Wednesday, May 18, 2011

When The Going Gets Rough...

Everyone has their good days, and their bad.

It wasn't raining.  It wasn't pouring.   'Turns out the old man staying in the room right behind the headboard of my bed snores.  A lot.  He also chain smokes and hacks up a lung when he wakes up @ 5AM every morning.  That's how today started.

The wonderful weather just wasn't cutting it, either.  The first half of the day seemed to drag on; tree plots in awkward places, along with poor judgement on my part of how to get to them.  Usually by noon I have at least 8 done.  I had 5.

Once I finished my first group of plots of the day, I was to move on to what I thought were greener pastures:  easier terrain, less trees to measure.  On top of a mountain, what could be a better start to the rest of the day?

Well, the road to get towards my new spot was snowed in.  I now had walk about 1.5 miles in the snow to get to where I needed to be. 

The new stand was literally at the top of Mt. Huffaker(see earlier posts, it's where the waterfalls come from).  After trudging through the snow, at last, a glimmer of hope!  Luckily it was gorgeous outside and I had an unbelievable view of Riffe Lake and Mt. St. Helens:
(It's tough to see the view in the photo, but Helens is left of center, and Riffe is right..you can click the photo for larger version.)

After eating lunch with this view, I was on my merry way.  I measured a couple plots when the terrain became insane very quickly. I soon found myself scaling a cliff trying to get to my next point on the backside of Huffaker when it hit me:  I'm in the middle of no where, by myself, no body knows where I am, and I had gotten myself onto a loose rock, mossy cliff with a 60 foot drop below me.

I had wondered when I would feel like this.

Then, when my mental bearings were just starting to roll around in my head, hanging on by a poor foot hold, I turned around, and BLAMO:

The biggest cock and balls I've ever seen.  A 40' behemoth!

It goes to show that no matter how bad of a day you are having,  how lonely you feel, or what has you wishing you weren't where you are, that there's always someone or something to give you a little chuckle in the end, and help you on your way.

The day ended with a stroll through the snow to the Volvo, and a drive back down to the motel.  On the way I snapped this photo of where I was earlier, on top of this mountain looking at a big, giant...:

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