Frazer Meadow

Yesterday was a gorgeous day. We took the kids on a hike to Frazer Meadow. Jonathan took Blue there about a month ago and he thought maybe Lion would be able to manage it, too.

It's a beautiful hike up to the remains of a shack where a man named John Frazer had a homestead in the late 1800s. He lived up there and cleared a field for crops that is now a beautiful meadow.


Whenever he needed supplies or wanted to sell lumber to the townspeople, he had to trek (with a bad leg, apparently) up and down the mountain. I kept thinking of Adam Pontipee from Seven Brides for Seven Brothers on the way up to the meadow and thinking that these mountain homesteaders were insane. Give me a place down in the town any day!


John Frazer was killed in 1894 when the logs he was hauling down the mountain broke loose and crushed him. It was really incredible to see where he lived and worked and to admire the meadow where he cleared the land. I love wandering around places where people used to live. My imagination just runs wild. I think that is why I was a history major in college.


Anyway, this was the Lion's first real hike. It is a good four miles round-trip and it is uphill all the way to the meadow and very rocky. I think Jonathan said it is ranked a "moderate" hike. Lion did so well! We took a few breaks to drink water and eat granola bars and he fell down a few times, but he would just get right back up and keep on hiking. Jonathan and I were very proud of him!


After the hike, Jonathan took us to Ruby Tuesday's for dinner to celebrate our mutual success on the Atkins Diet. I have lost 19 pounds and he has lost 21 pounds! So we celebrated with some steak and salad bar. Ruby Tuesday's rocks because they offer mashed cauliflower instead of mashed potatoes on request. And their salad bar is amazing. I enjoyed my celebratory steak, but my back was starting to really hurt by then...

Because I got a horrible sunburn on my back. I was wearing a tank top and before the hike I made sure to spray the kids and me and the back of Jonathan's neck with sunblock. But there was a pretty strong breeze while I was spraying and I don't think any of the sunblock actually got on my back. So now my back is all dark red and splotchy (maybe some of the sunblock hit its target?) and I had to take a sleeping pill to fall asleep last night because it hurt so badly.

Lesson of the day: Do not attempt to spray your own back with sunblock. Have your handy (and much taller) husband do it for you.