Not often when backpacking does one get such spacious accommodations with full kitchen and, when the mists do part their swirling veils - such stunning views. Tents aren't too bad either, but this was a treat. We didn't see much the first day which made it all the more glorious upon waking. Baker, Shuksan, Goat, the Pickets behind us, the canadian Cascades up North, the clouds below. With so many photo ops it didn't take long to figure out that the fresh battery I had put in my camera before leaving wasn't fresh at all... it was dead. When I got done kicking myself I borrowed my brothers camera... which soon stuttered to a halt as well. But not until after we climbed Larrabee the next day, a red pile of rubbley rock, but a fun scramble nonetheless.
After two nights on Winchester we headed cross country over to the Yellow Aster Buttes. Initially we tried to navigate a ridge line that on the topo looked to be a promising possibility until real life cliff bands proved otherwise. Eventually the other side of the ridge worked out nicely, with a snowfield up top providing a fun glissade down into the valley. Tomyhoi, the other mountain we were going to climb, was not to be had. After a full night of rain (in tents and bivy), and thick morning fog, our trajectory turned downward. Out we trudged on a boletus lined trail, going as we came, in the mists.
8.23-27
Wednesday, September 5, 2007
Up Swamp Creek
Monday, September 3, 2007
Dabob Bay
A friend who I've known longer than any other friend in Seattle just built a cabin overlooking Dabob Bay. It's really beautiful. We went out to visit, and dig a compost pit... and eat crab.
Aug. 3-5
Sunday, September 2, 2007
Posessed by the Acoustic Spirit
We Love the I-90 Tunnel, Beacon Hill's bipedal gateway to Lake Washington
:late July
April 06:
These photos are from a peaceful midnight musical gathering in the tunnel. It was fun while it lasted - you can see the police headlights coming down the tunnel, spurring on the performance.
Saturday, September 1, 2007
Friday, August 31, 2007
Snow Lake
A misty monday pierced by high pitched decibels of enthusiasm: year 3 of the Snow Lake tour (this time as a Breakfast Club excursion), year 2 where miles walked outdid years lived (at least for the younger set... which is what this is all about - the next generation - getting a headstart on the splendors of nature), and year 1 of a pine martin siting (two cubs, appropriately).
7.23
Thursday, August 30, 2007
You Are Not a Girl and You Go Away
Back in sixth grade I wrote what was probably my first research paper. I remember it hardly feeling like school work at all. Partly this was due to my teacher, Mrs. Sjolund, who was very supportive and encouraging, and partly I was simply fascinated by the subject. The paper was about the social structure of baboons. Being eleven, and in Iowa, didn't afford a whole lot of field research - none, actually. The closest I ever got to where baboons live was years later, in the Dzanga-Sangha reserve in the Central African Republic. It wasn't the savannah habitat of the baboons I had studied, but a lush jungle rainforest, with elephants and monkeys as just the tip of an incredibly varied and dense profusion of life. Anyhow, that's a whole other story. What made me think of all this was a recent trip (7.22) to the zoo. And the realization that primate field research is never far from home...
"During play, a young primate is getting to know other primates and discovering his or her place in the social hierarchy of the group."
this was followed by a parentally encouraged attempt at reconciliation...
Sometime after my baboon paper my parents gave me a book about Jane Goodall. There's a lot of good people working to secure the habitats and lives of primates increasingly threatened by us, their co-primates - humans that is, whose social structure is such that we must wage war against ourselves for the greater good of the animal kingdom...
Bushmeat Project is a fairly comprehensive list of groups who are attempting to give voice and rights to species who live outside of our language and legislative loop.
Monday, July 9, 2007
Logs, Water, Spider
A couple of days after meeting Kaz I dropped by his shop and saw these cedar timbers outside. They were throwing them out, said they were going to use them for firewood... I couldn't believe it! Kaz had told me about them, how they'd got a special permit from the forest service to harvest these trees down around Mt. Rainier, how it took three days. Kaz & Co had built the tea house in the Arboretum. I'm not sure if these logs were related to that project, but they sure looked good on top of my car. I've been driving around with them ever since. ha!
I pedaled by the Jefferson Park reservoir the other day and peeked inside. It's looking impressive. It'll be nice to think of this view when standing in the park above.
A glint of green caught my eye. Then I stared and marveled. I realized...dried spider blood. There was some amazing phosphorescence going on. It was late afternoon, the sun hitting my desk sideways. The spider had gotten squished between the glass tabletop and its support, its been there for a while, months even, and now, with the suns rays hitting it just so, it totally lit up. Some crystalline refractive property of dried spider blood. I wonder if this is common knowledge or just some freak chemical reaction?
Even when not called Charlotte, spiders do not cease performing miracles. Clearly grist for Polke's palette. or wait a minute... it kinda looks like... can it be? Jesus... with a crown of thorns? no.... 
