July's Attempt at IHSW With More Hiking!

July's IHSW was the 20th for me.  I actually stitched for a day!  Very proud of myself for getting that in.  I started the fourth piece in the current Leaflet Project called Joys of My Garden.  

The leaflet is called Joys of My Garden, and pattern number 4 is also called Joys of My Garden.  Hopefully I haven't confused you with the titles here.

I'm doing something a little different with this leaflet, and using the napkins, it was really important to start in the middle of both fabric and pattern to make sure the finished piece is as centered as it could be.  

Usually, I start in the upper left hand corner of a project and go from there, but not for this project.  With the first three large patterns in this leaflet. I just started in the middle and went with the next color and so on, until I have all flosses all over the place and several needles threaded with several colors at the same time. This time I started in the middle and stuck with one color until it was done. It's a scary concept to do on linen because your counts will more than likely be incorrect at some point and then there is quite a bit of ripping.

To make this an even more entertaining piece, I am taking progression shots for another video.  Not only will you see this grow, you will see it diminish at some points as ripping happens!  Then it will grow again, and then there will be ripping, and then growing. Hopefully, from here on out there is only growing.

The rest of the IHSW was interrupted with a sudden urge to hike somewhere remote.  It was strange how it came about.  One moment I was looking something up on line and the next minute I am zooming in on twin lakes and a glacier on Google Earth.  Ooops, a plan happened and the following morning we were off on a new adventure.

Our goal was to hike the 5.5 miles up the Eagle Glacier Trail to the glacier and camp overnight.  The unknown isn't really a factor for any hiking expedition we take because that part is usually smashed by the immediate need to see what is further along.

After the first mile and a half or so we found out what was beyond.  PAIN. Leaden legs, collapsing lungs, thirst. We also found out the my GPS doesn't follow the trail, it is as the raven flies.  Imagine how angry you would be to see that you had 1.53 miles to your destination, only to be told 40 minutes later that you still had 2.78 miles to your destination!  I turned that thing off and put it away.  It was expensive and smashing it is out of the question.

To be clear, the trail has two very solid and awesome parts to it, with two equally horrifying, and painful parts.  Naturally, after you have hiked it a time or two it will seem like nothing but that first time was a killer! Undeterred we pressed onward!!

Our prize for reaching the end of the trail was SPECTACULAR and worth every painful step.

I could not have asked for a more beautiful place to lay my broken body.

Sadly, the two mile trail leading to the glacier itself was so swampy and bogged down that one look at it cause your shoes to make sucking sounds without even stepping into it.  This time we were not able to go that way, which was alright.  If we had more than one night there we would have found a way to get over there to check out the upper lake which is hidden behind a break of brush.

Directly across from the cabin is this wonderful view of an uncountable amount of waterfalls coming down that sheer rock face.  The power from those falls was so much that the noise was still very loud down where we were!

And no one thought to bring a canoe, which probably would not have been a good thing to try and carry up the trail due to the trials and tribulations of stepping over things like giant roots and boulders and stuff, but seriously there should have been a canoe!

Meanwhile, inside the cabin there was a log where visitors write something of their experience at the cabin.  I read some of the excerpts out loud to my people and it was pointed out that nowhere does it state that someone came up the river by boat or kayak or something instead of taking the trail that every person wrote about saying "it's not getting any shorter" or "we barely made it but thank God we brought gallons of wine" and so on.  There were several mentions of "waterfalls" not too far from the cabin.

After much discussion about attempting to come up the river via boat next time, I decided to wander down a trail that veered a little South and East of the cabin following the lake shore, which quickly turned into the river.

It became obvious to me that the main reason there were not excerpts in the logs about coming up the river is due to the vengeance with which the river flows.  I use the term "flow" very loosely here, it is more akin to the velocity of a Japanese Fast Train but with the power and anger of meteor destroying a planet.   

That may seem harsh, but I'm trying to be as accurate as possible when describing how it FELT to stand next to this water. 

There was a tiny bit of fear that it would reach up and grab me, slam my head into a rock a few times and then launch me into the watery fray. That was before I found the waterfalls.

All of the waterfalls I find on my creek climbing are sissy waterfalls compared to this.  

Not particularly tall, a little wider, but infinitely more powerful than anything I have come across in this area so far.  

How do I explain this?  Ever been to a Sprint Car Race and the cars come around and it feels like your chest is going to explode from the vibration of sound?  That is how this waterfall made me feel and it was AWESOME!!

Now we know absolutely and for sure, with no room for doubt, why no one had mentioned coming up the river to the lakes and cabin by boat or kayak or canoe.  I'm thinking we should try it anyway because no one has.  But that's just me and I'm always up for funzies.

Saying goodbye for now was a sad moment, but not because we were leaving such a beautiful place.

It was sad because we knew the TORMENT that awaited us on that trail of ridiculous ups and downs.

It took us five hours to get up to the cabin, and a fantastic two hours to get down and the amazing part was, that trail wasn't as difficult as we imagined it was going to be going back down.  

There was that one part though....almost lost my mind and there could have been cannibalism or a sudden clear cut of the forest....you see, I had almost lost my mind and gone completely mad when I hit one last section of trail that required going up and climbing over some roots and boulders and logs and there was swearing and yelling.....and all I wanted was no more up (we were supposed to be going down but we were going up) and Mother Nature made the trail longer and harder and then.............it was fine.  We found the last part of the trail which is well maintained and flat and smooth and wonderful....if I could only walk using my now broken legs I'd be fine. 

Even at the worst moments on the trail, it was worth it.  I do not regret any part of the trail and learned more about who I am and what I'm made of (I am awesome with about 50 pounds that don't need to be there).  

My current layoff period has ended and I return to work on Monday.  In six weeks I will have the final two weeks and then an entire winter of work and holidays to look forward to. All that means is more stitching will get done, but not until the cooler months hit.  If the weather keeps up like this I might not get my current project done until October!

I'm off to stitch, I hope everyone's summer is going as wonderfully as mine!

Until next time.....