A Perfect Day

Posted on September 12, 2025 by Karen Molenaar Terrell

Scott and I took this week’s Monday Hike on the South Baker Lake Trail to Anderson Point. Anderson Creek was low enough today that we were able to cross over without any problems. This is the first time we’ve made it to the other side since the bridge washed out.

We met some way cool hikers from Ohio and Pennsylvania down at Anderson Point: Tom, Steve, Mark, and another Mark.

After our hike to Baker Lake, Scott took me out for a birthday dinner at the Chuckanut Manor. My former student, Drew, was working there tonight and seeing him always brings me such joy. He’s one of those people who just shines out good will and kindness and enthusiasm for life.

Drew apparently let out server know who we were, because when Melissa came up to our table she knew our names. She saw I was wearing my amber necklace and asked me about it. It turns out she is a rock-lover, too!

Melissa asked us if we’d like drinks. I asked her what kinds of mocktails she had. Did she have anything with lavender maybe? Melissa, as it happens, has been a bartender for years, and is great at creating new drinks – so, for me, she created a carbonated lavender-lemonade – and it was perfect!

At the end of our dinner, Melissa came up to me and said she’d heard it was my birthday (Drew again, I’m pretty sure ), and she had a present for me. She reached into her pocket and pulled out an amethyst stone and handed it to me! “Really?! You’re giving this to me?!” I asked, blown away by her generosity. She said this is what she does for people’s birthdays now – she gives them rocks. (I turned to the young bartender, who was grinning, and asked if she’d given HIM rocks, and he nodded his head and laughed.) When Melissa discovered I, too, was a rock-lover, she knew she needed to give ME a rock. Whoah.

But she wasn’t done, yet. A few minutes later Melissa came back, reached into her pocket, and pulled out another rock! – this one was a slice of a petrified tree. She said her father had given her a bunch of these, and now it was bringing her joy to share them with others, and she handed me the petrified wood.

My friends, I have had a wonderful day – a lovely hike in the cool green woods to Baker Lake; a delicious dinner; well wishes from my Facebook friends; and ROCKS!!!!

Life IS good.

Swinging from Branches and Balancing on Logs and Playing Like a Little Kid Again

Posted on September 13, 2022 by Karen Molenaar Terrell

Scott and the sons and I headed up to Artist’s Point in the North Cascades for a family hike, but it was really smoky up there – so, after a little jaunt to the first pond, we headed back down. We made a quick stop at Heather Meadows for a walk along the nature trail there – it was smoky there, too – but I wanted to share the laughing little creek I’d found there on my adventure the week before.

Then, with Andrew directing us, we drove down to a turnoff and an unnamed, unmarked trail that Andrew had discovered through a friend a few years ago. It was so cool in there! Massive trees! We scrambled up on top of a fallen tree that stretched a couple hundred feet and walked the length of it. The sons and Scott went back to where we’d climbed aboard and got down that way, but I hopped off the end of the log and found myself surrounded by Devil’s Club and fallen trees and – although I knew the direction I needed to go, I couldn’t figure out how to get through the brush around me.

Xander hollered to me and waved his hand so I could see where he was and then, balancing along long logs and hopping over bushes, managed to get to me and helped show me the way back to the trail. Ohmygosh! It was so fun! I felt like my young self again, swinging from branches and balancing along logs, and playing.

But eventually I came to a log that seemed too big for me to climb over. Xander reached out to me from the top, and Andrew pushed me from the back, and at last I was back on the trail again.

I love adventuring with my family!
-Karen Molenaar Terrell

It Was a Good Choice

Posted on September 30, 2018 by Karen Molenaar Terrell

We’d been waiting for a sunny weekend to go for our Table Mountain hike – and it just didn’t happen – so we finally gave up the whole idea of sunny skies and just went up to Mount Baker, anyway. It was a good choice. 🙂

shuksan autumn reflection (3) this one really

“Are we almost there, yet”

Posted on July 22, 2018 by Karen Molenaar Terrell

I remember one time, as I was coming down
from a hike, when I got near the trailhead
I saw a couple hikers just starting out who
looked like they had a sense of humor.
“You’re almost there!” I told them. I had
judged correctly: They laughed.

