Playtime!

“My” Farm

2011-10-23T16:45:00.001-04:00

Back in May I watched Food Inc and then started reading Fast Food Nation. I was shocked at what I was learning about how our food is made. Shocked. Mistreatment of animals, mistreatment of humans, processing food so much that it has to be artificially flavored it with the flavors that it had to start with, and more… I wanted to make some changes in what I ate and joining the CSA was the first step and it has brought on some other changes…

I decided I wanted to know where my food was coming from. I thought about hitting the farmers market but I always have a hard time deciding what to get and end up buying too many odd things. Also, there’s not one near me that’s convenient to my schedule. I started looking into CSA’s and I hit gold!

My simple google search lead me to Bull Run Mountain Farm! It looked great and they had a pick up at the Manassas Train Station on Friday evenings at 5:30. This was perfect since the train station was on my way home and I usually cook over the weekend so I could get my CSA veggies and then plan meals! I emailed them and the farmer got right back to me, inviting me to join for the remainder of the season! I was even able to get a fruit share so I was getting a whole bunch of peaches at first and then a whole bunch of apples!

I got CSA veggies for about 10 weeks and it was great! I got new veggies that I’d never eaten before and started cooking a lot more! Veggie Corn Chowder, Parmesan Potatoes, Butternut Squash Soup, Apple Cake, Chili, Zucchini Bread, applesauce, homemade hot pepper jelly and more! Every Sun I was spending most of the day cooking up all the yumminess I’d gotten on Fri. I only had a few failures and so far I haven’t drawn blood or burned myself either! I can’t say I’ve used every bit of ever veggie I’ve gotten, but I have been able to use most and sometimes things I don’t use stay fresh enough to use the next week.

Of course, all good things must come to an end and last Fri was our last week of veggie pick up. However, it wasn’t entirely the end of the CSA road – yesterday all the shareholders were invited out to the farm to glean the fields! It was all you could pick! I got some great stuff that I hadn’t gotten in previous weeks. Not only that but I got to see “my” farm and where my food was coming from! I’ve already signed up for next year and I’m anxiously awaiting June when we start getting vegetables again!

The farm is located in The Plains, VA which is in Fauquier County out 66. I double checked my google maps directions and matched them to the directions on the farm’s website – google maps had the farm in the same place as on the farm website so I decided I was good to go and didn’t read the directions on the farm website.

The gleaning was scheduled to begin at 10:30 and I wanted to be on time – didn’t want everyone else getting the good stuff! Leah and I set out about 9:30 and quickly made our way to the farm. We turned off 66 onto a nice 2 lane road with a double yellow line, then we turned on to another 2 lane road, this one with no double yellow line – the roads were getting smaller as we got further and further out. We quickly came to the road the farm was on. It was a very narrow dirt road with a large sign indicating that it was a Private Road. There was no sign about the farm or anything. The farm’s address was on this road so I figured it was right so proceeded down the road. As we bounced along there was no indication at all that there was farm back up in there and not even any houses! It was beautiful with the the fall colors and all, but it was feeling a bit “Deliverance-y”.

(I took this pic on the way back, but the whole road looked like this!)

I did pass a driveway with 2 very large (8-10 feet high!) rock cairns on either side, but there was no address or sign so I kept going. Soon I came to a driveway with an address – it was 44___ and we were looking for 43__ but I didn’t know if the numbers were going up or down. Of course the phone had no service here. We kept going down the road until the road ended in 2 driveways, neither of which were my farm. There were signs on the trees that said “organic farm, do not spray” My farm is not “organic” because it’s a total pain to get qualified through the government, but they don’t use pesticides and stuff, so I figured these signs were a good indicator that I was getting close! I ended up turning around in someone’s yard which was tricky because there was very little room! On the way back I decided to explore the where the road marked by the rock cairns, that was right about where the “organic farm” signs started too, and sure enough it was the road to my farm! :-) There’s something kinda cool about it being a secret place that only those in the know can find! Turns out the exact directions, including turn at the rock cairns, was outlined in the written directions on the website. Silly me for not reading!

View of the farm as you drive in

Our first stop, after putting on our boots since the fields were very muddy, was the large map they had written on a big piece of cardboard and had leaning against a tractor.

It’s hard to made out the actual map! I had to study the map a few times to fully get my bearings and know which veggies were where. Turns out Leah and I were among the first shareholders to make it out to the farm so there weren’t many people there yet!

Our first stop was the string beans! They are purple! When you cook them they turn green. We’d gotten some a few weeks ago, but these were much bigger and there were TONS. Leah and I got a little overzealous picking them and I have a lot! Good thing I LOVE string beans (can’t really call ‘em green beans!)

Bean flower!

Next we moved on the lettuce! We ended up with 3 different types of lettuce! They had mild mustard lettuce, strong mustard lettuce and “oak leaf” lettuce (basic lettuce). We’ve only gotten a little bit of lettuce so far so this was exciting as well!

