Into The Fire

Last Saturday Karine and I headed back to Esmeralda for a little overnight backpacking. The forecast for the weekend? - Hot and sweaty. We packed up Friday night and darted out Saturday morning, making the long drive to Cle Elum, and then up the Teanaway Road. I noticed however, that there was a large plume of smoke off in the distance near our destination. Mt. Stuart appeared to be engulfed in a cloud of brownish-white. Ok, well, I didn't check the possibility to threat of forest fire before we left. It was a bit worrying - more because I really wanted to do this trip.


As we approached the forest service road it appeared that the smoke was well away from our trail. When we got to the trail head, Rangers had put up a closure sign to an area north of us, which shouldn't affect our hike. The hike was balls out with the weight of packs and 95 degree heat. Ok, so I totally suck at picking days to go backpacking. If it's not downpouring and creeks and rivers flooding, then it's too freakin' hot. Or it's snowing...I digress.

Long story short - we ended up at the upper horse camp. Much to my surprise, there was a small group of packers already up there. Figures. Here I thought we'd have the place to ourselves. Water was in bit of a short supply, but we hiked up a small trickle of a stream and found plenty of cool water to store for the night. Full moon tonite which gave us plenty of light.

Next morning we woke up very early to a bit of wind and some high clouds. From the direction of the wind, it caused an inversion of the fire smoke to come back over the ridge into our valley. Not good. Visibility got nasty and so did breathing that stuff. I cooked up some quick breakfast and we broke camp. Luckily going downhill is faster than going uphill. 2 hours up to camp only took 40 minutes down. It was nasty though. The smoke in places was very thick and coated our throats and lungs. After throwing our junk in the car, we pulled off the road and grabbed a change of clothes and headed down to the creek for a wash. The water as ice cold, but it was refreshing. No one around so hey, why not be naked.

The trip home concluded with a much deserved cheeseburger and fries in Cle Elum at a little drive-in joint. So good. Driving over the pass found some thunderstorms and nasty rain all the way home. Never fails being on the western side of the Cascades.

The Beach

We have some very close friends, Dennis & Beth, that let us use their cabin down at the beach just south of Westport. Thanks to them, we had a splendid weekend with my brother Alan and his wife Chrissy. Rare when they are able to come out here from Colorado, sans daughters.

First night together found us in Seattle at Safeco Field to watch the Red Sox and M's duel it out. Turns out this would be the last time bro and I would see Manny play in a Red Sox uniform.

Bro, Me, and Karine at the game...

Day one at the beach hunting the waterfront for kites!

Pre-dinner festivities. Cap'n Al and his First Mate, E-Dogg. "Did you say another beer?

Aye, Aye Skipper!"

Always clowning around, even while working with flammable materials. I'm grillin' up some ribs for the feast of epic proportions.

Out at the beach flying some kites. I bought one of those stunt kites you operate with two hands. Pretty rad! Kinda hooked on it. Another hobby?

I demonstrate to Alan how this thing works. "First off, you have to disconnect your head from your neck..." Talk about sore neck from looking up for two straight hours. Could fly that thing for hours.

Saturday - rain and fog. Welcome home, bro!! Driving around the cranberry fields. Can you say 'Ocean Spray?'

Ah the weekend comes to an end. Lovely sunset on Friday.