Hiking, hiking, hiking, hiking.....

Looking across a foggy valley
from Mount Richards

Good intentions go by the wayside when there's hiking to be done!  Since I last posted any hiking pictures (January 11th), I've been on six more hikes, as well as my various daily walks about town and beach. And with amazing sunrises,  ghostly fog pictures, happy dogs, and spring blossoms ("Why yes, eastern readers who are preparing for the worst snow storm of the century, I did say spring blossoms,"  she says with a gloat in the voice and a gleam in the eye), that equals at least fifty pictures a day to be sorted, edited, selected, and posted.  Okay, I didn't get to the posting.  And some days I don't get to the editing or selecting, other than 3 or 4 for facebook.  Because by the time I have walked the beach with Shiloh,  hiked with Eddie, walked the town or the beach with Mitzi, and walked one last time with Shiloh - well, I'm just too tired to sit at a computer.  And before you know it, the task seems too monumental to even begin - kinda like when you ignore the crap piling up in the garage or basement until it just seems like toooo big a job to tackle. Computer photo files are like that.

And  I am quite sure you don't want all the photos of all the hikes all on one post.  So, just like any task that has become too big to handle in one go, I'd best chip away at it.  Here's a couple of hikes from week before last, both to Mount Richards from Escarpment Way. The first was with my friends Pat and Cosmo.  Cosmo is a very busy little boy:

Any trolls under this bridge?

Any badgers in this burrow?

Wheeee!  I loves water!

Just a minute while I taste-test this bramble!

Cosmo is pretty fearless, getting into anything and everything - but not so fearless when it came to this recently cut tree, a product of trail clearing some of the windfall from the winter.  He barked and growled and braced his feet and stuck out his neck and barked and growled some more:

Scary, scary, scary monster!  

Until finally, Pat picked him up and showed him the monster up close:

Oh.  It's just a tree.  Silly me. 

And gallantly he travelled on, ready to protect us from any other monsters who might cross our path.

Little Devil Dog! 

At the top, we said hello to "Bonnie's stump", where the ashes of our friends Bonnie and Bob, and their many wolfhounds and a couple of cats, are spread.

Even the winter rains couldn't wash away all the ashes.

High up the mountain side, we spy a tree laden with red berries -
a holly tree, I think, though beyond the camera's range -

and the Oregon grape is bright red too. 

There's new growth on the evergreens.

At the top, it's treat time!

Me too, please, Auntie Pat!

And then it's time to head home - but not before one more splash in the water:

Yay water!

The next day, I headed back up the same route, but with Liz and Sasha.....

Oh, wait, I'm being interrupted here -

You STILL on the computer, mom?
We're H U N G R Y !!!

Well, I'll save that hike for another day....one down, five to go.  Make that six - tomorrow, I'm off hiking again.