|
|
Observations on Gardening, Friendship and Disability
by Carol Graham Chudley and Dorothy Field
Polestar Book Publishers,
S.C.. $24.95, 240 pp.
The letters capture ephemeral moments and chronicle a special time in the women’s lives while also
giving the reader insights into gardening and nature.
Although they were neighbours, Carol’s idea to share observations, perceptions and gardening hints
the old-fashioned way, on paper, proved to be inspirational. This is made poignant by the fact that
one of the gardeners dies before the book is published, heightening the readers’ awareness of the
fleeting bloom of life and the need to make every moment, and every season, count.
If Dorothy’s name sounds familiar, it may be because she was one of the six poets I reviewed in
Threshold, Six Women, Six Poets, edited by Rona Murray, in November, 1999. A traveler,
paper maker, and teacher as well as a gardener and writer, Dorothy delights in combining several of her
passions into one venture: friendship, paper making, photography, gardening, and writing are all blended
in this book. Carol, also living in Sidney, created gardens and galleries that
were well frequented by friends, artists and guests especially before her debilitating illness.
She was a potter and teacher as well, also drawing many visitors to her studio.
In addition to their letters and observations, selections from a journal that Carol kept, documenting her illness and her feelings toward it, have been inserted into the book in order to give the reader more insight. Without these journal selections you would hardly be aware that Carol’s life had been so drastically altered and restricted, as her letters to Dorothy are always insightful, sensitive and full of the joy of life. The addition of these journal entries provides another level to the book.
I can think of several friends whom I’ll be buying and sharing this book with.
by Joanna Streetly
Oolichan Books
S.C. $22.95, 448 pp.
Five years ago, Hannah escaped from Hansen Sound, a storm-wrapped, isolated sliver of village on Vancouver Island’s west coast. She fled north to train and work as a nurse, perhaps desperate for the reliable rays of a Yukon sun.
In the sopping bi-cultural home of her birth, the sun is a rare occurrence, especially at the darkest time of the year, the winter solstice, the time when she returns. She is escaping again, this time from Whitehorse and an abusive relationship, carrying bruises and bumps, one of which is not going to go away anytime soon.
This is no easy homecoming.
While the concept of a “runaway” daughter returning home humbled and pregnant is a bit of a cliché, there is nothing clichéd about Hannah or the home she returns to. The novel unfolds through the thoughts and actions of four people: Hannah and her mother, Harry, (short for Harriet) and Big Mack Stanley and his nephew, Lonny.
Writing from a male view point with a different cultural outlook would be challenging for most, but Streetly knows what she’s doing. Married to a Tla-o-qui-aht carver for seven years, she obviously learned more than just a new language. Having lived in Clayoquot Sound for 16 years, she also has had time to absorb the tang and bluster of a sodden Tofino winter. Arriving in Canada in 1990 as an immigrant from Trinidad and England, she also knows what it’s like to be connected to two cultures but to not fully belong to either, something that haunts some of the novel’s characters.
She has a unique approach to her writing.
“When I began this book, I didn’t write. I drew. I drew people, houses, floor plans, maps, maps and more maps. I named every street in town and every river in the Sound. Hanson Sound came alive for me, even though it is completely fictional.”
In addition to being an artist, the author is also a kayak guide - she’s the author of Paddling Through Time and editor of Salt in Our Blood . Thus she drew on all her skills to give credibility and depth to the brooding setting of the novel.
Harry, a self reliant loner who lives on her own small island about 2 hours by boat from the village, was a single mother who brought up her daughter, Hannah, to be like she was. As a young teenager, Hannah rebelled and went to live in town, staying with a loving childless couple, Jack and Ada, in order to attend school. Now Ada is dead, but Jack’s home is still Hannah’s and he is still her surrogate father. Hannah never knew or wanted to know anything about her birth father who left without even knowing he had planted a seed. Now, however, contemplating being a single mother herself, Hannah wants to know more. What she learns will slightly alter the way she sees the world.
Big Mack has no idea what happened to his mother when she disappeared when he was a young boy. His father went on a binge and before they knew it, the children were dispersed. Now in his late 30’s he is again living in his father’s home, trying in turn to be father to two boys, one of whom is as good as orphaned. Lonny is the son of one of Big Mack’s brothers, in jail for murdering Lonny’s mother. The ten- year old is on the brink - what way will he teeter? On the side of love, openness and the optimism of childhood or toward the cynical, despairing ennui of those who have gone before? A frightening accident suddenly puts pressure on all these fragile relationships.
