Some things just seem to go together naturally. Salt & pepper, catsup & mustard, politicians & prostitutes (oops), and the great game of baseball with Memorial Day weekend. So after seeing a FaceBook post from my pal Mike announcing his son’s Club 9 Nationals were playing the Seattle Stars at 11:15 on Memorial Day, I made a plan to cycle down to the game.
Typical of most Memorial Day weekends in the Pacific Northwest, it started to rain as soon as I got to the end of my driveway. I could have just turned around and chose some alternate form of transportation, I even considered it for the briefest of moments. But this was not my first rodeo. I had been riding bicycles for well over half a century – rain or shine – I would dry out eventually. I was pretty sure the game wouldn’t be rained out.
I made my way down the Interurban Bike Trail for a few miles, then looped around Silver Lake. Of course I was delayed a dozen times for fields of flowers, flags at the cemetery, fleeting glimpses of birds… You know, all the important stuff!
Lupine and scotch broom
At this rate I’ll never make it to the game…
I reluctantly tore myself away from the wildflowers and rode on. I arrived at the ball field just as the teams were taking the field. I bellied up to the fence right next to the Nationals’ first base dugout and shifted my brain into “baseball mode”. (If you have to ask, then there is NO chance you would understand, even if I could explain it).
I looked around for Mike but never saw him. I instantly recognized his son Jeff who banged out a solid single in the first inning, and dazzled us all with his glove work at third base. I may have looked around for Mike once or twice during the game, but I can’t say for sure. I did however see every pitch and never missed a minute of Jeff’s play on the diamond. “Mike who”? – (I’m sure Mike will be chuckling when he reads that. I know he would agree with me that a father’s proudest moments are when his son’s achievements begin to surpass and overshadow his own).
Here is a little baseball action:
Here comes the heat
Jeff handling a grounder at the “hot corner”
The game is – Ageless
Smooth stroke to center
Jeff even pitched an inning
Good game (slap) nice game (slap) way to go (slap)
Taken on the roll
Well unfortunately the Nationals lost the game, but on the bright side it had stopped raining for my bicycle ride home. I shot down to the Lowell-Larimer Road and had a very pleasant pedal through the valley farm land.
So how about a final note of thanks to all the men and women who have served our country selflessly over the years and moment of silence for those who gave the ultimate sacrifice…. Thank You. Kat
I’m headed to Spokane for a week, so along the way I decided to explore one of the hundreds of remote basalt canyons flanking the Columbia River. Northrup Canyon is just a few miles east of Banks Lake, near Electric City. I hiked up through the ponderosa pines and aspen trees under some lead grey skies.
Aspens
The Northrup homestead is now a series of abandoned ranch buildings nestled in a beautiful meadow, about 3 miles up the trail.
Yep, That’s a trail of rusted tin cans…?
I was surprised to find this sea of rusted tin cans very near the trailhead. At first I thought maybe it was the dump site for the the homestead, but it’s miles from the cabins in the upper meadow, and there were just WAY too many cans for one ranch. Maybe it is related to workers hired for the dam construction on the Columbia.
Wildflowers were blooming
I jumped some deer on the trail and spotted western bluebirds and Bullock’s orioles.
iBird Pro image
The lower meadow
Basalt Canyon Walls
Old ranch house in the upper meadow
The Bunkhouse
The homestead sure had the look of a place that had been added on over the course of many years. The original ranch house and the bunkhouse had some log walls, some shingle walls, and some wooden plank walls.
Shingles
The ranch house
Saddle Notches
As a guy that hand-built a couple of log houses (we lived in one for 18 years) I am always intrigued by the construction methods used by the old pioneers. This saddled notch corner technique was fairly simple to cut and could be accomplished using only rough tools like an axe and a saw. It also was pretty efficient at shedding water so these houses seemed to last for many years.
Plank Wall
You can see this newer portion of the house had planks that were cut by some type of sawmill. Certainly a later addition, likely added on as the family outgrew the tiny log house. I can only imaging that the lumber must have come up along the Okanogan Trail on a wagon.
Well it was a wonderful hike and the rain held off until the last few steps back to the trailhead.
Well we’re back from an adventure filled trip to the island of Maui in Hawaii, and I just finished editing some 250 images and countless hours of video. I wanted to post some images here but I’m having a really difficult time trying to decide which pictures to not include. So here are a few of my random favorites, in no particular order, and a link to our movie: Hawaii Five-O.
