Green Mountain with the Peninsula Wilderness Club

This telephoto view from the summit rock of Green Mountain shows Seattle with the Cascade mountains in the background.  In the foreground is East Bremerton, and the Warren ave Bridge..  Three Washington State Ferries are visible in the Puget Sound in front of Seattle.

My nefarious plot worked, everything has come to fruition.  I got paid to go hiking and take pictures.  

I consider Port Orchard to be my hometown, but I grew up all over western Washington moving around so much, that it difficult for me to peg down one town as the one I grew up in.  My family almost all lived in Port Orchard and my parents lived in Port Orchard on Sidney road when I was born.  I was however conceived on Lafayette ave in Bremerton and I was born in Bremerton.  

When I was in my mid 20's I moved to Port Orchard and stayed there until my divorce and my subsequent exile to Shelton.  I could not afford a new house in Port Orchard.  But when I did live in Port Orchard I joined the Peninsula Wilderness Club and I became an avid hiker shortly after joining the club.  I met my boyfriend on my first hike with the club and then never really hiked much  with the club again.    I broke up with that boyfriend when I met my late husband.  Where are you now Paul?

Anyway I knew about the Peninsula Wilderness club in spite of living and Shelton and I have been given one photo assignment per week in North Mason, so I picked Green Mountain.  Not quite North Mason, but close enough.  Here are the photos I turned in.

I'm going to delay publishing of this blog post until a week or more after these photos are printed.

From the back Marti Howard  and Alisa Blitz-Seibert of Seabeck, walk up the Vista Trail with their dogs Wilson and Kelly. 

From the left Alisa Blitz-Seibert of Seableck  sits down while Ron Martin of Belfair  helps himself to cheese and crackers at the summit potluck.

Members of the Peninsula Wilderness club have a potluck on the Summit of Green Mountain.

Sunlight filters down through the clouds with the Olympic Mountains in the background. 

Members of the Peninsula Wilderness Club hike back down the Gold Creek trail after having a social on the summit.

Sunlight filters through the Green Mountain State Forest and highlights Isothecium moss hanging on a Douglas-fir branch.

Tin Mine Falls Green Mountain

I wanted to go to the ocean but my daughter wanted to show me Tin Mine falls, so we went there.  SIRI misdirected me and sent me to my old property on the Tahuya River.  The property was in shocking condition, most of it was take out by the River.   The River took my cabin and some of my land before I sold it, but now the River has taken most of the land.

SIRI directed me to Tahuha River road when I told it to send me to Tahuya Lake road.  Still I was only a few minutes late after realizing the mistake.  Neither of us felt like going down the steep slope to the waterfall in the snow, so I don't have a good photo to show you.

Green Mountain Again

Back to Green Mountain since I was in Belfair again.  This trip was a little easier and a lot more crowded.  Since my husband's death  I'm still too anxious to go hit the big long dark trails in the Olympics.  Dark,   because doing a good long hike this time of year usually involves some night hiking.

I found an old blog post from the week my Grandma died, reading that post, I maybe understand more why I don't want to hit the long dark trails right now.  In that old blog post I said I could not stop at all without feeling sad. 

Also I feel vulnerable right now and I know that in fact I am vulnerable.  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Widowhood_effect   

"People whose spouses have just died have a whopping 66% increased chance of dying themselves within the first three months following their spouse's death."  https://www.verywellmind.com/surviving-widowhood-4011236

Perhaps I am wise to not do a long dark solo hike right now.

I had my GPS this time and I had my delorme too.  I only thought I did not have my delorme last time.   The weather was nice and sunny, I got it bit warm going up the hill.  The summit was crowded.  I noticed that everyone on the summit was with someone else, but I did see solo hikers on the trail.

My husband loved to hike, but he was too ill.  He did make it up Appleton pass one time though, and he tried to climb Mount Ellinor Several times.

4 miles 1,100 feet elevation gain.

