the hill, the beach, the wind

Have I mentioned the hill? No?

It's a half-mile from druid labs pnw downhill to the waterfront. It's steep. This is a pretty sleepy community, so the roadway is seldom busy, and the views at each turn are stunning. A very nice walk, though I do experience a little knee angst. After three weeks, my knees are no longer on fire, so I must be becoming a tad more fit.

Still, there's always the walk back up the hill. It's steep. In fact, the trip back up the hill emphasizes exactly how steep the hill is. The road twists but there are no actual switchbacks. Three steep sections and relatively easy rises in between. hobbitt can walk back up the hill without opening his mouth. I can make it back up the hill with only four stops now.

Between the walk down and the walk up, there is a quiet lagoon (off limits to people and pets), dunes and a long, narrow bayfront beach (with lovely views of the Cascades and Mt. Baker, on clear days) that comes to a point and turns back sharply toward Port Hadlock. At the point there are massive tree trunks washed ashore, bleached, gnarled, hulking. Someone has built a crude shelter between two of these behemoths with smaller driftwood. After the turn at the point, the waters become calmer. It's a nice place to sit on one of those big trees and look to the south west. On clear days the Olympic range lurks, dark, craggy and snow-capped in that direction.

Walking a little farther on this side brings us back to the lagoon. There is a trail through the dunes, past a small stand of trees, through wildflowers and grasses. Eventually we arrive back at the roadway, and the climb back up the hill. Door to door, this is probably about three miles.

Tonight hobbitt and I passed a couple enjoying the sunset (which consists of the light shining on the Cascades to the east or Pete Townsend proper to the northeast) with a bottle of wine. The wind was in their faces (the predominant direction, from what I can tell) and they were cold. After brief greetings, we continued our walk out to the point. Since the tide was high, we had to pick our way over the trees, and we rested for a while looking towards the bridge from Port Hadlock to Indian Island. hobbitt began skipping stones in these calmer waters, and tried to show me how to do it. Alas. I throw like a girl. I'm not quite sure when that happened. Inti got a little peeved with our lingering, and even more peeved that we wouldn't let her swim out to retrieve the stones. Obviously we don't move quickly enough for her, but she's stuck with us, so there you have it. We watch paint dry. We spend an evening skipping stones in the bay. Get used to it.

On our way back through the dune grasses and wildflowers, we came upon another couple walking their Australian shepherd/Rottweiler mix dogs. These were pony-sized brutes, but sweet as the day is long. Inti tolerated them pretty well, only growling once when she was leaning up against hobbitt, who was petting the big boy, Juno. We chatted with the couple for a few minutes, exchanging addresses and plans to visit and talk about gardening, and then we began our walk up the hill.

Tonight we decided to take the trail instead of the road. I was told it wasn't as steep as the roadway, which isn't entirely true: the steep parts are steeper, and mostly steps, but there are longer stretches of relatively even terrain. The path is very narrow, barely wide enough for one. We walked among the flowering salal and native honeysuckles, dark stretches lined with sword ferns, and open areas offering astounding views of the lagoon, beach and beyond.

We were gone for almost two hours tonight on our walk. We had wind, sunshine, water, mountains, friendly encounters, sweet flowers, good exercise, and peace. I can't imagine a better way to end the day, and I do believe this will become our habit.