MacchiatoMan: Outdoor Adventures

Forsaking Sports For Naycher

Tue, 19 Sep 2006 04:36:42 GMT

I was confident enough Saturday that my Buckeyes wouldn't need me to defeat Cincinnati that I joined a group of folks for a kayak outing on Budd Inlet near Olympia. I haven't done very much paddling in the south Puget Sound, so I signed up.

We met at a pretty little bay called Boston Harbor to launch

Click any photo to enlarge

While I waited for others to arrive, I partook of a tasty crop of blackberries growing along the shore. Of course, the plumpest, sweetest ones were sequestered in the depths of a thicket of thorns that even grizzlies would hesitate to plunge into. But, man, they were tasty, ripened to the tipping point between mature fruit and blackberry liqueur. There's always a little sadness associated with the taste, as it signals the end of summer.

The trip started out in sunshine and nearly flat water, so smooth at times that our unperturbed reflections sailed along beneath our hulls.

(editor's note: The photos above were taken with my Canon S3 IS, a 6 megapixel with a 12x optical zoom. It just rocks. The following photos were taken with my Canon S300, as I have a waterproof case for it. I'm chafing a bit at the quality, as well as the zoom limitations. Canon doesn't make a waterproof case for the S3 IS, but there are some expensive workarounds that I have eschewed in the name of thrift. Until now. Watch this space...)

Just before lunch, however, a rain squall passed over, and we scrambled to raft up and help each other retrieve raingear that each of us had brought, but buried deep in cargo hatches because we were certain we wouldn't need it. Once we had completed the task of half-disrobing, donning raingear and re-fitting with lifejackets and sprayskirts, it inevitably stopped raining. In case you're wondering, the woman below is sporting the quintessential spring/fall northwest outdoor look - full-on raingear to ward off the deluge just passed, and sunglasses to cope with the Saharan sun that swiftly follows it.

A raft full of mergansers, fresh from a session with their punk hairdressers, was oblivious to the squall and the need to prepare for it.

I'm a sucker for clever boat names. Couldn't pass this one up:

As we returned to Boston Harbor Marina, the sun broke through a suckerhole and highlighted the ships, masts and cottages on the shore.

And, BTW, OSU 37, Cincinnati 7. Bring on State Penn!

On The Waterfront (but no marlin)

Tue, 18 Jul 2006 07:02:04 GMT

The weather was terrific here over the weekend, sunny with highs in the mid-70s. I feel for you guys sweltering in the high 90s - I'm due to join you next week when I head for Milwaukee.

Saturday, though, I met up with some folks from a Yahoo paddling group in Anacortes, about 70 miles north of Seattle, and we did a 6-7 mile trip circumnavigating a couple of mostly uninhabited islands, Allan and Burrows. It was a real swell day to be on the water.

That's me on the left, in my sorta-new Gore-Tex drysuit.

A few more photos from the trip here. I took both of my cameras - my old Canon S300 because I have a waterproof case and can use it from the cockpit, my new S2 IS because it gets jealous when I leave it and pees in the corners. This trip, though, my waterproof case took to fogging and taking unintentional "art" shots that weren't much use. We went around a group of rocks, Williamson Rocks, that is a nature preserve. There we saw bunches of harbor seals, plus assorted sea birds.

One of the islands, Allan Island, is owned by Paul Allen, and is for sale for $19.5 million. I'd buy it, but I don't want to tie my money up in more real estate, although this is more "liquid" than most.

Lake Serene Hike

Sun, 26 Sep 2004 01:43:27 GMT

We've settled into a nice fall weather pattern here, with some fog in the morning that lifts by midday. Just the sort of weather that you don't want to leave in order to work a week in Milwaukee. I had that familiar feeling of angst as we flew out of Seattle this morning, seeing Rainier and the other volcanoes floating on their cushion of cloud. As we reached the east side of the Cascades, the fog layer cleared and exposed dark green valleys cosseting silver rivers, and high alpine meadows speckled with shimmering lakes.

This effect is softened quite a bit by the fact that, yesterday, we were lolling beside one of those lakes. Along with our son, we hiked the 3.6-mile trail up to Lake Serene. The trail is just off US 2 near Index. It seemed fairly steep, gaining just over 2,000 feet. I thought we were keeping a brisk pace, the natural result of our astonishing athleticism, but our kid kept pulling away from us. Hard to believe I used to carry him up trails like this.

I'm glad he likes hiking and the outdoors now. When he was younger, he disliked it intensely, and we either went alone, or just didn't, so I don't mind having to chase him a bit now - we're finally on the same page about a lot of things and genuinely enjoying each other's company.

On the drive home through rural Snohomish County, there was a sign (camera was in the trunk,dammit!) that said:

Reptile Zoo

Espresso

Moose sightings - Grand Teton National Park - Summer 2003

Sun, 18 Jul 2004 23:14:59 GMT

Saw this guy on the Paintbrush Canyon hike as I came around a switchback.

This is what we call a "moosejam". The Moose of the Hour is the black dot in the middle of the pasture. We were on the last leg of a hike and saw the moose just as he crossed the road. We stayed for 15 minutes, and watched the traffic jam develop.

I had occasion to come back through the park again in September while helping my son ferry a car from Ohio to Seattle. He and I took some time off the road to do a hike, and espied the pair below.

Hola!!

Mon, 15 Dec 2003 13:40:09 GMT

I'm back from my 9-day kayak/mountain bike trip in Baja. While I decompress and sort through about 450 photos and a bunch of dirty, soggy gear, here are a few snapshots of the trip.