The View From Our Room
The Dudes with Jane and Rebecca
We spent a lot of time in that pool.
The Line-up
Grandma Suzie had a birthday while we were there
Rolling on the Sugar Cane Train
Our view for the week
Ukulele players at the Luau
Leane, Travis & Booker
Lahaina Sunset
Cadence, Richie & Duke
Suzie
The mountains to the north
The surf board fence
Hookipa Point
Hookipa Park
It’s Time for – Night Ops
Night Ops
More Night Ops
How I spent my Maui vacation–Loved every minute of it!
I’m obsessed with islands… At least I have been the last few weeks. Perhaps it is because we’re headed off to the fabulous Hawaiian Islands in a week. Or, more likely, it is because we live in the Puget Sound area which is an island paradise in it’s own right. A little grayer, cloudier, colder…but a paradise, for sure.
The collage at the left is a collection of images from just the last week or two depicting 7 different islands all within 10-40 minutes from home. I visited these islands using some combination of hiking, cycling, kayak, or motorbike.
For our motorbike ride to Guemes Island we would included another mode of transport, the Guemes Island car ferry. In spite of the lead colored sky and the light foggy mist hanging in the air, I convinced Susan that the sun was going to come out by the time we got to Anacortes. Our plan was to ride the FJR onto the ferry, motor up to the Guemes Mountain trailhead, and then do the 1- 1/2 mile hike up to the summit. After the hike we’d take a loop around the rock, and return on the ferry in the late afternoon.
Have a look at some images for the trip:
Ferry Landing
We had some fun watching this river otter while waiting for the ferry.
River Otter in the Shallows
Suzie- on Deck
Wheelhouse Reflection
Arriving at Guemes Island
Hiking Up Guemes Mt.
Looking North From Guemes Mountain
The FJR - waiting for our return...
The Waiting Area on Guemes Island
Our Ferry - Pulling In To Guemes
Guemes Channel
Suzie - On Watch
Well I’m happy to report that the sun did in fact come out, and we had a great hike to the summit, as well as a wonderful ride around the rural island roads.
Beautiful waterfront views opened up around every turn. And we only saw two cars, and one ATV quad on the roads during the entire ride.
Spring Break! Road Trip! Yeah! Ok, probably not what you were expecting for a college spring break adventure. But if you’re in kindergarden, and you get to take a big Metro bus into the city and visit the Seattle Aquarium, well that might just be a most excellent adventure!
Susan gets credit for “hatching ” the plan. She did a little research and found we could all pile onto a bus at Northgate for a few bucks and save ourselves the hassle of driving and parking downtown.
To say our Dudes were excited would be an understatement. They were all jabbering at me as soon as we pulled up to their house. They told me about the trip, as if it was the first time I’d ever heard of a person riding on a bus, or seen any building where there were fish living inside for little boys to visit.
Riding on the Hinge
Now for all the other Seattle urbanites riding on the bus I would expect there might be slightly less “wonderment” when riding directly over the hinge on an articulated bus… But for Kingston and me, this was cool! Our bench and the floor would rotate when the bus made a turn, and we turned a lot.
In fact the dudes were so excited that I noticed we’d actually brought a smile to the faces of several of the commuters sitting nearby.
OK, not so much this guy sitting next to Cadence and Suzie.
Cadence and Suzie
Our bus dropped us off at 3rd and University, deep down inside the Metro tunnel. We followed the labyrinth of ramps and escalators up to daylight (grey as it was) and walked down to the waterfront.
Walking to the Waterfront
This was a pleasant surprise…We met one of my SPD pals working on Western Ave. and stopped to say howdy.
Hey, I know that guy!
From there on to Alaskan Way and north to the aquarium. Here are a few (ok, more than a few) images from our visit:
Seattle Aquarium
Fun with Water
More - Fun with Water
Life on the edge
The Touching Pool
Inside the Jellyfish Tunnel
The Big Tank
Yo, There's a Guy in There
High Five
Under The Sea
More - Under The Sea
Elliott Bay
Bubble Boys
After we ate some lunch it was time to make our way back up to the bus and head for home. Pleasant surprise #2. A young man running a pedicab offered the Dudes a complementary ride for a few blocks along the waterfront.
Go ! Go ! Go !
Weeeeeeee!
Whew!
Headed Home
We had a great time at the aquarium and an adventure packed day.
