Summer Ain’t Quite Over, Part II
We’re having something like an endless summer here in the Pacific Northwest, and it’s getting kind of spooky, like somebody left us in the toaster oven and forgot us, or the gods are so distracted with Ben & Jen that they forgot how to work the clutch on that season thingy. Whatever is happening, we’ve had weeks of basically gorgeous weather.
Yesterday we took a day hike near Glacier Peak in the Cascades called the Green Mountain trail. Glacier Peak is one of the “necklace” of volcanoes that characterize the Cascades from Canada to Northern California, which includes Mt. Rainier, Mt. St. Helens, Mt. Hood, Mt. Shasta and others. Since it’s mostly hidden from view in Seattle, it doesn’t get the press that Mt. Rainier or Mt. Baker get.
It’s a rather short hike - 3 miles in, 3 miles out - but it’s unrelentingly uphill, and you gain 3,100 feet of elevation over those three miles. You are rewarded with increasingly stunning views as you ascend, culminating in a 360 degree stunner at the end at 6,500 feet above sea level.
Blueberry bushes which cover great swaths of the terrain here have turned red and purple and they, along with scrub maples simply set fire to a lot of the landscape. An added dividend from the blueberries was abundant fruit that was still on the bushes, but which had dried somewhat, resulting in handfuls of blueberry raisins, bursting with concentrated flavor and sweetness.