Couples were posing for photos here, so I posed with my two wedding rings

Grief on Green Mountain

My husband died almost a month ago and this was the first time I was able to force myself to hike.  I've been too anxious to hike and my brain is in a fog, so it is hard for me to plan and pack.  I don't totally trust that I will be safe in the wilderness while I am in this fog.

I went to Belfair to go to a meeting, but the meeting was cancelled due to a storm caused power outage.  Ever since my spouse died the rain has poured and the wind has howled.  We even had a tornado not far from our old home in Port Orchard.

I had my backpack in my car and it was fairly well packed for rain, so I opted for Green Mountain rather than drive home.

Green Mountain was my first hike after my Uncle Mark died too, so it seems fitting. I start at the free trailhead near where a little girl died from grief and cold.


I did not have my gps or my delorme packed.  Not much point in the Delorme now that my husband is dead and won't get my preset message anymore.  He was sick for years and years and he loved to hike but he could not.  My message said "I am here, I wish you were too".  So he was sort of there with me watching me on the map.

This felt like my first truly solo hike ever.  Sure I had my phone and could blabber on facebook and send messages.  It's just not the same though.  He was my other half.  Half of me has been brutally ripped away.

A very sudden death after 14 months on hospice.  He was not expected to die that day.  I found him dead on the floor at midnight.  I guess it was a heart attack.

It was good for me to get out even though I was miserable the entire time.  Mixed rain and snow on the top and no view added to my misery.

Second hike with my new backpack.  Glad I made the pack before he died. No way I could concentrate well enough to make a new pack now.  The new pack seems very comfortable with  wide shoulder straps.

About 4 miles with 1,000 feet elevation gain

Winter Dumpster Diving on Green Mountain and Kamilchee Ridge, Nearly Sprayed by Green Diamond Helicopter

  Took a couple of dumpster dive hikes this week.  A dumpster dive is a hike that is not very pretty but is close to home.  Dumpster dive hikes are normally on state or privately owned tree farms.

My first dumpster dive hike was up the gold creek and plummer trials to the top of green mountain.  I was in Belfair anyway and near my daughter's home so I invited her to join me.  This trail was okay before the logged the upper portion a year or two ago.  Such a shame that they decided to log what is probably the most popular trail in Kitsap County.

5 miles with 1,000 feet elevation gain

Smog hovering over Seattle

The Brothers

Olympic Pano

Dumpster dive trail

My next dumpster dive was up Kamilchee ridge, but I started from Taylor town this time.  I had a good hike until Greed Diamond arrived with a helicopter spraying chemicals.  Now I need to go on another hike just to recover.

When I saw what was happening I called the main office let them know I was there and my route out and that I was leaving as quickly as I could. I did not want to get doused in chemicals. They stayed away from me with their spray pattern, but that was probably just coincidental.

A Green Diamond pick up truck came down and road and I stopped the guy driving it and asked them not to spray directly on top of me. He went straight to the defense and was a total ass. It's not like I asked them to stop spraying, I just asked that they not spray me. Rather than reassure me, the man from Green Diamond told me a pack of lies and then drove away.

He could have reassured me, he could have even offered me a ride out of there. Instead he lied and claimed I needed a permit to be there, I did not. Then he claimed that I have to call Green Diamond before I hike, also not true. This was very scary. Signs should have been posted ahead of time warning that the area was to be sprayed. The man in the truck needs to work on his people skills.

As if I needed another reason to hate Greed Diamond.  Greed Diamond is Simpson repackaged.  The same people own both companies.  Simpson cut all the trees and then left town, but they still own industrial tree farms in the area under the new name of Greed Diamond.

I had planned on hiking up the Dosewallips that morning so I did not pack any water.  I did have a water filter with me but not the good one that filters out chemicals.  I tried to find a clean stream to get some water to filter.  One stream had strange looking sediment so I passed it up.  Good thing I passed it up as the source of the stream turned out to be a vile green pond in a gravel pit.  So gross.

This hike was 7.7 miles with 1,100 feet of elevation gain