Maple Loop

Maple Loop has got to be one of the most beautiful hikes around with so much bang for your buck (only 7.2 miles with such incredible vistas), and I'm so grateful we got to experience it today with Bill and Elizabeth. The trail report says this about this iconic hike: "If ever there was a hike to satisfy all a hiker's desires, this one comes as close as any. A loop hike with many fabulous changing faces throughout the seasons, Heather-Maple Pass features ridgelines blanketed in wildflowers in summer, lakes ringed with golden larches in fall, and before the highway closes for the season, a dramatic place to experience early winter’s snows." 

Lake Ann 

Rainy Lake 

Blue Lake 2026

We get to be in the Methow Valley this weekend with the Hutchinsons and Atkins, and Jason and I were grateful to get here early enough to squeeze in a hike to Blue Lake on the way to the Hutchinson's cabin. 

remnants of the larches along the way 

larch needles piling up at the edge of the lake

💛

Here are other times we have been to this lake in the past: 

September 11, 2025 

July 22, 2020 

August 24, 2014 

Bright Spots

grateful for some sweet gatherings that have been bright spots through the week.. 

happy hour we've been trying to get on the calendar for MONTHS with Jaime and Adam! 

Vision 16 girls 

monthly walk with Brooke -- can my smile get any bigger here with this girl? 

Sikose's dinner guests on Tuesday who are PhD students and who are her mentees

(Mwinkuma from Ghana and Birra from Uganda) 

Heaven

A new friend from Bellingham told me I should stop by Gordon Skagit Farm in Mount Vernon on my drive back to Seattle today, and I think that I may have gone to heaven. The sunshine and the sunflowers and the pumpkins were such a surprise today and filled my cup to the brim! 

I called my sweet friend Angela who loves sunflowers just as much as I do while I was there. 🌻

these pumpkins are called mac n' cheese pumpkins 

and these are called gizmo pumpkins 

hanging flowers in their barn