While we love Arvie and the hikes she takes us to, sometimes she's not invited and must stay home. Today was one of those days. Today was about getting our shoes dusty on a nice, long walk with friends.
It began in Cle Elum, where the Coal Mines Trail begins. Or ends if you begin at the other end.
The trail is a nice, even grade, well-maintained, with a lovely mix of shade and sun on such a day as this one was. There is a Honey Bucket cosmetically concealed by the fence in this pic, and I appreciated not only the facility but the camouflage beautification.
There was a spur trail a mile or so in, and the guys decided we should take it to add a little oomph to our walk. We stayed on the regular trail on the return trip because we're all about variety.
I wanted to see some critters, and I thought I was going to when I heard a wild turkey but it was only Corey's water bottle.
I look pretty happy about that 1909 explosion, don't I? Egads.
The trail connects Cle Elum to Roslyn (and further on to Ronald, but we didn't know about that extension when we planned this outing.) It is about three miles between the two towns. Coincidentally, today was the first day of the new Roslyn Farmer's Market, where there was food, music, all manner of hand-crafted items, and a glittery hula-hoop dancer.
When I drove out to Seattle in the summer of 1992, I was excited to go through Roslyn and see this building that was featured prominently in the then still-running TV series Northern Exposure. I drove through the town, saw the building, and in a fit of embarrassment kept right on driving. The ironic part is that I was en route to Seattle to try to put my
theatre degree to work and had even sent a resume to this very show. Ha!
Too shy to stop because strangers might see me. Isn't that the whole
point of acting? That strangers might see you? As you may have gleaned from previous blog postings, I am no longer shy about being a gawking tourist, and here is photographic evidence of that.
The Big Guy took this photo of the California poppies. I think they are so pretty every time I see some.
After the walk back to Cle Elum, we motored over to this place in the south of town that is located inside an old railroad depot building and came at the recommendation of a mountain biker we met at the trail head earlier that morning.
The old railroad has long since been converted into a extensive trail system, different sections of it which we have cross-country skied and mountain biked. Today, we made our state park visit official with this picture by the sign right outside the depot.
We will definitely revisit the Coal Mine Trail someday. We'll just have to decide at which end to begin.
