The work on the Central District House is substantially complete, and some friends of mine are now living in it. With that project now behind me, I took advantage of one of my three-day weekends and went on a multi-day hike in the Cascades, and I planned to accomplish this trip without the use of my own car. The destination was the Rock Mountain Trail, located just east of Steven's Pass on the western part of Nason Ridge, and also very near the eastern portal of the "new" Cascade Tunnel.
I left Friday morning on the northbound Amtrak Cascades train bound for Everett. With my bus pass, I can ride this train for free to Everett, which was a nice relaxing way to start my trip. At Everett Station, I caught a Community Transit route 270 to Gold Bar. 70 minutes later in Gold Bar, I stocked up on some supplies at the Family Grocer, which is conveniently located at the end of the bus line. Then I headed to the highway to hitch a ride over the pass. I didn't have much luck until I made a cardboard sign: STEVENS PASS PLEASE. With that, I had a ride within a few minutes from a guy who was going rock climbing near Leavenworth. My destination was the Rock Mountain Trailhead, located a few miles east of the pass, and the trailhead conveniently just a stone's throw from the highway. After getting dropped off there, I repacked my stuff, stashed a few heavy items in the trees that I wouldn't need until later, and headed up the trail. This trail is very steep, about 3300' elevation gain in about 4 miles and almost 100 switchbacks. I was few miles short of the transition zone between the wet and dry sides of the mountains; it was cloudy and windy where I was, but I could see clear skies to the east. At about the 6000' level, I was in the fog. My plan was to camp at Rock Lake that night, but it was a bit difficult to locate the lake in the fog. With the help of my GPS, I found the lake and scoped out a nice campsite perched on a shelf above the lake. It wasn't exactly raining, but there was a blowing mist that was dampening every available surface. I made some dinner as dusk fell, and then searched for a sheltered spot to sleep. I stayed relatively dry and comfortable in my bivy sack tucked under a small lean-to I made with a small tarp.
On Saturday I woke up to the same blowing mist and fog as I had enjoyed the night before. I had planned to scramble up nearby Mount Howard today, but now it didn't seem particularly worthwhile in this weather. Instead I went back up the trail, dropped my pack, and hiked the trail up to the top of Rock Mountain. The view wasn't any better up there, but at least there was a well established trail to an old lookout site at the top. I loitered at the top for a few minutes hoping that the fog would break, but the view didn't get much more interesting. I headed back down the trail, retracing my steps from yesterday. At about the 5500' level, I spotted what looked like a golden brown hamburger bun on the ground. It was a King Bolete (Boletus edulis), a choice edible mushroom. I dropped my pack and combed through the area to see if I could find any more. I found two nice ones worth harvesting, and packed them in my bag. I was back at the trailhead by about 3:00pm. From here, I hiked up the highway about 1/2 mile where I hung out waiting for a westbound ride.
By 9:00 Sunday morning, I found myself in the Carkeek park area. From here I followed a nice trail up Piper's Creek, and found a route 75 bus stop. I took the 75 and then transferred to a 48, and I was back home at about 11:00, where Amie and friends were cooking brunch.
September 3, 2008
Over Labor Day weekend, Amie and I have been hanging out in Sandpoint, ID, where Amie's extended family lives. The main purpose of the trip was to retrieve Amie's piano, which has been sitting in her grandparents' house for many years, but we took an extended 5-day weekend to spend some time with Amie's family and explore what the Idaho Panhandle had to offer during the summer.
Hangin' in the Panhandle
We left Seattle on Wednesday afternoon. We scored a ride from the local Rideshare board on Craigslist. Someone was leaving for Sandpoint with an empty car at precisely the time that we wanted to leave. 5 hours after meeting this fellow we were in downtown Sandpoint and we rendezvoused with Amie's mom who gave us a ride the final few miles to their house.
On Thursday we hung out at Amie's grandparents' house, contemplating the piano move and exploring the property. Much of Amie's family lives around Heath Lake, an area that was settled by Amie's great-great grandparents in the 1920's. We fired up an old Honda trailbike that Amie had ridden numerous times as a youth, and toured her old stomping grounds.
On Friday, we went on a hike in the Selkirk mountain range above Priest Lake. We summited Mt. Roothan, elevation 7326', and got a good view of Chimney Rock. The weather was a mixed bag, some clouds, a little rain, and some sun breaks. We did get some nice views in before beginning our descent.
