Church Mountain, Take 1

Church Mountain trailhead

This past weekend Al sent around one of those emails to the Senior Trailblazers asking if anyone might be interested in heading up to Church Mountain today, on the schedule for this Thursday, to assess the current conditions. Last week he and Steve pronounced Hannegan Pass way too difficult for the entire group. Today, three of the female variety of Trailblazers answered his call: me, Jonelle, and Mary.

It was not the bright sunshiny day we were hoping for, but the fog and mist made for a pleasant upward hike. We didn't run into snow until we had climbed most of the way to the meadow, where we hoped to stop for lunch. We had about 300 feet of elevation to climb through snow. It's not a long hike when you can't climb to the top, only a short three miles or so, but we went up a bit of elevation, 2,400 feet to be exact. Last year we went up this hike in the middle of July but only got to the meadow. This link has an interesting picture comparing our first attempt in 2011 with the one in 2010 on almost the same date. Today was somewhere in between. Here's our lunch spot, which should cool down those of you in the oppressive heat.

We had just reached the meadow, and as you can see we had little view. Al is wearing only a t-shirt, because we were working hard going uphill, but once we stopped for lunch we donned all the warm gear we had brought along.

Here were are bundled up to stay warm, looking out at the limited view. Mt. Baker is out there somewhere, and hopefully when we try this again on Thursday you will be able to see it. There was no breeze and we had a marvelous lunch and satisfying conversation before heading back down. I asked Al to take a picture of the three of us women, so I can show everyone that Jonelle and I do resemble each other, but we both have quite different looks. After last week's hike when I put up some pictures of Jonelle, many mistook her for me.

Mary, Jonelle, me

Even with all that snow, it really wasn't cold, but we did need to put on our warm gear in order to stay that way. We remarked on the fact that as we were getting ready to head back down, the sun kept trying to break through the clouds. We had fog and snow, but a very pleasant temperature during the entire day. On the way back down, the sun broke through long enough for me to get this picture of Al:

Al was very pleased with the hike and said it would be fine for the entire Trailblazer group to join us on Thursday, since we are only intending to make it to the meadow. Last year toward the end of August we made it to the actual summit of Church Mountain, giving us the full nine miles and 4,000 feet of elevation gain and loss. Here's the link. Although it's a hard hike, the payoff is tremendous. As you can see, if you look at the first link I provided here and the second one, the difference between mid-July and the end of August last year was simply amazing. I'm wondering what the difference will be three days from now. Stay tuned!
:-)

Before I forget

Finally finished planting my garden

Before I forget to post this blog, I'd better get it written down. I swear, last Saturday I had every intention of writing a post, and I even had a topic: the death of Lonesome George, the last giant tortoise of his kind in the world. When I traveled there I met him, if you can call looking at his shell meeting him. In my mind, I had written and posted all about it, but no, I found that I completely spaced not only Saturday's post, but Tuesday's as well.

So all about my garden! Those closest three rows you see in the picture were planted yesterday, with collard starts and black kale. I also put some marigold plants in each row to discourage pests. Slugs are driving me crazy. Look what they've done to my squash plant.

It's not just the leaves close to the ground; they have almost entirely eaten my sweet basil, which it seems they love. I am reduced to using Sluggo (those little white pellets on the ground), since they don't seem to be deterred in the least by the eggshells. I have yet to try the beer solution, but someone suggested copper all around the entire garden. I just went out to inspect those last rows and they did munch on a few of those tender leaves as well. Since they were planted yesterday, I know they are either not taking the bait or there are just too many of them. Not everybody is unwelcome, though. Yesterday I noticed this guy who seemed to fall in love with the young radish leaves:

Is this a moth or a butterfly? He's really huge, beautiful and unafraid to pose for his picture, it seems. Such a pretty thing. He was in my neighbor's garden plot, just flitting back and forth around the newly sprouted radishes. I also saw this morning an exciting opening blossom on my Asian eggplant. Those slugs better not bother this guy, since I have every intention of eating the fruit of it myself!

Asian eggplant blossom, 30 June 2012

Yesterday I broke a few leaves off the kale plants I put in the ground last month, which are looking really good. Apparently slugs prefer basil to kale; although they've tasted them they haven't attacked kale in the same way as other plants. You can see there are two varieties of kale here, although now I don't remember which is which. One is more strongly flavored than the other, but the two of us took a stem each and raised them like glasses of wine before we devoured them raw. Yum!

