Wildflower Rainbows along the trails during Pride month; some knitting, and neighborhood views –

June 27, 2020 / margaretquilts / 1 Comment

Friday, June 19, 2020, Grassy Knoll, Washington

Wildflower meadows filled the open slopes near the trailhead.

lupine and paintbrush

blue gillia and buckwheat

paintbrush

mariposa lilies and blue gillia

White dogwood, lilies and anemones led us through the shady forest up the steep trail to the ridge crest.

bunchberry

bead lily, starflower

anemones

More flowers all the way to the top of Grassy Knoll, and beyond.

Pink cliff penstemons along the rocky ridge, Mt Adams beyond.

Grassy Knoll looks green from here,

but the green slopes are full of flowers!

Summit view toward Mt Hood.

Summit view toward Mt Adams.

Continuing up the ridge, Mt Hood, the Columbia River, and more wildflower meadows.

And more blooming meadows near our turnaround point.

Every color of wildflower was in bloom today!

columbine

honeysuckle

wallflower and parsley

blue gillia

phacelia and penstemon

pea

coral root

meadow rue

cliff penstemon

olympic onion

phlox, sorel and parsley

parsley and onion

paintbrush

It was a great day in the Gifford Pinchot National Forest. (Hike #46, 6.2 miles, 1350 feet.)

Tuesday, June 23, 2020, Chinidere Mountain, Oregon

We saw many of the same flowers that we saw at Grassy Knoll, though we were a thousand feet higher in altitude, so earlier in the bloom season. (Hike #47, 7.5 miles, 1450 feet.)

Wahtum Lake, near the trailhead.

A few early season flowers still in bloom here:

avalanche lily

clasping twisted stalk

bugbane

Ascending into the rainbow meadows on Chinidere Mountain.

Mt St Helens, Mt Rainier, and Mt Adams from the summit.

Mt Hood and Mt Jefferson from the summit.

Wahtum Lake and Mt Hood.

A highlight was walking north of Chinidere Mountain on the Pacific Crest Trail, into the upper margin of the 2017 burn zone. Beargrass blooms sparkled in the recovering forest.

Tree guardian…

Wahtum ‘Express’ back to the parking area.

Knitting

Finished mitts.

A nearly finished Meris cardigan – still have to sew on the buttons.

Sock progress.

Around the neighborhood:

Black Lives Matter signs blooming everywhere, along with summer flowers.

lily

One of many posted throughout the neighborhood.

Pandemic masks ubiquitous, thank you!

Skyline sign on the Fairhaired Dumbbell Building

Hydrangea

George Floyd memorial

And more action nationally…

NZ2020: Day 7, Lake Wanaka

June 14, 2020August 20, 2020 / margaretquilts / 3 Comments

Friday, January 31, 2020 –

Sunrise in Makarora

We left Makarora after an early breakfast, for a drive inland and our first look at some of the enormous glacial lakes that line the landward side of the Southern Alps.

The first of these was Lake Wanaka, whose shores we drove by for a while. To the east we could see Mt Aspiring in the Southern Alps.

Lake Wanaka

Mt Aspiring

The highway crosses over to the shore of Lake Hawea, another vast body of water, beyond what I was expecting. The lakes look huge on the map, but driving along them for many miles gives a true sense of their vastness.

Lake Hawea

Cabbage Tree near Lake Hawea

We arrived in the town of Wanaka, at the south end of the lake, for a short stop.

Curious attraction outside Wanaka…

Lake Wanaka waterfront, Southern Alps view.

We then drove up the west side of the lake to our hike of the day – the Diamond Track up Rocky Mountain.

Rocky Mountain

It was windy, and in some areas the trail was very steep, with ladders up the cliffs.

Trail up the glaciated schist cliffs.

Views from the Diamond Lake overlook:

We continued upward through strong wind to the very top of the mountain, where the golden grass of late summer lay nearly flat in the wind.