Saturday was piano moving day. In the morning we retrieved a U-Haul truck and proceeded to Grandma's house. Amie's Aunts & Uncles had gathered to help us move the beast and had already begun the task when we arrived with the truck. After much pushing and shoving, the piano was secured in the truck within about an hour and a half. We lollygagged for the rest of the day. My brother Jack happened to be traveling on business somewhat nearby and he met up with us that afternoon. Amie's parents live on the shore of Lake Pend Oreille and have a boat; that evening Amie, Jack, and Amie's dad took a cruise around the lake. We saw numerous houses that looked like they were ordered directly from Sunset Magazine, plus a few castles.
On Sunday, Amie, Jack, and I headed for Schweitzer Mountain, not for skiing but to hike up in the high country. In the summer, Schweitzer runs their Great Escape chair to shuttle hikers, downhill mountain bikers, and general tourists up 1700' to the top of the mountain. We got two free tickets through familial sources, and rode the lift to the top. From there, we scrambled down to Colburn Lake, eating huckleberries as we went. We also found all kinds of interesting artifacts under one of the ski lifts. After hanging out at the lake for a while, we followed the "normal" trail, which climbed back up to the top. Then we boarded a descending chair back to the village. Back at the Schweitzer base, there was a Beerfest going on, with plenty of local microbrews and a few bands featured. The Beerfest was somewhat dampened by a hail storm that blew through.
On Monday, we had a leisurely day, and then headed westward in the evening, late enough to miss the Labor Day traffic. After an uneventful drive, we returned to our house with piano in tow.
Tuesday's mission was to unload the piano and move in into the living room. We hired some piano movers to help us, and they had the beast moved in less than 45 minutes.
Finally, the first hike of the season. Last weekend I went on a 3-day hike/scramble. Destination: Mt. Stuart. This prominent peak in the central Cascades is the 6th highest peak and 2nd highest non-volcano in Washington State. For years I have had Mt. Stuart in my sights as a peak that I have wanted to climb. Although there are many popular technical routes to the summit, there are a number of scrambleable routes up the SE face, making it an attractive destination for a solo journey. Using alternative transport, I was able to complete a nice through route over the three days without needing to retrace my steps.
On Friday morning, I boarded a Northwestern Trailways bus at the King Street station. The Northwestern Trailways line is a nice resource that I have recently discovered; there are two daily buses that run up Hwy 2 and have stops at Skykomish, Steven's Pass, Leavenworth, and Wenatchee. The one-way fare from Seattle to Leavenworth was $24. Today this bus was completely packed, and some passenger disputes in Everett caused to bus to arrive in Leavenworth about 40 minutes late. Nonetheless, I had a nice nap on the bus and arrived in Leavenworth at about 12:30 in the afternoon. The next step was to take a Link Transit bus from Leavenworth to the Hwy 2/97 (A.K.A "Big Y") junction. Unfortunately I misread the transit schedule and just missed the bus. I was going to have to hitchhike a little ways up 97 anyway, so I thought I would try my luck getting that ride here by making a sign: BLEWETT HWY. I got a ride quickly, but only to the Hwy 97 Junction, and the Ingalls creek trailhead was still 8 miles up the highway. After about 45 minutes of waiting, a guy from Ellensburg picked me up and even went the extra mile out of his way to deposit me right at the trailhead. It was about 3:30 PM and my goal for the afternoon was to make it as far up the Ingalls Creek trail as I could; it's about 12 miles to the start of the route up to Mt. Stuart. I bit off about 8 miles of the trail in quick time and found a nicely furnished campsite by the creek. I made a yummy dinner just as it was getting dark and promptly retired to my bivy sack.
On Saturday, I woke up at a semi-reasonable hour, made breakfast, packed up, and completed the remaining 3 miles of the Ingalls Creek Trail. This part of the trail goes through some severely burned areas, where I saw many woodpeckers audibly drilling into the dead snags. At the junction of Ingalls Creek and Beverly-Turnpike trails, I sought out a campsite where I would stash my big pack before ascending Mt. Stuart. There were some so-so campsites right at the junction, but I decided to drop 400' to the creek crossing, where I found more-favorable camping. Here I did some laundry, packed a daypack, and began my ascent of Mt. Stuart. The route I followed was what's referred to as "Variation No. 1" in the Becky Book, which is a class 3-4 scramble route up the SE face. I located a well-beaten path about 100' west of the Beverly-Turnpike junction, and followed it to approximately the 6000' level where it intercepted a gully and petered out. From there I followed the gully straight up into a small cirque, then ascended to a snowfield at about 8700'. I was very glad to have brought my ice axe, because this snowfield was extremely steep and would have deposited any frictionally challenged climbers right into some nasty boulders. I gingerly made my way across the snowfield toward the false summit, then a quick jaunt to the true summit. There I had a late lunch and absorbed the amazing view, although it was somewhat limited by some mean looking clouds that were blowing in from the west. After lunch, I began my descent, which included about 800' of gnarly glissading! I reached camp in the late evening and made another dinner as darkness fell.
