All by myself. What to do, what to do? Well, I could do something productive, like, well anything else.
Instead, I chose to drive around one day and look at pretty mountains. That wasn't all though. It is morel season and I wanted to at least find a few. So I thought about where I might have some luck. I hear tell that you can find them frequently in recently burned areas. So, here was my plan. I was going to drive south near Everett and turn east on Highway 2. This would take me over near Wenatchee, where I remember a lot of the fire activity happening last year. It didn't hurt that this would take me past some beautiful mountains. Up and out early...off I went.
 |
| Of course, it was super cloudy and you couldn't see most of the mountain. |
It was cloudy and rainy and just not a real good day for epic scenery. Oh well.
Then I passed a sign.
Well, yeah I'm gonna stop. Waterfalls look cool even in the rain. Besides, it was a short trail.
Three feet out of the parking lot, it looked like this.
Good enough. Let's investigate.
 |
| The trail ran back under the road to another section of falls. |
But, this isn't just about waterfalls. I was on a quest. I needed to find some morels. I saw some burned area a mile or so off the road. Whenever I saw a chance to turn that direction, I did.
 |
| This looks like a good spot. |
It was about five minutes of stomping around before I found one.
 |
| A chorus of angels sound |
There were other little delights.
 |
| Cool looking orange fungus. |
 |
| The real star of the show | |
Oh yeah, Julia, your warnings didn't fall on deaf ears. I didn't walk too close to this.
I spent about an hour farting around in the woods. But, it had been a three hour drive to get here and I still wasn't sure which way I wanted to go home. I got in the car made it to the main road.
Now...which way to go? You know, there isn't anything keeping me from going out as long as I want. Might as well do the loop. The loop, in this case, would take me all the way to the east side of the Cascade range. Then back north until I crossed back through the mountains through the North Cascades National Park. Sounds fun right?
It took a lot longer than I thought. I think I ended up with 9 hours or so of driving. Sheesh.
Was it worth it?
 |
| The east side of the Cascades |
 |
| In the mountains again. |
 |
| Still pretty cold and snowy. |
There were almost no cars out there either. I could have danced the Watusi in the middle of the highway and no one would have known.
I realized I could spend several days out here taking pictures, but I was still pretty far from home. I managed to pass up a lot of photo opportunities. There were one or two that I just couldn't resist.
I pulled into home well after dark.