Next up we treked back down the road a bit to the hoop houses. In the process we passed the chicken house! They raise chickens for fertilizer and provide 6 eggs a week for shareholders who purchase an egg share. Next year I’m getting an egg share, so these guys will be producing my eggs! You can’t really see ‘em, but we could hear ‘em!

In the hoop houses we picked peppers (which I thought were spicy so I didn’t get many – turns out they were bell peppers and very yummy!) and cucumbers! Most of the tomatoes were either very green or squished.

Heading toward the hoop houses

Peppers!

Cucumbers!

Had a hard time pulling Leah away from the tomatoes!

In the middle of the hoop house area there’s a graveyard! I have no idea who is buried there, I need to ask Leigh. This might make some people saw “ewww” having my veggies growing right next to a cemetery, but I think it just adds to the experience! It’s kinda cool I think!

This whole farm reminds me of what the farms that were in Shenandoah National Park would have been like before the park was created. There are remnants of the farms and cemeteries all over the park!

Also by the hoop houses are the bee hives! We all got about a pound of honey from these bees! I’ve never eaten a lot of honey, but lately I’ve been putting it on everything! It’s very yummy!

The hives have electric fencing around them to keep the bears out. I’m not even kidding. Just last week Leigh was woken up at 3am by the dogs (2 Great Pyrenees) barking like crazy and when he investigated he found a large black bear enjoying the honey!

Our next stop was the pond by the eggplant field: Finally we moved on to the eggplant and hot pepper field. Leah was very excited about picking eggplant and I have WAY more than I ever thought I needed, not even sure they are ripe! We didn’t pick any pepper, I’m pretty sure these were the hot ones and I didn’t want Leah handling them – just touching them get the oils on your hands which make rubbing your eyes or your nose painful!

There were geese right by the eggplant fields! Leah walked up and said “How you doing?” to the geese!

Our last stop was another lettuce field. This one had a lot of weeds in it! It was easy to see the difference between the weeds and the lettuce, but I got a few weeds anyway. I hope they are edible because I may have accidently eaten some along with my lettuce. Leah decided it would be fun to jump over the rows of lettuce! It was cute, but she was tramping on the lettuce so I knew it was time to go!

I’m so glad I got go out and visit my farm! Wondering what I’ll eat between now and June without my CSA veggies! Good thing I’ve got Wegmans!

Leah’s First Hike: Sky Meadows State Park

2011-10-22T21:43:00.001-04:00

First thing today, Leah and I went out to “my” farm – Bull Run Mountain Farm – to help glean the fields. After we were done I had plans to take Leah to Shenandoah National Park for her 1st hike! I had the perfect hike all picked out…but it’s the peak weekend for the fall leaves and everyone and their uncle was flocking to Shenandoah to see them. Front Royal was all backed up and after sitting in traffic for awhile we finally got in sight of the turn off to Skyline Drive and I saw that ALL the cars were attempting to head into the park. Insane. We turned around and headed to Sky Meadows. I think Sky Meadows ended up being a better choice!

Sky Meadows was crowded, but it was manageable. For some reason it’s not as popular as other places, so even on an extra super crowded day, it was manageable.

It was close to 2 when we got there! After got our admission paid and the receipt on the dashboard, we gathered up everything we’d need for lunch and hike. We found a nice picnic table in the sun (it was chilly!) and had a quick lunch/snack before heading to the trail.

When hiking with a toddler one must remember that it’s not about the amount of ground covered or the speed with which we move, it’s all about the experience of being in the woods!

At first Leah had a hard time understanding the concept of “forward motion” – she kept running back and then running back to me and running back where we’d already been. I thought this was going to be more difficult than I’d expected.

Finally I redirected her to run to the sign and that was the end of the doubling back (one good thing about toddlers is that they are pretty easy to redirect – most of the time!).

Soon we needed to use some rock climbing skills:

These steps kept pulling off her boots, but she was determined to climb them herself!

Next we had to cross a bridge! I didn’t get a picture. After that we crossed a wooden style over a fence. She went up by herself and wanted to go down by herself but there were two people waiting to climb over and I just picked her up! Also didn’t get a picture!

We were now walking the edge of a big field. The trail is wide grassy and goes straight uphill. Leah took off running! :-) There were a lot of butterflies and when Leah saw one she’d point it out to me and then say: “How you doing?”. SO. FREAKING. CUTE.

We were having a lot of fun until we rounded a corner and saw this:

Those brown/black things in the middle are cows. You can see them better here:

The cows were grazing in the field that we were hiking through. This is why there is a fence that we had to climb over. I’ve been to Sky Meadows several times and hiked this trail every time, but this is the 1st time I’ve see cows.

Leah was very excited! She was talking to the cows saying “MOOOOO” as we approached. She’s quite knowledgeable about cows – knows what they say and that they eat grass. She does however think they are green. Gotta keep working on that!

When we got close I noticed several of the cows had stopped eating and were giving us the stink eye.