A fifth character is the setting itself - the rain, the storms, the quality of light and smell of the sea, the remoteness. The Sound blankets the inhabitants, warming, chilling, imprisoning and freeing them. This is a strong part of the book, and no surprise. A kayaker moves slowly and knows the land in a way that others never will. The ambivalent feelings as well between mother and daughter are also sensitively explored. What daughter doesn’t know this emotion? “Guilt and love and fear and pity and anger all bundled into one feeling.”
The sudden revelations that appear in a world where everything must happen in its own time, and where ways of thinking will only alter over generations, however, feel like too much too soon. For example: “Hannah is suddenly overcome by the way sadness can be everywhere and nowhere; present, yet invisible…..It makes her feel connected on a different level, as if this thread of sadness binds them together…For someone who has always been a loner, the feeling is strange, but she welcomes it.”
Or for Big Mack: “From a faraway corner of his brain, he feels his mother’s smile creeping out at him again. It beams at him for a few seconds and then vanishes. Mack feels his own mouth lift at the corners, returning the smile. He smiles harder as a sense of joy and love run into him.”
Silent Inlet gives us a sense of place and a sense of what’s possible. It’s enough.
| Focus on Women
|
| text by Cherie Thiessen, photography by Tony Bounsall |
|
 
|
|
Jennifer Barr’s Arts and Craft Home |
|
Sometimes a house is more than a home. For Jennifer and Colin Barr, the one and a half storey Craftsman bungalow is their hobby, their passion, their showpiece, and their child. And, like a well loved child, it exudes confidence, a sense of well being, and pride. In 1986, after looking for 8 months for a unique house to accommodate their special interests, the Barrs were delighted to finally find it. Since 1971, they had been hooked on the Arts and Crafts Movement and had become
avid collectors, so they required a house that would showcase their ceramics and metalwork, their books, their furniture and their prints. They also wanted room for
|
their offices, and all this had to be found in a Craftsman house. It also had to be affordable, with a good layout and untouched Arts and Crafts woodwork.
A tall order, and they were lucky to fill it in only eight months! Because the house was in North Park, the price was more affordable, and although they weren’t thrilled with the stucco that had been plastered over the building’s exterior in 1947, they felt they could live with that because the interior was perfect for their
purposes.
"When one of the previous owners (Anita Chow) showed us a photo of the house before the stucco was put on,
|
we asked city council to designate it as heritage. "We didn’t want somebody else coming and destroying this house. It’s worth keeping," Jennifer says. That’s an understatement.
Jennifer is a Heritage Consultant and has been the Administrator of the Victoria Heritage Foundation since January, 1987. She has a diploma in Culture Resource Management from the University of Victoria, and her background is impressive. She’s a dedicated and ardent heritage advocate, having served on the Hallmark Society Executive for eleven years before
|
|
becoming Administrator for the Foundation. (The Hallmark Society, founded in 1973, is a volunteer advocacy group for Heritage in the capital region.) She’s done research for the Oak Bay and Saanich heritage inventories as well as downtown Victoria’s and has been working on Cumberland’s for the past five and a half years.
Formed in 1983 to distribute city grant monies to Designated Heritage Houses for the purpose of assisting the restoration and maintenance of their exteriors, The Victoria Heritage Foundation has been invaluable for its support in retaining Victoria’s historic neighbourhoods, discouraging insensitive and inappropriate rehabilitation and the demolition of irreplaceable buildings.
|
|
|
Through prolonging the life of the original structures, it also reduces both the need for new resources and the overuse of landfill sites. If you want to know more about the VHF, you can now access it on Internet: vhf.city.victoria.bc.ca.
Although its funding has not changed since1989, Jennifer has nothing but praise for the Foundation. ‘The City is very supportive of the programme. It really is working." She also tells me that it’s the largest programme of its kind in Canada, as far as she knows, and that it has been proven that the money that the Foundation gives to heritage home owners is returned in taxes to the city and benefits to the community. Benefits like increased tourism, for example,
and neighbourhood pride. People love to take walking tours of heritage buildings, and the Foundation has helped fund several successful printings of walking tour brochures, (James Bay and Fernwood, for example). Presently there are 230 houses that have been designated as heritage buildings.