Today as I was coming down from a hike –
just two quick switchbacks from the top –
a sweaty hiker asked if she was close
and I could tell her, “Yes! You’re almost
there! You’re going to make it!” It was
awesome to see the smile come to her face.

Today the hike back down was no bed
of roses, either. It seemed to go on forever.
The further I got down the trail the more
I felt my gait turning into the gait of an old
mariner – lurching from left hip to right hip
as with the rolling waves on the ocean.

I wanted to ask the people coming up if I
was “almost there, yet” – was I almost back
down? But I didn’t.

I found another way. The tired, sweaty
folks panting for breath showed me I still
had a ways to go. As I got nearer
the trailhead the faces weren’t as red,
the breathing not as labored. And when
I saw happy, smiling hikers still fine-
tuning adjustments on their packs I knew
I was almost back to the beginning.

The hike isn’t just the getting there –
it’s the getting back.
– Karen Molenaar Terrell

Annual Skyline Divide Hike

Posted on July 21, 2018 by Karen Molenaar Terrell

I was really surprised by how many people were up on the Skyline Divide today. And (although it kind of made it difficult to take photos) it gave me hope to see all these people – willing to push their bodies up to alpine meadows to enjoy what the mountains could give them.

As I was looking at Mount Baker today from the Skyline Divide – and realizing how HUGE it is – I thought to myself: “What in the heck were you thinking?! Whatever made you think you could climb that mountain?!” And then I reminded myself that I did, indeed, climb that mountain. And then it dawned on me that if I hadn’t been born with the parents I was born with – and I’m not just talking about Dad here – Moz was a pretty formidable adventurer in her day, too – I probably WOULDN’T have climbed Baker (or Rainier, Adams, or Hood). How lucky am I that I had a father who took me up all these peaks? I’m so very grateful for the opportunities my parents gave me in my life. They gave me the mountains.

Mount Baker from the Skyline Divide

Shuksin and Mountain Meadows

Baker from the Skyline Divide

Mount Baker from the Skyline Divide

Shuksin and a Mountain Meadow

Mount Baker Through the Clouds

Baker from the Skyline Divide

“Festival” on the Skyline Divide

Shuksin Behind a Green Ridge

Snow-Covered Peak on the Side of Baker

Sweet Solitude!

Posted on August 17, 2014 by Karen Molenaar Terrell

Photo taken on top of Table Mountain in the North Cascades, by Karen Molenaar Terrell

I took myself on a hike today – just me and… well… myself. I was so excited to go on a date with me. We-me hadn’t gone on a hike alone for a really long time. I was even looking forward to the one and a half hour drive up to the trailhead – excited about being able to put in a CD of my choice, without having to worry if my choice of music was going to annoy any poor hapless individual stuck in the car with me; excited about being able to roll the windows all the way down if I wanted without having to worry about somebody else’s hair getting mussed, or face getting lashed and buffeted by the wind; excited about being able to stop and take pictures if I wanted, get some tea maybe, take my time – without having to worry about anyone else’s needs or schedule; and really, really excited about stretching my legs in the mountains again. I’ve been having a “mountain jones” the last week.

And I have to tell you – it was MARVELOUS! I had a great date with myself. I put in a Jason Mraz CD and sang along with it all the way to the Heather Meadows parking lot. And once I hit the trail I started singing the theme song from “The Sound of Music” – because when I’m on a date with myself there can never be enough schmaltz. We (me and myself) felt really good up there today – strong and able. When we got to the top of Table Mountain we built a little cairn out of rocks and then sat down for a lunch of crackers and cheese. Then, because we were feeling strong and able, we decided to venture another half a mile or so along the ridge to a nice overlook of the valley below. We didn’t hurry. We took our time, snapped photos when we wanted, stopped and just took in the views when it pleased us.

We saw a marmot scrambling around in the rocks up there, and met some cheerful friendly fellow hikers. On the way down we stopped and moved to the side as a young woman made her way up the trail. The trail is steep, and in places there’s a sheer drop on the other side of it, and the woman looked to be clinging to the rocks when she could.- I got the impression she was a little nervous about the whole adventure. I told her she was almost to the top and it was GORGEOUS up there, and her friend, who was standing next to me, waiting for her, said, “Yes! That’s right! You’re almost there!” and looked at me with gratitude in his eyes. “Thank you,” he said to me, . “Have a wonderful afternoon!”

And I did. 🙂