The Colville Latin Cross (it has it's own FB page) that overlooks the city, and lit at night, has been a landmark since school children first put it up on city land in 1950 and I should really just say, it's locally famous. About the same time, the school children painted a huge C on the side of the mountain.
While I'm not a real religious person, I have grown fond of seeing both, especially the cross at night.
Today was the day to finally hike it...almost killed me too!
From 8 or 10 miles away the large C is very visible.
The cross has a storied past. As I said, children put the first one up in 1950...made of wooden slats.
It was vandalized in 2001 and the ACLU threatened to sue if it was put back up.
My journey was to finally climb the mountain and see both the C and the Cross up close.
I parked near the bottom of the trail, at one of the newer cemeteries in town, still decked out in Memorial Day flowers and flags.
Looking back towards town I am starting to kick myself in the ass for not taking a service road, which looked much longer on Google Earth, but also not as steep as some of the trails I am dealing with.
It may have been a nearly 45-degree angle going up the mountain the way I did it...sort of like picking the absolute worst route up Mount Everest. This hike was so much harder than the much longer one I did in my last blog. I don't like to start and stop, but I must have done this 10 or 15 times...at each stop, I kept asking myself "I'm 68 this month, do you feel lucky, punk"?
I think it was Donna pushing me on because the wildflowers were so beautiful the higher I went, and she loved wildflowers.
Right before I got to the top, while cutting through the forest, I came upon a leg bone...most likely a deer. I have seen lots of bones in the forest but these were still greasy...so I took a quick look around and got the heck away.
It's kind of hard to get a good photo of the huge C on the mountain, at the point where it is painted...more impressive from way down in the city, looking up.
This was not at the top, but halfway up. They look like huge JBL speakers from the 70's, only a hundred times larger. If anyone knows what it is, please let us know?
It is hard to have a mountain top without a microwave relay center, right?
Aw, there it is...the reason I took this horrendous hike.
After it was vandalized in 2001 and threatened with a lawsuit, a family in Loon Laked owned 2 acres right next to the original place of the cross and welcomed an organization to erect the new cross...built with steel slats.
It's a beautiful view from up here and I am glad I forged ahead to the top and didn't give up, it was so worth it.
1 comment:
Did u ever find out what speakers are for
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