I got home Thursday night, and had to fly off to Milwaukee Sunday, so I'm a bit disoriented right now, trying to quit using pidgin (and sometimes hilariously inaccurate) Spanish to order coffee and food and ask directions.

Our "luxury" hotel in Loreto.

Lunch stop on a beach on Isla San Carmen

Sunrise over our campsite on Isla San Carmen

Beach on Isla Danzante

A Fine November Hike

Mon, 01 Dec 2003 05:18:34 GMT

We had a quiet Thanksgiving dinner, during which our son surprised us by suggesting that we take a hike together on Sunday. So, we drove east on I-90 to North Bend and hiked a new trail up to Rattlesnake Ridge. (There are few, if any, rattlers in Western Washington - the place got its name when a surveyor heard seed pods rattling in the wind and was scared shitless that it was a rattler.)

It was a gorgeous day once we got above the inversion layer that was blanketing Seattle. The kid (22 now) led the way up the trail at a really rockin' pace, and for the first time in my life (heretofore spent walking at his pace, carrying him when he just wouldn't walk another step) I felt like I might not be able to keep up. Since I've spent a lot of breath trying to get him to hike or bike or stuff with us/me, I wasn't about to complain about a silly thing like the pace.

We egged each other, the three of us (my wife is a rock climber and no slouch on the trail), up the trail and ended up walking/climbing a long way on snow. We got sweaty-hot on the hike up, then shivery when we finally stopped climbing and ate lunch. There were some great views of the Snoqualmie valley along the way.

Picture 1: Early primates crouch in the cold and eat their meager repast.

Picture 2: Looking across the valley at Mt. Si.

Picture 3: Looking back toward Seattle and the inversion layer.

Thu, 30 Oct 2003 11:09:46 GMT

Hangin's Too Good Fer 'Im

As if the degradations of winter's onslaught of snowmobiles weren't enough, some yahoo from my state has driven his fucking pickup truck offroad near Lone Star Geyser, crashing pedestrian barriers and making doughnuts in fragile soil. He was also cited for having a loaded gun in his truck and driving with a suspended license. This is the kind of person Wyoming vigilantes should take out and beat the crap out of instead of gay people.

(The picture at right isn't Lone Star, it's from a nearby geyser we saw driving through Yellowstone in September. That's why I've reacted so viscerally to this item.)

Mon, 29 Sep 2003 21:27:07 GMT

Summer Ain't Quite Over, Part II

We're having something like an endless summer here in the Pacific Northwest, and it's getting kind of spooky, like somebody left us in the toaster oven and forgot us, or the gods are so distracted with Ben & Jen that they forgot how to work the clutch on that season thingy. Whatever is happening, we've had weeks of basically gorgeous weather.

Yesterday we took a day hike near Glacier Peakin the Cascades called the Green Mountain trail. Glacier Peak is one of the "necklace" of volcanoes that characterize the Cascades from Canada to Northern California, which includes Mt. Rainier, Mt. St. Helens, Mt. Hood, Mt. Shasta and others. Since it's mostly hidden from view in Seattle, it doesn't get the press that Mt. Rainier or Mt. Baker get.

It's a rather short hike - 3 miles in, 3 miles out - but it's unrelentingly uphill, and you gain 3,100 feet of elevation over those three miles. You are rewarded with increasingly stunning views as you ascend, culminating in a 360 degree stunner at the end at 6,500 feet above sea level.

Blueberry bushes which cover great swaths of the terrain here have turned red and purple and they, along with scrub maples simply set fire to a lot of the landscape. An added dividend from the blueberries was abundant fruit that was still on the bushes, but which had dried somewhat, resulting in handfuls of blueberry raisins, bursting with concentrated flavor and sweetness.

Mon, 29 Sep 2003 14:10:02 GMT

Mon, 29 Sep 2003 14:07:06 GMT

Late-season blueberries.

Mon, 29 Sep 2003 13:53:24 GMT

Looking east to Glacier Peak

Mon, 29 Sep 2003 13:44:10 GMT

Mon, 11 Aug 2003 08:29:53 GMT

Grand Tetons

Thu, 07 Aug 2003 01:45:46 GMT

Show us your...

"Slow Blogging" this week as we are vacationing in Grand Teton National Park. My wife is climbing the Grand Teton peak as I write, and we've had a week of outstanding hiking.

Bandwidth here is nearly non-existent, as our cabin does not have a phone. The reservation office will allow me to take my laptop in and do a dialup connection, but my on-the-road ISP does not have a local number for Jackson, WY. I have resorted to using my cell phone to connect and pull down my email, and that provides a nominal 14.4 k connection. Anything graphical is painfully slow to download, and I swear I can see dollar signs flying out of my USB port. I am curious to see what the Userland upload will take - don't know whether it publishes just the changes, or if it publishes the whole damn blogsite. I'll find out soon.

For August in a national park, the hiking trails really aren't that crowded. This may reflect the fact that most of them involve a lot of elevation gain, and the trailheads start at about 6,500 feet above sea level. For once, I am sort of happy to see other hikers occasionally, as it lessens the chances of a surprise bear encounter.

We did see a small black bear off the trail on one of our hikes, but he paid no attention to us hikers. However, the sad state of affairs in our national parks is that privatization, franchising and outsourcing has accelerated under the Gale Norton regime to the point where one can't simply snap a picture of an animal. You must first contact the animal's agency in Beverly Hills and negotiate a royalty. Fortunately, they'll accept your credit card number over the phone. I did get a picture of the bear on our hike. Because the bear was merely grazing instead of charging at me, the cost was reasonable. Another picture I took of a moose was more expensive, particularly because it was a bull with a full rack of antlers. I hope not to have to deal with either a grizzly bear OR his agent in my remaining days here.