  Finally, some room to spread out, hang up our soaking wet gear, and cook dinner in a dry space!

Day 4 (in red):  Feldspar Lean To to Lake Arnold, Indian Falls, Tabletop Mountain, Marcy Dam, and the Loj

Highlights:

**Making it across the sketchiest bog crossing I have ever experienced

**Summiting our sixth mountain in four days

**Arriving at a Marcy Dam lean-to just as thunderstorm rolled through

**Having rationed just enough food not to be hungry

Man, it sucks to put on wet boots in the morning.  You know what sucks even more?  This:

That crossing, somewhere between Feldspar Lean To and Lake Arnold, is AWFUL.  Those logs aren't resting on anything - they're floating.  And that log to the left?  It rolls.  I may have had a minor freak out.  Dave had to walk first me, and then my pack, across.  Thanks, honey!  After a night of hiking, this trail on the south/east side of Colden (which is usually wet to begin with) was a total mess.

The rest of the hike wasn't too bad, though my pack was so heavy that I was really struggling.  We stopped at Indian Falls for a very quick photo (hmm, look at those clouds over Algonquin), then quickly ran up Tabletop Mountain.  Dave commented that we made it up there quickly, and I said "Sure we did - I get to eat a Clif Bar at the top!"  Yeah, food was running a bit low at that point.  Made it to Marcy Dam just as the heavens opened and a thunderstorm rolled through.  Luckily for us, it was a convenient lunch stop, so we ate some food and waited out the rain.

The walk from Marcy Dam to the Loj was pretty special.  We entered the woods as individuals and emerged a new little family unit.  With the mud, the rain, the blackflies, and the heavy packs, we had no need to smash a glass in the Jewish tradition at our ceremony - we had already experienced our trials and emerged stronger as a result.

checking out of the trail register...  mr. and mrs.

And that was the trip.  It was everything we had hoped for, and then a little bit more.

May there be many miles of happy trails in our future.  :-)

P.S.  More photos here.

P.P.S.  We made an awesome album using Shutterfly - check it out!

Click here to view larger photo book