Pictures. Toes. Non Sequiturs.

I'm bad at taking pictures. Not that I take bad pictures; rather, I go for months without remembering that I even own a camera. I'll bring it on a trip and find it untouched in the bottom of my suitcase when I get home. Even when I do remember to take it out, I get annoyed at futzing on a tiny screen instead of doing whatever it was I deemed photographable.

But I want to preserve and share images from this trip. Today Dad, Doug, Barb, and I all went on a hike in the Olympic National Forest, and I tried my best to take pictures. Dad helped.

In addition to being bad at taking pictures, I may also be bad at taking pictures. I'm always impressed by scenery, but I don't have the talent, desire, or equipment to be a decent landscape photographer, so you get a lot of those boring shots of trees you always skip through when someone shows you their photos. I  got lucky on this hike because it happened to include friendly and photographable human subjects and an extra hand behind the camera. It doesn't bode well for my solo jaunts.

It's been gloriously sunny since the day we arrived. You'll have to trust me that it's actually the Pacific Northwest.

Staggeringly enormous old-growth trees (L, far R) and Dad (center).

You know what Washington State has? Trees.

Me with the extraordinarily generous Barb and Doug

Oh, and this was my first extended hike in my hideous gorilla-foot toe shoes. At first, I was kind of iffy/meh on the FiveFingers. But then I took them on a trail. Something about feeling every pebble and root and patch of sand makes for a wonderful hike. It really does feel like walking barefoot, minus the stabby parts. You can sense the ground beneath you and step accordingly without having to watch your feet. I never felt as though I were slipping, stumbling, or heavy-footed as I so often do in boots. My feet eventually began to feel fatigued toward the end of the hike, but it was a kind of muscle soreness rather than the strain, stiffness, and friction of boots and socks. And when my feet did get tired, I could walk right into an icy stream for a revitalizing bath, after which they dried almost instantly. I'm sold.

BUT WAIT, you say, DON'T YOU HAVE MORE PICTURES OF TREES??!!?!??!

Noooooooooooooo!

Whatever, you guys. Moss is awesome.