(Note that I DID NOT zoom in here…we were *that* close!)

It was then that I realized just how big these cows were. (They were huge) They were giving me the evil eye and I was wondering what exactly I’d do to protect myself and Leah if these cow decided to charge. There were LOTS of people hiking up the mountain and the cows had pretty much ignored them all, so I pressed on. Leah at this point decided we were a bit too close to the cows and demanded to be carried!

We safely passed through the cows and continued upward. I pulled out the trail map and started considering how to make our hike a loop so as to avoid going back through the cows!

Quickly though the cows were forgotten because she found a stick and a small hole to dig in!

Eventually I got her to move on but soon, she decided we needed to stop and smell the (dead) flowers:

When she finally declared that she was ready to proceed she did it drum major style, swinging her flower:

As we continued up the hill we encountered the inevitable:

A cow patty. Leah demanded to know what it was – I simply explained that it was cow poop. I don’t think “poop” was a known word until today! I may get in trouble with Susan for expanding her vocabulary!

Soon she spied another inviting stand of dead flowers and wanted to stay and play! She played with them for 15 minutes! I’m not even kidding! I kept asking if she was ready to move on and she’d say “No thanks!” or “No Way!” so what was I do except take pictures!

While Leah was playing with the flowers two cows made their way from one group of cows to the other and they walked past us. Leah looked up and saw them and said “Oh man!”! :-)

I finally pulled her away from the flowers and we headed back down the hill. We safely navigated the cows again! They were still giving us the stink eye, but I picked Leah and hurried past! We didn’t make it to the view point, but we’d had a great time!

Leah was a bit cranky on the way back – she was in dire of need of a diaper change (Auntie Issa failed to pack an extra diaper in her backpack…grrr…we could have stayed out longer if I’d put just one in!) and I’m sure she was tired and hungry – a little milk helped us forge ahead!

By the time we were back to the bridge she was quite the happy camper!

At the end I decided I needed to document which trail she’d hiked on her 1st ever hike (we hiked the Piedmont Overlook Trail)

Then I asked her to go over and stand by the sign:

When we made it back to the parking lot I saw a cricket and pointed it out to Leah. She watched it for a little while, then asked “How you doing?” She kept asking, I think she was annoyed by not getting an answer! She studied the cricket enough to see how it was was hopping from place to place and she started following it, hopping along with it! It was SOOOO cute! I didn’t get it on video, you’ll just have to take my word for it!

You can kinda see the cricket…it’s the tiny black thing in from of Leah’s left foot.

By the time we got close to the car every step was producing tears so I picked her up and she put her head on my shoulder, totally exhausted. She did perk up once I changed her diaper though!

Overall I LOVED taking a walk in the woods with Leah! Next time I attempt a hike with a toddler though I will bring a backpack to carry the kid in so we can hike further and I can get more exercise! I wouldn’t want her stuck in a backpack the whole time – it would just be nice to have options! I will also bring a diaper and a back up diaper!

Here are a few other pictures I took:

Last Day

2011-07-25T00:22:00.000-04:00

It was a very chilly night! I was almost all alone in my loop of the campground too so it was quiet and dark! I finally got totally uncomfortable in my “mummy bag” and unzipped it and used it as a blanket even though that let cold air in! I was so comfortable and snuggly warm I slept in until 7:30! Latest I’ve slept in the whole trip!

When I finally drug myself out of bed I had a lot to do to pack up and get ready to turn in the RV. But first I wanted another leisurely morning drinking my coffee and reading my Kindle in the chilly morning air! While I was eating a flock of turkeys came through my campsite! There were only 5 of them and they just walked through, not bothering me or anything!

Despite the big mess I felt like I had to contend with I was all packed up and reasonably organized in just about an hour! With all my stuff packed I was ready to dump and proceed to the rental place and then find something fun to do until my flight. I headed over to my parents campsite to borrow Dad’s hose and let them know I was about ready to go.

This is when the day kinda got “derailed”…

When I pulled up Dad was furiously trying to fix the hot water heater in their motorhome. It’s already not working on propane and now it wouldn’t work on electricity either. He was not happy. In addition the electricity kept going out (they have a plug in at their site). Eventually it was discovered that the circuit breaker was bad and the hot water heater worked just fine when he plugged into the 20 amp plug. Aghhhh!!!!!

While he was messing with that I got my RV dumped – the toilet and the grey tanks. I also filled it up with fresh water. I moved my luggage to the Jeep – I think I had less stuff for my whole two week vacation than we take for a day trip! At least it looked like less stuff!

Since we weren’t going anywhere anytime soon I started doing some internet stuff although the connection was frustratingly slow and neither Mom or I could get anything done! Finally we’d decided we’d take the Mifi card with us and find a place with better service!

