We have a tentative closing appointment set for this Friday. It’d be really nice to get in the new house before the long weekend, so hopefully everything is coordinated correctly over the next few days. Mary sent me these pictures of the dogs this afternoon. My kids. See you soon!
Today we drove out to Mt. Rainier only to find that the entrance was blocked off. So the big Rainier exploration will have to wait I guess. The drive out was gorgeous though and seeing Mt. Rainier dominating the vista as we approached was spectacular (no pictures though as I was planning on snapping some when we were actually in the park and missed my chance on the drive out). Here are a couple of other shots from the outing though.
On the way back we stopped at a spot about nineteen miles outside of Yakima where I was told that people frequently rock climb. There were probably eight to ten climbers out when we hiked up to get a closer look. Most of them where climbing off of fixed bolts already in place in the rock, but quite clearly there is a ton of opportunity to expand outside of these locations. You should be able to see a tiny climber if you look closely at the larger version of the middle picture on the left. The river you see in these pictures is the Tieton River (pronunciation: rhymes with the word “diet” plus the ending “on”). The bottom left picture is a look at an one-way gate that supposedly will keep larger ungulate animals out of the area but will also let them out should they somehow become trapped inside. Also stumbled across yet another rattlesnake (bottom right picture). Ho hum.
Today I saw (and nearly stepped on) my first rattlesnake ever. Then I saw my second. Then I saw my third. I went out hiking after work with one of the people I’m currently staying with, who told me that before hiking with me he had only seen one rattlesnake in the three years he had lived in Yakima. And he has hiked a fair bit, so I guess I’m just lucky.
The first snake really caught me off guard because it began rattling at me about three feet in front of where I was headed. I’m glad the snake was paying attention or I very likely would’ve stepped right in the middle of its back. I yelped, jumped back, and frantically scrambled for the camera in my backpack while the snake slithered under a rock. Only got one mostly obscured shot, so I was a little bummed about that, until a few minutes later when we stumbled across another rattlesnake with a little more leeway this time.
The second snake was the biggest of the trio and didn’t seem too perturbed by our presence. He didn’t rattle much and slowly slithered into a bushy area that didn’t provide him with much cover. We snapped a few pictures here before continuing on up the slope a little more cautiously than when we started.
The third snake absolutely scared the living daylights out of me. This one was by far the most active of the three and gave a robust shake as we walked by just a few feet to the right. The snake actually was behind the guy I was hiking with and he jumped about six feet in the air while trying to figure out where the sound was coming from. I let out some choice words while also scanning the underbrush and scrambling backwards. We didn’t stay long with this snake, figuring we were starting to press our luck.
At this point I was getting awfully paranoid. I mean three rattlesnake sightings in one hike sure seems like a lot. I was reacting to moving twigs and giving wide berth to any potential snake cover.
As is well though. And in the end it made for animated conversation on the ride home.
Other than the repeat snake sighting it was a really neat hiking spot. Lots of outcroppings and fun ledges to climb. The air was smoky though, saturated by some nearby fire. Check out the haziness in the pictures to follow.
And the pictures you’ve all been waiting for I’m sure. Kind of blurry, I know. My low battery light on my camera was flashing and the snakes were moving and, hey, you try taking pictures of a poisonous snake from only a couple feet away.
I always like it when other people post pictures of their going-ons so thought I’d return the favor while I have pictures to post. Don’t know how long this trend will continue, but I’ll do my best while our transition period continues.
Spent the afternoon scrambling around on scree and wandering upward. I’ve been told repeatedly that this is the nicest time of year to be in Central Washington and I can’t argue with the amount of green on the hills (it was quite windy though as you can probably tell by the seventh picture). These shots are from about twenty miles outside of Yakima.
We (or I more likely) could be moving into the house in as little as two weeks. Shouldn’t be more than three no matter what. I don’t think we could’ve imagined a better moving scenary than how this is all playing out. Here are a few shots from around Yakima.
On the top left is a picture through my front windshield about two minutes after first driving into the city (downtown area). Top right is appears to be some sort of Meijer knockoff (actually the Fred Meyer stores are quite nice out here and as much as I’ll miss shopping at Meijer this store is probably a little nicer with all the same amenities).
Bottom left is a look down 40th Ave one of the busier North/South streets on the West side (though as you can tell from the picture it really isn’t all the bad). Bottom right is a look West on Chesnut Ave at one of the many pockets of orchards within the city limits.
