Wettest September on record

Mt. Shuksan last Thursday - what does it look like now?

That's snow on Mt. Shuksan, which was the first of the season for our hikes. New snow, that is. Just to show you how blessed we were to have such a wonderful hike last Thursday, the road to Artist Point that we traveled to get up there is now closed for the season. They got lots and lots of precipitation, some of which is in the form of snow. We just finished September with a three-day-long storm that pushed many places here in the Pacific Northwest to record rainfalls. I took this information from a website on line:

As of 8 a.m. Monday morning (September 30th) Swift Creek, Oregon (in the Mt. St. Helen’s area) has picked up 15.30” of precipitation since Friday morning. Seattle’s storm total (for Sept. 27-30) has been 2.90” bringing the September total to 6.17”, their all-time wettest such on record besting the 5.95” set in 1978. Olympia also surpassed its monthly record with 9.36” surpassing the former figure of 7.59” also set in 1978.

I know I haven't been able to skydive for several weekends, because the weather has been terrible during Saturdays and Sundays, while we hikers have been able to find a hole in the weather during the middle of the same weeks. Last Thursday was the only really nice day for the entire week, and it's looking like the same thing will happen this Thursday. I don't know who's watching out for us, but I sure appreciate it.

On another note, I've just finished a book I enjoyed tremendously. When I wrote a week ago about a book I enjoyed, The 100-Year-Old Man Who Climbed Out the Window and Disappeared, a couple of my commenters pointed me towards another book, which I got from the library and read in a single day. It's similar to the other one, but it was one I couldn't put down, a novel by Rachel Joyce and her first book: The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry. That link will take you to a New York Times book review by Janet Maslin. Here's a quote from it:

“The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry” is not just a book about lost love. It is about all the wonderful everyday things Harold discovers through the mere process of putting one foot in front of the other.  ... Harold finds out that there is fresh air, scenic vistas and an open sky outside the confines of his unhappy home. He finds out that the little things in life matter. 

I know that I am a different person because of my hikes in the wilderness. I related to Harold's journey in many ways, when he finds that he is stronger than he thought he was. Not to mention that Harold and his wife, along with many other people, are completely changed by this pilgrimage he undertook. I hope you enjoy the book as much as I did, and I send sincere thanks for the recommendation.
:-)