weekend written

what have we here?


why, it's BOOBOO, napping in the exact spot that the mama elk naps:

maybe booboo thinks he's bigger than he really is? he certainly is a lazy fuzzball.

that, too, was my state saturday. lounging on the deck, watching the clouds migrate and morph and dissipate. motivation was at another all-time low. all i could muster by the end of the day was packing the big pack, and planning some kind of plan - any kind of plan

so sunday found us packed up and ready to roll around sunrise.


we bolted into the wilderness area early-like, and spent a bit of time crossing the entire length of the valley pictured above. once that got 'boring' (and relatively populated -- all 7 people), we veered off the beaten path and headed straight up a ridge line in this direction (looking north, back down into the tip of the valley we just hiked through):


much, much more to our liking. not that the lower valley wasn't likeable. but we liked it higher.

so we followed the ridge line south-ish. and found our perfect little camp spot (11,900') just around this corner:


view from the tent, south:


we found spring water here, and hiked up to the liiiiitle pile of rocks off in the far right distance (south west, at 12,191'):


along the way up to that liiiiitle pile of rocks, looking back at ed, with the camp site in the trees at the base of the sunshiny little hill at the right/back of the pic:


see ed's corresponding pix by clicking here.

looking back from 12,191', due north.


ed, glowing ;-)



i sat in a field for a bit, watching the tall grass get it's golden glow ON. ed was in the woods geeking out on picture taking.


after the water recon and extra hike, we settled in for the evening:


that night, the wind was HUGE. the thunder storm a HUGE SURPRISE. i slept very little.... very, very little. but it was lovely listening to the weather wreck absolute havoc.

sunrise, and we shot up for the goals of the day: 12,191' again, then 12,900', then 13,323'.



from atop 12,900' looking south west


from top 13, 323' looking southeashish


retrospect: we hiked the one on the right


and then picked a ridge line and descended alllll the way to the valley floor -- and back to a real live trail. hours of pure creative genius.

and finally, looking back at the 13,323' summit (the big one in the middle/back), and the rolling, beautiful distance we put between us, and it



here are LOTS more pix of different light pouring into my eyes -- and lens:


another EdVenture -- written into the soul.

jj