It was after noon before we decided to mosey over to the RV rental place. We were about halfway there when Dad called to suggest that we stop for lunch first. (luckily I saw the cop AFTER the conversation since talking on a cell phone while driving is illegal in CA!) So we went into Castro Valley to the ice cream place we went to Saturday night – their food looked good. Apparently they had a trainee cook and only 2 waitresses because it took over an hour to get our food! It was after 2 before we left!

Finally we were heading to the RV place, luckily I had till 4! A quick stop for gas and we were there! I turned in the van with no issues. They didn’t even charge me for generator use because I lodged my complaint about the battery!

After the RV place it was off to the post office to return my defective Kindle . The line was crazy long and I had to wait what felt like forever. Mom and Dad were in the car with the mifi card!

(As you can see this is prob the most exciting vacation day yet huh?)

Now it was about 3:30 and I didn’t need to go to the airport until 8! We ended up going to a park that’s on the same lake as the campground – there’s a boat rental and walking trail. I half suggested that we rent kayaks but we weren’t sure we had time. We walked around a bit then attempted to make our own hotspot at a picnic table but the mifi card was WAY too slow. My phone was working, but what I wanted to do I couldn’t do on my phone! Mom and I read our Kindles and Dad did stuff on his computer.

Finally we decided it was time for dinner. We found a neat place called Fresh Choice – it’s a lot like Souper Salad in Oklahoma – kinda like a Golden Corral but all veggies and salads and stuff. It was pretty yummy! We need something like that in Woodbridge.

After dinner we went right to the airport. As we were pulling in I checked my flight status and discovered it was delayed an hour! Not leaving until midnight (3am EDT)! ugh! I refused to go into the airport at 7 if the flight wasn’t leaving till midnight so we went to Costco that was close to the airport and then came back.

It’s currently 9:15 am I’m through security, I had the full undivided attention of 7 TSA agents! Amazing difference from Dulles! Apparently there are only 2 or 3 flights leaving Oakland at this hour! Nice! Anyway, I found a plug and they have free wifi here…and it’s fast (of course anything would seem fast after the .5 KB/s we were getting on the mifi card this afternoon! I’m uploading pictures and and will soon have the blog all up to date! Hopefully the plane leaves on time at midnight!

John Muir Day

2011-07-24T23:53:00.000-04:00

Spent the whole day learning about and honoring John Muir. Well, almost!

When we arrived last night Mom realized that her cousin Tim lives in Castro Valley and our campground is also in Castro Valley so she called him and set up a breakfast date for this morning. We met Tim, who I had met but only a few times, and his girlfriend and we had a very nice breakfast at a local breakfast hot spot JD’s. After breakfast we brought them back to the campground so Tim could see Mom and Dad’s Motorhome – he has a Volkswagon camper van!

It was around noon when we set out for Martinez, CA where John Muir’s house is. I’m not sure what I was expecting, but it was definitely very interesting! The house was very grand – it was actually the house of his father-in-law and John inherited it. There was only one room that that was truly his and that’s only because part of the room was destroyed in an earthquake and he got to rebuild it! The house is entirely surrounded by “urban sprawl”, the view from John Muir’s bedroom now includes a Valero gas station and the back yard now contains a freeway (named after him, but a freeway nonetheless!).

The house is surrounded by fruit trees reminiscent of the orchards he used to farm! Well, really the orchards that his father-in-law farmed and then he took over! The plums were ripe and we were allowed to pick a few off the ground and enjoy them! Tasty!

The inside of the house had all sorts of information about John Muir and his conservation efforts, the Sierra Club, and his studies of nature. He was the first one to suggest that the Yosemite Valley was created by glaciers – all the geologists of the time disagreed with him until he found glacier dust in one of the creeks on Mt. Merced.

The house was filled with art, mostly reproductions of original oil paintings that Muir owed – most of the paintings we were able to identify where they were because we’d been there!

By the time we were done with our self guiding tour it was 3:00 and Mom decided it was time for lunch, even though none of us were terribly hungry. We drove around in circles for about 45 minutes looking for a good place, then attempting to follow the GPS leading us to a place that turned out to be closed and finally settling on Burger King. We ate our “snack” quickly so we could get to Muir Woods on the other side of the bay.

Muir Woods is a large canyon that has a lovely grove of Coastal Redwoods in it! It’s a true forest with lush moss, ferns, clover like things, and big huge redwood trees. It’s usually totally overrun with people, but at 5:00 on a Sunday night it was much calmer – not empty, but the crowd was definitely diminished! They have a large paved/boardwalk trail that circles the canyon and is mostly flat, we walked about 2 miles around the trees and took a few pictures – it was very low light so pictures were hard.

On our way out we made an attempt at seeing the ocean and went around by way of Muir Beach but you had to drive down to Muir beach and Mom was getting anxious about getting back to the campground before they closed and locked the gate at 10:00.

