OgBlog.net

MOUNT BACHELOR IN SUMMERTIME…....UPDATED WITH VIDEO

This is what Mount Bachelor looks like from Songbird Lane during the wintertime…..and THIS:
.

is what it looked like on August 30 of 2010:

So, when Laura suggested that we take the chair lift to MOUNT BACHELOR SKI AREA’s Pine Marten Lodge up on the mountain this last Friday (September 3) , I wasn’t sure what to expect…..

But, the day was really BEAUTIFUL
.

and there wasn’t much of a crowd in the parking lot, at least compared to ski season. After we’d bought our lift tickets, the girls behind the counter told us to be sure to go over and see the SLED DOG RIDES - and not just ANY sled dogs….these belong to the first legally blind person to run the IDITAROD TRAIL SLED DOG RACE, a lovely young lady named RACHAEL SCDORIS.
.

The training sled is a specially modified vehicle, and the dogs were EAGER to pull - barking and yelping until allowed to run. Amazing. I’ve always heard about sled dogs fighting and so on, so I was a bit concerned about Sophia, who LOVES all dogs. But there was no problem - she asked Rachael if the dogs were friendly, and when assured that all of them were just fine, she had a wonderful time with them.
.

There was even a puppy hanging around - here you see him “bobbing” for bits of dog food that got into the water bucket - it was funny to watch:
.

Then we headed over to the chair lift - “four heartbeats” per chair limit - and headed up the hill.
.

The two Mommies took the baby in one chair, and Sophia and I got in the other:
.

She had a great time, and didn’t seem intimidated in the least by the height - but neither did she object to the “safety leg” that her mother shouted at me was obligatory!
.

This was how she spent most of the trip - either that or looking back at her Mommy and Grandmama. Alana complained (loudly) almost the entire trip up the mountian….I’m not sure what they were (or weren’t) doing to her back there!

The view up the hill ahead of us wasn’t terribly impressive
.

But, otherwise it was spectacular! What a day, and what a setting!
.

On the left above, you can see the THREE SISTERS, with BROKEN TOP in front of them on the right.

Once at the Lodge, we staked out a table for our picnic
.

where the looming mountains all around reminded Gail and me a bit of camping at the third TELEFERICO station just below PICO BOLIVAR in the SIERRA NEVADA, the mountain range just south of where we lived for two years in MERIDA, VENEZUELA. That peak “loomed” a bit more than these, but it was an interesting reminder of those days…..

The best part of lunch was watching Alana with HER portion - a whole carrot…..
.

This little girl is six months old now, and her first teeth are coming in, and she is FASCINATED by the fact that everyone around her is putting things into their mouths - things that she can’t have. Her little eyes follow our movements, and her little hands reach out to “share”, and no one will help her to her heart’s desire!! She LOVED this carrot - come back later for a video!

After lunch, Sophia begged Mommy to go hiking, so they did
.

And as they approached the Lodge, Sophia gave out a complete set of instructions so that she could be off in the woods by herself for a bit….
.

So sweet…..

Gail and Alana were sitting in the sunshine on the deck, enjoying the scenery
.

and Sophia asked me to join her on the hill below the deck for some rock throwing. First, she gathered a pile from the area surrounding her
.

and then she and I pitched the entire pile down the hill, one or two at a time - distance contests, accuracy contests, and just plain fun!

Unfortunately, while picking up another rock, she got a sting of some kind…she couldn’t describe it to me in sufficient detail for me to determine that anything was much amiss, but by the time we went back to the deck, where she showed her mother the finger, it had become inflamed and was beginning to swell. We headed down to the base of the mountain
.

and we could clearly see the road toward home, off to the east.
.

The nice ladies in the shop sold us a BENADRYL (two actually, in a little foil packet for $1.00). I cut one in half, and we embedded it in a chewed-up bite of (seriously overpriced) brownie, which made it go down very easily.

By the time we got home, the finger was still red, but not particularly painful, and in the morning, Sophia had to be reminded of which finger had been stung. Looking online, Gail figures it was probably a brown scorpion, and the ladies at the lodge suggested a scorpion, as well. So now Sophia has her OWN “wound story” to tell….although she swears that she isn’t going to tell anyone about this. I think her imagination is good enough right now that she’d just as soon forget the whole thing!

It was a GREAT day!
.

UPDATED:
.

SLED DOGS:

ALANA with CARROT:

SOPHIA with ROCKS:

180 DEGREE PANORAMA:
.

Posted by .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) on 09/05 at 07:37 PM

About

Categories

Monthly Archives

Search

Join Og's Mailing List

OgBlog.net

OgBlog.net

MOUNT BACHELOR IN SUMMERTIME…....UPDATED WITH VIDEO

Reading

Web resources

Friends