Bat Walk

After our hike on Tuesday, we all originally had plans to meet back up later that evening for a picnic dinner at Green Lake, followed by attending a Bat Walk. Instead, since we finished our hike sooner than expected, we were invited over to go swimming at Anne's house and to have a bbq dinner, rather than worry about having a picnic. So that's just what we did.

Peter, Erik and Luzia having too much fun!

After dinner, we carpooled down to Green Lake for the evening Bat Walk. Peter and I though it was really interesting. The boys did too for a little bit, but the gentleman giving the presentation talked for almost 90 minutes and they soon got bored (according to Anne, who has gone to this twice before, said the presentation is usually much shorter). We, of course, had to wait until dusk in order to see or hear any bats. That wasn't until almost 9:30 pm, which was way past our bedtime (especially for Peter), so we were starting to get tired. We were able to see a few bats flapping around in the night sky before calling it good and heading home.

 Views of the moon....so pretty that evening!

Old Robe Canyon

Old Robe Canyon: 

"120 years ago, railroad crews faced the daunting challenge of building tracks along a flood-prone river to connect the mines of Monte Cristo with the smelters in Everett. A narrow canyon east of Granite Falls proved to be a particularly challenging spot to lay tracks; frequent floods and rock slides destroyed not only the tracks, but also the settlement of Robe. The repair costs were high, and the line was eventually abandoned."

Tuesday we met up with our friends for our weekly hike. It really wasn't much of a hike....more of a walk. It was still pretty cool though, being able to walk atop the old railroad ties. Our hike came to an end when we reached a rock slide that blocks the path. There are signs posted on a nearby tree stating not to go farther, though from reading trail reports, you can go beyond the rock slide, where the trail leads to several tunnels, but it didn't look safe to venture on with 7 kids and two dogs in tow. So we turned back to look for a spot along the river to have lunch and let the kids play.

 

Boys venturing over to the other side of the river

Clifford made himself a bow using rope he cut off from an abandoned raft he found in the river

Lake Josephine

Our July family backpacking trip is complete! The hike was super easy and the views were beautiful. But it rained the entire time. We're tired of that. We do realize where we live and that we get rain a lot, and we know we can't let the rain stop us, otherwise we'd never go out. But just about every trip we've gone on this year, it has rained on us. It's really annoying when days leading up to the weekend and days immediately after our trip the weather is gorgeous and hot, yet for those two days we go out backpacking the sky is falling. It would just be really nice to catch a break, where we're not stuck in our tents the entire time and can actually go enjoy a swim in the beautiful lakes we hike to. Maybe we'll luck out in August....

Quick family pic at the start of our hike

 Views from different sections of our hike

 Mig Lake....first little lake we came upon. We had to hike up and over a little mountain to get to our lake.

 Lake Josephine peeking out through the trees

 Full view of the lake as we hiked around

 Camp Life

 Our view of the lake Sunday morning

 Our attempt of a family picture at the lake

 So here I am icing my foot after we got home and cleaned up. A month or so ago on one of our hikes, I injured my heal. I don't recall the name of the injury, but it's common for backpackers. I've just now brought it to Peter's attention (I've tried just dealing with it myself and kept quiet, but with going on weekly AND monthly hikes, it's hard to keep it secret any longer). It's a dull pain when I put pressure on my foot. On a daily basis, it's just uncomfortable because I'm on my feet all day long (cooking, cleaning, hanging out with the kids). Immediately after each backpacking trip, however, if I lift my foot up a little, it feels like the muscle wants to rip off the bottom of my foot. Not good. Plus, because of the pain, for a few days after each hike, I tweak the way I walk, which is now making my hips hurt. UGH. From what Peter read to me, the only way to help heal this is to stay off of it and take a break from hiking. Well, that's not really going to happen right now. I'm hoping that if I just keep up on icing it and taking a day here or there where I don't do much, I can continue on until January. Then I can properly take care of this issue.