Finally, a warm, sunny spring day in the Pacific Northwest. What a perfect “Chamber of Commerce” day to ride down and check out the Seattle Pedaler’s Fair in Ballard. Before you ask, “what’s a pedaler’s fair”? Look up pedalersfair.com and that will clear up some of your questions. The short answer is, a fun display of local bicycle related craftsmanship.
I had a nice easy ride from Gasworks Park, along the Burke Gillman Trail, following the Ship Canal to the Ballard area. Stopping for a 360 degree view at any one time would reveal, cyclists, runners, walkers, baby strollers, kayakers, float planes, and loads of people just lounging around. Oh, speaking of stopping…this was a photo walk type of bike ride, so you gotta bet I stopped a lot.
Kayaks Under the Bridge
Float Plane Overhead
White Bark
Fremont Bridge
The Header from the Web Site
Custom TIG Welding
Eventually I rolled up to the warehouse type building where the Pedaler’s Fair was located. The place was buzzing with activity. As a lifelong cyclist I have always enjoyed events like this and I feel it keeps my cycle interests balanced out. My past history of racing mountain bikes and several years spent as a bike cop in a “street drug unit” might have had tendency to make a guy somewhat narrow-minded if they failed to explore the rest of the wide world of bicycles. Hey, where were all these custom utility bike fabricators when I was toying with the idea of making a bicycle mount for my CAR-15?
I spent some time wandering around the different venders and examining all the unique products. Everyone was delighted when I asked if I could photograph their stuff. I guess I didn’t look like I was clever enough to copy any of their ideas and make them myself.
Delivery Bike
Bottle Openers
Gear Vase
The Buzz...
Bike Parking
From the Pedaler’s Fair it was back out into the glorious sunshine. I found a little mocha shop with some outside seating of the sunny side of the street.
Coffee Break
Spring Color
I took that self timer shot (of me at the mocha shop) with my camera placed on a trash can looking west. The colorful flowers were taken by simply rotating the camera to the north. I like to think I’m pretty “artsy” when I find these colorful photos surrounded by trash cans, graffiti, and general urban decay.
Once I was sufficiently fortified with caffeine to face the perils of the Burke Gillman Trail and all of it’s undisciplined Saturday morning traffic I was back in the saddle. This narrow ribbon of urban asphalt works pretty well if all of the trail users follow the rules of the road and keep their heads up as they navigate the twists, turns, starts, and stops. Unfortunately that rarely (never) happens on a sunny spring saturday morning. No worries! It was just gonna be up to me to ride defensively and be extra careful.
Along the Waterfront
Swoosh!
"On Your Left"
In the two images above, taken just seconds apart, one can get the sense of how busy the trail is. Think of it as an Urban Stunt Circus, or better yet visualize a Gladiator School.
Bike Art
That’s about it for this little slice of urban adventure. I’ll leave you with a portrait of my faithful steed. Cannondale T-2000 touring bike, Ortlieb panniers, Vaude handlebar bag, and SPD campus clip-in pedals.
Well we’re off and running again. This time down to Columbia Hills State park, Horsethief Butte, and the Dalles Mountain Ranch. In the heart of the Columbia River Gorge, it is the windsurfing capital of the Pacific Northwest, so we knew there would be plenty of wind… but it is the windflowers and migrating songbirds that have captured our attention today. Oh, and the BEAR!
Digi-cam thru my binoculars
Yep, I spotted a bear near the summit of Satus Pass, just at the edge of theYakima Indian Reservation. I’m not exaggerating when I say the tiny speck of chocolate brown fuzziness was meandering along a hillside at least a half mile across a canyon when I noticed him. We were going 65 MPH at the time. It was his rounded shape, and his slow movement that captured my eye. Just like it says in the US Army Ranger handbook, “movement will always defeat camouflage”.
After following some pretty sketchy directions we somehow managed to find a little hiking trail just off Hwy. 14 and followed the foot path up to a beautiful waterfall and some stunning views of the Columbia River. Blue jays and ospreys soared overhead as we scrambled along the creek and out onto rocky outcroppings decorated with clumps yellow of wildflowers. Arrowleaf Balsamroot, to be exact!
Hwy 14
Arrowleaf Balsamroot
Following our hike we continued west on Hwy. 14 to the campground at Horsethief Lake. Our camp for the night was the centuries old village of the Wishram tribe, and a camping place used by the Lewis and Clark expedition in October of 1805 when headed west, and again in April of 1806 by Clark when headed back east. Their journals reflect that they were very pleased with the location and spent two days here resting up after a rather grueling portage of the Long and Short rapids, on the mighty Columbia River. Susan and I did not have anywhere near such a difficult journey as Lewis and Clark…but we were just as pleased with the campsite.
