Tag: snow

Aftermath of snow and ice

Brave Horatio is getting another side table!

We had snow last weekend (Thursday through Monday). Fifteen inches here in Olympia. Down in Oregon they had a whopper of an ice storm with freezing rain followed by an abrupt thaw.

We enjoyed our snowfall, made snow creatures, visited with neighbors at a front porch cocktail party (it’s a long porch and we put in a couple infrared heaters), and kept an eye on the weather reports.

  • Starting solo
  • Gathering strength
  • One tall snowgentleman
We made a snowgentleman complete with martini glass and top hat
  • But he lost his head
  • and became a shorter stouter snowgentleman
  • We can rebuild him. We have the technology.
Our poor snowgentleman just couldn’t keep it together
  • Snowcaterpillars never lose their heads
  • They slowly transform…
  • over time….
  • and finally metamorphose
  • Somewhere there’s a snowbutterfly

We didn’t know if we’d be able to make it to Eugene, but the weather cooperated.

We made our target and hit the road just before six am with masks, coffee and Perfect  bars. Melting snow on the roadside, but clear, wet roads.

I love driving while the sun is coming up. Watching the morning light grow in the cloudless sky as we drove past miles and miles of trees with shattered branches was amazing. It was a clear, crisp, beautiful day and the contrast to the devastated trees was stark. We’ve had ice storms in Oly in the past, but this one hit farther south.

Shattered branches nearly to Salem.

Havoc from the ice storm closed rest areas just when we wanted them. Miles and miles of closed rest areas. Among the shattered trees in the parking areas were two crushed cars. Beautiful. Devastating. Power.

Oregon Trail’r and Brave Horatio

We pulled into Oregon Trail’r about ten o’clock and were warmly received by Jon and Sawyer. These guys are the best. Just the best.

Brave Horatio fit right in among the Do-Drops and Terradrops (original and Alpha) being created. I think I counted 12 trailers under construction. I love the possibilities inherent in spaces like this.

In addition to getting us set up with our new side table, Jon and Sawyer upgraded the brackets for our original side table just to be nice.

I was so involved in looking around the shop and chatting that I forgot to take pictures. Luckily they made a great video (one of several). Enjoy!

Purple batwing versus the rain

It rained.

Not too hard, but enough to test our huge purple batwing tarp. It worked–covering the entire picnic table with room on the sides for supplies and at the front for our folding chairs.

Breakfast was a little chilly even with coffee and cocoa.

So we drove around the mountain

One of the joys of Mt. Rainier is your ability to chase the weather. When it is wet on the west side, it is often dry and sunny on the east. We gathered layers, toys, snacks, and other essentials and headed for Sunrise.

As a bonus, we got snow and a deer at lunch!

Puppy and Ben like the snow
This doe hung around our picnic. Her friends were nearby.
Picnic with puppy

We started up the nature trail at a pretty quick clip. It’s amazing how quickly you gain height.

  • Ben was eager to climb. Gramma Mary tried to keep up.
  • Alpine meadows
  • Majestic mountains
  • Ever tinier cars
Sunrise Nature Trail at Mt. Rainier. Beauty everywhere.
Ben with his grands.

Any way you looked it was breathtakingly gorgeous.

The top had it’s own kind of barren beauty.

Turn of the trail
  • There are mountain goats in this picture. Way, way down there (far left, middle)

We saw a hoary marmot up close. Lynsey spotted it right beside the trail. It paralleled the trail for quite awhile before finally crossing and heading downhill. The melting snow left neat tubes of dirt where some critter had burrowed. They were everywhere.

Ben soldiered on, trotting, trudging, stopping to play with rocks, and spending a little time on dad’s shoulders. He decided that a very short pair of hiking poles would be pretty fantastic. Rob’s telescoped down small. Score!

Lynsey took most of the pictures on this trip. Thanks Lyns!