Off to Lake Cushman

 Hello Blog Gang,

Finally, the mountains decided to show up to the party.  The weather has been beautiful but the clouds just haven't lifted to get a view of the Olympic Mountains.

Time to pack up and head out for a hike.  So many options, Mount Elinor is pretty darn cool but way too steep for today's adventure.  We are going to check out the creeks and hopefully make it to the viewpoint. 

Time for a quick break.  The stream is ice cold but the area nearby is shady. 

Some cool bridges along the route. 

A nice stream. 

This little waterfall is perfect for me.  Relaxing, refreshing and just the right size for a little fox.

Yipee! I made it to Lake Cushman. Lake Cushman is a 4000+ acres lake in the Olympic National Forest.  It was originally a narrow section of the Skokomish River and then a few years ago (during the ice age) it was dammed by a terminal moraine.  The power company built Cushman Dam 1 (no points for creativity) and now it's much bigger and  is a reservoir. 

Some people are super lucky and have houses along the shore.  At the lake you can fish, paddle board and swim.  None of that today, this fox has to get back home.

Off to Lower Lena Lake

 Hiya Gang,
Little Fox here.  Today I am working off all the calories from yesterday's lunch on a hike to Lower Lena Lake in the Olympic National Forest. 

Sequoia says "enough chit chat" let's go.  Okay Sequoia, okay. 

The trail is in great shape. It's a popular lake and access point to other parts of the National Forest (and Park).

Red huckleberries.  They are not as sweet at the purple ones but edible none-the-less.

Made it!  Lower Lena Lake.  There is camping at the lake and a handful of trails that leave from here.  

Here's the stream that feeds the lake with snowmelt.

There's even a fox size waterfall to enjoy.

Time to explore with Little Fox

 Hiya Gang,

Little Fox here. Today, I am exploring Port Orchard and Bremerton.  Two cities on the Puget Sound. 

Before I head out I am going to seek the advice of a few animals I met at my air b-n-b.  These two suggested checking out the bakery in Port Orchard.  Great sandwiches and the key lime tart is a treat for a good stuffy (like me). 

The frog prince suggested visiting the waterfront of Bremerton to have a drink outside.  Good advice for sure.

First stop is Port Orchard. I need to find the bakery.  Luckily, Port Orchard's main street is very walkable so I should be able to find it  using my own two paws. 

I made it.  The bakery has a nice flower garden and a hearty vegetable garden.  Perhaps some of the tomatoes will be in my sandwich.  

They had three choices of panini but my roommates said I could only get one. I got the sweet pork panini. I hope there is enough for me.

They had two key lime tarts left. I wanted both but only got one.  It was very tasty.

Finally time for that beer in Bellingham.  There is a small ferry that travels between Port Orchard and Bellingham that is run by the local bus company.  Only $2.00 a ride but being a weekend the schedule just didn't work out.

That's Okay, I am a good navigator and made it to the docks.  I was able to wander around town, check out an art show, saw a few shops and finally made it to the boat dock.

Those animals were right.  The boat dock had a little patio bar.  Time for this fox to relax with a nice cold beer.

Time to explore

 Hello Blog Pals,
Little Fox here. It's a beautiful day so why not head out to explore a new place.  My adventure today is at the McMenamins Kalama Lodge.  Whenever this fox goes to a Mcmenamins hotel he always looks for the scavenger hunt clue.  Ah, here it is. 

The clue is asking to me to find some dancing salmon and a curtain.  Hmm, I'm off.   

First stop is the brewery.  Nope no salmon here but if I am lucky maybe I will be able to sample the beer. 

I think my clue might be a painting. I found this painting on the wall, no salmon, no curtain but a dog.  

Nope, no salmon here.  This picture is of a traveler who would come to town, knock on your door and if you invited him to a meal he would thank you by breaking out his violin and his dancing mice.  Yep, real story. 

I must be getting close.  Do you see the salmon?  Back in the day they canned a lot of salmon in Kalama.  The canneries are long gone.....

Maybe I should look for my clue outside.  No luck but I did see a big totem pole.  No fox on it but there was a bear. 

