The First Hike of the Year

Plan A was that Rob and my brother were to go ice climbing while Heather and I spent the day doing crafts. However, since things rarely go as planned, we had to switch over to Plan B: the 4 of us go out hiking up at Hatcher's Pass.

I have to admit that I was not very thrilled at the thought of going hiking. I am in full hibernation mode it seems, and the thought of hiking out in the freezing cold wind and deep snow was not my idea of a pleasant way to spend the weekend.

Thankfully, I was wrong on every count: the weather was wonderful, with clear blue skies and no wind at all. The company was great, too. Rob and I along with my brother Reed and his wife Heather – and we met up with Heather’s friend Audra and her dog Phoebe along the trail even. The trail itself was nice and easy, although if you stepped even 6” off the trail you did sink up to your hips in the deep snow. We know this because Heather accidently wandered off the trail and showed us!

It was perfect; just absolutely perfect.

We spent a good 2 hours up there before heading on back in to town to visit with Mother for a while. As always, we had stuff to exchange: I gave her some bread, a pair of socks, a pen, and some stickers for her cards – and she gave me some old photographs and a sack full of cat toys for my girls (who are in cat-toy heaven now with more toys than they know what to do with). We all sat around her table, sharing cookies and tea (or coffee, in Rob’s case), and talking about whatever came to mind.

Cookies and Tea are always good, and I would almost never turn that offer down, but I really did need some real food in my tummy – so our next stop was the grocery store to stock up on some fresh veggies and beer. Once we got back to Heather’s house, she cooked up the best stir-fry ever! It may have simply been that we’d all been out in the fresh air that afternoon, but honestly it was really good food.

Around 7:00 that evening I finally got Rob to take me out to Stewart’s house where I got to pick out a new gun! Stan left one for me in his will; all I had to do was choose – and there were plenty to choose from. I almost chose another shotgun for myself – a nice double-barreled one – but since I already have a shotgun and can barely shoot it anymore due to my back injury, I figured I should maybe get something else instead.

I chose the 1981 Winchester 30-30 that comes with a nice leather sling. It’s smaller than my shotgun, but I’m told it will kick much harder so I will probably have to have a butt-plate installed on it to absorb some of that impact. Also, since my neck is about 2 inches longer than a normal person’s, I can use the butt-plate to lift the gun up enough that I can actually shoot the thing, again just like my shotgun.

All in all, it was a great day.