Paintbrush on Hurricane Ridge
Today was Friday, the last full day of walking. We left the Lodge at 9:00, and drove to the Visitors’ Center of the National Park, where most of us viewed a very well-made movie on the ecology of the Park. From there we drove to the trailhead of the Switchback Trail, a very steep climb of about a half mile’s length. I wasn’t nervous about the steepness and difficulty of the climb, nor of the risk of vertigo, which Steve and Maribeth warned us about. But the beginning of the climb was at a 5000 foot elevation, and I was worried about the additional strain that this would involve. We agreed that we would decide whether to try the climb when we had had a look at the trail. I think Mark was a little dubious, only because of the vertigo question, but we decided to make a stab at it.
Maribeth warned Mark and me that if we took pictures at our usual rate while we were climbing the Switchback, lunch at the top would be too seriously delayed. So I stowed my camera until we should get beyond Switchback, and the results were good. Mark and I took loads and loads of pictures up in the open area that was pretty much a level walk up at the top of Hurricane Ridge, but photographically, I'm afraid they are mostly not very interesting. And we got to the end of the trail only a little while behind everyone else. What adequate pictures I took follow:
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It really was a ridge, with the terrain dropping off steeply on both sides
(top left thumbnail, large image,
small), and great views out into the
distance (upper right thumbnail, large image,
small). I’m not sure that that’s
Mount Olympus in the center thumbnail on the left (large image,
small), but I’m pretty sure that what
you see there is the first glacier we caught a view of.
Lower left thumbnail:large image, small; lower right: large image, small. |
The left thumbnail here is among the relatively few pictures that I took to our right
side as we were walking the Ridge, thus more nearly in a northerly direction
(large image, small).
In the right (large image, small),
also taken in a roughly northward direction,
you can see how steep the drop was.
We got up to the end of our trail, and from there it was a short walk to the big parking lot and the picnic area, where Steve had prepared an elegant lunch. Just a few feet off the parking lot, a grouse was standing, and my picture of her is at the bottom of this page. After lunch, we had the choice of continuing the hiking, or going back to the Lodge. I realized that my right ankle and heel were complaining, and that it would be a lot more prudent to skip the last walk. So Mark and I rode back to the Lodge with Maribeth and a few of the other people---the Boeses among them, I believe---and I took advantage of the free time to get into the lake water for a dip. The water was a little cold for an old geezer, so I took only a few strokes before charging out into the fresh air and drying off.
When everybody was back and showered up, we collected in the dining room of the Lodge for a nice farewell banquet, since the next day, when we drove back to Seattle, would be our last. I took pictures of the two tables, and in the first one below you see Regan, Lynn, John, Maribeth, Mary, Mark, Sondra, and Jim (large image, small). In the second picture are Ray, Virginia, Peter, Ann, Steve, Dede, Michael, Kathryn (looking away), and Bill (large image, small).
Previous day: morning pictures; afternoon pictures; next day’s pictures.
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