I love the fact that the head of our lab decides that, one day each summer, the whole group should take the day off and spend it hiking through the lush mountains of Washington state. This year, we chose to hike towards Annette Lake, near Snoqualmie Pass.

Because it was a Wednesday, there were few other hikers and we had the place to ourselves. The three and a half miles up to the lake were tough, with a constant incline that seemed never to waver. Still, we often stopped to admire a creek or watch pikas (rock rabbits) sun themselves on the stones.

There is nothing like this near Canberra. The forest is so tall, dense and lush, and we could still see snow in some corners by the lake, even in the middle of summer. It was so quiet, with only bird calls to break the silence.

I was motivated to finish the climb by the knowledge that I could demolish the tofu tempeh that was waiting in my backpack. We ate our lunch on a log on the edge of Lake Annette, sharing the space with flies that did make the experience feel a bit more Australian.

I am glad that I work in an environment we understand how important it is to spend some days simply surrounded by the beauty of nature, and away from all those silly bothers of the modern world (but close enough so we could all indulge in ice-cream sundays afterwards).

Here are the people with whom I have been working with for the past 18 months. I especially admire the grad students. Here in the US, people generally work as technicians for a few years before starting grad school, a process that takes 5 – 7 years. So I am actually younger than all the PhD candidates in the lab. Still, they keep at it every day, and don’t seem to be in any rush to leave. They always have time to listen to my stories or look at my data, and work at their science with a smile.

And this is the view from our lab: