Today’s adventure – but first an apology or explanation…

I need to apologize to those of you who were faithfully reading and following this blog.  The holidays intervened, then my computer died, then I bought a new house, moved in, waited for furniture, and unpacked.  So now I am caught up on my life and hopefully will resume my weekly blog.

We’ve had a lot of snow, but melts in between, so it is not too deep at present, except where the plows have piled it.  But yesterday was above freezing all day and sunny;  we seem to have entered mud season.  You can tell the local mountain cars – most of our side roads are dirt – by the amount of dirt on them.  Cars from the flats are much cleaner.

Anyway, the forecast for today was about 60° F so I decided to take my first adventure walk.  Drove down the mountain to get something to eat first and to spot places where I might be able to park and walk some.  Here is the view from one such spot – actually not a walking place, but a place I could pull over and take a picture from inside the car.

View from the Car.

 Pulled in close, it looks like this:

Zoomed-in View from the Car.

 On the way back, I decided to stop at the first place on the right that I could.  A place I had noticed before because of the abandoned-looking sluice running down the mountain.

Abandoned Sluice.

 

Close-up of Abandoned Sluice.

 Up close it looks every bit as abandoned as it did driving by in the car.  I have no idea why it starts where it starts, although the top looks very flat, so maybe a lot of dirt has come down that way.  It was too steep for me to try to climb especially since there is still snow on the ground in some places and mud in others!  (Maybe later in the spring when conditions are better and I’m more acclimated to the altitude!)

The area where I was able to park was quite large and well off the road, but there were “no parking – cars will be towed” signs in the upper area.  I left my car near the road where there were no signs and explored on foot.  There were clear signs that one or more buildings had been there:

Retaining Wall or Foundation?

The corner shown in the next picture, to the right of the trees in the foreground, is behind and above the retaining wall, so it is possible that the retaining wall is part of the foundation of the building.

Corner of a Building.

Detail of the Wall.

Across the road was another retaining wall – again with no visible reason for it’s being there.

Retaining Wall.

This wall kept the hillside from sliding down into a tiny creek.  Look how clear the water is after frothing around some rocks.  I would really like to have tasted it, but could not see an easy way down to the water.  Or, rather, could see an easy way down – which probably would have ended up with me in the water, but no way back up!

Little Creek Next to the Road.

Adventure over, I headed back home, not really in the mood to be inside, but when I stopped at the library and thought about sitting on this lovely bench to read, the crows and road noise were too loud.  So I backtracked home to sit on my own deck in the sun.

Bench Outside the Library.

My thermometer – also in the sun – read 80°.  I took my lounge chair out and sat for about half an hour in the sun by which time I was way too warm.  So I came back in, put on shorts and a tank top and sat outside for about an hour and a half, listening to the snow melt, reading, and making vitamin D until the sun went behind a tree.  I’ve never walked barefoot in the snow and today seemed like the perfect opportunity, so I did!  Mostly it was ice crystals rather than snow because of all the melt, but it was fun none-the-less, especially since when my feet got cold I could go back up on the deck and let the sun and hot deck warm them!

A good time was had by all…

Hope to see you again next week.