Indian Pipe

On Saturday my brother and I took Henry out for an all-day hiking/fishing trip in Wallace Falls State Park.  It was a big trip, and if we'd had to hike another 100 feet I don't think I would have made it, what with 26 lbs of Henry strapped to my front and another 20 lbs of Henry supplies strapped to my back.  We hiked five and a half miles and 2,000 feet up to Wallace Lake near Gold Bar, WA, fished for five and a half hours and achieved sunburns under cloudless skies, caught no fish of usable size, then stumbled the five and a half miles back out again.  It was basically a perfect day.  But if it's proof you want....

Uncle dan and the sweaty man.

Look at that view!  We were nearly the only people who came up here all day, and it was gorgeous weather.  I was talking to my brother about it, and I realized that if you built this place, and only the three of us showed up, it would be a failure and it would probably have to close down.  But no one built this lake, it just exists whether we show up or no one shows up.  And the whole world used to be like that!  Everything that was, was for it's own sake.  Now every single place you go in a typical day was built for someone's purpose.  School, work, home, the store--all of those places would close down and disappear if they could no longer entice or compel anyone to visit them, so they pander or bully to get people in the door.  There's dignity in a place like a mountain lake that conducts itself as though it will be here forever.  There's a lesson for people there as well.

He was so proud using his own spoon... I did what I could to keep dirt off it but you know.

He scooted in there himself, I guess it was pretty refreshing.

My baby-talk voice is so weird.

Indian Pipe

Monotropa uniflora

Family monotropaceae

We saw this ghostly plant and thought it was a mushroom.  Turns out it's a white plant that grows as a parasite on mushrooms.  It's white because it has no chlorophyll, so it gets no nutrients from the sun, as other plants do, but instead grows in dark spots under trees where it can suck nutrients out of tree fungus.  

It was used by Indians to treat eye infections, but eaten raw it's mildly toxic, so keep it out of your baby's mouth, even if he was a well-behaved boy all day and he really wants to eat it.

--Tim 08/23/11