Got a late start on Friday, due to car trouble (had to take the tired old clunker, rather than the 4WD SUV), and continued to be made later and later by traffic and thick fog. Finally reached the cottage, exhausted, between midnight and 1AM. Woke up Saturday morning with a need to run up the hill to the outhouse. Still too tired to be up (long day at work followed by a long night in the car....) and around, but unable to get to sleep I read the paper till my traveling companion woke.

There was a trip to the Fire Lookout Tower, where I got to climb 100 feet of shaky metal structure and not hyperventilate. The view, as always, was dizzying but incredible. Back down the steep stairway to discover that the car wouldn't start. Fortunately it was a problem to which I knew the answer: jiggle, then tighten the battery connection.

An attempt at visiting with my relatives was twarted by lack of them being home (turns out they'd gone to the cottage to find us) so we filled up the car's saggy front tire, and went in search of more adventure.

First we visited fairyland....amazingly cute gingerbread cottages. I will have to post photos of them sometime. We spotted blackberries on the roadside and stuffed ourselves silly, till the bugs got the best of us. Where to next? The Cathedral Pines, of course.

Cathedral Pines is a stand of virgin timber that was spared the clear cut becaue Lucy Holt, the lumber baron's wife, had a fondness for it. Truly an amazing place to hike. The tress are so tall, and the sounds are so muted. Voices sound like whispers, as all the layers of pine needles underfoot absorb the sound. From above come the sounds of bugs and birds, including the heron that nest among the pines.

After an hour or so of hiking, we stopped in to a tavern for a spot of lunch and made a second try to visit my dad and my grandma. Fortunately, both were home this time. Pleasantly exhausted, we wrapped up the evening with some toe dabbling and a boat tour around Wheeler Lake.