We decided to stop in Mill Valley at High Tech Burrito for a quick dinner. I had been to High Tech Burrito once before when we came out here in 1992! My aunt used to work at an optical shop: Rims and Goggles that is right next door. I remember going to High Tech Burrito but my memory had filed it away as being someplace else so when we were driving around the shopping center looking for it and then suddenly there’s Rims and Goggles I was pretty excited! I wasn’t expecting to see it! I made Dad stop so I could snap a picture to email to Kim!

After dinner we drove back to the campground arriving here before 9:00! Plenty of time before the gates closed! It is very chilly tonight – Dad’s car said it was 56*! Wonder how cold it will get tonight? It feels amazing. I’m all snuggled into my 0* sleeping bag with the windows open. I wish I could take these awesome temps home with me. I’m not relishing going back to the inferno that seems to have engulfed the east coast in my absence!

Not sure what’s happening tomorrow – I need to pack up and return the RV so that means RV chores – dump, refill with water, and fill up with gas. My flight isn’t until 10 pm (the redeye – ugh.) tomorrow night so I’m not sure what we’ll do with the rest of the day.

John Muir Day

Drive Day

2011-07-23T23:52:00.000-04:00

Today’s big event was driving back to Oakland! I had to pack up everything that was strewn about the RV – which looked like a lot given the small size of the van, but I was able to get it all cleaned up in just a few minutes! I also had to do “RV Chores” that' I’d managed to avoid for a whole week! Empty the toilet cartridge (much easier this time because I only used it at night!), fill the fresh water tank and put the bed up.

We left The Yosemite Ridge Resort a little before 10 am and headed west! The drive down was uneventful and it was a little before 11 when we arrived in Oakdale.

I requested a potty stop and Dad pulled off in a vacant lot. He saw a Starbucks and went to get coffee while I informed Mom that the Mifi card should work! It was about an hour later when we decided that we should just grab lunch here and we walked over to Mr. Pickles, a local-ish sandwich shop franchise. It was really good! :-)

We then continued the last 2 hours of the journey into the Oakland area and found our campground – Anthony Chabot Lake Campground – which is really in Castro Valley.

The campground has a few sites with hook-ups but most are “dry camping”. While I generally enjoy “dry camping” this is now bringing back to the surface many of the frustrations of this RV – the battery, or rather lack thereof, and the toilet. Not being able to have electricity means that I really no longer have a fridge – I turned it off because keeping the battery charged enough to keep it cold takes too much effort, and I can’t use lights because they drag down the battery. I really like the camper van, even though it’s small it’s just about perfect for me, but it’s this particular one that has issues I can’t fix because it’s not mine that irritate me!

The campground is up on hill about 10 miles outside of Oakland and the rest of the bay area, yet there is limited cell phone signal. Seriously? I was fine with not having a signal at Sequoia and even at Yosemite because I wasn’t expecting one, but here, I was fully expecting to have full wifi in my parents RV and full cell phone signal, but no, it’s weak and iffy at best! This evening we were all three using the Mifi and it was working ok, but it was very slow and it would fade in and out. Oh well, I’ll be home with my FiOs on Tuesday!

The other thing about this campground is that it’s in a huge grove of eucalyptus trees! They have a very strong odor – woody yet fruity, not like the fake-y eucalyptus you get in the dried plant section at Michaels, but simiar in some ways. Mom and Dad can’t smell it at all, but I find it overwhelming. It hasn’t made my allergies go yet, but it’s probably a matter of time!

One good thing about this campground has been the wildlife! Right after I parked the van and got out to inspect my park job there was a flock of at least 8, maybe 10, wild turkeys just walking through by the picnic table! Then on our way to dinner we saw what we think was a fox, and we saw one (another one? The same one?) on the way back in! Later we saw a raccoon!

We went down into the Castro Valley for dinner at Round Table Pizza, it was pretty good! They had personal pizzas so we could all get what we wanted! Then we found a local ice cream joint with yummy banana nut ice cream (the cherry Mom got and the butter pecan Dad got were good too). Last we stopped at Safeway to pick up a few things before returning to the campground.

When Dad drove me back to my site (I’m about a 1/4 mile from them and there’s a big hill between us!) he pointed out that I should have pulled in straight instead of backing in so the picnic table was on the correct side. That would have been perfect considering that my windshield privacy screen broke last week and if I’d pulled straight in then my windshield would be facing the woods and I wouldn’t have to worry about flashing anyone! I guess I’ll turn it around tomorrow!

We are meeting my mom’s cousin for breakfast in the morning then heading over to John Muir’s house in Martinez and we’ll see what else we find to do later.

The campsites around me are filled with people, yet it’s totally silent! Strange, but nice! It’s getting cold – going down into the 50s tonight – so I need to brush my teeth and snuggle down into my sleeping bag! I need to enjoy these chilly nights while they last – it’s ridiculously hot in DC and I’ll miss being cold in just a few days! I might be willing to trade internet access for being cold…

Yosemite: Tuolumne Meadows Hikes

2011-07-22T18:03:00.000-04:00

On Sunday Dad and I saw some hikes that we wanted to explore when we were in Tuolumne Meadows so we decided that we’d go back one day this week and we decided to push it to the end of the week so that the wildflowers in the meadows had a little more time to pop! When we were there on Sunday we couldn’t see any flowers, but the snow had pretty much just melted we figured the flowers would be a long soon and when they popped they’d go fast.

