Lake Crescent

Totally breathtaking, Ron!! What an incredible trio of images to drool at! They make me spin in circles with yearning! I'm going to show Steve with the hopes to put a bee in his bonnet, as I'd dearly love to go to this place!!

I really enjoyed your writeup--wow are you guys able to go a long way...10 miles is the outside for most of our hikes! With Steve's knee injury, he wasn't able to do anything for weeks. Just yesterday we did 4 miles of a 6-mile out and back...Steve didn't want to push it, just in case. It's the longest since we were hiking together back at Joseph Stewart in NOVEMBER! It's wonderful that he's finally getting better...it was such fun to see him bubbling with happiness on our hike yesterday! We were at William Tugman State Park on the longer Eel Lake hike. Talk about stunning. I'll be posting pictures of the Indian Pipe fungus we found along the way--I was bouncing up and down when I saw it! And then, at the same time I immediately thought of you and how happy you would be to find these too. I remember you mentioning that you'd seen these before so when I got back to the trailer I immediately looked and yep! The group you found is marvelous! They are such strange-looking things, aren't they?!

This next spot is an RV park...it's got some shrubs and hedges, trees and other plants but I'm sorry, it's just a glorified parking lot. MEH! It's "5 minutes" from the beach, though I think that's in the car because it's no way five minutes walk. Biting cold, windy and overcast, today the wind should be upwards of 20+ mph, UGH! We're going to do our laundry, go to the nearby Fred Meyers and maybe drive out somewhere but probably going to just hole up for the day, it's just icky out! Tomorrow's supposed to be sunny and 68 instead of 64 for the high, so we'll take in the sights then!

Thanks so much for the comments on my bee and critter post! Yes, it really is such fun to discover more going on in a picture when you get a better look! The surprises are sometimes totally amazing, but not usually so spectacular as the baby spiders on mom's back. Those sights really are special gifts that make me so happy that I can get crisp pictures with my macro lens. :)

I smiled with your "dragging tails" comment about returning to your van after a much longer hike than you anticipated. Reminds me of when we did the hike at Diamond Lake last year. The length wasn't as dramatic as we expected...we'd planned on going several more miles--but we didn't expect deep, silty-dusty footing for the majority of the trail, and the energy it takes to walk through soft and sandy-like dirt is surprising. Dragging tails indeed!

And when we were at Bullard's Beach, I went on an innocent-sounding trail that I'd planned to take for a long, 10 mile hike while Steve was hanging out and resting his knee. The moment I set foot on it I knew my plans might be changing, as it was deep, soft sand and my forward momentum reduced to about 25% of my normal speed. When I climbed to the top of a sandy hill to judge my location, I was horrified to see that I was nowhere as far as I'd expected and the ocean wasn't even in view! I was already starting to flag badly so instead of soldiering on as I am apt to do, I immediately turned around and made my way back. Nobody was happier than me when I finally set foot on solid pavement again. And my tail? It was a'draggin! :D

Ok, I'm out! I'd like to process some picture and maybe get some writing done...yesterday's Travel Day wasn't a long one (only 35 miles, about 45 minutes actual drive time, though we did stop for a few things) but it's always very draining to break down and set up again, and the stress of traveling. Crazy how much it affects us! Oh, and creative energy flies right out the window too...I'd started typing my letter to you last night and stopped after a few sentences...I just didn't have it in me, though I sure did love your pictures! :) Ok, off I go!