Author: Loren

Aerobic Exercise & Scenic Beauty: Mt. Rainier’s Rampart Trail Adventure

Although I have hundreds of photos I need to process from our trip to Montana, we spent yesterday hiking on Mt. Rainier.  Though our original intent was to hike around Reflection Lake, we changed our mind when we saw how much snow was still on the ground.  Instead, we drove back down the mountain and hiked the Rampart Trail out of Longmire, a hike we have done several times in the last few years.   

All Trails calls it a Moderate hike, but it was a challenging hike for us this early in the year, covering a little over 5 miles and 1,400 feet of elevation gain. We traveled the loop counter clockwise, which spreads the altitude gain over three miles, instead of just two miles if you go clockwise. Luckily, the beauty of the old-growth forest distracted from how breathless I felt despite spending a week at higher altitudes in Colorado last week.  We crisscrossed this little stream most of the way up.


Although most of the climb is spent in heavy forests, because this is an Old-Growth Forest there are small meadows where ancient trees have fallen and cleared space for flowers like this Bear Grass


and views of even more rugged peaks across the valley.  


The highlight of the hike, though, is the view of Mt. Rainier —


unless you are a birder and are pleased by the company of Canadian Jays (aka, Robber Jays) during your break before the long trek down the trail.   


Descending the mountain went much quicker than the ascent, but this early in the hiking season my knees seemed to actually tolerate the ascent better than the descent.  I was certainly glad that I had my hiking poles to take some of the pressure off my knees.


I managed to get nearly three hours of aerobic exercise on the hike, whereas I’m lucky to get a half hour of aerobic exercise while at the YMCA. No wonder I’m always in much better shape at the end of summer than I am at any other time during the year.

Exploring Montana State College with Logan and Enjoying Nature in Triple Tree Ranch

We just returned from a ten-day, mostly delightful  trip to visit the Colorado/Montana Websters. It turns out that driving 1,500 miles in two days is more challenging than it used to be.  My lower back definitely thought that I had overdone it. It probably didn’t help that I had tweaked it working in the garden just days before our trip. Despite that, we managed to get in several walks/hikes with all the Websters on our stay.  

We started by visiting Logan at Montana State College, spending the day eating, hiking, touring the campus, and meeting his girlfriend for the first time.  All in all, we couldn’t have asked for a better day. Thankfully, Logan chose a hike in the Triple Tree Ranch that wasn’t too demanding, while still offering some beautiful views and beautiful flowers, like this Poison Camas,


  this Yellow Salsify, 


and this Columbine.

Turns out you see more flowers when you pause to catch you breath regularly.

I caught up most of the time, but  I definitely could have used a little more oxygen on our walk, not unexpected since we were hiking at 5,000 feet elevation. Hard to believe twenty years ago I was carrying Logan or Zoe in a backpack at this altitude. 

A Sunny Spring Day on the Coast

We hadn’t been home from Arizona very long before an unexpected sunny forecast at the coast inspired us to head out to Ocean Shores to see if the Spring Shorebird Migration had started and to see if there were any Loons still overwintering.  

Unfortunately, when we got to the spit we were greeted by heavy winds that made it difficult to open the car door.  In my heart I knew that we wouldn’t see any shorebirds on the beach with those kind of headwinds, but I didn’t drive two hours to sit in the car and watch waves break on the rocks.

We only walked about half as far as usual, and I can’t say we really enjoyed the walk, but I did like this shot of a large fishing boat appearing and disappearing behind the surf.


The only birds we ended up seeing were Gulls, and most of them were flying so fast that I couldn’t possibly get a shot of them.  So, I settled for this shot of one preening.


Though we were disappointed at not seeing any shorebirds, I was glad to see a Common Loon in breeding colors at the Westport Marina 


and it wasn’t shy about posing for us.


While taking pictures of the Loon, this bird popped up next to me.  I’m a little ashamed to admit that I didn’t recognize it at first and got distracted to taking shots of it instead of the Loon. 

I should have known from the bill that it was a female Surf Scoter, but the male Surf Scoter is so distinctive with its brightly-colored beak that I never really pay much attention to nearby females.

We finally got to see some large shorebirds at Tokeland.  A small flock of Marbled Godwits was feeding along with a couple of Willet.


Despite the high winds and too few shorebirds, it was a Good Day.  Having lived in Aberdeen for most of a year, I know that any sunny day one the Washington coast is a good day, one to be thankful for.  

I Call This Home

As much as I enjoyed our trip to Fresno and Arizona, I was looking forward to returning to Theler Wetlands and Port Orchard to see how things had changed in two weeks.  After experiencing near 80° degrees in Arizona, we weren’t quite ready for the cool, foggy weather at Theler.  

We were greeted by hundreds of huge spiderwebs,

the kind you expect to see in the Fall, not on March 31st.

The fog was so thick that even this brightly-colored male Green-Winged Teal appeared a dull gray.


I wasn’t truly convinced it was Spring until I spotted several Skunk Cabbage blossoms in the wetlands leading out to the boardwalk, one of the earliest native flowers to bloom in Spring.


The bold little Marsh Wren on the boardwalk rail certainly seemed to think it was time to Spring into action.


I suspect his bright song helped to dispel the fog that shrouded the first half of our 3 mile walk because by the time we were walking back to our car this male Green-Wing Teal looked a lot brighter in the sunshine.


It’s a real treat to vacation in California or Arizona after months of gray skies or days of drizzle, but a week or two on the road is about all I want.  Theler Wetlands strictly speaking isn’t home but it definitely feels like home, and home is a great place to be, no matter what the weather.