We left the campground early and drove back into the park, this is the same road that we’ve driven almost every day this week so I was very glad I had my Kindle and could read almost the whole way up.

We discovered that creek/river that flowed through the picnic area we’d stopped in on Sunday was Yosemite Creek and that the water flowing through it was destined for Yosemite Falls in the Valley!

We didn’t stop at any of the overlooks or anything, just went directly to the meadow to start our hike up Pothole Dome. Pothole Dome is a lower dome that is close to the road. There is no formal trail up to the top, you walk around until you find a spot that you like and then you climb up the rock. We walked past the side trail where we could tell lots of people had gone up and started to climb. It was very steep, but the rock was smooth and wide and it was pretty easy to walk up. When we got to top we kept walking and discovered that the “other side” of the dome was more gentle so with the help of Dad’s GPS we navigated down the side back to the trail. On the way we saw a marmot, but he went back under the rock but Dad whistled and he (she?) came back out! I got some great pictures of him!

After we got back from that hike, we drove further on to the meadow to another short trail across the meadow that lead to the Tuolumne River. We stopped and ate lunch first before proceeding to the river. The trail here was wide and flat and there were great views of all the mountains around the meadow. This walk, and the other one, gave me a lot of opportunities to practice my new camera skills! (Yes, you’ll again be subjected to my photographic practice if you go through the pictures.)

Just after lunch I was walking ahead of my Dad and I heard a phone ringing! What??? Last I’d heard Tuolumne Meadows has no phone service – there was a rock slide that took out the phone line and it also knocked out the cell phone line. Who’s phone was ringing? Hmmm… I walked on. Then I heard Dad saying “I’m hiking in the Sierra Mountains and I don’t really care about your offers.” It was *his* phone! Dad’s phone has rang at odd times causing us to jump every time! This time it was Cox calling about some offer that he didn’t care about!

When we got back to the car I decided to check my phone – sure enough I had service and had gotten close to 20 texts! Turns out there are some thunderstorms moving across the DC area – hope they break the heat, heard the heat index was 121 today! Yikes! I may not come home!

Our third and final stop for the day was a hike to Lukens Lake. As we started down the trail there was a sign taped to the trail sign warning us that the trails in that area were still covered in snow and that many hikers had gotten lost and make sure you had map & compass skills or GPS. Looking around I saw no evidence of snow, which actually amazed me given the amount of snow this area had seen just a few weeks ago, so I didn’t pay much attention to the sign. The NPS needs to date these things – was the sign put there last month or last week?

We headed down the trail, Dad had his GPS and we could just turn around if things got dicey. Sure enough about halfway into the hike we were climbing over snow drifts! One drift was up to Dad’s knee! More snow than we’d gotten in DC all winter was still on the ground here! The snow didn’t cover the trail but we were navigating around it for the rest of the hike! We did notice that the snow had melted from around the trees! Any tree that had snow near it had a ring around it where the snow had already melted. We were confused by this until we realized that water probably drips off the trees and would have melted the snow there first.

The lake was really nice – it had a meadow around it and the meadow was filled with pink flowers! We couldn’t walk out into the meadow so it was hard to get the pink flowers in pictures, but we did it! After enjoying the lake for a little while we headed back!

I think I like the Tioga Rd/Tuolumne Meadows area best – the Valley is nice and all, but the High Country is amazing! And there are fewer people! Lots fewer people! We only saw 3 other people on our hike to the lake! Even our time at in the Meadow – there were people, but they were few and far between! When I come back I’ll plan to spend more time there and less time in the Valley!

Tomorrow we head out, back to Oakland! I’m going to have to get back to thinking about all the little “RV issues”. Here I have had electricity so that resolves the battery/refrigerator issue! Back on Saturday my fresh water tank ran out of water! I have a water hook up here but because the electric box was on the wrong side of the campsite I pulled in forward rather than backing in and the water hose doesn’t reach to connect so I’ve been getting water in my water bottle from the hose to use for brushing my teeth and stuff. Tomorrow I’ll need to turn the van around so I can fill up with water. Also I’ll need to empty the stupid toilet thing. I have only been using it in the middle of the night so it won’t be too full!

We’ll spend Sunday and maybe even part of Monday visiting John Muir’s house in Martinez (near the Bay area), Point Reyes National Seashore and maybe even Muir Woods. The trip is winding down – I return my RV on Monday and then fly home Monday night.

Yosemite: Tuolomne Meadows Hikes

Yosemite: Biking & Photography

2011-07-21T18:03:00.000-04:00

When we were in the valley on Tuesday we discovered that not only is biking the way to travel in the valley, but you can rent bikes! We were told that the bikes sometimes sell out by 10 am so it was another early day to get into the park.

