On this side of the mountains, I seem to be slogging through snow and rain at least until June. In fact, I usually encounter patches of snow year round. It gets tiresome. I find myself daydreaming about a warm dry trail… Laurie and I decided to do something about it on Saturday, and we headed east to the sunny side of the state. We dropped Laurie’s car off at the dealership early in the morning, knowing we had to be back at 6:30 PM to retrieve it before the place closed. I am not familiar with many hiking opportunities in Eastern Washington, but we found a venue known as Umtanum Ridge, halfway between Ellensburg and Yakima. It’s not really a trail. Most of the route follows an old jeep road. It felt weird to be hiking out in the open with no trees. The 360 degree view was spectacular. And the wildflowers: wow! So this is what spring is like! We rambled down to the Yakima River in bright sunshine. Laurie brought ingredients for a great pasta recipe, so we cooked that up for lunch. The climb back up from the river was tough. Had we really lost this much elevation? Now we were paying the price, and gaining it back. I guess the weather can change rapidly in the desert too, because we were soon enveloped by cold wind and rain. We hurriedly put on warmer jackets and ran part of the way back to stay warm. After a 15 mile day, we piled into the car and cranked the heat full blast. We drove sleepily back over the Cascades and pulled into Kirkland Honda at 6:33 PM. Either we’ve gotten really good at timing our hikes, or we were really lucky. I’m thinking the latter.

Popularity: 28% [?]