SKIT: Fall Hike

After my Mogollon Rim Trail in the spring, we headed north to a cabin near Steamboat Lake State Park. A whole month with two of our grandchildren and Ellie (black lab). Fishing, hiking, kayaking, swimming, playing games, and just plain having fun. While there, a lightning strike caused fire on the edge of the Zirkel Wilderness forced a road walk detour of the CDT right by our cabin. We got to meet a few of this year’s hikers and share memories of another great hike.

Another memorable event was waking up one morning to a cinnamon-colored black bear. He helped himself to anything and everything in our kitchen. Gorged on cinnamon rolls, marshmallows, box of graham crackers, 2-lb can of peanuts, and a bag of pistachios out of the pantry. Then opening the fridge door and helped himself to fruit and all my yogurt. After he was caught in the act by Mrs. Haze and Ellie, he quickly exited out over the couch (with muddy paws) through a broken window screen in the living room. I ran outside and found my truck door also wide open. Fortunately he had just taken a peek/sniff and moved on. Not so lucky was our neighbor, who had fast food wrappers and maybe a few leftovers on the floorboards.

We then headed to northern Idaho to meet with the rest of the family and all the grandchildren on Lake Pend Oreille near Sandpoint for a week. Great time and good smallmouth bass fishing but unseasonably hot. The air quality was horrible from western fires, sometimes like a thick fog. After all the kids went home, Mrs. Haze and I continued on to Priest Lake near the Canadian border. Then down south of McCall to tributaries of the Salmon River. Again, very poor air quality.

Ironically, we came home to a near record monsoon season in Tucson. Over 14 inches at our home, almost making up for less than two inches last year. The desert has come alive once again – got me thinking hard about a fall hike!