Though it wasn't the best of drives nor the worst of drives, Bill and I took a trip up beautiful Trestle Creek late yesterday afternoon.
Bad stuff:
Bill had planned to find three geocaches. When we reached the general area for the third cache (he planned to work his way back down the road), his GPS would not work.
This was in the area where the Lightning Creek drainage begins.
There's a scenic opening, a view of Lunch Peak Lookout and the trail head to Trail 55.
Another negative: after Bill had attempted several times to get some signals leading him to the cache, he gave up and we moved on up the road, turning off on the extremely rough and rocky road leading to the Lookout.
Twas not the most pleasant of rides, but Bill figured we'd drive to a saddle where we had gone a few years ago.
This particular saddle offers striking views of Lake Pend Oreille and the Selkirk Mountains.
Not last night: SMOKE!
So, this is the second time in early summer, we've gone to mountaintops, hungry for a view, only to have it clouded by smoke. This time the radio folks at KPBX surmised that the brown stuff was coming from a wild fire in Grant County.
Yuck is all I've gotta say. August and smoke will come soon enough. We don't need it now.
There were a few pluses to the trip.
As always, the alpine tree stand is beautiful, especially the old snags and the pretty yellow wildflowers which dotted hillsides all around the pass.
On the way up, several hillsides were covered with Indian paintbrush and several varieties of lovely blue wildflowers.
And, always the great part of any trip in that area is a stop off at Icehouse Pizza which was buzzing with activity last night.
Some slices of brick oven pizza and a lemon merigue ice cream cone made up for the disappointment of smoke in the air.
Plus, I loved the little ol' mini bike, parked next to a tree on the west side of the Hope Hotel.
Also, this morning, I ran across the link below and loved the validation that gardening is, indeed, good for the health and the soul.
My only regret is that we can't garden the year around. If we could, I'm sure many of us would never deal with seasonal depressive disorder and the other blahs that come along when stuff stops growing.
Gotta find a way.
In the meantime, my soul is full virtually every morning while walking around marveling at the ever-changing face of nature.
So beautiful, so satisfying and so invigorating.
Hope you enjoy and, of course, identify with the article.
Happy Wednesday.
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