Today is Monday, June 5, 2023
On this day in history…
1981- AIDS was reported for the first time, following the detection of a rare form of pneumonia in five homosexual men in Los Angeles.
Spotlight Photo
Tis the season for fresh cherries. Rachel picked up a basket of bing cherries at a roadside stand last week. She is excited for the Rainier cherries coming soon.
Quote of the Week
“Alice, listen to me. If there is something that you want to do with a boy, you better damn well want to do it without him.”
– Quote from Netflix Series Workin’ Moms. Mom, Anne, trying to convince her daughter, Alice, not to bail on a trip abroad simply because she was dumped by her boyfriend.
Mira’s Photo of the Week
https://www.everafterphotographypnw.com/
Rachel’s friend, Mira, shares her art each week to help beautify the My Monday Memo.
A Few Good Facts
Though it doesn’t look like the ones found at a lumber yard, the earliest known chainsaw was developed by two Scottish doctors in the late 18th century. The hand-cranked tool was used for bone surgery and childbirth.
CPAP machines, used to help people with sleep apnea, were first tested on notoriously loud snoring dog breeds like pugs and bulldogs.
By volume, ostrich eggs are the largest single cells on Earth.
This section is an add-on from Britannica.com. Each day there is a new fun fact in their All Good Facts section. These are a few that Rachel found interesting.
Fabulous Furry Friends
My name is Maverik, I am a 3-month-old Shepard mix. I was photographed in Leavenworth, Washington during a 5k event in early May that my human was running. I was being babysat, or should I say dogsat, by my human’s friend. I wanted to participate in the run but wasn’t allowed. No fair. Maybe next year?
Rachel Recommends
Rachel highly recommends the Netflix series Workin’ Moms. This series ran for seven seasons, which just wrapped up and unfortunately has no plans for an eighth season. If you are someone that enjoys raunchy and relatable comedy, this show might be for you. The show follows an PR executive and her friends as they navigate motherhood and life. The season one trailer is included below, but in no way prepares the viewer for just how raunchy and real this series becomes. Rachel would rate this as one of her favorite series of all time.
Jimmy’s Journeys
Jimmy is Rachel’s first cousin, and fellow adventurer, who lives in New York. They have shared adventures of all kinds together over the years. Jimmy will at times grace the pages of the My Monday Memo. Enjoy his journeys!
Vintage Race Weekend
Jimmy recently traveled to Summit Point, West Virginia to serve as the Black Flag Steward for the Jefferson 500 event. Racing events are a passion of Jimmy’s and he enjoys serving as the Black Flag Steward whenever he is given the opportunity. What is a Black Flag Steward? This job basically involves keeping a close eye on any potential violations or issues. As Jimmy explains his tasks, “I have a few pits stalls on pit road and the drivers who lose control of car, have contact with anything or break rules have to come in and talk to me. It is mostly to make sure their car is ok to go back out and to make sure they are mentally ok to go out on track again.” He explains it to be a ‘quick time out.’ Racers beware, if you break rules that may create a danger to yourself or others, Jimmy will wave his flag and you may be sidelined until your the next session.
Where in the World?
The drive from Tacoma to Rachel’s trailhead in the Olympic National Park in this week’s story was an 82-mile drive, which took roughly three hours.
Word of the Day
Will you find it?
As a fun challenge each week, Rachel visits Merriam-Webster’s Word of the Day when she sits down to write her weekly story. Whatever the word of that particular day happens to be, she must find a way to fit it into her story. Will you find it?
INTERPOLATE
Merriam-Webster Word of the Day on Saturday, May 27, 2023
Meaning
Interpolate is a formal word used to talk about interjecting or inserting something, especially words or a musical element. A critic might interpolate a comment into a conversation, or an artist may interpolate a melody or lyric from one song into another. In mathematical contexts, the word can also mean “to estimate values of data or a function between two known values,” or “to make insertions (as of estimated values).”
Story of the Week
Hiking Mount Storm King
On Sunday, May 21, 2023, Rachel headed to Olympic National Park for her first visit this year. She had originally planned on hiking the Hurricane Ridge trail (3.4 miles with an elevation gain of 826 feet) but a fire had recently destroyed the lodge, which subsequently closed the road access to this trailhead. She quickly identified another trail of interest, without enough research, and made her way to the mountains to hike Mount Storm King. Sounds intimidating, right. It was. What Rachel failed to notice when researching this hike was the difficulty rating listed as “hard.” She also failed to notice the significant elevation climb. This was to be her first elevation hike (2,106 feet elevation gain over two miles up) with her full backpack (weighing in at 13.9 pounds at time of hike) since her revision spine surgery nearly one year ago. Did she make it or did her ongoing right-sided glute weakness rear its ugly head and put a damper on her plans? Let’s find out.
The drive from Tacoma to the Olympic National Park provides stunning view, as do most of the drives Rachel takes for her adventures. As she approached the park, she had a view of Lake Crescent and its brilliant blue-green waters. Lake Crescent encompasses are area of more than eight square miles and is nearly 12 miles in length. Rachel’s first stop was to photograph the lake. She then hit the trail to conquer Mount Storm King, or attempt it, at least.
