Tag Archives: adult father-daughter relationships

East into Winter Woods and Frozen Deserts

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A wacky Father-Daughter Winter road trip East across Washington State into Cascadian forests around Lake Wenatchee and the River House then on into the deserts of the Channeled Scablands carved by gigantic Ice Age floods into vast, prehistoric lava plains, themselves formed by even more ancient basalt lava floods, January 2010.

Road Trip! Zooming deeper into Coulee Country in the Scablands of the Columbia River Basin, Monday 18 January 2010.

Lake Wenatchee in the Cascade Mountains on a beautifully gloomy day as more storms roll in this Sunday the 17th of  January 2010.

My oldest child, Morgan Hannah years before she became Dylan Blair, as she strides thru the icy edges of the Potholes Reservoir Lakes, Monday the 18th of January 2010. She’s 15 still, only two months shy of turning the Big 16.

Me, her Dad, at the River House on the Upper Wenatchee. In good spirits, too, as I love road trips & being outdoors. I’m only 50 here. Gosh, be 51 years in about 3 months. Foto by Morgan/Dylan. Sunday 17 January 2010.

Emerald Isle, Lake Wenatchee, Lake Wenatchee State Park. Sunday 17 January 2010. It’s a cold, cold late afternoon as dusk approaches.

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A Mt. Rainier Dayhike with my Daughter Kate, 2019

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A Ramble with my Middle Daughter on the Burroughs Mountain Loop Trails out of Sunrise Village, Mt. Rainier National Park, Washington,
Thursday 25 July 2019

Kate goofin’ for her Dad’s camera. Posin’ on the Burroughs Loop Trails at Mt. Rainier one hot Thursday in July of 2019 waaay back yonder in the early 21st Century C.E.

Ti’Swaq’, the Mountain that Wipes the Sky, or simply, The Sky Wiper, as the Alliance to Restore Native Names wants to call Mt. Rainier, looms above the surrounding Cascade Mountains to 14,411 feet or 4,392 meters in elevation. Taken from Sunrise Point.

Kate and I planned a dayhike, and it took awhile to jumble our stuff together into one car. I had to take a bus to the UW Huskey Stadium light rail station with my backpack, then take the train south to meet her at Rainier Beach Station while she drove north to meet me there. Logistics were barmy nutters. We grumbled and laughed and made things work out anyway. Especially as we had to scoot on back to North Seattle to meet the rest of our Seattle family for Dylan’s farewell picnic. My oldest was soon to ride across the continent with a friend and move to New York City for grad school. Meanwhile, however, Kathryn and I were in the here-now of Mt. Rainier National Park.

What happens when Daddy doesn’t pay attention to what shoes he grabs outa the closet in the dark. I didn’t realize this ridiculously comical error until I was in the parking lot at Sunrise Village. Ended up wearing my worn Chaco sandals I drove up in out on the hike. Glad Katie & I weren’t on a more serious climb! Worn my Chacos on plenty of hikes in the past. They’re old & worn out now, tho, & pebbles & grit tend to get caught between sole of foot & top o’ sandal. But how in the world?! Two Altra trail shoes! Same brand, aye, but for the same left foot and two very different models, HA!

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The Strange and Beautiful Mundane: A Rare Father-Daughter Dayhike to Mason Lake

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*This is a work in progress. Enjoy anyway!*

A 60 year old dad & his 20 year old daughter go on their first hike together in nearly 4 years, just the two of them without any other family & friends. Double selfie shot on Thursday 30 June 2019.

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In the Wake of the Storm: A Winter Journey into the Coulees of the Scablands

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A Chronicle of a Father & Daughter’s Changing Relationship as they travel deep into Mose’s & Frenchman’s Coulees in the Channeled Scablands of Cascadia’s Washington Desert searching for connection as much as for adventure one long February weekend in the year 2015.

***This is work in progress with apologies for the delay. Go ahead & enjoy anyway! The rest shall come.***

See! My daughter does love me, LOL!

Moses Coulee expanse from the old, two-lane highway, Monday 9 February 2015.

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Deep into Mountains Beyond the River

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(***This is a work in progress. All is Copyrighted. Enjoy!***)

William & Morgan’s Father-Daughter 50-mile, 7-day Backpacking Trip in Olympic National Park with Way Too Much Weight,
Sunday 31 August – Saturday 6 September 2014,
or
A father & daughter rediscover each other on the Trail before tripping out on the edge of the Ocean

*Click on each foto to blow it up big if you like. Enjoy!*

White Creek Meadows along the O’Neil’s Pass Trail, Olympic National Park, 3 September 2014, Day 4.

Picture of goofy Dad by Daughter. Enchanted Valley, Day 2.

Picture of Daughter by Dad. Upper Quinault, Day 3.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Morgan was born in the bed at home of an apartment in Seattle a little over 20 years ago before our first backpacking trip together. Both experiences were initiations. I didn’t realize the latter was one, too, however, until a couple of months later. Backpacking with my oldest of three daughters changed my life. It changed hers, too.

This journey was a spiritual and deeply physical reconnection with nature and wilderness. I was also compelled to drop down into deeper levels of awareness of what and who I am as both a self-aware man and as consciousness beyond self. This was my first backpacking trip in 7 years. Suffered from my most severe blisters ever, and I’m the kinda of guy who rarely gets blisters and when I do they’re little bitty thangs.

This trip was also Morgan’s longest backpacking trip up to this point. She was concerned about old injuries flaring up. This trek was a big test for her for she planned to attempt a thruhike of the Appalachian Trial in 6 more months. Most precious, however, was a Father and his Daughter re-creating their parent-child relationship as adults. Being halfway up a steep mountainside with a river below you miles and miles from civilization does things like that to people in a hurry to do-do-do.

Afterwards we both admitted we were afraid we wouldn’t get along, would argue constantly, and wouldn’t find anything to talk about or for. We laughed as those fears didn’t even come close to materializing. Plus this proved an incredible adventure in its own right. Wild weather, bizarre people, magnificent scenery marred by global climate disruption, and unexpected surprises including stumbling into a psychedelic festival on the edge of the ocean made this end of summer backpacking trip unforgettable.

An invisible dynamic was the complex relationships we had with her mom and step-mom, both whom were also my ex-wives. Gwen Hughes, Morgan’s mother, and I thruhiked the Appalachian Trail all the way from Georgia to Maine back in 1991. Gwen and I were known as The Pregnant Rhinos back in our halcyon thruhiker days.

We did an estimated 3,500 kilometers or almost 2,200 miles plus about 150 to 200 miles of crazy ass side hikes. The length of the AT keeps changing. It’s 2,190 miles per 2016 but was 2,168.1 miles in 2001, 2,179.1 miles in 2010, and was about 2,000 miles in 1937. It was 2,184 miles when Gwen and I thruhiked the AT in 1991, and 2,189.2 miles when Morgan attempted her thruhike the following year in 2015.

The Pregnant Rhinos on the AT! aka Morgan’s parents before she was born. 🙂 Here Crazy Gweeyin buzzes off Yeldud the Mad’s hair while he pretends to be scary. This is during a crazy stop at Rusty’s Hard Time Hollow on the edge of the Shenandoahs in Virginia sometime in early Summer of 1991. At the time of this picture, William is 32 years along & Gwen is 26. Foto by Weathercarrot.

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