We easily found a parking space at Yosemite Lodge and got our rental bikes. Mine was extra cool – it was pink with flowers! Although it was very beat up! We left Mom at the Lodge with her Kindle and an undiscovered gift shop and headed to both the Mist Trail and Mirror Lake.

Luckily riding a bike is just like riding a bike and you don’t forget how! It was so great to be speeding past all the people on foot and coasting down the gentle hills! I only had to get off and walk once! We rode about 2 miles out to the start of the Mist Trail. The guy we rented the bikes from said you could walk to the bridge and see both Vernal and Nevada Falls. He also said that the bridge was very close, no need to climb the trail! (The Mist Trail gains about a 1000 feet of elevation ever mile! It’s an intense up and downhill hike! To the top of Vernal Falls it’s 1 mile and 1000 feet and to the top of Nevada Falls it’s 2 miles and 2000 feet – and then you have to walk back down!) We couldn’t find where he was talking about so we started up the Mist Trail. There was a bridge with a view of Vernal Falls about .8 mile up – we turned around there, but it was was still a good hike! The trail was straight up!

Vernal Falls is where the 3 people were killed earlier this week. To my knowledge, they still haven’t recovered the bodies. So yes, the morbid/reads a lot side of me was looking in the river, although I’d rather not see that! The river was raging! What I’m sure are usually small-ish cascades were raging rapids. The whole river was white and frothy from crashing over the rocks. Really makes me wonder what those people were thinking climbing over the barrier. The Merced looks ready to swallow another victim at any time!

The hike back down wasn’t as bad as it could have been! The trail was paved and that made it easier to just walk quickly down hill! I was watching carefully for errant rocks and twigs, it was so steep that one wrong move would have been painful!

We made it the 1.6 round trip in just about an hour, considering the elevation change I thought was was pretty good! Almost 2 miles and hour!

We weren’t going to have time for Mirror Lake though, we’d told Mom we’d be back for lunch at 12:00, so we hopped on our bike and headed back to the lodge. Interestingly enough it was downhill most of the way! (How a basically flat valley can be downhill on both sides is beyond me!)

We had lunch in the food court and it was pretty good, then took a quick trip through the gift shop and it was time for Mom to meet her bus. Since Dad and I were taking the photography class this afternoon we got Mom a ticket for the 4 hour Glacier Point Tour – that way she could see the view from Glacier Point and hear all the stuff that the tour guides told about. She had a great time!

After we got Mom off, Dad and I headed off on our bikes to the Ansel Adams Gallery in Yosemite Village. We were taking a class called “In the Footsteps of Ansel Adams”. We learned a lot about how to use our cameras and how to take good pictures! I learned how to use a number of things on my camera, including how to shoot in manual mode! Usually when I shoot it’s more about composition, but now I have some actually photography skills to add to the mix! We also saw the spots where Ansel took a number of photographs and learned about his life and work.

When we got done with the class we were at the Little Yosemite Falls trailhead, which is pretty much right where we’d parked the car! This would have been nice if we hadn’t ridden our bikes over to the class! We ended up having to walk back to the post office in the Yosemite Village to get our bikes and then ride them back!

We’d planned to have dinner in the park and stay for sunset on Half Dome. Awhile back Mom had picked up some “backpacker” meals on sale at Target. We decided if we bring my Dad’s “Ruby Burner” (a portable butane burner) and some water we could mix up these “MREs” for dinner. It was a great plan until we forgot the silverware! Luckily I had a spoon in my backpack – I’d considered taking pudding for a snack, but then didn’t and my dad and I each have a “picnic knife” that has a fork and a knife. We thought we were good to go until one of the “MREs” turned out to be Chili and not the pasta dish we thought it was! We shared the spoon and it all worked out! The dehydrated dinners weren’t bad, although they were both more “side dish” rather than main course and we hadn’t brought anything else! Oh well, we didn’t starve!

After dinner we drove back to one of the spots where we’d been during the class – a neat spot where we could see the Merced River (wide, flat and calm here…people float down it and swim in it!) and Half Dome – to watch the sunset again! This time Dad and I were armed with new knowledge of how to capture the sunset! I haven’t looked through my pictures yet, but I think I got some good ones!

Tomorrow Dad and I are going back up Tioga Road to Tuolumne Meadows to do some hiking and see if the wildflowers have started to pop yet! Tomorrow is our last day in the park – we are going back to Oakland on Saturday!

PS: Since I was learning about using my camera and stuff today I left all the “crappy” pictures in the album. Please forgive the zillions of shots of the same view – each one is different in some way, not even sure if I know how, but the settings were different!

Yosemite: Biking & Photography

Yosemite: Hetch Hetchy

2011-07-20T22:51:00.002-04:00

The first order of business today was to get my new Kindle all set to read. We got a bit of a late start and it was about 10:00 before we headed over to the restaurant.