When I awoke this morning to a light rain (good for the garden!), I decided to go ahead and go on the morning walk with my lady friends. On the way there, the rain grew heavy enough for me to wonder about my decision, but before we had gone once around Lake Padden, the rain had stopped and we even saw the sun a few times. Little Alfie was sporting a brand-new raincoat, with cute little buttons and a hood. When he jumped up in his owner's arms, she pulled the hood up, but I missed the shot. He reluctantly allowed me to get this picture for you to enjoy.

By the time we returned from going around the lake twice (a total of 5.2 miles), this little raincoat was completely muddy and dirty, much like our shoes. I was really glad I went, though, since I am now feeling much more appreciative of the overcast skies than when I first got out of bed. In a short while I'll head to the movies with Judy. It's already been a good day, and I managed to remember to write a post for my blog!
:-)

Maple Grove

Our Trailblazers June 2012, picture taken by Con

I have just spent the past hour looking for the last time I wrote about a Senior Trailblazers trip to Maple Grove on the South Trail of Baker Lake. Well, we last visited this place in late March 2009, and I wasn't exactly writing posts every week about our trips as I do today. There wasn't one, and we had a lot of snow back then. But not today. Eight of us met at the Senior Center to decide where we might go on this late June day, since our scheduled trip was out of the question, due to the deep snow at Sauk Mountain. After last week's humbling experience on the Excelsior Pass trail, we decided to try another trip south to Baker Lake and take the trail to Maple Grove.

Foxgloves at the trailhead

When we arrived at the trailhead, we met Cindy and Con, two Trailblazers who were planning to hike the trail as well, so we became ten until we stopped for lunch. Although the day called for a 70% chance of rain (no surprise), the day dawned clear and mostly sunny. Almost the entire day we had more sun than clouds, and we knew the rain was expected later in the day. The trail was so beautiful, with old growth trees and gentle, easy terrain, so we were feeling particularly happy to be in such a gorgeous place, with no snow.

For the first part of the hike, we met no other people on the trail and simply enjoyed the abundant birdsong and light breeze. This trail has little elevation gain and loss (I think the whole day was less than 1,400), so we didn't need to do anything more than enjoy the beauty of the big old trees and lovely greenery. We did have one stream crossing that would have been difficult without the assistance of a metal rope to give me a little courage.

You can see the strong current under our feet as we made our way across; the roaring water and the narrow log gave us a challenge, but everyone successfully navigated the crossing. We took a little side trip to look at the campsites at Anderson Creek, and I caught this lovely picture of Mt. Shuksan reflected in Baker Lake.

Mt. Shuksan reflected in Baker Lake

All of my pictures of Mt. Baker, which was visible as well as Mt. Shuksan, were washed out due to the high clouds, but this one I felt was worthy of some admiration. Al took a picture of me alone in front of this beautiful view, but I like to limit the number of pictures I put on these posts, so it will need to wait for another time. As you can see, there was little wind to stir the water on Baker Lake, and the clouds were there but didn't obscure the view.

At Maple Grove, enjoying perfect weather

We stopped for lunch at Maple Grove, having traveled four-and-a-half miles to get there. The weather continued to be just about perfect as we ate and enjoyed each other's company before heading back the way we had come. Cindy and Con stayed behind to make their own way home, while the other eight Trailblazers said farewell for now and went on our way. We met several other hikers on the way back, but until then we had this beautiful place to ourselves. Nowhere was I able to find a picture that could capture the beauty of the day, the enormous gorgeous trees, and then I looked up.

The canopy of beautiful trees surrounded us and gave us shade and shelter. By the time we reached our cars, we had covered 8.4 miles and 1,500 feet of elevation gain and loss on an absolutely perfect day, weather in the low 70s, light breeze, no rain, and the best company I could imagine. Now I am home, happy and content, and glad to share my day with you. Until next time, I offer you some happy virtual hugs.
:-)

Where did the time go?

Imagine my surprise when I suddenly realized I hadn't written a post this past weekend, OR one yesterday, either! And tomorrow is the Thursday hike again, with my obligatory post of the day spent outdoors in the Pacific Northwest. I've been spending the days going into town as usual, riding my bike, watering the garden, and reading. I finished two books this weekend and started The Invisible Bridge, which I unfortunately cannot put down. Being 600 pages long, this is a bit of a problem. I'm halfway through the book, and I'm loving it.  That link takes you to a New York Times book review, called "When Europe Wept," which I found for you to understand a bit of why this book has absorbed me. It begins in 1937 with a young Hungarian Jewish man going to Paris to study architecture. He is caught up in the horrible events in Europe, along with being Jewish. I care deeply about Andras and his family, and because of him, I've become a bit of a slacker here on my blog. I apologize, but if you want to get involved in a very good read and lose a few days or weeks of your own life, read this book.

