Dear blog, I miss my therapeutic morning sessions with you, I REALLY DO! This week has been wild and woolly. Good thing I’m taking all my vitamins and exercising every day, I am maintaining well! Now let’s talk about last weekend’s camping trip to Hyas Lake. It rained during our entire drive there, and as you can see, it was still overcast by the time we reached the mountains. It was early afternoon, but looked much darker. The clouds came right down to the treetops.

We drove past Cle Elum Lake, our usual camping spot, and then up a horrible pothole-riddled dirt road for what seemed like forever. At the end of the road was a large parking lot for hikers and campers, and we parked there. The parking lot was packed with cars, but there were surprisingly few people on the trail.

On the way in, we spotted this intense-looking bird, and I captured it with my zoom lens. It saddens me to admit that I don’t know what kind of bird this is. Eagle? Falcon? “Am I a big bird or a little bird?”

Two miles of backpacking before we arrived at the lake, where all the good camping spots were, and believe me, there were a LOT. There was a stoned-looking dude and his dog Abby camped a little ways down the lake from us, and a Boy Scout troop (we never saw the scouts, just their camp) a little ways up the lake from us, but mostly we had a lovely spot all to ourselves. Bliss!

The rogs having a sniff. Whatever knee inflammation Mags had last month has completely gone away–she hiked, swam and did her doggie A.D.D. thang all weekend and hasn’t limped a bit since. I am so relieved. I mean, I was starting to think she’s old, or something. Pffft.

Joshy setting up camp. Thanks to the rain, we were finally able to have a campfire on this camping trip, after two years of camping fire-free! It was difficult to start, and difficult to keep going, thanks to the dampness of the wood, but we managed to have a nice fire eventually. Roasted marshmallows, yeah!

Arriving at the lake. It was extremely slimy, and of course trying to be a backpacking minimalist (groan) I only packed tennis shoes and one pair of flip flops, not suitable for tromping around in a sludgy lake. I managed to mash my monkey toes into Josh’s “5 finger” shoes at two different times, much to the distress of my feet. Those 5 finger shoes aren’t made for toes like mine! Toe-ist bastards.

These pictures are grey and dark, but Sunday’s photos turned out far more beautiful–the sun was shining all day long. Josh already edited his iphone pics, they are here in his Flickr set for everyone’s enjoyment. He edited them to make them look bright and colorful with his “camera plus” app…and they are prettier than mine. Shhh, don’t tell anyone I said that. I miss my old photo editing software from the 90’s! I DO!

Happy arrival at camp face mixed with I am so bummed it’s COLD face. At least my sweatshirt is cute.

Eight miles of hiking uphill past the point where we camped is where Josh camped last year with his crazy uncle. Two miles of backpacking was just right for me! Progress, not perfection. Maybe I’ll shoot for 4-5 miles next time! Next, ah, year. Heh. Adventure Liz!

Happy camping smooch. There isn’t anyone I’d rather go camping with than this dude. All those years of Boy Scouts paid off–he knows what he’s doing. And has a cute butt, besides.

I have gobs and gobs of more camping photos to come–including–a campfire! A sweaty hike! Gorgeous lake pics, and neon floaties! Stay tuned. It smells like dog in here.