Stick out your Tongue and taste the sun!

October 22

The kids had half days all this week. It is a stupid system if you ask me. They do not have block classes  but rather cram all 7 periods into measly 28-minute circus classes before noon. How the hell they expect the kids to learn anything in this time beats me. They might as well not have school at all for the week. Luckily I am not in the school to witness the chaos but the concept already gets me hot and bothered enough. On the upside however, this meant that Mary was done early every day and so on Tuesday, I met her at the school and we drove up near Cispus to hike Tongue Mountain before our evening Teen Center gig.

Admittedly I had grazed somewhat enviously numerous times over facebook photos of some of our team members who had done the hike a few days before I had arrived. The distance is nothing epic - a modest 1.7 miles to the top - but it was the view that made it a vied for experience.

From the top of Tongue, all three Mountain Wonders - Adams, Rainier and Helens - are in view. Mary even swore she remembered seeing Mt. Hood on a particularly clear day.

Autumn hues lining the trail

The drive up was a bit longer than she had remembered (and with the new sound effect on her car from all the potholes, we got nervous that we would be stopped all-together) so at first we were nervous about having enough time but the trail itself really only took about 40 minutes to complete. At the last .5 miles, Mary insisted that I go ahead so that I could have a chance to savor the view and for that last leg, I was stopping constantly, as the trail made a bunch of switch backs along an ever-expanding opening. First Mt Helens and then Adams peered into view. Silver felled trees and stumps formed benches beaconing me to stay up there forever. I was so astounded that I had not even made it to the final pavilion when Mary caught up. We hiked up together and spent a good hour photographing and becoming re-baffled with our neighborhood.

Oh hey, I found Helen!

And Rainier...

Hey Mary, whatja find? Adam!