"Heaven is overrated." ~ Coldplay
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This week's Friday Afternoon (hiking) Club took place on Monday morning... because that's just how wildly unpredictable we are.
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We set our sites on the
Cecret Lake. No... I didn't spell 'secret' wrong. Some other weirdo spelled it wrong ages ago and it's been driving people crazy ever since.
Especially me since, at one point, I had strongly considered becoming a high school teacher. Then I did my student teaching where I was forced to interact with real, live, high school kids..
and... well... say no more.![](https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiGEHUlkCVn_E39Rh1M1h_DJTJUQaDBgAjp_QRAvjMGerjkFtgCWqeFCpCxSJWE1DS1mnldPVJUQEC7XXGMohCzls48jkQXjpLeQxv3f1q6mYaBCSYPphcD07j-dujf4WnCuc17/s400/wildflower1_opt.jpg)
I'm NOT thinking about high school kids because I have an ounce of fondness for them. Quite the opposite! Oh, they're cute and all ~ if you happen to be the parent of one of them ~ but I'm a Mom who survived those teenage years.
May I just say? 'Lock 'em up, throw away the key' is not always a bad idea.
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To get to Secret Lake you hike up and up and up a little bit more. You don't really notice all the walking uphill because you're traipsing through expansive fields of wildflowers every step of the way.
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When we reached the actual '
Cecret Lake,' [
Argh! That name drives me nuts!] we were confronted with hordes of teenagers.
On a Monday? How fair is that? When will we see the shift to 12 months, every year, kids in school?
Because that would be good for the nation as a whole and especially me!![](https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiUxFP3o8gsMLgAg-6TcWAp8W464u7q7cG6bnl63JBYFQhNzKh3WBHT9nFSnEHUb8xWTD7o6vXlqh4AZa_xBv8dWzsnVmBv1o8E_pn5i7kzPQJZGhROAk13Y5jOQEHT7mbQCTA2/s400/wildflower5_opt.jpg)
We walked to an out of the way giant rock where we could eat our lunch and observe the teens as we do monkeys in a zoo. (It's really not all that different.)
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Then, I looked down to see one enterprising teen rock-climbing his way to the top of our own personal boulder! As teenagers go, the kid was fairly well-trained. (Good job, Mom!) He said, "Thanks! I just wanted to see if I could do that!"
I was dying to be all sarcastic and demand: Do what? Spoil my lunch? But, I couldn't. Because, you see, I'm only allowed to be a bitch once a day.
And, I'd already hollered at some poor Latvian tourist for picking the wildflowers...
Reason #9 for not picking those wildflowers: They are COVERED with bugs. Vicious, nasty,
carnivorous, creepy crawlies that will eat you up from the inside out.
Okay, fine, maybe that's stretching things a bit but I still wish you would just lay off picking the wildflowers. It doesn't do me, or you, any good.
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* Wildflower identification! Are you dying to know? Me, too!
From top photo to bottom photo:
- Damned if I know!
- Damned if I know.
- Damned if I know :(
- I just take the pictures. Perhaps you're smart enough to identify them.
*Albion Basin is renowned for having a broader variety of wildflowers than any area of similar size in the USA. At 10,000 foot elevation, with plentiful snowfall, this basin is a unique experience of alpine and sub-alpine wildflowers that bloom in a compressed, 3 - 4 week, period of time.