The sun burned like a grapefruit over the mountain, and as it rose higher it lit the trees and rocks in the same color as the Wagon's tail lights had lit the trees and rocks the night before when Mom had almost backed into them.
Where there’s smoke…
More cowbell
Normally Mom makes me step off the trail and up-up onto a rock when we see someone coming, and then she turns her back to the trail and stuffs me full of kibbles until the people pass. But now, Mom pulled on the mask and the other people did the up-uping, as if by magic.
Tolerance
“At this rate I bet we’ll pass close to 2000 people before we get back to the car.” I didn’t know how big two thousands were, but now I know 2000 is how many people fit into 5 and a half miles if you line them all up one behind the other.
Vacation expiration
Before long we left the river and started climbing the day’s mountain, and the blades of jagged, waxy rocks pushed the trees even further apart. There was a rumbling up ahead that sounded like a motorboat. “Do you hear something?” Mom asked. “I think someone’s mowing the lawn,” I explained, not because it was true but because it’s rude to not know the answer to a question.
Worry wort
Mom plans for everything that won't go wrong and when everything goes right, she and Oscar decide to turn around anyway.
A pair of ducks
The trail's steepness had been shallow, but right below our toes the other side of the mountain disappeared into thin air. Other cracked half-peaks lined up in the near distance, and behind them the full variety pack of mountains drew a spikey line like the stock market against the sky.
A day without Witchcraft
I felt sorry for Mom and her addiction to measuring things. All it does is make her wish that her adventure was over so that she misses the whole thing... I hoped that Mom would finally figure out what I'd been telling her all along, and things like time and distance are something that she made up to torture herself, but she was done talking.
Poison oak, boy stuff, and ding dong The Witch is dead
After a few minutes, Mom checked the mapp. "You idiot! You're on the wrong trail!" The Witch told her. "The trail was back that way!"
Oscar the Inspiration
The mountains in Washington are steep in a way that I think might be illegal in California, because I’ve never climbed anything in California that’s as steep for as long as everything I’ve climbed in Washington. Our first hike in Washington was supposed to be an easy one. It was less than 10 miles long,... Continue Reading →
Breaking my promise to ol’ Smokey
Mom says that she lived in California for many years without ever smelling smoke in the Stuck House places. But for as long as I've been a man-dog there have been a few days or weeks every summer when the world disappears and everything smells like camping. Come to think of it, one of those... Continue Reading →