We were in Washington where all of the women are strong, all of the men good- looking and all of the children above average. That's where we were.  We even heard the band and did a sing-a-long to "You are My Sunshine."  Garrison must have left right before we arrived.  The cider was divine.  All of the kids there were having fun churning the apples and using the apple press.  We even saw them grinding the flour.  Of course we left with cookbooks, flour and lots of cider.  After, we headed over to Battle Ground to check out the salmon jumping upstream to spawn.  Every once in a while we saw a fish just heading into a big rock.  We wondered if any of them ever made it upstream.  Mary checked out the various ferns and foliage, before we headed over to Moulton Falls for a walk. We made it home just in time for the trick or treaters.  Dick Baker said next year the Moulton/Lucia Falls will be a YRE. It really doesn't get any better than that.

Everyone wondered "In this rain, no one is coming."  Barbara Allen was there, but she took off before the picture.  So in actuality, we had 9.  We had the A-B-C's: Barbara Allen, Barbara Bowes and Barbara Chavez.  We spent the hour chatting over warm coffee and going over stuff for the upcoming meetings.  The gal that took the picture was Dr. Rachael, who was at the coffee shop preparing to take her boards.  So of course we asked her if she would like to give a talk to our group, and she will be at our January or February meeting.  
Don't forget the meeting on Monday night at 7:00 p.m. for the pre-walk and 7:30 for the meeting. Gaye will be there from REI.

it was another gorgeous color day out there and beautiful paths, but ... on one part of the trail it was really "Slippery When Wet."  First Mary sort of lost her balance and said to Mary Ann, "Be careful," and then Mary Ann went flying.  As she was sitting there trying to figure out if anything was broke she said to me "Be careful Jane, it's really slippery."  My reply, "I'm fine, I do ....." and then I was down.  I slid over on my behind to the other side so I could join the rest of them and we finished the trail on the side of the wooden trail.  But we did finish and we still managed to have lots of fun.  Leslie said she hadn't been to Bob's Red Mill, so off we went there for lunch and shopping.  Mary bought a few things for Christmas, Leslie got some bread mix for the bread machine, Mary Ann picked up some rice and I bought some spices that I needed.  We all eyed lots of possible Christmas gifts, so I'm sure we will be doing all of the walks close to Mi

We lucked out, Bob Forsythe wore his rain gear and we only had a couple of showers.  Good job, Bob and thanks!  Heidi found a street named after her so of course we had to take a picture of that.  

Mary Ann wanted to go out and enjoy the fall colors, so we headed out to Moulton Falls for a beautiful walk along the Lewis and Clark River near Battle Ground.  It's a great flat 10k walk that starts at Moulton Falls and goes to Lucia Falls.  The path just meanders through beautiful forests and then through the old town of Lucia, on the way to their little falls.  Sometimes when you get to Lucia, you can see the salmon jumping up stream.  Angela found this walk about a year ago and we've been back several times just to take in the different seasons.  If you are looking to celebrate the season, head up there for this walk.  After you can head over to Woodland to the Cedar Creek Grist Mill and pick up some apple cider.  http://www.cedarcreekgristmill.com/
It was so beautiful, we might just head back there again, soon! Check out the pictures if you want to have a look at the colors in Clark County,.

Wednesday Walkers will be doing our walk out of Albertson's starting at 10 a.m.  Saturday we will be heading over to Happy Valley and Sunday back to our Albertson's for the other walk at 1 p.m.  Lots of opportunities to get out there and enjoy a beautiful time of the year.

They closed some of the roads for winter so our walking is now starting to be limited.  Monday, October 26, we will start meeting at the coffee shop in downtown Sherwood, on the corner of Washington and Railroad St.  
We had 10 people for our walk on Monday and most of us got together for coffee downtown.  Did I tell you, they've named us the Merry Talkers at the coffee shop and we've had to take over their largest table.  What a wonderful way to start the week off.

Barbara Ness led the 10k walk at Hayden Island, while us wimpy Merrywalkers did a 5k (probably more since we were out there for at least 2 1/2 hours).  We hit the Tomahawk Part of the Hayden Island walk and found a new little cafe at the end that's open year round and they boast of a great breakfast and good burgers.  Hidden Bay Cafe, it will definitely be on our next walk.  We had Mary Ann, Barb, Pam and Maggie on our walk and we enjoyed Barb pointing out the Mane Mushrooms, looking at the fabulous homes on the Columbia and getting scared out of our wits by a snake.  We enjoyed our eclectic walk and we did eventually see the 10k walkers go by, but we had to check out the "beach" and Ricky Point.  I googled Rick Dallman, but we couldn't get a hit on him.  There was quite a memorial out there for him with some stones left for him as well and a couple of interesting Buddist tables and flags.  Barb thought the beach was one of the nudist beaches, but we didn't see anything but a dog playing in the water.  
Tomorrow the Snails!

It was fun to take a trip with the old gang: Angela, Rachael, Carol, and Lena.  We ran into so many people that you'll have to check the web site to see who was all there.  Of course the food was wonderful, those Mossbacks are the best cooks in the AVA, and for a real treat, we ran into a troop of Girl Scouts.  All of the pictures will be in the album located in our Pictures Tab, under: Drain!

Look at the pictures and you will just have a glimpse of all of the colors we were able to see there.  We all dressed for rain and cold and it was warm and sunny.  Julia found a new friend on the trail, now named AVA.  Thanks to Carol Reed for all of the great pictures.