Monthly Archives: October 2008

Tue 14 Oct 08

On Sunday, Mary and I took the dogs on a six hour, seventeen mile hike in the Goat Rocks Wilderness. I didn’t really intend it to be that long of a day and, in truth, I didn’t have any specific intentions when we left the house, other than to find a trail where we could run the dogs without bumping into anyone else. I figured the Conrad Meadows trailhead would fit the bill (long, kind of boring trail where you have to put in a full day for any sort of payoff). After an hour and a half drive we arrived under slightly drizzly skies and were met by one other car in the lot. The dogs hurtled from the back of the Tribute and were sniffing and romping in no time. Crossing a couple of streams and bounding through the tall grass and careening into mud puddles.

We watched them run in the meadows for a bit then headed off into the woods. The last time I was here I nearly ran into a black bear, but I figured we probably wouldn’t see much wildlife this time with the dogs rumpusing about. We hiked on and the skies started to clear, eventually breaking into full sun.

After a while I started to get the idea to head up into the basin below Curtis Gilbert Peak, a place I’ve hiked before, though never in the fall. Above the tree line with massive views. Pristine and gorgeous. The two times I had been up previously, I had climbed up steep cliffs, slippery with snow runoff. I was pretty sure my four companions weren’t in the mood for that scramble his time though. I knew there was a somewhat official trail off the main loop (I stumbled across this while coming down on a previous excursion) and figured I would recognize it once we were close. So with promises of grandeur I coaxed Mary to keep stomping up through the mud while the sun inched toward evening. Sadly I never found our trail. I did detour off the main path at one point into an area the felt right, but ended up in a small soaked clearing. Trammell enjoyed the detour as it gave him time to destroy some nature.

Later at home I checked a map I realized that I had been on the right track, but to find the side trail we would’ve had to cross the trail-free swampy clearing we had been standing in. In the end I guess it was probably for the best given the miles the hike up would’ve added and how close we ended up cutting the sunset. So, with no side trip, we settled for completing the Surprise Lake Loop. Still pretty, but a bit too much tree cover for my taste. At Surprise Lake the dogs splashed about and did their best to knock Mary and me off of a bobbing log. Nora fell off and went for an unplanned swim.

Then it was back down hill, back toward the car (Gilbert Peak pictured below through the trees as we returned). Seventeen miles didn’t do much to break dogs’ exuberance and as we returned to Conrad Meadows they galloped around chasing chipmunks and birds. Back at the car we toweled off their muddy paws as much as we could and the dogs were asleep within minutes even as we rumbled down the dirt road.

Sun 5 Oct 08

Fall is not so subtly hinting that it’s on its way. A little cooler this weekend after our rainfall. Trees are yellowing. Flag football games are starting to pick up at the park. Still plenty of green on the ground though.

Fri 3 Oct 08

Some miscellanea:

– Today was Nora’s third birthday. We celebrated with a good long run at the park this morning. Later she scarfed down a few scraps of flank steak from dinner. Can’t ask for much more than that if you’re a dog. Happy Birthday crazy dog! Here’s a before/now set of Nora pics. Left: Nora circa November ’05. Right: Yesterday in our living room.

– After October 7 my cell phone number will no longer be active. Mary’s cell number still works though if you need to get a hold of me. If you don’t have that, drop me an email me and I’ll pass along the number. For now that’ll be the best way to reach me.

– I have an interview in a couple of weeks to be the assistant wrestling coach at the high school just down the road from our house. I’m pretty excited about this. According to the job posting the position is only supposed to be open teachers in the school district, but I applied anyway and then bugged the human resources personnel a couple of times (went in and introduced myself, went in later asking about the job status). I sent in my application back in early August and just yesterday they contacted me about coming in to interview. So either the job status changed, they made a mistake and are accidentally interviewing me, or they’re making an exception because they really need somebody with the season starting in about six weeks. Most of the other school district coaching jobs I’ve seen listed don’t require you to be a teacher, so I’m hoping the job status changed. Either way it would be nice if it worked out. It would be good to get on the mat again.

– It rained forever today. The longest steady rain I think I’ve seen here since we moved out a year and a half ago. Mary and I played tennis this morning, then ran to the library. We returned to the house with an armload of books and DVDs and while we were lounging around some time around mid-afternoon it started raining and it’s still coming down as I write this closing in on midnight. Nothing torrential, but definitely not a drizzle either. My lawn thanks you sky.

Wed 1 Oct 08

The first day of October and we hit 80 degrees and sunny this afternoon. The last six weeks or so have been nothing but upper 70s/low 80s and sunny. Gorgeous. We should be getting some more Michigan-esque weather in the next couple of days though. Maybe even some rain. Water my lawn, sky!

Our fruit trees are just now finally producing. It took all summer and part of fall, but those tenacious little buggers are fruiting right up. I think we did better with watering them this year than last, but probably still nowhere near the recommended amount. Some late cold weather earlier this spring probably didn’t help either. The cherry didn’t give us much this year (I suppose this winter I’ll have to figure out how to prune properly), but the peach, plum and whatever the other tree is (something like a cross between an apple and a pear) are going strong. The plums are very sweet and very good. Fine indeed.

Every day the peach tree drops a couple of peaches, usually not quite completely ripe. Taylor sampled a few, tentatively at first, but now she’s picked up a taste for the peachy goodness. When we open the back slider she runs across the yard and sniffs around the tree gobbling up whatever she finds. Love that weird dog.