Saturday, July 09, 2005

Backbeat, the word is one the street that the fire in your heart is out.
I'm sure you've heard it all before, but you never really had a doubt.

Today was a lovely Saturday.

I took another long run, and the hawk tried to dive bomb me again. He circled above my head, getting closer with each pass. On the third pass, he came within four feet of my head. That was too damn close, and I had visions getting my eyes clawed out, so as he circled to make another pass, I roared at him at the top of my lungs. It scared the crap out of him, and he sort of "jumped" in mid-air. But it worked. After that, he kept a respectful distance.

We owed our dogs a nice walk today, since yesterday we took a selfish human hike up to Lava Lake. Our dogs are senior citizens, so they can't handle long, strenuous hikes anymore. Instead, we refer to it as "going for a waddle."

So we packed them in the car and drove to Hyalite Reservoir, just south of town, and took a short, handicapped-accessible waddle along a paved trail to see something called Palisade Falls. It was only 1.2 miles round trip, with a short, 250 foot elevation gain. (Compared to around 6 miles and 2000 feet elevation gain on the Lava Lake hike yesterday.)

It was great fun, and we both enjoy watching the dogs have so much fun. It turned out to be very gorgeous.

Here was the drive to the trail.



Uh oh, I think I am getting artsy... taking pictures of wildflowers:



There was a little stream leading away from the falls.


What great fun it was...



Here is the star of the show... Palisades Falls.



The little shit you see sunning herself in the photo below threw her water bottle into the rocks and walked away. I wanted to strangle her. Instead, I just picked it up and carried it out, along with a Mountain Dew Can and a granola bar wrapper.

Why would you do that to such a beautiful place? Why would you do it anywhere, really? Are you just lazy? Figure someone else (like me) will pick it up? I really had to restrain myself from saying something. She's lucky I'm so fucking zen-like.