Memorial Day Weekend

My four-day weekend was a nice, long, sleep-filled heaven. It rained and rained and rained some more. Everything seems to have grown an awful lot over the weekend. I need to mow my lawn, I need to clean out my rain gutters, and I need to trim my hedges.

The only things of note that I did involved hiking. I did another loop on Cougar Mountain on Saturday. It was pouring and quite cold, but I was one of the only people on the mountain. It was raining so hard that I was afraid to take my camera out, which is a shame. It was very wet and foggy, and it was beautiful, but I didn't want to wreck my camera to get pictures.

Monday I hiked up Rattlesnake Ledge. It has been two years since I did that one. I used to go up it two or three times a week while I was training to do the Enchantments in August 2004. I had forgotten what a nice little hike it was. I started up very early so that I could miss the crowds that I knew would eventually show up. I got to the top in an hour and managed to catch a full 3-minute sunbreak before it started to rain.

As nice as it was, I may not do it again for a while, unless it is after work. Some of the bigger weekend trails are becoming available as the snow melts. I just found out this morning that the trail to Nada Lake in the Leavenworth area is totally snow free, and you don't need a permit until July to camp there. That makes me wonder what other Eastern Washington mountain trails are snow-free. I plan to spend the Fourth of July weekend at Lila Lake, and at least three days in August at Robin Lake for my birthday, and I know they'll be snow free by then but I'd like to do a few difficult day hikes before then to make sure that I can carry a 30-pound pack up the 5 or 6 miles to a campsite. I could easily do either of those hikes without the pack, but carrying that much excess weight up those long, steep trails is a little different. The trail to Lila is notorious among local hikers. It has the reputation of having the worst mile of trail in the Cascades, gaining 1300 feet of eleva tion in a mile. And that's the fourth mile of the trail! It looks like a ladder of roots and rocks. Not fun, especially with a heavy pack altering your center of gravity. But I'm going to do it. There's a meadow filled with whistling marmots near the lake, and I'm hoping to finally get some good marmot pictures this year.

Otherwise, my long weekend was essentially wasted. I did no homework or studying. I slept a lot. I watched seasons 2 and 3 of Scrubs on DVD. I think that covers it. It was nice. I look forward to doing it again someday.