Early Sunday morning I awoke to light sprinkles on my face. Rather than take evasive maneuvers in my bivy sack, I decided it was time to wake up. I quickly made a breakfast of oatmeal and poor-man's mocha, packed up, and hit the trail. My original plan was to take the Beverly-Turnpike trail to the Teanaway road, but a short ways up the trail, I decided to instead follow a ridgeline westward to Longs Pass. Cross-country travel isn't too difficult in these parts, although there were some tricky parts at the top of this ridge. An advantage of this route is that it would put me at the popular Esmeralda Basin trailhead, where I would likely find many opportunities for a ride back to Seattle. This ridge is directly across from Mt. Stuart and would have offered nice views of said mountain, except that its head was in the clouds all day. As soon as I intercepted the Longs Pass trail, hikers abounded. The traffic volumes increased even more as I joined the Ingalls Lake Trail and then the Esmeralda Basin Trail, and I could tell that finding a ride would be a cinch. Before I approached the parking lot, I took a few moments to get cleaned up and put on my only clean shirt. Then I proceeded to the overflowing parking lot to find a ride back to Seattle. As I am waiting, a familiar vehicle with a familiar face pulled up, it was Beth, my dad's partner. We chatted for a bit, if I could stick around for another 6 hours then I could get a ride back with her. That didn't fit my agenda so I kept looking. Eventually I bummed a ride from a pair of climbers who made an unsuccessful attempt to summit Mt. Stuart earlier in the day, but had to turn back due to the light rain in the morning. They dropped me off on Rainier Ave and I caught a Route 7 bus to take me the remaining distance home and I was back in time for dinner.
July 20, 2008
Oregon Country Fair
Last weekend Amie and I went to the famed Oregon Country Fair. The Fair is an annual Oregon tradition that has been going strong for a long time; this was its 40th year.
A group of our friends formed a plan to go down there and camp at an adjacent campground known at the Darling Family Reunion, and we were invited. We had both heard many good things about The Fair, so we decided that this was the year to check it out.
We arrived on Thursday and established our camp at Darling. It was a good thing that we got there early, because the place really filled up by late Thursday. The fair began on Friday, and we walked over there that morning. I was impressed that Lane Transit District was running frequent shuttles between The Fair and Downtown Eugene, and each bus that passed us was packed to the gills. Our first impression of The Fair was that is was like Disneyland filled with Hippies. It was pretty crowded, but the forest canopy above provided cool shade and there were ample spots to duck out of the crowd and rest for a few minutes. We went in with a group of about six, but we quickly lost each other amidst the Chaos.
Over the next few days, we enchanted ourselves with amazing shows, such as a kung fu/mime/juggling show, a circus/acrobat show, and an acapella group that sang about farts and cowboy lips. We enjoyed random impromptu busking spanning a multitude of various genres throughout the fair. Amie and I feasted on some amazing food and bought a few interesting odds & ends; it is a country fair after all. The Fair had an aura of tradition and history, which I thought was pretty special and was in sharp contrast to the temporary nature of other similar gatherings that I have experienced, such as Burning Man. The Fair was a family-friendly affair; children were running all over having a good time and were well behaved, even the parents seemed well behaved too.
On Saturday afternoon, after we had seen some amazing people, shows, and other things defying description, Amie and I were sitting down in one of the mini-sanctuaries resting and watching the people go by. Suddenly people started running, grabbing their children, pointing to the sky behind us with gaped mouths. "What could possibly be so amazing to warrant such a reaction in this place?" I thought to myself. "A UFO?" Even that probably wouldn't faze all the people standing here in front of us. We stood up, turned around, and saw an entire tree engulfed in flames about 100' away from us, and spreading fast into the canopy above. The well-organized Fair staff quickly had a fire hose on the tree and prevented a potential disaster.
On Sunday, the last day, we returned to the fair for a short while to get some things that we had looked at earlier and decided that we couldn't live without, and then piled into our carpool and headed home. I enjoyed The Fair and would like to return again sometime, maybe next time volunteering within to see how the operation really ticks, plus to get the after-hours privileges enjoyed by those that contribute to this quirky and lovable conglomeration of souls.
June 29, 2008
Weather Report by Felix
Felix thinks it was too hot today.
June 10, 2008
Amidst the ongoing construction work on the 22nd Ave house, I have found some time to update the Portfolio Page on my website. I have added a link to a Pedestrian Congestion study that I worked on and has been published on Metro-Online, uploaded the most recent Spot Improvement Reports, and updated a few other items.
More Work
© 2007 Owen Kehoe
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