[Jan and Chris are completing a hike on the Sunshine Coast Trail in British Columbia. The stories start at the end of our September journal at http://family.cozi.com/miksovsky.)
Sunshine Coast Trail, Day 4. This is the hardest day of hiking yet. Jan and Chris leave Inland Lake and begin a steep climb up to Confederation Lake. Then the trail drops way, way down, almost to sea level. They have a lunch on an old wooden bridge. Then the real climb begins: a short but incredibly steep and gnarly trail to the top of Tin Hat Mountain at about 3900’. In many places, the trail goes straight up the steep grade, and they have to stop often to catch their breath. Finally, around 5:00 pm, they reach the beautiful little Tin Hat Hut just below the mountain’s summit.
As it turns out, a crew of seven old men are staying in and around the hut this week. Two of the men, named Eagle and Scott, are the founders of the Sunshine Coast Trail, along with a group of their collaborators (Jim, Don, Howard, Gordon, plus 3 others). It’s entertaining to hear their stories about the trail and their work building it. They also had a week’s worth of food and supplies airlifted up to the hut, and they’re happy to share wine and dessert with us.
Sunshine Coast Trail, Day 5. Jan and Chris wake up in the morning and come downstairs for breakfast. One of the old men sharing the hut with us asks, “Are you ready for coffee?” They’re all finishing their breakfast, but are happy to share some fresh fruit with us before they begin their work for the day building a larger outhouse for the hut and performing other maintenance work.
We say goodbye to the men, then head down the mountain to our designated rendezvous point with Jesse, a local shuttle service operator who shuttles people to and from the trail. He drives us up to the small town of Lund, BC, where we enjoy lunch and a blackberry cinnamon roll at Nancy’s Bakery.
We get a text message from the seaplane pilot who’s coming to pick us up, but apparently he thinks he’s supposed to pick us up at Bliss Landing where he dropped us off. We can’t reach him, and eventually call back to the seaplane company’s Seattle offices. We tell them we’re actually in the Lund, and they pass the message along to their dispatcher. We see the little seaplane pass over the Lund harbor heading north to Bliss Landing — and then suddenly it banks and descends to land at Lund. Whew! We get on board and have a beautiful flight back to Seattle.
Jan takes Bree to BrickCon, an annual Lego convention at Seattle Center. There’s plenty to see, including these full-size, remote-controlled Star Wars droids.
Our cats Mojo and Moxie are wonderful, but they’re not lap cats. If you pick up Mojo, he’ll sit somewhat still for about 20 seconds, then begin to squirm out of your arms. If you pick up Moxie, he’ll last about 5 seconds. The weird thing is that both of them will loudly purr, even as they’re trying to flee.
Two of our girls leave clothes around the house. Kids have been messy for time eternal, but we’re guessing that this particular set of items have never before been found together on a family room chair:
a pair of running shorts,
a tutu,
a mob cap, a type of woman’s bonnet last popular during the French Revolution.
Moxie likes to walk along narrow ledges, including window sills. Sometimes he reverses direction, but there’s not enough room to turn around, so he does a weird handstand pirouette. He walks his back legs up the window until his butt is in the air, then pivots, and lowers his legs to the window sill again.
Bree and Hazel, messing around.
Anya’s friends surprise her with an early birthday celebration. Two of her friends show up early and take Anya into her room, where they watch a movie. While the movie is playing, some other friends come in quietly and decorate the house with streamers, paper lanterns, and Happy Birthday signs. Everyone stays for dinner.
Anya turns 16!
Her big present this year was a replacement for her ancient laptop, but she was also excited about a slightly random present she’d asked Jan for: a ship in a bottle. Jan found one where the ship sits at the bottom of the bottle (instead of along the side, as usual).
If we find one of our cats sitting and staring at a closed closet door, then the other cat is on the other side of that door.
Years ago, our neighbor Mary told us about a product made by a group she works for: a piggy bank for kids called a “Moonjar”. Each piggy bank has three sections, labeled Save, Spend, and Share (charity). The arrangement encourages kids to divide money they receive into the different sections.
We ended up getting one for each girl, and still use them every week at allowance time.
Fall color in the Arboretum’s Japanese Garden.
Bree puts smiles on things.
Liya’s done well in her first season of cross country running. It turns out that she’s faster than Anya! In several races, she’s finished among the first 5 members of her school’s team.
Jan asks Liya whether any other freshman girls at the school beat Liya. She says no.
Jan: “So you’re the fastest freshman girl?”
Liya: “… Yes.”
Anya: “She’s the only freshman girl on the team, so she’s also the slowest freshman girl.”
We’re having a very warm, sunny, and dry fall. (Usually it’s cold, dark, and wet by this point.) Jan takes advantage of the weather to do a late season hike to Gem Lake in the Alpine Lakes Wilderness.
Our friends, the Frazers, have us over for dinner and an art project. Megan’s organizing one of the school auction art projects this year, and has us try out some of the things the kids will do to make the project. We have fun making small colored squares with alcohol-based inks.
For Halloween, Bree dresses up as a Starbucks barista. This the same costume idea Liya wore for two years, but not the same costume. Bree wanted to sew her own green Starbucks apron.