nature

The trees in the canyon are starting to change and those mountain ash berries were astonishing in their orange-ness. I guess I can’t pretend it’s still summer, even though it’s still sunny.

I’m trying to get as much out of the last of summer as I can–including continuing to call it “summer,” even though there are mushrooms and golden grasses and afternoon clouds and all the signs of coming fall.

I took an extra day of the long weekend to line up with Doc’s day off and we went to the Uinta mountains, to explore the area around Crystal Lake. We were planning on a loop but ended up doing an out-and-back (the Lakes Country trail) and it did indeed deliver on the lakes:

Everything is still green but it was 48 degrees when we started and the light just looks like fall. I guess it comes faster at 10,000 feet.

I’m not saying the F[all]-word until it’s September but…. things are starting to look awfully gold-and-orange up the canyon.

I don’t know what those last orange berries are but they were certainly bright and tempting (heheheh).

Doc had his last free Friday afternoon before going back to work full time so I logged on early and left at 3:00, so we could get a golden afternoon up Millcreek.

We didn’t really hike, just visited my favorite stretch of stream, the one that always makes me think of Schubert or The Wind in the Willows. That August light is really something.

It was hot and cloudy in the valley yesterday, which meant it was probably raining in the canyon, which meant we did a quick before-dinner trip to the top of Millcreek and got to enjoy damp 68-degree temps and the start of the wildflowers:

We went on a hike for the first time in a long time and the lowest possible trailhead is clear of snow and almost, maybe-just-barely starting to get green:

Of course, we went up to the next trailhead as we waited for a space to park at the lowest trailhead, and the snowbanks there were still higher than my car. But spring is doing its best, and that’s about all we can ask for.

It was 15 degrees for our Sunday hike but it was also gorgeous:

My insulated pants and everything else I’ve made in the last couple years continue to perform. As the Scandinavians say, “There is no bad weather, only bad gear.”