Galleries

I have been here almost three weeks. Fairly well organized after dragging 5 suitcases of all my worldly belongings here. I’ve been very busy culling things I am doubled up on, and those rarely to never used items. It’s not quite as easy to cull here as I have to haul them off to a donation location/person on foot vs loading the car and a quick drive to ST Vinnies but equally satisfying. I find the first week or two I’m here I nap a lot. I think it is the adjustment to the weather and time change. Or maybe just relief that I am finally settled in my “forever home”.

Before coming to Zihuatanejo I was able to visit my daughter and grandchildren in Wyoming, my sister who is terminally ill in California and my friend in West Vancouver, who probably won’t be returning to Zihuatanejo again. Bittersweet visits, but good visits. I was able to spend lots of time with my sons before I leaving Port Orchard, WA behind after 42 years.

I really did enjoy my Summer working on Mount Rainier. I advise anyone who is a all interested in living and working in any National or State Park to go for it. While living and working in the park you have the opportunity explore all corners of the park, meet wonderful people from all over the world.

Last year I fed 3 street cats on a daily basis, upon my return each one of them has paid me a visit, one with a kitten in tow. They all look healthy and have obviously found another place to dine, I don’t plan to resume feeding them as I’m really looking to find a cat of my own a strictly indoor cat.

Still wondering why the community pool is closed It’s not easy to swim laps in the ocean If anyone knows when it will reopen please let me know.

I’m so happy to be in Zihuatanejo in this lovely warm friendly place, I will miss waking up to my view of Mt Rainier every morning, I’m sure there will be times when I will miss my view of the lovely lake I lived on in Port Orchard. My view from my balcony is a fairly busy street, but it an interesting view non the less. I am just so happy to now call Zihuatanejo my home. I will continue to blog as the mood strikes me, no set schedule. Signing off KO

I’ve been wanting to do the Narmada Falls hike since I first got to Paradise way back in June. You start at the falls and hike to Longmire where the National Park Inn is located. It’s a 4.3 down hill hike. The down hill appealed to me plus you see 3 water falls.

The falls are a stunning cascade of water, the trail has many stone and rock steps, not the easiest for me to handle especially as there are lots of hikers and falls looky-loos from the top to the bottom of Narmada falls

As I proceed on down the trail it became latticed with tree roots, making it difficult for big, clumsy feet but at this point the crowd thinned out, and a quarter mile down the trail I was all alone. Alone enough that I thought I really should have been more specific as to what time I started and what time I expected to return and will do so on future hikes. For the next two miles I only saw 2-3 groups of hikers, visited with a nice group of ladies from Puget Sound and one is now living in Port Orchard where I have been living.

More water falls are down the trail

Crossed a half dozen bridges like this, but this was the only one with a railing

Along the way I came across this old wooden water supply pipe line made of cedar and steel support rings

This was the hard part, rocks, rock and more rocks. I couldn’t even see where the trail was and a kind man offered to lend me a hand getting down the rocks to this narrow bridge with water rushing under it. I crossed the log bridge successfully and had just 1.7 miles to go to Longmire where the National Park Inn is located and where I could catch the employee’s shuttle back to the top of the falls where my car was parked.

After a lovely trout dinner at the 1/2 off employee discount I found I wasn’t going to wait the hour for the shuttle after all, as one of the maintenance crew was headed to Paradise and offered to give me a lift back to my car. All in all a great day off. Signing off KO

I’ve been returning to Port Orchard to empty out my house every time I get days off. This Wednesday and Thursday I chose to stay on the mountain and enjoy it’s beauty. I selected the trail I was going to take as there was a good chance of seeing mountain goats from the “Fremont Lookout” The trail is a five mile trip and and a 900 ft climb in elevation. I knew it might be difficult for me but I was up for the challenge. After .5 of a mile straight up I knew I was going to have difficulties as I was gasping for air and having some second thoughts. Then nature threw me a curve, well maybe it was a life line, But my body said you need a rest room now, I mean RIGHT-NOW, and of course on these fragile meadows you just can’t duck behind a tree as you are not to be off the trail EVER! Of course I didn’t want to embarrass my self and be shunned by every hiking coming up. And there are lots of hikers, truly no privacy. So I almost ran back down the trail to the rest rooms in the parking lot, just making it in time.

