See you Soon, my dear Friend.

Recently I joined up with some of the old (and a few new) Port Angeles buddies to sight-see, hike and camp up by Mt St Helens. We converged at the Ape Caves, a lava tube formation where one can fumble through rough volcanic tunnels with only the dubious power of a headlamp to light the way. If you have say, a camera with a flash, you can get some truly flattering rear end pictures of your friends as they scramble over rocks. If you don't use you're flash... you get something akin to a fever dream.

The hike back to the trailhead is above ground, and the ascension from the cool tunnel to the slightly muggy hot surface leaves everything fogged, and glasses-dependent folk substantially more blind. But once you can see, wow! Apparently colonies of bear grass bloom vigorously (like this) every 5-7 years when conditions are juuuusssst right.

We went up the road a ways to hike some more. There's a nice view of the unexploded side, with lots of penstomens, lupine and a smattering of paint brush.

Onward to Lava and Ape Canyons. Leonie, didn't expect the suspension bridge would swing quite as much as it did.

 The river running through Lava Canyon, carving endlessly away. Columnar basalt is one of my favorite rock formations. Its demonstrative of the underlying structure inherent to the natural world, even though to the untrained eye everything may seem chaotic.

 And alternate view of the mountain.

 Life is pretty good.

Bet you can guess what comes next... Flowers! Start with some bunchberry, the baby dogwood. 

 Another new lily, Queen-cup (Clintonia uniflora)

 New anemone, Anemone deltoidea, above. Vancouveria hexandra, northern inside-out flower, to the left.
 And below we've got some prime pink little twinflowers, Linnaea borealis.

 We happened across an amazing number of orchids in the Corallorrihza genus. They're quite beautiful. Pine sap (right), Monotropa hypopitys, made me crow with delight. These marvelous plants derive nutrients by parasitizing  fungi, like those forming mycorrihza with surrounding trees.

Tramping around makes you hot, sweaty, and tired. So how better to recharge than jumping in the river next to your marvelous campsite? This is probably the most fun I have had to date swimming in a river.

 Leonie has this spectacular waterproof camera. It also takes panoramas.

Courtesy of Leonie

 We came back to make dinner in the trusty iron skillet. Potatoes and sausage make decent post-hike food, and fire roasted corn is pure delight.
Cheese! Group picture time!


Although sleep was not as blissful as it might have been, you can't argue too much when you wake up to this.

Leonie is going back to Germany. One might logically point out that this was inevitable, but still, how can a year have gone so fast? The first time I met her I made her waffles. We share a love for good food, flowers, and tidiness. We can communicate with the scarcest of gestures; a fleeting half smile or the bat of an eyelash. I can only conclude that yes, Leonie and I were separated at birth.

So long Leonie, see you soon!