A meticulous and thorough researcher, Jennifer brought these impressive skills to uncovering the past of her own special house. She and her well known husband, Colin, have lovingly and painstakingly restored this house and she says they’re not nearly finished yet. She can tell you everything you could possibly want to know about the house’s construction, its history, and its architect. Jennifer leaves me in awe - she’s everything that I’m not: she’s a perfectionist, she’s patient, she
works hard and efficiently, and she’s thorough. She’s patient with me, and is happy to take the time to go through my story, ensuring that all the details are right.
"Elmer Ellsworth Green (E.E. Green)..was a Seattle architect who had an office up here for about 2 years. …..In the 1890’s he was the manager of the Giant Powder Works out at Ten Mile Point. By 1905, he had set up in Seattle as an architect. When I did the Saanich heritage buildings inventory I came across the name E.E. Green. We had already bought this house, and I started to wonder if he was the same guy. He was."
How can you tell an E.E. Green designed house? "If you look up at the gables on the outside you’ll see he does enormous gables which sweep down. There are cuts in the ends of the bargeboards and pyramids flattened off on the top where the beam comes through from the attic and supports the bargeboard. And there are other things about his massing and his window types that we could recognize. Hart House on Fairfield Place is the biggest and the best of the E.E. Green designed homes in
Victoria. Craftsman homes have wide eaves, exposed rafter ends, heavy beams on the front porch, oriental looking themes, massing, rocks, clinker bricks, and all sorts of other wonderful Arts and Crafts features."
Jennifer’s research uncovered the house’s past. Its first owners were George and Mary Jane Leach, but the house changed hands within a year and was rented out for over twenty years, at least three times by ministers from the big churches on Quadra. Then the Tong Yens bought the house in 1937. They were well known Victorians, with greenhouses and a thriving flower and vegetable business in the 700 Block Fort Street. Jennifer contacted the daughter, Anita Chow, and Ms. Chow provided a
lot of information about the house’s history, along with those wonderful photos which showed the outside of the house before the infamous stucco was added.
An Austrian family were the next owners, operating it as a rooming house until the mid seventies, when it suffered a decline, sitting empty for a while and suffering a break in before it passed on to its next owners, Randy and Christine Cheveldave. A movie production manager now living and working in Vancouver, Randy actually used the dining room of the house for a movie starring James Garner (Glitter Dome). Christine Cheveldave is a horticulturist of no small repute. It was
from this couple that the Barrs purchased the house.
The Barrs were dedicated and avid collectors well before they bought this place to accommodate their collections: children’s books from the 1920’s, copies of the Craftsman magazines going back to 1914, and many wonderful period pieces now have a ideal niche in this 2000 square foot home, perfectly furnished to complement both the collections and the house’s style.
The efforts they went to to get their house just right are amazing. Jennifer believes a good thing is worth waiting for, and will wait as long as necessary. It took them 18 years to find just the right double bed for the bedroom, an Arts and Crafts piece they were overjoyed to find at Lunds last March. "We still have a long way to go to get this house just the way we want it," Jennifer tells me, and I have a strong feeling this is a lifetime project.
Then she describes their search to find a carpet for the den. They couldn’t find exactly the right colour and wound up buying five different carpets at various auctions before they finally found the exact colour and texture match they needed. They just couldn’t know for sure until they got it home and tried it! Their exacting standards paid off. That den rug is exactly right.
Entering the house, the dining room is to the left, and the living room to the right, complete with a grand fireplace and furnished in American Arts and Crafts style.
"It’s common in Arts and Crafts houses to have a sitting bench by the fireplace," Jennifer points out as we enter this room. "But we were gypped", she smiles, "There’s no sitting bench in ours. And no picture rail in the hallway, either. There usually is." Another Arts and Crafts feature though, lots of built in cabinets and shelves, they do have. Like that wonderful sideboard in the formal dining room that I admired.
The den, with its famous rug, is behind the living room. Because Arts and Crafts chairs aren’t necessarily cozy, the Barrs have cheated a little in there and ensconced two comfy family heirloom chairs, one coming from each side of their family. The half bath downstairs has been beautifully restored, with wonderful nautical tiles, modern reproductions of William De Morgan designs. "I traded a week of work for those tiles at CHARLES RUPERT: THE SHOP." Jennifer tells
me. She considers it a good trade to get just the look she wants. The tiny sink is the original.