I was determine to go hiking so I picked a short 1 mile trail, only 150 ft in elevation to deal with and hiked thru beautiful early wildflowers. Of course by this time it was noon and very hot, well into the 80’s and not much shade. So I have learned some very valuable lessons. If I am to do a “strenuous for me” climb. I need to start at daybreak, no later than 5 AM. I should have remembered this from the walk from Zihuatanejo to Ixtapa which is 6 miles, where we started at 6AM. And it’s OK to turn back if you are not comfortable, anytime you feel you have bit off more than you can chew, stop and go back

I love the wildflowers, they are abundant here and in a week or two should be at their peak. So many are tiny and delicate that it is hard for me to photograph with my cell phone. There are flowers everywhere you look. I am so fortunate to have this experience. Signing off KO

It is mid July everywhere, but here on Mount Rainier it is very early spring. The snow is receding fast and the trees are coming into bud and a few wildflowers have stuck their heads up hoping for some sunshine, but last night turned bitter cold with a howling wind and one wing of our dormitory lost power to all the wall plugs. Of course that is my wing and our only heat is plug in radiators. Several shivering hours later we managed to be able to keep our radiators plugged in and running no other electric device. This evening all seems to have righted itself, but I will say our gift shop was cold all day. And for those of you who I know me cold is something I do not enjoy. I was Zihua dreaming.

We are operating under some very unusual circumstances here at Sunrise. Pre covid a staff off 10 to 12 was normal, but since we have no public restaurant only “grab and go “ foods we can operate with less staff. 6-7 would be ideal, we are 4. We are working 1-2 hours over time each day to keep up. Of the 4 Gift shops this company runs on Mount Rainier we are selling in the #2 spot and are only open 5 days a week. Not enough staff to be open full time. I am “Stocker in Chief”. A title I gave my self. I stock the gift shop with everything from T shirts to magnets manny times a day. As fast as they sell I replace. Our General Manager and the gift shop supervisor man the cash registers, our fourth employee handles the stocking of food and drink items. That is a super busy job as hikers are hungry and thirsty.

Normally we would have a “porter” to handle janitorial and security type duties and a cook. We have none, we have to do it all ourselves, so in compensation for that we are not being charged for our room and board as we had originally expected and on top of that all merchandise that says Mount Rainier we can purchase for 50% off. Anyway I am used to cooking for my self as I eat funny, and certainly used to cleaning up after myself and I have mastered pushing a big broom through our gift shop every night and I sleep well. Life is good even when very tired. Signing off KO

This is the view from my room, taken from my window.

I’m at Sunrise Lodge on Mt Rainier at the 6400 ft level of this 14,410 mountain, the past month I’ve been at Paradise Inn working at the gift shop waiting until enough snow was cleared off and they could open Sunrise. There is still 4 ft of snow covering the hiking trails and it will probably be mid August before the wildflowers are in bloom, which is a big attraction here.

We are just about to open the gift shop, have spent the last couple of days cleaning and stocking. It is a lovely shop, much roomier than at Paradise. Nicer for the customer and for staff. We are a small staff, just 4 of us, we live upstairs over the shop, cook and eat together family style.

While the shop is mostly ready, our living quarters have been a bit of a disaster. The rooms had been swept out and that was about all. This is chipmunk heaven here and the little rascals move in while it is vacant and set up housekeeping so we arrived to a ton of chipmunk droppings everywhere, and the water in the bathrooms wasn’t on yet. Only running water was in the kitchen. Today there is warm water for a shower, running water in one of the sinks in the girls bathroom. Thats good enough, almost feels like home.

Speaking of home, mine is for sale at this very moment. Due to some unusual financing I wasn’t sure I would be able to sell mine but it is on the market and that is one of the main reasons I chose to live here this summer. I have sold half my belongings and since they want you out of the house while showing your property I just couldn’t live in that confusion, so here I am living in this confusion, but it is new confusion and fun.

In October when I plan to return to Mexico I will be coming for good. I plan to make it my permanent home. I had to renew my pass port so I could apply for residency but it took two months for my passport to come and I may now not have enough time to do it before I leave, but In will try. Well so much for today. Signing off KO

PS Sold my house today