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Happy Birthday to meeeeee!!! ^_^
And boy did I receive the best gift ever! Sunny, 60ºF weather...clear skies...a snowy, white capped Mt. Rainier...and a return trip to Kautz Creek, this time with my mom in tow.
This time around, I came prepared with fresh batteries in my camera to avoid the fiasco that occurred on my last hike up to this neck of the woods. Crystal clear skies provided some awesome sights, warm sun on our faces, and towards the end of our journey, it even warmed the forest floor producing tiny wafts of that unparralleled, summer woodsy scent. It's little things like that, that I appreciate the most about the outdoors. You really take things for granted, or sometimes you don't pay much attention to them at all. The crisp, cool, mountain air was so refreshing, and let me tell you, it'll go loads farther than any therapy session if you want to de-stress.
A quick picnic lunch at the Kautz Creek Trailhead was all we needed -- and soon enough, we were synching up our backpacks, and heading for the creek.
This time, spring was much more apparent, and the creek was alive with the sound of birds, flitting from branch to branch up in their lofty heights. Some trees have even started to bud out early, making me wiggle my toes in my boots with anticipation for the onset of summer. But, something tells me that March may have something up its sleeve. We'll have to see. I hope it doesn't come roaring its ugly head like a lion.
It's really amazing what mother nature can do when you think about it. And it's not hard to miss some serious resurfacing when you take a walk through Kautz Creek. Even though we were well on the trail, and pretty far away from the creek, the ground was still loose enough to uproot a enormous tree from the glacial outburst. Huge boulders being carried down by raging glacial waters have been slammed into the creek walls, and poulverized into tiny, fine grain sand on the floor. Trees snapped in half like twigs and scattered all the way down the river, and log bridges washed out, no longer able to be in use.
I made it across the river, and up to the series of switchbacks that starts the strenuous part of the trek up to Indian Henry's Hunting Ground, but it's still a little too early for that. We turned around at that point, and came home. Zuki definitely needed to be walked by the time we made it back home!But what's a birthday without dessert, right? So, a quick pit stop at the Copper Creek Inn was in order for some of their outstanding coffee, and world famous blackberry pie.
The Inn was absolutely buzzing with hikers, backpackers, snowshoe-ers, and all kinds of other people up there to take advantage of the mountain on such a sunny day. The friendly folks who run the diner welcomed us in out of the cold, and sat us down at the bar with hot, fresh coffee flowing into our cups not two seconds later. Who needs birthday cake and presents, when you've got fresh outdoor air and warm blackberry pie a la mode?
Check out my video for other cool views of our trip!
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