After two weeks of rain in August―two weeks! August is always solid sun―it had to be good weather in mid-September. The power of imperative does not disappoint—we had beautiful, clear, warm, and sunny weather. It coincided very nicely with a trip to the mountains my brothers and I had planned.
The drive up went fairly smooth. Only one small detour took us by the Boeing plant up North unexpectedly... the one with the 100 ft. photo banners hanging off the buildings. Quite surreal, I'd never seen that before. Which I can also say about the underwear clad barista we drove by minutes before (no relation to detour) emptying coffee grounds into a dumpster in high-thigh cut black, lacy underwear topped by a black fleece jacket... all fleece or flesh... new trends in northern Aurora Ave fashion? Sometimes you just need to get out of Seattle to see what's really going on. Although I hear that this sort of fashion is exactly what the minister of Uganda is railing against.
addendum: or perchance performance? doubtful, but I had to laugh when recently I stumbled upon this
On the way to the Easy Pass trailhead we stopped at the Marblemount Ranger Station to get a permit. The one that expressly states no camping on heather (as has Beckeys for a couple of decades now). But then again, America is an exceptional country. The rest of the Hwy 20 drive was as beautiful a drive as always. Every car club ever thinks so too. We saw about 100 Rolls Royces on the drive back. Get yr drive on while there's still fossil fuel to burn... Actually, this was probably the furthest I'd driven all year.
The first day we hiked up and over Easy Pass down into the Fisher Creek valley, up the valley and up another pass (the steep one below) into moon-shine and upper Silent Lake.
The sheer beauty and magnetic powers of the cascades can energize me to hike until I drop, especially when the moon is full and the sky is clear, but the rationale here was to get up and over the snowfield while it was still soft from the warmth of the day before it turns into cement overnight...
We had axes, but no crampons.
The moon between Fisher and Black peak.
I got up at dawn and hiked up the Arriva ridge.
Arriva ridge 180 westward view, from left: looking across to the glaciers on the North face of Black Mountain. The valley below is Grizzly Creek, the next mountain over is Meulefire, behind which is the impressive NE face of Mt.Goode. To the left in the distance, Glacier Peak. Mt. Logan is the one cut off between frames, the black V... in the distance between Goode and Logan are Buckner and Forbidden (capped by one of the first clouds that were soon to be plentiful that afternoon). The west peak of Mt.Arriva is on the right and the beautiful glacial green lake below terminates the upper South fork of Fisher Creek; Mt. Baker is the white mountain in the distance.
Click on photo above to get full view.
In the afternoon this bear came loping over the pass on muscular haunches rippling bleached hair in the sunlight, moving quickly down to the lake and then swimming across without hesitation. Not the first time surely - was for me though, wow! a swimming bear...
On the other side of the lake, after shaking like a dog, he threw him?self against a small tree and rolled off the other side. I went to that tree the next day and could barely bend it... that bear easily weighs twice as much as me and probably a whole lot more.
That same lake, lower Silent Lake. I spent the afternoon walking barefoot all around here.
Lower Silent Lake drainage: the beginnings of Grizzly Creek. Black Peak glacier.
Coming down Fisher Peak ridge, upper Silent Lake and our camp below. See that blue 1 pixel dot to the left of the lake? - our tent.
The last night was spent on the Fisher Creek pass, sun setting on one side and moon rising on the other. Good spirits all around...
The eastern view, sunrise.
The hike out was another beautiful day. Very warm. Hot even. Requiring a pause that refreshes. View up the Fisher Creek valley. It was hard to leave.
Thursday, September 25, 2008
Silent Lakes
Friday, September 5, 2008
Wednesday, September 3, 2008
Sunday, August 31, 2008
up the Middle Fork
Originally the plan was to do the annual Snow Lake hike this last week of August, but the response was, as the little ones like to say, a big fat zero. There's been an unseasonable amount of rain this year, some people were out of town, some unextractable from town... but we weren't about to throw in the towel. We just switched gears. Farther, longer, warmer. Bring the towel!
