A Rose by Any Other Name...

...would still be 6.4 miles; From 800 feet to 4300 in 2.9 miles. It was an altogether nice climb today; Janet and I made plans to climb Ellinor but for lack of an ice ax, we climbed Mt. Rose instead. Very little snow, and a lower peak, but it was great for me because I hadn't done the hike before. The trail that we hiked had been a fire line for a burn in 2006 and so we were hiking in some interesting burn forest. I think that forest succession is really cool and it brings memories of Wyoming back, so I was excited to hike through. We also got a little alpine meadow for which I have been pining. When we reached the summit, we looked across a plain of cloud cover. By the time we had finished our lunch, we could look across at many Olympic peaks and see the teal-green Lake Cushman below. My ankles and knees hurt now; it was a pretty quick elevation gain, which means a lot of pounding up and down. Still, I feel like I actually did something productive today, which is always nice.

This will be an interesting week, what with HarborWW, the 4th, and another Saturday of programming. Rachel gets here on Saturday!!

I purchased a camera today, finally. I am not as enthusiastic about my purchase as I was while planning it a month ago, and alas I caved and bought something cheap…but I will have pictures!!