c r o s s o a k - Archives for July 2008

Camp Muir

Mount Adams was closed (a case of forest fire) so we decided to try a little day hike from Paradise (5,400ft) to Camp Muir (10,188ft)

Paradise meadows was still partly under snow

but spring flowers were making a show wherever they could.

Panorama point made a good spot for piccy's of the crew...

...and of Mount St Helens (or what's left of it) and Mount Adams to the distant south.

Next was the climb up to the Muir Snowfield...

...with views up to the summit of Rainier and across to the scared valley left by the retreating Nisqually Glacier.

After a long slog up the snowfield: Camp Muir appeared through the misty cloud!

Where we pitched the tent and cooked up some lunch
(a different tent from the picture 'cause I forgot to snap Chris')

Going down, the clear weather changed to foggy as the predicted 12,000ft cloud base came in at about 5,000ft.

Going down was quicker thanks to a spot of glacading.
Martin, aka chief shoot spotter, and Chris, aka Mr. Speedy, led the way with Aiddy, aka I feel a bit tom-and-dick and need to check the GPS every 10mins so we don't slide off a cliff or into a crevasse, followed some distance behind.

Back to Paradise just before 7pm in the gathering gloom.
I conveniently didn't get a piccy of Chris beating me in a run back to the car (Martin correctly observing "it's all a bit matcho").

Good day out. Can't wait till the boys can give it a go :-)

Big thanks to Fay & the Boys for the day pass.

Posted by aiddy on Tue 29 July 2008

Rattlesnake Ledge

We planned a quiet hike up to Rattlesnake Ledge , but didn't bargain on the thousands of people for 'Trail Fest' .

Surprisingly, the trail wasn't as busy as the road full of parked cars suggested
(although it was busy at the top).
Maybe Rattlesnake Ledge was too tame for the people attending trail fest...

...or maybe the strange creatures lurking in the woods put them off!

Lunch at the top was pukka.

Note: This post was updated on 2020-11-22 to fix broken links

Posted by aiddy on Mon 21 July 2008

end of a long week

Just what was needed at the end of a loooooong week. A flat.

Posted by aiddy on Sun 13 July 2008

Summer Studies

The boys getting down to some summer studying.

Posted by aiddy on Mon 07 July 2008

Plan C

Plan A was to watch the fireworks
on Lake Union from Gas Works Park.
Plan B was to watch the fireworks
on Lake Washington from Marina Park.
Plan C was to watch the sunset
on Cottage Lake from Cottage Lark Park

Our nice walk was interrupted by a loud 'bang!'

Yes, you guessed it, fireworks :-)

So we sat on the dock and watched the impromptu display.
Our thanks to the cottage lake neighbourhood.

We were quite comfy on the dock, but some others decided that a close-up view required some paddling.

Posted by aiddy on Sat 05 July 2008

Duck Racing

This crowd descended on the beach just before 4pm, and, by the by, managed to get in the way of some serious sand castle building.

Why? To watch duck racing, Kirkland style. The fastest ducks, as blown against the wind by men (yes, they were all men) with leaf blowers, won some serious prizes.

The trampled sand castles were quickly forgotten when the boys realised that there were 1,000's of ducks to help catch.

Posted by aiddy on Sat 05 July 2008

Happy Birthday USA

We did July 4th United States style. The parade in Kirkland, lunch (ducks and a swim) on the beach at Juanita Bay, a barbecue at home and then fireworks at cottage lake.

Posted by aiddy on Sat 05 July 2008

Day trip to Rainier

Thanks to Dawn for transport, we had a great day trip to Mount Rainier, stopping off for donuts and a view of the Alder Dam on the way.

Kautz Creek was a trickle compared with last time we were here . In the November 2006 storm the creek decided it preferred a different route down the mountain

There was still snow at Paradise, but the road was open thank's to the snow blower and snow plough.

From Paradise we hiked the relatively short, but fun in snow, Nisqually Vista trail...

...which leads to an overlook of the end of the Nisqually glacier.

On the way back we stopped for a spot of downhill bin-bag sledging.
Weeeeeeeeeeeeee!

Oar-somme.

Note: This post was updated on 2020-11-22 to fix broken links

Posted by aiddy on Sat 05 July 2008

Twin Falls

We took Nana and Faith to Twin Falls on the South Fork Snoqualmie River

On the hike we were surprised to see a rare finster that lives in the woods, we managed to get this rare photograph just before the finster disappeared into his burrow!