Yesterday, we drove to the Paradise Visitors Center but today we did some walks.
Before Joshua and Frost woke up, Dad Wren and I did a three-quarter of a mile circuit around the meadow at Longmire. It was close to 7am when we started and the swifts and swallows dipped in the mist over the bright reeds. Its a remarkable place: a big clearing in conifer forest where water bubbles with gases from a volcanic vent. The vent deposits mineral rich water at the surface - iron red mud, slimy yellow clays and strange basins of water in which strands of frothy green algea float. In the morning quiet you could hear the slow, fat bubbling at edges of the lake reminding me of Halloween sound effects. Wren enjoyed poking the venting areas with a stick to churn the red slime and bubbles.
After breakfast we took a longer hike to Carter Falls. The trail started about 2 miles beyond the Longmire camp and is usually 3 miles to the falls and back. It was quite steep at times and Wren liked to be carried most of the way. For the last third of the trail we found drifts of snow which increasingly covered the trail and made us miss Madcap falls on the way up. The snow covered a small watercourse to the side of the trail which had melted a tunnel under the snowcap. At places the crust was thin enough to fall through which made walking the path hazardous. Both Frost and Wren found this a bit stressful. Wren said he wanted to go home and after initial enjoyment Frost started a tirade about how unfair it was to drag him so far when he was so tired and it was dangerous and he was tired and hungry. We had snack but he really wanted to go down. The hike took 2 and a half hours of almost solid walking so we were all tired.
Here are Frost and Grandad posing in the bed of the Nisqually River which we had to ford on a narrow log bridge over a torrent flooded with glacial snowmelt. The riverbed is quite fantastic due to the debris left from the huge 2006 flooding which changed its channel and destroyed many roads into the park.
Here, Frost and I cross the bridge. If you are attentive you will see we are wearing different clothes because this picture of the bridge was taken on Friday when we stopped off on the way up to Paradise. Frost was very nervous about crossing the bridge, saying "it was dangerous, creeping and unsatisfying in the making. Those engineers should be sued!"
We tried to explain that when you are in natural places its good to see what your body can do and not have everything controlled and made safe for you but he was not convinced hence the rather fierce pout on his face.
This next picture shows Wren (2.5 years old now) looking down at the "water fountain" or waterfall in our language. He loves to look down waterfalls and still wants to return to the big "water fountain" higher up the mountain.
I took this picture of the walking party to try and capture the bones of the riverbed - the scale of the floor is awe inspiring years after the event. By the way, this flood occured about a month before Wren was born.
Frost crouches down in a hole where his foot fell through the snow. He enlarged it and climbed in. This was during the cheerful stage before he had become anxious after overhearing me suggest that we couldn't see the trail anymore due to snowcover and could become lost. Frost becomes very very opinionated and argumentative when he feels we are taking undue risk. I can't remember behaving like this with my parents. Me? No, never! Not when Dad drove us at an enraged rhino. Not when he dragged us into the mist on the Drakensberg. Not when we had to walk on a slippery cliff about the surging ocean 100s of yards below. No, not me. I was EASY.
This next picture is just of some debris in the rubble. I bought a book titled Roadside Geology of Mount Rainier (which Dad is now reading with half-closed eyes) and we are learning a lot about the reason for the various rock types and the formations we are seeing on our walks and drives.
Health
Wren's cough is still chesty and crackly and I would not be surprised if he has to see the doctor again on Monday. I have been giving him honey (on her recommendation) and he had a long steamy bath this afternoon. Frost is also coughing and Josh has also contracted the barking cough and general malaise but has no fever. Dad has it too - he is hoarse and has a bit of a cough but is denying it as usual. I have been taking reishi tincture and sharing it around to help boost our immunity.
New Bird List Today
Barred owl (near cabin)
Western tanager (Longmire)
Rufous hummingbird (Ashford)
Cedar waxwing (Ashford)
White crowned sparrow
Red-winged blackbird (Longmire meadow)
Winter Wren (carter falls)
Band-tailed pigeon (Ashford)
Chestnut backed chickadee (Longmire)
Animals
Red squirrel
Raccoons (eating the deer food and climbing on the deck)
Deer (at our feeder as well)
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