Due to the immediate elevation climb, Rachel quickly broke out her hiking sticks, aka literal life savers, to assist in stability. She has been racked with instability issues for years related to her back issues, specifically related to issues on the right side of her body. She has to date been diligently rehabbing for eight months to strengthen her core, back, and glutes. In preparation for elevation hiking season, she has also been working on cardio endurance, as well as using a stair climber to prepare for elevation hikes. While she has regained a significant amount of strength and stability, this hike would test her limits and really show her where she is strong and where she is still lacking.
From the beginning of the trail, someone had left behind fallen leaves with holes poked in the leaf to make a smiling face. Rachel encountered more than a dozen during her hike and each one made her smile. She also heard other hikers commenting on these smiling leaves.
When she reached the first viewpoint of Lake Crescent from the trail, she had traveled just over one mile. The view was breathtaking. This would be the end of the hike for many fellow hikers traveling with children.
Near this area of the hike, Rachel began hearing a strange sound coming from the forest. She struggles for a better way to describe this sound and can only say she thought it was either a dying owl or an owl about to attack its prey (prey being her, of course). There were several other hikers on the trail on Sunday but many times that Rachel was far enough away that she could see but not hear them. She did have a few hikers cross her path during this time and she asked them if they heard the same sound. Not one other person could hear what Rachel was hearing. Had she lost her mind or had the killer owl been watching and becoming quiet each time Rachel interacted with another person? Likely the latter, um, rather the former.
Rachel knew that she would need proof of the impending owl attack (oh, it was going to happen) and decided to start recording (because i’ve learned a thing or two about proof) to capture the attack (it was going to be bad). Oddly enough, the sound of the owl doesn’t pick up on the video (definitely a camera malfunction and not that there really wasn’t a killer owl) and Rachel did not get attacked (by pure luck). If the sound of a non-existent killer owl was the worst wildlife she encountered on a hike, she was thrilled (after two previous bear encounters, I has reason for concern). As a matter of fact, on the beginning of the trail, she repeated a mantra of “I will not encounter a mountain lion or bear today, I will not encounter a mountain lion or bear today.” Positive vibes work (usually). This paragraph was really filled with too much interpolation by Rachel in the first person, but she felt it necessary.
As time and distance went on, Rachel’s right-sided glute became more and more weak, with a slight amount of cramping, causing her to feel off balance. The hiking sticks provided much-needed stability during this time. She eventually became unable to step up using the right leg when any step or rock climbing was needed and had to lead with the left each time. When she reached 1.65 miles of the 2-mile upward climb, she came to a sign that read, “End of Maintained Trail.” She would only make it a short distance farther before making the decision to stop.
There was a narrow, rocky climb with sheer cliffs that she had managed to climb before stopping to contemplate. “I did not set off on this hike to not make it to the top,” she told herself, more than once. She then said, “I did not set off on this hike to die.” Rather than pushing on for the last roughly half mile of the hike, which was all narrow, rocky, steep, and dangerous for an unstable hiker (ropes at one point), she chose life and ended her hike up.
Where she had stopped had another beautiful view of Lake Crescent, where she leaned on a rock and enjoyed an apple before heading down. While she rested, she had several hikers move past her on the trail. One of which was a family of three, mom, dad, and a son (likely 13). Rachel overhead a conversation that nearly caused her to laugh out loud (she contained it). “I’m scared, I don’t want to go the rest of the way,” said the boy. “We could die,” he added. To that, his mom responded, “I haven’t taken you anywhere yet that you could die, have I?” Way to dismiss your son’s fears, mom. Hopefully next time she opts for positive reinforcement rather than a dismissive comment. Very quietly under her breath, Rachel said, “you could definitely die on this hike, definitely.”
After Googling photos from the top of Mount Storm King, Rachel is extremely happy with her decision to stop. The view would have been spectacular, but at what cost? Maybe another day. For a look at the view from the top, visit https://www.pinterest.com/pin/mount-storm-king-hike-washington-state-up-knrth–352054895847429893/.
On the way down, she took photos, played on a large log when nobody was looking, and once again heard the sound of the killer owl, that again no other hikers could hear. When she reached the start of the trailhead, she felt that her day of hike was incomplete and decided to explore more of the park. She made her way down the path to the next point of interest, Marymere Falls.
From the Mount Storm King trailhead, Marymere Falls was a short half-mile hike to the junction. This hike was another 500-feet elevation climb with a few sets of steep stairs in the mix. The view of the 90-foot high waterfall was lovely. No waterfall will ever compare to what Rachel saw on her 2021 trip to Iceland, but she still enjoys anytime she gets to view a waterfall up close.
After enjoying the waterfall, she made her way to a couple of other areas of the park and enjoyed exploring both Bovee’s Meadow (a day use area), which had more beautiful views of the lake, and the Moments in Time Trail (a half-mile loop trail with interpretive exhibits). Rachel enjoyed learning about the area and even had the opportunity to watch two deer in the middle of the area before heading to her car to conclude her day in the Olympic National Park.
She next headed 20-miles to Port Angeles (Twilight fans rejoice) where she had decided to stay the night rather than making the drive home, as she had a whale watching boat tour scheduled for the following day. Was the boat tour a success? Check back next week for a whale of a time (pun intended). Until next time, be well.
