Category Archives: hike

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Up in the air

I took this hiking Mount Townsend in May, 2017 with my daughter and a friend. Do you see the wild rhododendron in the shade?

The top of Mount Townsend is at 6260 feet, here. It is beautiful switchbacks through woods and then opens up at the top. The altitude gain is 3000+ feet.

The first time I hiked it, in 2000, it was clouded at the top. We were disappointed and ate lunch and napped. When we woke up, the clouds had dropped and we had an amazing view of the Olympic Mountains from the top of the ridge. A marmot kept us company further along the ridge as well.

The rhododendrons look like they are just floating in the woods. Airborne!

For the Ragtag Daily Prompt: airborne!

Ok, this doesn’t fit the mood, but my title makes me sing it!https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b1J8E9dnd5g

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Last on the card, March 2024

For Brian’s Last on the Card, unedited from the two cameras I’ve been using.

The cover one is my Panasonic DMC-FZ150, taken out North Beach on March 29. I thought there might be otters, but no, zoomed in it is mostly mussels. Happy mussels. The tide was way out.

Trees in bloom at church, taken with my iPhone SE.

Happy March and happy April!

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Painted sky

I think the sky and water here are more sophisticated than I anything I can imagine.

After my mother died, I wrote a poem about her and my kids. Her part:

I keep wondering
what the art supplies are like
and if you work on sunsets
or mountains
or lakes

The rest of the poem is here https://drkottaway.com/2021/09/23/painting-angels-2/.

For the Ragtag Daily Prompt: sophisticated.

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Air and water

I took a wonderful limnology class at the University of Wisconsin, Madison in college. The study of inland aquatic ecosystems, lakes, reservoirs, ponds, rivers, springs, wetlands and so forth. I loved this course because it is such a generalist course. We talked about the chemistry of water, the physics, the ecology, the geography. The plants and animals, microscopic to bigger than us. And lakes that freeze, the ice floats on top, because it is most dense at 4 degrees C and less so at 0 degrees C. This oxygenates the entire lake as the water turns over until the entire lake is 4 degrees. Tropical lakes do not do this.

The photograph is of the Salish Sea, so not an inland space. The liminal space for me is the surface, the border between water and air. Sometimes swimming, if air and water are both warm, it’s hard to feel the exact liminal space, wet skin in the air and then the water.

For the Ragtag Daily Prompt: liminal.

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East Beach

I hiked East Beach on Marrowstone Island yesterday. The wind was howling! It was not warm, but I was dressed in a foul weather sailing coat and rain pants and hiking boots. Gloves and hat. Ready for spring, right?

It was beautiful. I was alone on the beach. I did slip once and bruised my left hamstring! How annoying. I should leave a dashboard note of which way I’ve gone.

I did find some agates. I did not stay out for more than an hour, too cold. I walked into the wind so I was warmed coming back. Here is the prettiest agate.

What a fabulous hike! I was glad I’d guessed right for outer wear. The beaches always feel ten to twenty degrees colder, especially when it was windy. Does Marrowstone Island qualify as an esoteric destination? At any rate, I love it.

For the Ragtag Daily Prompt: esoteric.