Yesterday morning on my way to the bus, I stopped to say hello to my garden and snapped this picture of the early morning rays on the kale. It's so pretty, how can I ever bring myself to eat these leaves? Don't worry, I will, I'm just not sure when it's appropriate to harvest them and whether I just take a few off and leave the plant intact. There is plenty of information available on line, so I'll do some checking when it seems like the time is right. I've got blossoms on my Asian eggplant, which also excites me, thinking of actual eggplants showing up.

And I'm fighting with the slugs. Right now I'm saving eggshells and spreading them around my plants, hoping they won't like the feeling as they slither onto my plants during the night. I was told one sure-fire way to get rid of slugs is to put out pie tins filled with beer. They will fall in and drown as they get drunk, I'm told. That seems like a strange way to keep them away; with my luck they will start a tavern and spread the word to all their friends. (smile)

I really truly thought I had written a post here on Saturday and then yesterday I thought about writing another one, but I looked up from my book and found that it was time for bed. How did that happen? Where did the time go? I'll be back here again tomorrow after our hike, hoping to keep myself on track. I know I'm the one who sets these deadlines for myself, but they feel as real to me as any I followed when I was working. Now I'm off to read my friends' blogs! Until tomorrow...
:-)

First Excelsior Pass attempt

Jonelle at the Flume

Nine Senior Trailblazers met at the Senior Center this morning to make our first 2012 attempt to get to Excelsior Pass. Three weeks ago, Fred and Al headed up to this trailhead to see what kind of shape it's in. Here's what Al wrote about it then. In the three weeks since he was here, he said much of the snow that he was falling through at that time is now gone. We went almost three miles before we ran into some serious snow, at about 4,000 feet elevation.

Snow and downed trees

By the time I took this picture, we were on snow the whole time, with only Al's GPS and some previous trail markers giving us an idea that we were headed towards the pass. We soldiered on for another mile, gaining almost another 1,000 feet, before we stopped for lunch. We had 800 vertical feet to go in heavy snow before we would be at the top, so we decided to try again another day and just find a sunny spot on the snow. On the way up, we noticed that the air temperature would be very cold and then very warm, as if competing weather systems were fighting for the upper hand.

Our lunch spot was pretty nice, considering that we were sitting on snow but basking in the sunshine as we ate lunch and gathered our strength for the descent. While I was sitting here enjoying the sun, I looked up and saw a ring around the sun, which we decided must have something to do with the humidity. (None of us really knows what caused it.) It made for a very impressive picture, though.

I suspect that the ring follows all the way around the sun, but I was only able to get this picture with the tree covering the sun itself. Pretty cool, huh? I wasn't at all convinced that the picture would turn out, but it certainly did. As I readied myself for the descent, I noticed that Jonelle was looking pretty spiffy, all black on the white snow, so I begged for a picture.

Jonelle in the snow

Linda told Jonelle she has never had so many pictures taken of her as he has since I joined the group, pointing my camera impertinently at my photogenic companions. Jonelle and I both have transition lenses on our glasses, which turn jet black when we are on the snow. I love this picture and make no excuses for including it.

We made our way back through the snow to the incredible greenery; that one mile we spent totally on the snow was the slowest and most difficult part of this journey. It gives us a chance to come back here a bit later in the season and make it all the way to the top. When we did that last year, we had an incredible view, but it wasn't until August that we got there. In fact, it was the first summit we reached last year, and it took another another two months before the snow gave us a chance. Hopefully this year will be better, but it's still early, only being the end of June and all.

Jonelle blowing out her candles

When we finally reached the trailhead, Amy pulled out some cupcakes so we could celebrate Jonelle's June birthday with her. I didn't actually get a picture of her blowing out the candle, but our social secretary, Amy, was (as always) making sure that we ALL feel the love. It was a very good day, even if we only went 7.2 miles (one of those miles was up snow!). In those short miles we covered 3,000 feet of elevation up and down. No wonder I'm feeling a bit tired.
:-)

This and that

Our community garden is now in full swing, as you can see here. I took this picture on Saturday, not wanting to wade into it since we have had almost two inches of rain these past three days. It was cloudy and rainy Saturday through most of Monday. Our temperature never got out of the sixties, while much of the rest of the country sweltered. Here's the latest forecast from the Climate Prediction Center for the coming 6–10 days:

Looks like the Pacific Northwest and the northeast part of the country will be cooler than normal, and the precipitation map (available from the link) shows those two places will be wetter than normal, too. Great for the garden but not so great for hiking, biking or skydiving. Although we go on our Thursday hikes rain or shine, it sure would be nice to have some shine for a change.

