A Fine and Pleasant Misery

Hiking Part II of Summer Break '06 gets spent seeking Misery.

Mount Misery, one of the 50 highest peaks in Eastern Washington, stands at 6,366 feet in the Blue Mountains.

On the 5 a.m. journey toward the trailhead, two hundred-plus head of elk, barrel over the horizon, greeting us in a wheat field as they trek to the Tucannon for a drink. With temperatures in the 100s for the past week, cool river water is at a premium.

If only we'd remember that the cell phone (not the bow tie--sorry, Simon and Garfunkle) is really a camera!

Chalk up the suppressed desire to document to sunrise senility, and shock and awe, at the sight of at least four eight-point bucks, silhouetted in the sunlight, and too many does and yearlings to count.

Upon recalling this wildlife adventure to Papa Larry, he counters with his own Misery-filled memory of yesteryear....

Larry, the late, great Grandpa Ed and the brothers Leaf, tromp around Mount Misery hunting for elk, the meat that would sustain them for a long, harsh winter many moons ago.

Chilled to the bone and knock-knee tired, they bed down in an old, abandoned barn for the night. As they settle in, the men hear rustling overhead and spy a pack rat perched on a beam in the moonlight.

The rodent of unusual size reaches for a glass filled with liquid; Great Uncle Leaf reaches for his gun.

A scream pierces the night.

It's Grandpa Ed. Is he shot?

No, he just shouts, "Don't shoot--my teeth are in that glass!"