The kitchen gets short shrift from Jennifer. It’s still on the "to be completed" list, so we head upstairs to check out the three bedrooms and enormous bathroom. It has the original Edwardian ball foot bathtub, Anaglypta wallpaper from Britain that’s been meticulously painted a seablue green, and reddish brown woodwork. The ceiling and wall above the waitscoting is ochre "It’s wonderful to lie in that bathtub with this all around you," Jennifer enthuses,
and I believe her.
I’m curious as to the changes they had to make to restore the interior.
They put back the wainscoting which had been taken out because earlier occupants had thought the dining room was too dark, she tells me, and then the Barrs put up burlap wallpaper, which was commonly used in that period.
"We brought it back from England, 4 double rolls for $13…an absolute bargain. Then we took four years to come up with the tone of colour we wanted. (Chinese red underneath with a browny maroon over top). You can see the one through the other. That is a very traditional colour for wainscoting. We had to take the boards down and put them back. We like things dark. The Arts and Crafts Movement tends to be dark rather than light, but rich rich colours."
It took six years to find a set of four lights for the crossing of the beams in the dining room ceiling. The original lights had long since disappeared, and according to Jennifer in those days electricity was such a novelty and lights so soft that home owners were proud to display naked light bulbs.
Their trips to England usually resulted in the Barrs staggering home with suitcases clinking with tiles and bulging with Liberty fabric and pressed wallpaper. The fireplace tiles were transported in this way, a labour of love. Much of their wallpaper and fabric came via the suitcases as well. Jennifer shows me that the border on her living room wallpaper is Liberty and matches the curtains, in an imitation William Morris design. Credited with being the Founder and the Godhead of the Arts
and Crafts Movement, Morris died in 1886.
Although some storm windows have been added to the front of the house, all of the window sash is original. "The old glass is still in some of the windows too. The ones with the wavy lines." Storm windows were traditional for those times, although they were much thinner for the more moderate west coast. It’s marvelous how those windows cut down on outside noise, I notice.
Carpets were ripped out on the stairs in the main rooms and in the hallway to uncover the original wood, oak with mahogany trim. The rest of the woodwork is fir. The original heating system is still in place, hot water heated by an oil furnace, and circulating in bronzed radiators. "It’s wonderful heat, very clean and thorough," Jennifer assures me.
The house reflects their love of the Arts and Crafts Movement, combining the British and American Movements. Its design, finishing and furnishings have created a living museum of the period. The Barrs think that they found this house, but I wager the house found them. It shines and smurks in every corner.
|
|
|
|
A peak experience on Mount Rainier |
|
One hundred feet above the chasm, the Tahoma Creek suspension bridge
hung, narrow, 250 feet across, and swaying.
No good telling me that it was perfectly safe and had recently been improved. I love hiking but
I have a raging and irrational fear of heights. This, then, was my nemesis, encountered on Day
Four of our ten day, ninety three mile hike. I had dreaded this encounter from the start, hoping
that somehow desperation would get me across, or that the bridge wouldn’t be this high, or this
frail looking, or that a miracle would waft me across.
|
Because If I couldn’t get over this, it was retreat. End of hike. Maybe
end of marriage, as my husband, David, likes hiking more than Love itself.
It took two hours. Two hours of pacing, striding up to the bridge, starting over, backing up just
where the chasm fell away. Finally, I fixed my eyes on a large boulder high on the other side, squeezed
my terror into my stomach, and advanced! I knew once I had begun, I would have to
carry on. There was certainly no possibility of turning around.
This was my personal triumph on the trail, so I’ve started here, even
though it wasn’t the beginning point of
|
our early September adventure. The high from confronting and overcoming this
fear carried me through the rest of the trail.
We’ve done a lot of hiking over the years, primarily in Strathcona Park on
Vancouver Island, on the Olympic Peninsula, and in the Coastal mountains, but this was only the second
time we had ever hiked for over a week. Almost every day you’re staring at a different
vista of Mt. Rainier.
|
|
|
You feel close enough to reach out and touch it. Some days you hike alongside glaciers,
stare down at icefields, across at waterfalls, and always you’re alongside this incredible
volcano, seeing it from a different angle every day - weather permitting.