What a beautiful day.  

My roommates are tasking me back to work.  They say I can have a beer when I find the clue.  Let's go!!!!

Found it!  Curtain, check.  Salmon, check. Dancing, check.  

Yep, this one is all for me. 

What's next for this little fox?  

A quick hike at Mt. St. Helens

 Hello Blog World.  Happy July 5th (yep, this is a late blog entry).  Anyway, you might recognize my location as Mt. St. Helens.  

If you were alive back in the day like my roommates you might have known St. Helens as looking like this (until May 18th 1980).

The visitors center isn't open today (but the gift shop is...go figure).  

I met a famous stuffy inside the center.

He didn't really have a lot of time to talk, he was off to help prevent human caused wildfires.

The wildflowers are putting on a show today. 

My goal is Harry's Ridge.  

Harry's Ridge is named after Harry Truman (not the former president a local legend and owner/propietor of St. Helens Lodge.  Harry made a name for himself when he didn't want to evacuathis lodge on Spirit Lake when they knew the volcano was going to erupt. 

As we drove up to the starting point we actually were above the clouds. 

You can see the clouds in the background if you look closely.

Yeah! I made it to Harry's Ridge.  You can see Spirit Lake in the background along with Mt. Adams.  

Spirit Lake looked different before the eruption, there were many camps along the shores and a host of resorts and lodges.  After the eruption it blasted debris to the old spirit lake and swept debris and water to an alternate location.  

One last look at St. Helens and a small section of Spirit Lake before I head back to town.  Rumor has it that there is a possibility for some ice cream on the way back home. 

Keeping paws crossed.  Till next time.

LF

 

On May 18, 1980 Mt. St. Helens erupted and 

Paragliding fox

Hello Blog World,

Little Fox here.  Today I am at Longsword Vineyard enjoying a tasting flight, a paragliding competition and 100+ degree heat.  This fox is tough and can certainly handle the heat.   Look at all this wine to try.  Where to start?

The wine is good but the real reason I am here today is to watch the Applegate Open paragliding competition.   The paragliders take off from that mountain over there and land about 100 yards from my table at the vineyard.  Pretty cool eh?

Do you see those white things in the sky?  Yep, about 100 paragliders took off and are heading out on a GPS obstacle course.  They get points for reaching certain parts of the valley and then landing after visiting each obstacle. 

Last year the plan was to watch the Applegate Open (it's in the Applegate Valley FYI) but Covid cancelled the event. 

Roommates had a nice lunch spread.  However, the pictures of this fox enjoying his lunch have disapeared from the phone.  Ah technology......that's okay you can see the paragliders coming in for a landing.

These paragliders who are landing first didn't quite hit all of their GPS coordinates so even though it's cool to watch them land, they were kind of bummed that they missed their markers.  

Luckily this is a friendly competition so all was good. 
Off to my next adventure. 

A project only the stuffies can supervise.

A large box was delivered a few days ago from Home Depot.  Looks like the humans bought a new BBQ (bout time....) anyway we digress.  The humans tried to coerce us to put together the BBQ but we negotiated (since we don't do heavy lifting) to supervise the BBQ construction. 

 

Silly blogger won't rotate my picture.  Ugh.

Anyway, let me introduce you to my team of stuffy supervisors.  Of course, I Little Fox am here, accompanied by my uncle Drunk Fox and our good pal Reindeer Coyote.    You might remember Reindeer's blog talking about being yourself (he still fancies himself a coyote).

Drunk Fox wants a challenge so he has chosen to follow the French directions.  Do any of us speak French?  Nope.  Let's switch over to English instructions.

Drunk Fox suggest getting all the parts out before we get started.  One part is dented but it should still work. 

Us stuffies need a break.  I'm going to tell the humans we won't work until three large glasses of lemonade are poured for the stuffy supervisors. 

Voila!  Two hours twenty minutes later a BBQ is assemlbed and works.  

All parts accounted for and all screws/bolts/etc. used.  The last question is the most important what is for dinner?

Thank goodness us stuffies were on the job supervising, could you imagine the mess had we left this important job to the humans?  Désastreuse!