Tuesday, October 20, 2009

Mount Muller aborted

My class went to La Push to share a meal and take part in a drum circle with the Quileute nation. It was a very enjoyable trip. I was very impressed by the wolf and raven dace. After the trip was over I went camping at Mora and I planned on doing to Mount Muller trail the next day.

Mora is a nice campground in Olympic National Park, but due to fishermen on the Quileute River, it's not very peaceful this time of year. Fishermen run their motor boats all day and all night, driving salmon into nets. I'm amazed they have any salmon run left on that river. I did not sleep very well with all the boat noise and when I woke up I felt ill. Then later in the morning loud fighter jets added to the noise. What a shame, Mora is a beautiful place but the all the noise detracts from the beauty.

If I stay there again in the fall I'm going to stay in the loop that is away from the river even though I like being able to look out of the river.

I really wanted to go hiking on Mount Muller, but I listened to my body and drove home instead. I made the right choice. I had to stop and rest twice on the way home because I was too ill to drive. I have the flu. I have a high fever and a sore throat.

When I got home I found out that my husband and my youngest daughter also had the flu. My house was an absolute pig style, but I was too sick to do anything about it. Luckily my oldest daughter is well so she helped me to clean up the house.

I had to skip class today. I've been at Evergreen for six quarters and this is the first day of class that I have ever skipped. I hope that I will be well enough to go to class on Thursday.

I talked to a Quileute elder who knew of the woman who used to travel across the Olympic Mountains with her family every summer. Recently basket work has been found under permanent snow fields near hurricane ridge. O’Neil and the Press expedition were not the first to explore the Olympics. The Skokomish tribe would travel to sundown pass each fall to have marriages and potlatches. It’s just plain wrong to say the Europeans were the first people to explore the Olympic Mountains.

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