You pay for this experience, however. The Wonderland Trail isn’t the easiest hike in
the world. On that momentous fourth day, for example, in addition to crossing
the suspension bridge, there were two big climbs, a mountain ridge to straddle and
two steep descents. That’s a total of eleven miles and a gain and loss of
almost 4000′ each way, which makes for a long day! |
On other hikes, we might climb that much in a day, but then we would make it a short hike,
only five miles or so, and camp up on the summit. Here on the Wonderland Trail,
however, that’s only the morning warm-up!
And there is have no choice. Because of its immense popularity, the Mt. Rainier hike must
be booked when you arrive in the park. A computer assisted ranger selects nightly camps for
you, based on how many days you want to take. (Super-hikers can do it in eight days, and
more leisurely hikers take two weeks.) It also depends where you start from.
There are only so many camps along the trail, and you can’t just camp anywhere. You
must make it to
your designated campsite - stiff knees or not.
We’re used to choosing our own spot when we’re ready to stop, and we prefer to camp on our own.
We also aren’t allowed campfires, and evenings without the warmth and light of a fire really do
feel a bit chilly. However, we still recommend the hike - highly. It’s worth sacrificing
choice, solitude and campfire for the vistas you’ll encounter on this trail.
The longest day we hiked was that infamous Day Four; the shortest was Day One, when we simply
headed four miles downhill from Sunset visitors’ centre to spend the first night at a "
frontcountry" campsite at White River. ("Frontcountry" referring to the
fact that it’s accessible by car.) Most days we averaged about nine miles on a well marked
trail, with regular mileage indicators, clear route signs and sturdy log bridges.
The trail passes through all of the major life zones in the park, from lowland forests of douglas-fir
and hemlock, past rivers, up to subalpine meadows with wildfowers and glaciers everywhere you look.
The flowers were resplendent and for some lucky reason the bugs were conspicuous in their
absence during our late summer visit. Maybe garlic really DOES work! We ate a lot
of it.
Interested? Then the first step is to get to a ranger’s station, which you can find at four different
entry points, because you must have a permit listing each campsite. You have twenty
one to choose from and the ranger will help you select them, based on availability, your entry point,
and the number of days you have to do the trail. You must book in person, and you can’t do it
in advance. The visitor centers at Sunrise and at Paradise also have all the
information you’ll need: maps, weather reports, relief maps showing the trails and ranges,
books, and even some basic supplies and fuel.
Our favourite campsite was the one at Mystic Lake, and in spite of the warning that there
were bears in camp, we never saw one. The lake is blue, surprisingly warm, and full of trout.
It also mirrors Mt. Rainier perfectly, helped by the expansive blue sky and total solitude on the
day we were there.
Our other favourite was Golden Lakes. We were wrapped in fog there, but it cleared long enough
for us to see that we were perched in the sky, overlooking one of the largest of the lakes.
We could imagine that on a clear day this would be outstanding, but not with sleepwalkers
or small children, as the drop is sudden and steep.
For those of you considering treating yourself to this hike of a lifetime, here’s some information
that might help persuade your partner.
- You can cache food and clothes at various ranger stations first so you don’t have to carry food
for more than a few days at a time. We stopped food off off at Longmire first. We
reached it on the third day of our hike. Be sure to have this extra food in a mouse proof container.
- It can be reassuring to know that at most points you are never actually that far from civilization.
If you tire, for example, or the weather turns really foul, it’s usually possible to abandon the
hike, get to a road and hitchhike back to your car in the same day. It can also be reassuring
to know that your whereabouts are known at all times. On one night, for example, we were
awoken at midnight by a ranger who has looking for a hiker who hadn’t come out at the
scheduled time. The ranger had come in from the nearest station, ten miles away, and hiked
on through the night until he found the hiker, a young Japanese tourist who had lost his party
and wound up spending the night with a man and his son.
Persuaded? Then here are a few tips to help you plan for next summer.
- travel light!
What always amazes me on hikes is the weight people inflict on themselves. It’s unnecessary to carry
forty pounds. My ideal pack weight is between twenty-five to thirty pounds, and David hovers
around thirty two because he gets the tent. That’s a comfortable weight and you can carry it
without undue discomfort. To me, a light pack makes all the difference between enjoying a
hike and enduring it. (Or you can always hire a Llama to carry your load!)
- wear good water-proof boots that have been broken in.