It's August, but it sure felt more like Fall, so off to the hotsprings we went...
The drive up was nice. Sunniest day all week.
I hadn't been since they shut down the road and built the foot bridge, so we took the bike and trailer to cover the extra mileage.
I tryed four times to shoot a vid while riding up, but each time the cameras settings got jostled and rearranged, rough road—
I love it when the environment contributes creatively...
The path to the springs is beautiful.
When we first got up to the springs a group of ten year old girls were just leaving. My "warrior queens in training" as the woman who was with them put it. Alright! good to see... we may phrase it differently, but no doubt we're on the same page. The rest of the afternoon we had the whole place to ourselves.
The next morning we got there right around the same time as a couple and their four year old son—perfect. 
The little ones had a great time and I got to go back into the dark steam of the cave. It was so nice just soaking for hours and letting the body rearrange, drinking clear water right out of the stream, and then walking back down the path all relaxed and peaceful.
The last soak was shared with a small parisian family and their NW host. Good company all around.
Here's a vid that's not a vid... wanted to see what a long pan of a still would look like—with sound. Does sound make water move? maybe only sort of...
The current caretakers are really nice. I'd actually never been in the summer. Usually I go when there's snow, or the possibility thereof. That's my idea of the perfect hotspring experience. But it seems that winter also coincides with the time of year when the caretakers cabin is inhabited by a... well—as a friend put it—a rather curmudgeonly gnome.
So it was a nice surprise to be handed a bag of home-baked cookies and chocolate when we checked out. (We'd woken up that morning, not only to all night of rain, but our food bag, that I'd hoisted up on the food storage wire, was lying on the ground amidst soggy pine needles, a big hole chewed in the bottom from which protruded a half eaten bar of chocolate... Closer inspection revealed that the bags tie line had been ingeniously severed (chewed) by an intrepid squirrel or chipmunk. Somewhere out there, a very well stimulated furry animal was flying through the forest...)
Had we known, the tight lidded plastic food-storage buckets would have been the way to go, but the caretaker didn't realize we were staying overnight, and we didn't know about the crafty chipmunks...
Back at the car CP was sound asleep. The road is rough - but apparently not too rough to sleep. All that soaking makes for good napping...
Earlier she said, "next time, let's stay four days!"
Tuesday, August 12, 2008
house lost it's identity
That's what a neighbor said...
After serving more than a decade as ornamentation and critter habitat, the medusa's head of bunched up vine remnants growing up from under the eaves at the top of the chimney is gone. Removal was brought on by pigeons nesting, leaving long excremental streaks down the side of the house (not to mention birds being the carriers of some rather nasty virals these days) that I just wasn't willing to put up with. I waited til the young were nest free, and then, clad with respirator and crow bar up I went, and down it went.
Saturday, July 26, 2008
Quillisascut revisited
hey, what are the names of these two? R? LL? these two and the goats below too...
thanks : Gibbet + Cupcake
It sure was good to see everybody, and eat with everybody - even the goats got wheelbarrows full of freshly pruned grape vine clippings. Yum! and a quick way to compost all those clippings... not to mention, I imagine, an excellent diet for making cheese that pairs well with wine.
Not that it's all about cycles of consumption, there's much more to goats than that. Sunk like the Titanic beneath their initial shyness lies an ocean of inquisitive mischief that any time spent with them will reveal - if not prove contagious. I do believe it's carried its way into the music, a snippet of dylan, the goats head edit.
Vida + Kelpie
Here's some pictures of the goat milking station, an integral part of the farm. That's Rick and Lora Lea, experts in residence - - and the connoisseur kittys, holding out for foam.
When I tried to get CP, who usually likes to go swimming, to come swimming with us in the afternoon right around goat milking time, she resolutely refused, not wanting to miss a milking of the goats.
Without other kids along I was a little worried at first about bringing her, but she loved the farm and took to it with an inquisitive and independent spirit. Thanks go to R + LL and of course, the kittens, for making it possible.
