Berkeley Park at Mount Rainier

Dawn and I had a chance to get up to Berkeley Park at Mt. Rainier. Amazing visibility the first day, which dropped to less than sixty feet as we were leaving the second day. More here:

San Juan Islands

I got up to the San Juan islands for a couple days of paddling with Chris and Justine. Most excellent trip despite my (very) unhappy ankle and some interesting paddling conditions at the start.

I've put a few sunset pics on flickr.

A year later... (Snowgrass Flats)

Dawn, Kevin, Letticia & I got down to Snowgrass Flats in the Goat Rocks area in Washington to celebrate the 1st anniversary of my climbing accident. My ankle was not real happy with me, but it was so awesome getting outdoors again...

Climbing in Oregon

So a group of us headed down to climb South Sister, in central Oregon, this weekend. We planned to set up basecamp on Friday night, alpine start early Saturday, summit Saturday before midday and return to basecamp Saturday night, before driving home Sunday. We also hoped to get some rock climbing in at Smith Rock on the way home on Sunday. The mountains were so clouded in as we drove down Friday that I suggested we just climb at Smith Rock all weekend. Either folks agreed with me or I just whined enough that they gave in, and we headed to Smith Rock for a great weekend of climbing. (Turned out that Saturday would have been a stellar day to summit South Sister, we could see it from Smith that morning. But the clouds rolled in quickly in the afternoon, and that probably would have been pretty miserable.)

Photos are on my Flickr site.

Climbing in Leavenworth

Jeff, Nick, Cassie and I headed over to Leavenworth to do a little rock climbing along Icicle creek. We ended up climbing at RotoWall and Clamshell Cave. Much fun, and the scenery is gorgeous in a barren way (forest fire a couple of years ago really cleared things out).

Photos are on my Flickr site.

Mt Rainier in April

I took a weekend trip by myself up above Paradise at Mt. Rainier. Beautiful stuff. Tested out the new three season, single wall tent from REI called the Ace SW. Very impressed by it. This is the second time I've had it out, and I only have a few nitpicks. (Even though I've hardly said anything substantial here, full disclosure: I am an employee at REI; any views expressed herein are my own.)

Photos are on my Flickr site.

The Olympic Coast

Mark and I got out for a great three night backpack along the Olympic coast, from Sand Point to Cape Alava, It rained, but not as much as we expected, or probably as much as we deserved given the time of year.

Photos on my Flickr account.

Summerland and Pan Handle Gap

One of the best hikes of the year, from near the White River campground, past Summerland and up to Pan Handle Gap. Fantastic stuff. Unfortunately I put off many photos of the mountain off until afternoon, and by afternoon clouds had moved in and covered the mountain. Should have known.

Photos on my Flickr site:

St. Helens

Climbed to the rim of St. Helens. Still the winter route up Worm Flows from the Marble Mountain snowpark parking lot. A fun crew. Would have been just a tremendous climb, but smoke from forest fires in Oregon obscured the views.

Snowshoeing at Mt. Rainier - Castle & Pinnacle

I headed into the Tatoosh, up to the Castle and Pinnacle Peak. Forecast called for scattered snow showers. It should have called for: Snow, with conditions ranging from flurries to full on blizzard, clearing occasionally for momentary glimpses of blue sky.

Trees on Mazama ridge.

On the way up. The light gray blur above the trees on the left is the castle.

The Castle in a moment of clarity. The skiers had fantastic conditions that day.

The Castle (dark on far left), with Pinnacle behind it.

Looking up at Pinnacle.

Looking down on Reflection Lakes. Near the center, about a third of the way down from the top edge is a rectangle that is the new Visitors Center at Paradise.

The trail on the way down from Castle and Pinnacle.

Cool, droopy snow.

Trees between Reflection Lakes and Mazama Ridge.

On the way out the clouds lifted for a bit and revealed some more of the Tatoosh (Eagle?).

A trip to the Zoo!

We've been wanting to get up to the Woodland Park zoo in Seattle, and finally made it! Not a ton of photos, but a couple. As zoos go, this one isn't too bad.


The zoo rehab's the injured raptors they receive, and only keep those that won't be successful if released. Not sure exactly what is going on with this beautiful eagle's wing.

Kookaburra sits in the old gum tree. Quite literally.

There's dragons in them thar hills.

Ferruginous Hawk

Gyrfalcon


We also spent a while in the nocturnal exhibit, what was awesome, but of course produced no photos. (grin!)

Snowshoeing at Mt. Rainier

Opened the spring with a fantastic snowshoe at Rainier. Next time we just need to remember to put the sunscreen on a little earlier!

Cycling - Ravensdale, WA

Went to watch a friend of mine race (road cycling) today. He wasn't part of the early break, and couldn't get anyone else in the pack to make a chase so he spent most of the race trying to catch the break by himself. He had closed the gap at the end, but never did catch breakaway group. A very strong ride (by himself for 50+ miles), but as he said "that's no way to race."

Snowshoeing at Mt. Rainier

Kim and I got out snowshoeing this weekend at Mt. Rainier. The plan had been to head into a nearby wilderness area, but the forest service roads aren't plowed and so weren't passable. So, quick change of plan, we headed in to the Reflection Lakes area for a quiet and beautiful (if a bit cold) weekend.

Oh, and I almost forgot to mention the skunk that paid us a visit in the night; kindly leaving a scent on our dishes and a pile on the spot where Kim had poured out her tea after dinner. We made some cocoa in the Jetboil, but (needless to say) didn't use the dishes!

The clouds were simply flying over some of the Tatoosh peaks.

And we even managed to catch a fair amount of sun in the afternoon (much better than the cloudy forecast called for!).

The big mountain was hidden in clouds most of the time, but every once in a while we'd catch a glimpse, like this one from camp.

We set up camp fairly early in a small open space southeast of Reflection Lakes.

The sun was _soooo_ nice!

Look at this! Feet on the dinner table! Can't take this girl anywhere!

Cross Country Skiing at Hyak

Went cross country skiing with some folks from work on Saturday at Hyak Snopark near Snoqualmie. Absolutely beautiful weather!