This seemed to be the year of the hiking sandal, but even though I looked enviously at people wearing
them on the trail, I was glad I decided to stick with my heavy leather boots because of the ankle
support, the toe protection, (I’m always stumbling on rocks, especially at the end of the day) and
the warmth. Traversing snow is not fun in sandals either! I do carry lightweight ones
to give my feet a rest at the end of each day, but I’ve decided not to abandon my trusty
heavy hiking boots yet.
- don’t take tins or bottles - you really don’t have to - as they add a lot of weight and you have to
carry them out. We allow about one and a half pounds of food per day for two, and eliminate
all the packaging we can beforehand.
- avoid strong smelling meats such as salted fish, bacon, salami, etc., in favour of cheese or meat
substitutes, as the former attract bears. I’m convinced that being vegetarians has helped us
avoid nocturnal visits from bruins. Don’t sleep in the clothes you’ve cooked in, either.
At some of the more populated campsites there are "bear wires" to hang your
food from which you should use. Otherwise you need to find a good limb yourself to hang it
from. We had one chipmunk party in our pack one night, but fortunately were able to spare those
peanuts. There has never been a troublesome bear encounter between hikers and bears on Mt.
Rainier, by the way, so don’t worry unduly.
- have some knowledge of mushrooms, wild greens and berries that are edible. It sure helps brighten
up those meals. The blueberries and blue huckleberries on this hike were plentiful and big
and made pablum in the morning taste a whole lot better. ( I know it’s disgusting, but that
babyfood is well fortified and VERY light.) We also brightened up a rainy night with a feed
of King Boletus mushrooms.
If you’re interested but not sure you’re ready for the whole trip, read on for details and options.
The main thing is - go, whether you hike or not.
Sidebar:
How to get there: Drive to Seattle, then take highway #161 South to Elbe and then East on highway
70. The park is about an hour and a half drive from Seattle.
Accommodation. Popular lodges are at Longmire and Paradise, and three regular campsites are
found at White River, Cougar Rock and Ohanapecosh (avoid this one unless you have a self contained
camper. (The mice really party there at night.) There are also two primitive campsites
accessible by dirt roads: Mowich River and Carbon River campsites.
When to go. Early September after the Labour day weekend is the best choice, in my books.
It’s less busy and usually the weather is more dependable. The second choice is
late August. July is very busy, the bugs are often bad, and there’s a lot more snow to slip
around in.
Cost. This is the best part. It’s five dollars to enter the park, and if you do the
whole trail, you may have to pay twice, as the permit is only good for a week. Hiking is free, and
believe me - if you never even leave the car, the scenery and facilities will make you very glad
you live close to the border. The campgrounds are only $9.00 and the primitive ones are free.
Showers are available at Paradise’s visitor’s centre, for a quarter. Avoid
late afternoon as showers get busy then.
Options:
1. Adventurous? Then climb to the summit of Mt. Rainier or up on the glaciers. You
can spend the night at Camp Muir, at 10,000′, and attain the summit the next day. Prior to the
climb, you must assure the rangers that you know what you’re doing, or you can also sign up to learn
on the mountain in a climbing class led by a ranger. (Just before we arrived, three rangers had
been killed trying to rescue climbers in this area, so believe me, this is for the hardy only.)
2. A more gentle option is to hike just a section of the Wonderland Trail, or walk in for the
day from a campsite. If you do decide to just do a day’s walk I’d highly recommend camping at
Carbon River, a primitive campsite accessible by dirt road, and walking to Dick Creek. This
walk is along an old road for three miles, then a narrow trail along Carbon River, to another less
frightening suspension bridge. You’ll start climbing for a mile once you cross the bridge,
but will have a terrific view of Carbon Glacier, literally just yards from the trail, as well as of
Mt. Rainier Summit. I don’t know any comparatively easy day walk that rewards you so well!
The round trip is about nine miles.
3. Or - if your idea of a hike is walking to the hot tub, then head for Sunrise and soak in
the view from there. I’ve never been on a road that gives you such views and gets you
so close to the attractions while still in a vehicle. Just don’t plan to do it in an hour,
though. The road around the park is winding, narrow, and scenic. There’ll be lots
of motorists perhaps even more entranced than you. Short walks in the alpine meadows lead
off from
here, and there’s washrooms, food, and information. |
|