It turns out there were other kids... just not human.
Without much fanfare, 2008 kicked off the the premier year of the Columbia Log Jam Invitational. The crowds were sparse, but a good time was had by all. Here's Karl, trading in his knife for a stick.
On the way back from swimming we picked these wild black cherries. Once correctly
positioned in The Tree, a whole gallon can be picked without further climbing. Hands down, hands up, best cherries ever!
Not Ephrata Bud. Chef Karl with family recipe potatoe sausages basking in the evening sun.
Did I mention we ate really well? For breakfast, from scratch, croissants and pain au chocolat baked to perfection. And that was just the start of the day...
Still, there was work to be done between meals.
A more traditional feeding of the goats.
And work to be done making meals. R + K conducting smoke.
Smoked to perfection, here it is served up.
Later I found out this was Lightening - firing a few extra synapses - a born circus goat... and I'm wondering, maybe next time, if not already too big, what would it take to balance Lightening on my head?
I think it could be done... maybe wear a turban.
After glowing testimonials from Rick we were sold - we stopped for a Soap Lake soak on the way back. It was hot, 101 degrees, but as soon as we were in the water, even ankle deep, the heat just disappeared. The lake totally lives up to its name, very slick water, feels just like soap, and even suds up when you rub it against your skin. It didn't take long for me to go native and slather my body with mud like all those other people strolling and lolling about. Mostly russian and ukrainian, as were the bunch below that I hit up for a mud shot. So I asked them why the mud? They shrugged and said we heard it was good for you. Which was about my level of knowledge...
I also noticed all these bright red flecks in the water, that when cupped in the hand and examined more closely, squiggled about like little shrimp. It reminded me of the great Salt Lake, with its oolite producing shrimp. The photo above is of a concentration of these shrimp along the shoreline - they really are that red.
When we got back, I did a little research about Soap Lake. It turns out the shrimp are integral to the healing properties of the lake... "Soap Lake water also contains ichthyols, an oil like substance sold over the counter in Europe to treat infections and abrasions. The icthyol in Soap Lake water most likely come from decomposition of tiny brine like red shrimp that flourish in the water from late spring to mid-summer."
It also turns out that Soap Lake is a highly unique meromictic lake, having layers of water which do not intermix. It is also in danger of losing that unique property. Since the advent of the grand Coulee dam, Soap Lake has lost half of its mineral concentration due to irrigation and changes in the water table resulting from the building of the dam. The Soap Lake Conservancy, a group organized to preserve the lake, has good information.
Sunday, July 13, 2008
Iowa
It's been a couple of decades since I've been here, but the Maquoketa Caves were beautiful as ever. And really fun for the kids, by which I mean all of us.
At home we had a marsupial interlude, an opossum, caught, released and bewondered.
The day after the 4th I went on the Tour de Brew with Steve and Bill. You start out the ride with a beer and a card and proceed to peddle 35 miles with enough stops in between to complete a poker hand and keep you beer fueled... none of that hipper than thou PBR crap, just a choice of one of three excellent (and strong!) hand crafted beers. Prizes go to the winning hands at the end, and of course, there's more beer. Naturally, amongst the beauty of the rolling farm hills and the wind in your hair, this leads to theorizing, if not strategizing, about card distribution methodologies and the finer points of poker. Well, maybe not so natural... in a lot of ways it was a family event, I loved that about it too, though it did occur to me that truly the only way to drink beer correctly is to pair it with bicycling. A brilliant idea. Kudos to the organizers of this event.
We saw Ferdinand along the way. I guess he lives in Iowa now. I think he ate all the big flowers, but you can see there's a little one, right beneath his nose.
last beer stop
Back in the Amana Colonies I ate the best hotdog this year. Maybe the only one... whatever, it could have been a hamburger, it would have been the best one too. It was sooo good. The Beatles cover band, less so. But who cares? We had the winning poker hand...
Back at the K-ranch fam pho—