Almost to the top…

Panorama from the summit.

Windy view of Lake Wanaka

Southern Alps

After taking a few quick pictures from the top, we descended a short way down the return trail to a sheltered spot where we could eat lunch and enjoy the view back toward Wanaka.

Coming down out of the wind…

Lunch view of Lake Wanaka from Rocky Mountain.

This was our hardest and steepest hike so far, and a good warm up/conditioning hike for a couple of more challenging hikes ahead. (Hike #8, 5 miles, 1400 feet.)

We made another short stop in Wanaka.

The Southern Alps again, from Lake Wanaka waterfront.

Tourists and sea gulls

Geese

Next, we drove south over the high Crown Range Road with amazing views in all directions.

Looking east – we are on the dry side of the mountains now – no rainforest in sight.

Queenstown ahead, from the Crown Range Road.

From the pass, the road descends two thousand feet into Queenstown, situated on lovely Lake Wakatipu. Our guide dropped us at our hotel, and we now had the next day off from the tour to explore Queenstown on our own. That will be in the next NZ2020 post.

The well named Remarkables on the far skyline are the backdrop to beautiful Queenstown.

First Columbia River Gorge hike in a while, another hike on the Wildwood Trail, some knitting, and neighborhood views

June 12, 2020 / margaretquilts / Leave a comment

June 2, 2020 – Phlox Point, Beacon Rock State Park, WA

A quiet Tuesday. We met only a few other hikers on trails that are mostly wide equestrian trails until they switchback up Hardy Ridge. Lower slopes are shady forest, with shady forest blooms. We passed a few sunny open areas before reaching the rocky ridge crest with the wide angle view of the Columbia River Gorge that we have been missing these last few months of pandemic-closed trails. A mile north along the ridge are the rocky ledges of Phlox Point. I was very tired by the return, but happy to be able to hike here again. Hike #44, 8.5 miles, 2200 feet.

The wide angle view – Mt Adams, Table Mountain, Columbia River Gorge, Bonneville Dam, Hamilton Mountain, Mt Hood.

Hardy Ridge Crest intersection

Lunch view of a raven and Mt Hood.

Heading north along the ridge to Phlox Point.

Phlox, paintbrush, and parsley on the way up Phlox Point.

Hamilton Mountain, Mt Hood

Mt Adams

Northern Phlox Point ridges and view.

Some of the wildflowers:

phlox

beargrass

penstemon, paintbrush, Oregon sunshine

Cascade mountain ash

mariposa lily

serviceberry

anemones

columbine

nodding onion

June 10, Wildwood Trail again…

Today we hiked from the Springville/Trillium Trailhead on the Wildwood Trail, east to the detour at the Cleator Trail, and then back. We will have to skip the next mile of Wildwood Trail that is closed for repair. We have now completed approximately half of the 30 mile trail on our five pandemic Wildwood hikes. – Hike #45, 7.6 miles, 615 feet.

On the Wildwood Trail…

Salmon berries getting ripe…

A bridge

Green!

Knitting

Mitts and a new sock:

Neighborhood

Another tethered horse.

Interesting concrete

Low light

A colorful garden

A Black Lives Matter march appeared in our neighborhood. We were able to catch the tail end and join for a short distance, masked and separated, of course.

I’ve learned a lot about racism this week…

June 8, 2020June 9, 2020 / margaretquilts / Leave a comment

June 6, 2020 – Black Lives Matter – A disturbing and contemplative week following the murder of George Floyd by police in Minneapolis. While continuing Pandemic sheltering, I spent a lot of time reading, listening, learning, and reframing some of my thinking, and I plan to do more in the future. I have had conversations with friends and watched videos. We have made donations to the NAACP and the Southern Poverty Law Center. I have a lot of questions, and I continue to listen and learn. There have already been some positive steps going forward toward resetting how community safety is practiced.

Some images and words from this week that I want to remember: all from social media or newspapers, attributed as best as I could.