Scribbles & Munch

      Growing up in the Pacific Northwest means a lot of hiking.  Three day weekend?  Let's find a hike.  Father's Day?  Definitely time to hike!  Looking for a cost-friendly family activity?  I think I foresee a hike in my near future.  Girl Scout activity?  School field trip?  Summer camp?  Employment team building exercise?  Baby, this is why we pay taxes that support our State Parks Department!*

Possibly my favorite hike in my "backyard" is Denny Creek.  Sloped enough to require work, but not so much that you feel completely wiped, and you get to follow THIS for the entire two hour round trip.

      When I was little, I loved hiking because I found every trip like walking into a fairy tale.  I had exercise-induced asthma and a big imagination, so I would distract myself from my breathlessness (and how far I was falling behind everybody else) by feasting my eyes on my surroundings.
      That tree held a captive prince.  That boulder was the secret entrance to a goblin cave.  The leaves in the stream were pixie canoes.  Those flowers were the secret cure to a wizard's curse.  
      None of these musings ever made it into story format, because it wasn't meant to be a story: when I was hiking, it was real life!  But there are the occasional boulders or clearings that I remember, and when I pass them the memories of my imaginary world flood back to me...along with that child-like wish for those day dreams to be real.

I was looking for something like this.  It's probably a good thing nobody had left this kind of art along the trails I went on, or I probably would have run away to live as a wildling in the wood.  And then died of mosquito bites within the first 24 hours.

       The Washington Trails Association lists 3388 hiking opportunities on their website.  My pledge this summer?  For the sake of my physical, mental, and creative health, to try at least ten I've never done before.  And if I happen to find a secret entrance into faerie along the way?  Well...at least then you'll know why the blog hasn't been updated.


*Which now, sadly, are insufficient.  Now one is required to buy a pass, and figuring out which one is which is a pain in the neck.  Then again, it separates the hikers from the whiners, because whiners won't pay to do something they only sorta-wanna-do-and-it-should-totally-be-free-anyway.   So woohoo, less whining on the trail!