Tuesday

We escaped up to the cabin for the long weekend, an excuse to get away from the heat in the valley. When we arrived Karin figured it would be a good idea to plant some trees, since the deer ate the ones we planted last year. This was already sounding like an annual event! But any ways we went down to the local hardware store in Kamas and bought three pine trees on sale. My job was to pull out the dead ones from last year and dig larger holes for the new ones. We also purchased a pick axe since as I found out the ground is composed mainly of rock. It seemed like every swing of the tool ended in a body wrenching thud against a large rock. After half an hour I had a small hole about the diameter of a bucket. The tree went in and I started on the other two. That evening I was feeling it in the muscles. A few gin and tonics help that.

The next day we decided to go exploring and picked out a lake just over the pass. Lake Cuberant was our goal and as usual the dog was right behind us waging its tail. On the map it was a three mile trip with another thousand feet of elevation gain. The lake itself was up at 10,500 feet and bound to be ice cold for swimming. The path took us by large meadows with streams wandering through the middle. A place where the dog instantly dove into the water to cool off; sending terrified fish darting left and right. After a while we hit the tales fields of the mountain and started a rather steep argues decent up the side. The lake was around the corner but up in a basin. We arrived several hours later at a pristine lake.

It was time for lunch. The dog jumped in the water again and sent ripples across smooth lake. So much for the “National Geographic” shot !!!

Richard Boyer