Who among us has not had a little fun with the word butte? The first time you saw it as a kid on a map or in a book, you know you said, “Whaaat? Butt? These things are called butts?!” Then you learned that the word was pronounced like beaut and you were, understandably, a little disappointed to not have a free pass to say butt in polite company. I am not a huge fan of most sophomoric humor, but I cannot seem to help myself from calling buttes butts, and don’t even get me started on the Strait of Juan de Fuca. We’ll get back to this in a moment. The stars aligned for the first day of 2018, and we were blessed to have the opportunity to get off our heinies and share a sunny-day hike with family.
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| TBGuide gets family support! |
It was chilly, but considering the deep-freeze that is gripping much of the country right now, no one was complaining (much.)
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| SIL, BIL, and me in my fanny pack |
The hike begins along the wide, flat John Wayne Trail. It was a little bit of a bummer to not be in the sun for this section, but we could see it beckoning us. We had a can-do attitude! Soon we were at the bottom of the trail we were seeking, and it quickly took a turn, naturally, uphill.
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| Getting a gluteal workout. |
TBG, taking photos, brought up the rear. As SIL pointed out, the trail was nice, dry duff, a rare thing this time of year. Maybe she was just being cheeky.
We found the sun as we neared the top. It offered no warmth whatsoever, but it sure was pretty and promised we’d get the view the summit offers.
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| Promise fulfilled! |
The wind was quite chilly up here, and we had a laughingly good time trying to get our cameras situated to take a group photo and demonstrating my clock-face method of locating south without freezing our buttes off. Speaking of that…
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| Ceder Butt |
The geodetic survey marker here reads “Ceder Butt.” No one seems to know if this was a legitimate mistake or someone having fun. Either way, it’s a little tush-tickler at the top for your efforts.
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| Groupie with the beautiful view behind us. |
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| TBGuide chooses an alternate return route. |
We added just a small bit of distance by choosing the route down the backside of the ridge past the Boxley Blowout, where a 1918 dam-burst destroyed the town of Edgewick. There were no fatalities from that, fortunately, but 1918 was an ass-kickin’ year, what with the war and that flu and all.
Hooray for family, hiking, sun, and the perfect start to 2018!