Finally, a day to be out. I hadn’t had one since the ill-fated canoe trip when a dark cold rain forced even me to retreat. (Oh I didn’t tell you about that? I’m sorry. I’ll explain about that in a later post.) Where would we go?
My usual victim had two ideas. Maybe the cacti would still be blooming near Quincy, WA, or look there’s a short hike to a waterfall on the north side of Mt. St. Helens National Volcanic Monument. I love waterfalls. He said there was a narrow section and I held my breath and still thought, “let’s go,” but then the weather forecast for this side started downhill. OK, the cacti on the sunny side of the state won the toss.
This wasn’t a bad thing. I think we had thought about these cacti for about 4 years. Hopefully, this late in May they would still be out. I prepped food and was nearly ready to go when “victim” arrived. We loaded up, made one stop and headed over to Beezley Hills just North of Quincy, WA, in hopes of hedgehog cacti. This was three weeks after my far more adventurous friend, aka “victim”, had stopped by and thought they might peak in two weeks.
By the time he parked, the scents from the slow cooker and the clock suggested lunch first was a good idea. (TIP: Using a power inverter to run a small crockpot, is a great way to get a hot meal before an afternoon hike.) Finishing lunch and not looking behind, we grabbed water and cameras, left the fleece jackets behind (the raincoats had stayed in Western Washington) and started out.
Success a blooming cacti, but I didn’t, No surely I didn’t, Oh but yes, I did because that was a third little raindrop. Oh well, this is Eastern Washington, it won’t last long. The wind and the rain picked up. Mt. Stuart was gone. Maybe…. We kept walking. I was cold, drenched, and now we decided to turn into the wind, back to the car. Not the canoe trip all over again. In the car, we turned on the heat and decided to explore a bit by car.
Already the rain seemed to be letting up and in a few minutes we were dry enough to try again. Over my t-shirt went a lightweight long-sleeved shirt. Into my pack went the fleece.
The sun stayed out. We finished drying and saw many more ball-shaped little hedgehog cacti topped with beautiful pink blossoms, there were yellow flowers, white lupine, and blue-purple lupine. Spring had finally come.
(Oh and BTW, rumors have it that contrary to the usual rain distribution, if we had stayed in Western Washington we would have had sunshine… but maybe we took the rain with us.)
— Mel
