I did Big Gulch this morning because I realized I'm nine days away from my next Mt. Baker trip. I should probably do uphill walks the rest of the time between now and then, and use my trekking poles too. If I don't feel I'm ready, so be it. It's still a nice weekend trip and this year I smartly decided to stay in Bellingham instead of by the mountain. Last year at this time my feet were just starting to feel much better from physical therapy so I did a shorter trail by my rental, and drove to Bellingham for other activities. Now I'll be by all the activities except the possible hike. Makes much more sense.
As it's the first time I've been to Big Gulch since I installed Relive, here's the video.
I never realized until just now how far away from the main road and toward the gulch some of those neighborhoods go. Here's one of the lovely photos from today, click through to find more on flickr.

Also heard from Jimmy this morning because something's come up and he needed to move my final touch up appointment for my back. That was quite the relief because it was supposed to be Saturday and I've still got a few scabs from the last appointment 13 days ago. And we settled on the Tuesday after I get back from Bellingham, which is great. My rental has a hot tub and sauna and it'd be a shame not to be able to use it.
That said, I do have an appointment with Britney--another of the shop's apprentices--tomorrow. But she's doing a smaller piece and I ordered the fancy bandages so I think I'll be ready for that after a week. Fingers crossed!
We're getting bids to have our house painted. Strangely enough, the guy who remodeled our bathroom a while back emailed me out of the blue to see if we're still interested in a fence. We definitely are, so he'll be by soon to give us an estimate for house painting and for the fence. I'd really like to work with him again, he's independent so it's a little cheaper, though it might take longer. I'm fine with that, especially for outdoor stuff.