Parky Visits Mt. Rainier
I was pretty excited when my human friend, Laura Kennedy Gould, took me along on a camping trip to eastern Washington. All I had seen was the mailroom at WPC headquarters in New York City, so I was surprised at the big tall mountains in Washington State. The Cascade Range acts like a big block to the rain coming in from the Pacific, so on the west side (where Laura lives), it’s very wet, and on the east side…gosh, it’s desert! Laura says she really doesn’t like to exercise, but she loves to hike when she can. So she took me over to the desert and we ambled through the Cowiche Canyon, an old rail line converted to a trail. My legs are pretty short so I got to ride in the daypack. Laura told me those funny looking black cliffs are basalt – hardened lava! As we kept traveling on our camping trip, I saw lots of basalt cliffs. I found out why when we got to the end of our trip. Our camper climbed up and up and up a very steep curvy road, and when we go to the top of the pass — Wow! There was a big volcano – Mt. Rainier. Yikes, Laura says it’s still active. I’m not scared, as long as I’m hiking with Laura. And she says if there’s room in her pack, she’ll take me snowshoeing at Mt. Rainier too — Yippee! Laura says she knows exercise is good for her Parkinson’s, so she’d rather get it in the mountains.
Thanks,
Laura Kennedy Gould
Blog: http://magictrickparkinsons.wordpress.com/
“The Magic Trick — Life with Parkinson’s”
