Monday, January 24, 2005
Easton Ridge Slush-shoeing
“Summit" of Easton Ridge
Copyright 2005 - somenamehere.com - all rights reserved
I’d like to take a moment of silence to mourn the loss of the snow in our mountains. We’ve had plenty of precipitation this year in the Cascades, just not enough cold temperatures to turn it into winter fun. Now, at the end of January, our local ski areas have officially announced that they do not have plans to reopen this season.
This is the worst snow year since 1977-78 - almost 30 years.
Not willing to give up quite yet, a bunch of us attempted to snowshoe Easton Ridge. We waded through about a mile of slushy road to get to the trailhead. (The slush was slick as snot - literally - which was why we couldn’t drive there.) About a hundred yards into the trip, the snow all but disappeared, so we carried our snowshoes to the summit (pictured above).
I think it’s going to be a good year for rock climbing.
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Thursday, January 20, 2005
Joi de vivre
Sunrise over Kirkland
“So many people live within unhappy circumstances and yet will not take the initiative to change their situation because they are conditioned to a life of security, conformity, and conservatism, all of which may appear to give one peace of mind, but in reality nothing is more dangerous to the adventurous spirit within a man than a secure future. The very basic core of a man’s living spirit is his passion for adventure. The joy of life comes from our encounters with new experiences, and hence there is no greather joy than to have an endlessly changing horizon, for each day to have a new and different sun.”
Chris McCandless in a letter to a friend he’d met on the road
Saturday, January 15, 2005
Jesus Was a Gillnetter
Memorial sculpture at Fisherman’s Terminal in Seattle
I got up before dawn today and drove to Seattle’s Fisherman’s Terminal for a Mountaineers’ photography outing. I was hoping to get some shots of the colorful fishing boats reflected in calm morning water. Unfortunately, the sun was behind clouds and wind kicked up little ripples between the docks. No worries, though. Just point your camera in another direction. And when all else fails, play with photoshop filters. Here are a few of better pictures I took:
Netting on a fishing boat
Flemmish coil
Reflection (posterized)
Seattle Fire Department Fireboat Insignia
And I’d always been lead to believe he was a carpenter!
Wednesday, January 12, 2005
Stumbling
When we stumble, it only moves us forward more quickly.
African proverb
Sunday, January 09, 2005
It Snowed!
Wheelbarrow in the back yard
You know it’s going to be a good day when the cat wakes you up at 7 a.m., and in the low dawn light you can see that it snowed last night. Suddenly, instead of begrudgingly rolling out of bed, you flip the comforter back and slip on a pair of fleece pants and a sweatshirt. One day in 365 starts like this in Seattle and you aren’t going to miss it!
The cats of course wanted nothing to do with the snow. They paced back and forth on the porch outside their cat door, not quite sure what to do. It wasn’t until our rolling snowball cleared a path that they started to venture forth.
The snow was the perfect consistency for making snowballs and snowmen. Our first creation was about as tall as us.
We decided he needed a friend, so we made a second one.
Our next stop was my parents house. They are constructing a new dock on Lake Washington and my dad had invited us to tour the barge that was parked just off shore. We had no idea how big it was until we got there. The crane towers above their three story house.
The ducks came to visit the barge too.
It was barely 10:30 by the time all this was done, so we set off for the mountains. Cross country skiing at Snoqualmie was free and we weren’t about to miss that opportunity.
Shortly after we got home, however, tragedy struck. Our largest snowman took a tumble. So sad!
