September 1…. They’re baaaack

They say you don’t know what you’ve got till it’s gone, but sometimes you don’t even notice it’s gone till it’s back.

We moved yesterday, finally leaving the Pacific Ocean behind and heading east. Passing through North Cascades National Park, we were lucky enough to find a place to park the rig, so we stopped at the visitor center and went on a short hike down by the river. Susanne had been eyeing that water as we drove along, and just loving the beautiful blue-green color, so we had to stop.

Way back, some odd thousands of years ago, when North America was covered by a giant ice cap, the North Cascade mountains were one of the only places that stuck out above the ice, so the tops of these mountains never got worn down. They remain as jagged and rocky as they’ve been for millions of years. There are several large fires in Washington at this time, so smoke was thick as we drove through, making photographs look like crap. Take my word for it, the mountains are steep and rocky and rugged.

We’re camped in a really nice state park on the shore of a small lake, on the eastern slope of the Cascades, still in Washington.

As we shut down for the night, we heard sounds that we haven’t heard in months. The crickets. Crickets are LOUD here. Funny, I never noticed they were gone, but here they are. Is it possible to miss something retroactively?? 🤔