Monday, August 3, 2009

Tabletop Mountain Is Not In Texas

It is past 10 in the morning. If I don't blog something soon I'll start getting emails and phone calls asking what is wrong with me. Well, there is plenty wrong with me, but I don't care to talk about it.

That picture you're looking at is my all time favorite photo. But, it vexes me because I can not find the originals of that photo. Those boys are my nephews, Jeremy and his big brother, Christopher. They are sitting on top of Tabletop Mountain. Behind them is Mount Shuksan. Christopher is looking south at Mount Baker. Mount Baker is a volcano.

You get to the top of Tabletop Mountain via a fun trail that gets to the top via a series of switchbacks. I think I'll make a separate blogging with other pics from that day.

Lately it has crossed my mind a time or two that I think I'd like to move back to the Northwest. I miss the mountains. I miss the saltwater. I miss the seafood. And fresh fruit and vegetables. Right now I could be picking all the blackberries I wanted to pick. For free.

When I moved to Texas there was a house waiting for me. My house in Washington was sold in 2002. So, there is no house waiting for me, right now, in Washington. So, moving back is not quite as easy as moving here. It's vexing.

That's me laying on top of Hidden Lake Peak, looking down at Hidden Lake, deep in the North Cascades. Mount Baker and Tabletop Mountain are about 30 miles to the north.

Scenery like this was only a few miles east of where I lived in Washington. I am several hundred miles from any scenery that comes remotely close to this at my current location.

Today I'll try to cheer myself up by going to the "Best Place to Stand in Fort Worth." That being the Tandy Hills. Hiking on the Tandy Hills is a pretty pale substitute for the type of hiking I regularly did in Washington.

7 comments:

Tonasket Tootsie said...

Told ya you could move in with me. Soooo neeeeed a sexy man to stare at 24/7. You fit it to a T. Mmmmm Yup!

Durango said...

Thank you for your kind offer, ma'am.

twister said...

So did you move to Texas on a whim? Had you ever visited? Did you know what the Tx landscape was like? Because I can certainly see why you miss Washington state. I know I wouldn't care for all the rain in western WA. and the cost of housing is certainly prohibitive, but...

High Flight

Oh! I have slipped the surly bonds of Earth
And danced the skies on laughter-silvered wings;
Sunward I've climbed, and joined the tumbling mirth
Of sun-split clouds, — and done a hundred things
You have not dreamed of — wheeled and soared and swung
High in the sunlit silence. Hov'ring there,
I've chased the shouting wind along, and flung
My eager craft through footless halls of air. . . .

Up, up the long, delirious burning blue
I've topped the wind-swept heights with easy grace
Where never lark, or ever eagle flew —
And, while with silent, lifting mind I've trod
The high untrespassed sanctity of space,
Put out my hand, and touched the face of God.

Durango said...

Twister----The move here was not on a whim. I'd been to Texas years before and then after moving here came up I came down 6 months prior to check it out. 6 months of negotiating later I made the move.

It's a myth about the rain in Washington, propagated by Lesser Seattle to keep people away. The plan failed a long time ago, because too many tourists sent too many postcards home telling people about the sunny summer they were spending in Washington. I am not saying it does not rain, but the annual totals for Seattle and Dallas are about the same. In Washington it is easy to escape the rain. Eastern Washington is a more north Texas type climate. The rain shadow of the Olympics gets a desert level of rain. The good weather is why it is such a more outdoorsy type place than it is here.

Cheap Tricks and Costly Truths said...

Twister, did you compose the above poem? I enjoyed it immensely.

Durango, a whining man...tres unnattractive.

Durango said...

CT2----I gave up on trying to be tres attractive long ago.

twister said...

Oh no it's a famous poem, but i suspect you know that and i was born in kermit =P