Last Friday, however, was a beautiful day and I rode my bike a fair distance. It surprises me how differently I use the quadricep muscles for bicycling, which is the only reason I can explain how sore they were after what I considered to be a short ride (10–12 miles). I got fenders so I can ride in the rain, but I had little desire to go out and break them in. It's amazing to me how many bikes are on the road: I never noticed before, but now I watch each rider and take note of their techniques for riding in traffic. I downloaded a map of the bike routes around town; there are quite a lot, and since I can ride the bus with my bike to avoid most traffic and get to parks and other places, I'll probably do a fair amount of that.

Yesterday my friend Judy and I went to see Hysteria, a move made last year with Maggie Gyllenhaal and Hugh Dancy, among others. It is a comedy set in England in the mid-nineteenth century, when Dr. Mortimer Granville invented the vibrator for the medical treatment of hysteria. That is historical fact, but the movie is a whimsical comedy with some really fun performances. It didn't get great reviews (only 55% on Rotten Tomatoes), but Roger Ebert liked it and wrote

This milestone in human progress has never received the respect it deserves, and yet vibrators have been selling widely and well ever since, even in the early Sears catalogs. ... The performances are spot on, and I especially like the spunky Gyllenhaal.

So did I. This is not a great movie, but I really enjoyed it, laughed a lot, and I thought the guy sitting next to me was going to have a paroxysm of his own, he was laughing so hard at times. If you want to laugh and appreciate some good period costumes and acting, this is the movie for you.

I'm also reading and enjoying a book written and released last fall by Dr. Andrew Weil, Spontaneous Happiness. I'm halfway through it, and I'm enjoying hearing all the ways he suggests finding my own pathway to mental health in a world that I find difficult to appreciate at times. I sometimes get overwhelmed with current world events and lose my perspective, and he suggests many ways to find balance.

Well, that's why this post is titled "This and That." Filled with unrelated stuff, with my own small universe right at the center. I so enjoy reading about what is going on in the lives of my blogging buddies; I hope you will find this a little entertaining.
:-)

Meet Butch

Smart Guy took this picture just a few minutes ago of Butch and me. I named her "Butch" because she's got that horizontal bar and could be mistaken for a boy, but she's definitely a girl; I know, she told me. She got a complete tuneup, new tires and brake pads, and really rides wonderfully. The guy at Kulshan Cycles told me, when I picked her up, that she has an 18" frame and was considered "top of the line back in the day." I rode the bike around the block before I took her in, and the ride now is completely different! Yesterday was a beautiful sunny day, so I rode to Fairhaven, about 6-8 miles. Lots of people were out enjoying the sunshine. I rode back along Boulevard Park to the bus station and took the bus for the last three miles, probably having ridden a total of 10-12 miles. My legs were getting tired. I managed to get the bike secured onto the front of the bus without any problem.

Today it's raining, so I skipped the morning walk, not to mention that the gardening muscles and bicycling muscles are both a bit on the sore side. I figure the rain is good for the garden and a day off is not going to hurt anything. The flowers are out everywhere, and these peonies say hello to me on my way to check my veggies in the garden. Aren't they pretty?

Tomorrow is looking like more of the same weather, which means no skydiving this weekend. Today it's raining and there's a 70% chance for tomorrow. Even if it's not raining, it's likely to be cloudy. Someone asked recently why we can't jump through clouds. It's an FAA regulation: when you jump out of the plane, you need to see the ground. A plane could be on the other side of the cloud. When we get ready to leave the plane, we take a good look around for any air traffic, and the pilot also keeps watch. Of course, if you happen to fall through a cloud, there's nothing to be done about it, you can't very well stop! The pilot can lose his or her license if he or she allows a parachutist to get out and jump through clouds. Back in 1967, sixteen skydivers jumped out through clouds over Lake Erie and drowned, thinking they were over land. I found a legal document online that tells the tale here.

I'll read some of the books I've got from the library, or maybe even spend some time walking around in the rain (I know for  fact I won't melt), but I probably won't be riding Butch, digging in the garden (which will just be mud), or jumping out of airplanes. The rain is falling gently on the roof right now. Oh, and just for your pleasure, I found that Ray Morris, one of the Flickr people I follow, recently caught this amorous picture of two eagles.

Ray Morris Flickr site

It's that time of year, I guess.

:-)