Included with the text was the photo you see here of Miss Linda and Maxwell in a Washington Rain Forest near Glacier.
Glacier is a small town one passes through on the way to Mount Baker. Now that you are making me think about it, Glacier is the last town one passes through on the way to Mount Baker.
Seeing this picture of Miss Linda and Maxwell threw me into Throwback Thursday mode.
On a Thursday way back in the last century, on the day of a significant birthday, was it 30, or 40? I don't remember. What I do remember is on that day a brutal hike took place a short distance east of Glacier, to the summit of Church Mountain.
The final ascent of the Church Mountain hike requires use of a thick wire cable, left behind from the long gone fire lookout station. The summit is a flat point, with a panoramic view north into Canada, east into the North Cascades, south to the South Cascades, where Mount Rainier is located and west to Vancouver Island and the Straits of Juan de Fuca.
I have photos of the Church Mountain hike, stored in a box, not scanned. It would require an extensive search party to locate those photos.
If I remember correctly, and I likely do, the last time I passed through Glacier was with my favorite nephews, Christopher and Jeremy, also known as CJ and JR. This would have been a year or two or maybe three before my exile in Texas began.
On that pass through Glacier we were on our way to the Mount Baker ski area, which in late summer becomes a major hiking destination, with trails which usually only get free of snow in August, or later.
Our destination that day was to hike up Tabletop Mountain. I do have photos scanned of that hike and have previously blogged them in a blogging from 2009 titled Going Back To Tabletop Mountain While In Texas.
One of my all time favorite photos was taken that day on Tabletop Mountain. I shall go see if I can find that photo...
That would be JR on the left, which would make that CJ on the right.
Behind JR and CJ is Mount Shuksan. CJ is looking to his left, at the Mount Baker volcano. Behind the nephews, if you look closely, you will see a row of what I have come to call Hoodoos.
Looking at these various mountain photos, I am freshly struck regarding the pitifulness of the fact that currently, in 2016, I am aboding in a flat land where I hike up a big pile of dirt, known locally as The Dirt Hill, which I call Mount Wichita, which really is a real sad excuse for a mountain.
One of my other dear ol' Washington friends, Maxine, recently completed her annual trek over the Cascades to Stehekin, eventually reaching the fabled Courtney Ranch, home to some of the best buffet feedings I have ever had.
This year's Maxine Stehekin Adventure Tale is the best ever. I must get around to blogging it on my Washington blog.
In the meantime I'm thinking it really is time for me to cease living in a vertically challenged location and return to one of the world's scenic wonderlands....
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