Bob and I climbed to Camp Muir on Mt. Rainier last week. I wanted to post a bigger picture than this but the next size on Flickr is way too big. This is a few pictures put together. It was cool up there in the 60's, with some wind. I think we were slower getting up there than last year. There is more snow in the Muir Snowfield but hazards still exist. Avoid the blue spots. You can hear water running underneath and the footing is poor. I have more pics to assemble.

I got my CPR certificate yesterday. Tomorrow I'll get stuck with more needles, hopefully finishing off my vaccination routine. The Nursing Assistant Certified course will start the 9th of October. More small steps.

Writing of "small steps," I'm going to try out my leg this afternoon. I am hopeful after last week's climb that I'm ready to start running again. Wish me luck. I need luck with the steelhead too. I might have had some bites yesterday, it's hard to tell. One of the CPR instructors was telling me about his steelhead experiences. He echoed the sentiments of others, that the first steelhead fight will be memorable. Without exception, this is what I've been hearing. 'hope so.

Y'all have a splendid day.

I headed up to the river this morning, but didn't get a bite. I saw two other people land some steelhead though. I must be doing something wrong. After that I went to the ESR picnic at Pine Lake in Sammamish. It was nice to see my them all again, if for no other reason than to show them that I'm not dead. I had to explain a number of times about my injury (I don't know much about it) and my current regimen of beer drinking, donut eating, work and some fishing. I've really made a break with the group, which I'd like to re-establish. What I've found is that I'm not the only one. The cohesiveness of the group ebbs and flows, much like the river.

Tomorrow Bob and I will be climbing Mount Rainier. This is our annual hike to Camp Muir. I don't have to run the day before this time (see "current regimen" above) in order to give myself a handicap. I'm not even packed yet. This should be fun.

I didn't make it out to the river as I had hoped. There is still the after-effects of whatever I had. I also had to make an appointment for a CPR course and some vaccinations/tests and then run back with my college transcript. I finally went to the grocery store, made food for the week and did my laundry. Somewhere in there I pulled Lee away from her Sammamish abode for lunch. It is eight now. Oh yeah, I also went into Seattle and picked up some weighted floats. I just have to darken the bottoms. Maybe I'll go back to one of the rivers tomorrow after work.

Here is another shot of Mount St. Helens, as taken by my sister. We would have had to have paid a fee if we had wanted to get any further. They were happy with what they were seeing. It is really quite a sight.

Jeannie and her two friends left yesterday after their brief visit to Seattle. They are members of the Red Hat Society. They went on an Alaska cruise and then stayed a little longer to visit me. Picture a ship of red hatted women whooping it up. The first day I immediately drove them out to Snoqualmie Pass in order that they get an idea of the local area. On the way back I showed them Snoqualmie Falls, Issaquah, Lake Sammamish, Redmond and then my place in Bellevue. Saturday we drove out to Mount St. Helens to look at the steaming volcano. The weather was perfect (as opposed to how I was feeling), except for the slight haziness in the picture below:



After a school related meeting this morning and then some domestic laundry duties, I'll head back out to the river for some steelhead fishing. This is the hole I'm working on in Index. No bites yet. Y'all have a great week.