Horsethief Lake
Night Ops
We had a nice evening listening to western meadowlarks, red-winged and Brewers blackbirds, and me playing the ukulele. Certainly more fun for me than for Suzie. As the evening wore on and the birds settled down, a chorus of coyotes started up and filled the night skies with yips, yaps, howls, and squeaks…Oh, wait a minute. The squeaks were made by me with my dying rabbit predator call. I’ve had this little plastic device for 35 or 40 years it never fails to get the desert neighborhood buzzing. Every time the little band of barkers started to simmer down I’d give them some squeals and a new pack of coyotes would start up.
As predicted by the weatherman we had some rain during the night and woke to cloudy skies. Assignment #1 for the day was to explore and photograph the Native American pictographs and petroglyphs located along the banks of the Columbia River.
She Who Watches
Petroglyphs
Or re-located to be more exact. The stone paintings (pictographs) and carvings (petroglyphs) were originally much further down in the canyon, but were removed in the 1950′s as the Dalles Dam was being built. The dam flooded the original site. The ancient artifacts were just stored at the pump house for many years, but eventually in 2004 they were placed on display at Horsethief Lake.
Speaking of Horsethief Lake (and Horsethief Butte) I always thought they were named by Lewis and Clark, and were some reference to the Chinook Tribe that the expedition encountered a little further downstream. Their journals don’t reflect very favorably toward the Chinooks I’m afraid. The team had been saved from certain death their first winter by the Mandans, and had received food, guidance and assistance from numerous different native bands all along their journey. But when they purchased horses, at what they felt was a very inflated price from the Chinooks, those horses seemed to get “untied” and disappeared during the night. Capt. Clark sent two men out to search for the missing stock the next day but, not finding them, they were forced to buy more horses from the Chinooks…The tribe sold the expedition the very same horses again at three times the cost of the first transaction…claiming that horses were in short supply. Lewis and Clark were happy to put some distance between them and the Chinooks…But that has nothing to do with the name!
Horsethief Butte
Horsethief Lake was created in the 1950′s when the dam was built. Workers from the Army Corp of Engineers felt the area now known as Horsethief Butte looked like the kind of place where bad guys in the Hollywood westerns popular at the time might have hidden stolen horses…they named the butte and the new lake, and the names stuck!
We got packed up and headed up to the Dalles Mountain Ranch to have a look at the old homestead and take a little wildflower hike. The weathered barns, old corral fences, and rusted farm machinery were all part of the Columbia Hills State Park. Originally settled in 1866 by a man named Murphy, then later know as the Crawford Ranch it was sold to the state in 1993. Even with a little rain and some cloudy skies the views were beautiful. Have a look for yourself…
Dalles Ranch Wagon
Gate
Old Fence
Barns
Door Latch
Spring Waterfall
Mockorange
Marmot
We investigated Horsethief Butte, and then it was on to the bustling metropolis of Bickleton. The bluebird capital of the world. OK, the only thing bustling in Bickleton were the bluebirds. We saw 100′s of mountain bluebirds. The tiny little hamlet sets in the middle of nowhere and for 30 miles on each side of town it’s nothing but bluebirds. The town boast it has the oldest continually operating tavern in the state. The saloon, the Bluebird Inn (of course) opened in 1882.
Bluebird Inn
Cafe
Susan and I dropped into the general store/cafe and had a bit of lunch. I immediately liked the place. Old creaky wooden floors, walls lined with canned goods, knickknacks everywhere, and at least 50 various birdhouses for sale. I immediately liked our waitress too. When I asked her a couple of touristy questions she just dropped everything and pointed out the museum and the oldest tavern.
Bluebird Map
I popped out to take a couple of photos and when I got back to our table, our waitress had left a local history book featuring dozens of fabulous old images (circa 1910) for me to pursue. The book was a treasure trove for sure, and if I didn’t know better I’d have thought the lady was one of my blog subscribers…because she seemed to know I was a sucker for old B&W photos.
Susan with Mt. Hood in the Distance
Regrettably the tavern was not opening until 1500 hours so Susan was going to have to wait on that draft. Perhaps we’ll return on a nice sunny day aboard the FJR. But for now, an icy cold wind chased us out of town and followed us home.
Kat
But Wait! That’s not all. Here is a little bonus video:
Adventures on the West Coast Trail