The first thing that became apparent when I turned on the computer was that the news of the hikers going over Vernal Falls had hit the national news! I almost posted something last night just in case, but I didn’t. I do appreciate all the people who’d heard the news and checked in just to be sure!

Getting my new Kindle ready to read proved more challenging than I’d expected. I’d thought I could just plug it in with the USB cord and go into “Manage My Kindle” in Amazon and just click to move stuff over. Not the case. I had to download the book, then locate the file on the computer, which wasn’t easy, and then drag it over to my Kindle. I’m wondering if this isn’t a case for backing up my whole library in Calibre, so next time it will be easier. The whole Kindle is a little off – the time is off and I can’t reset it, it says “My Kindle” instead of “Melissa’s Kindle”…I don’t know, but it’s got enough books on it for me to read until I can get it on a wireless network.

After lunch we drove out to Hetch Hetchy. Hetch Hetchy is a valley that some claim was a twin to the Yosemite Valley, that is until they dammed up the Tuolomne River to form a reservoir that became the water supply for the city of San Francisco! This decision devastated John Muir as Hetch Hetchy was one of his favorite places!

Hetch Hetchy is similar to the Yosemite Valley in that it has huge sheer rock cliffs forming the sides of the valley and there are 2 big waterfalls that you can see. It is not nearly as awe inspiring though. It is very dry and arid over there and the sun is intense!

There are a few hiking trails, but the only one that is doable as a day hike goes to a big waterfall and it’s a 5 mile round trip hike. The trail was very exposed and hot! It wasn’t appealing to walk out there! Also, the water is running high and a few weeks ago two doctors were hiking out there a got swept away while they were crossing a footbridge. They weren’t being stupid or anything, just walking!

We didn’t spend a long time at Hetch Hetchy – we walked across the dam, read the displays and headed out. I’m not sure I’m totally against using it as a reservoir – seems like it’s good thing! They are working to protect the headwaters and the whole watershed and using the water for both power and drinking water.

We found a forest service road to drive back on with the possibility of a riverside hike. The road wasn’t very interesting and the hike was near the river, but the river was still 100 feet below and it was very hot and exposed!

On our way back to the campground we stopped at Rainbow Pools which is the local swimming hole. We didn’t actually go swimming because we didn’t have extra clothes or a towel. I almost jumped in anyway because I love a good natural swimming hole and I was very hot! In the end I just got my feet wet! There were a lot of people there, but it wasn’t overly crowded! There were a lot of kids jumping off the rock cliffs and it was fun to watch them!

The good news is that we escaped all the crowds! We saw very few other people all day! :-) Of course we didn’t see much good stuff either!

On our way out to Hetch Hetchy we discovered a neat little place called the Evergreen Inn. They had a bunch of cottages and a nice restaurant! They also did guided day trips all around the Yosemite Valley! Seems like a really neat place to stay! Maybe next time!

Tomorrow’s plan is to go in the Valley early so we can get a parking spot! Then Dad and I are going to rent bikes and ride around the valley and meet up with Mom for lunch. In the afternoon Mom’s going on a 4 hour bus tour to Glacier Point and Dad and I are going to a photography class with the Ansel Adams gallery!

Yosemite: Hetch Hetchy

Yosemite: The Valley

2011-07-19T14:15:00.000-04:00

Today we drove into the Valley to see and explore that area. It was nice, but so incredibly crowded. There were TONS of people everywhere, and it wasn’t even a “crowded” day in the park!

When we arrived we pulled into the Bridalveil Falls parking area, mostly to use the bathrooms, but we realized that it was pretty empty so we should check out the falls while we were there. Then we went back to Tunnel View so Mom could see it, and then finally headed down into the valley itself.

The Valley is the main area in Yosemite, it’s where most of the campgrounds and restaurants are as well as all the “things to do” – bike rentals, raft rentals, hikes etc. There’s one road and it makes a loop – it’s one way most of the way around, but there are cross over points. Yosemite is huge in terms of land, but the area that’s accessible by road is very small so all the people get concentrated in one area.

Things started out pretty good – we came to a view of a meadow and Upper Yosemite Falls and there was a place to park so we did and got out and walked a little bit.

We’d been planning on having lunch at The Awanahee Hotel, which is the premier hotel in the park – AAA rated 5 stars! It’s very upscale, which is odd considering that it’s in the middle of the wilderness! We figured that lunch at the Awanahee wasn’t an original idea so we wanted to be there early.

We found a parking spot right by the door very quickly and when we went in we discovered that they didn’t start serving until 11:30, so we made a reservation for 11:45! We were one of the 1st people to get in! There was a line out the door when we left! The food was pretty good – I had a grilled veggie sandwich that was more portabella mushroom than anything else! It was a long lunch and it was after 1 before we were done!

After lunch we decided to walk over to Yosemite Village and go to the Visitor Center and the shops over there. When we got to the car though we discovered that Dad’s camelback had leaked all over and everything in the back of the jeep was soaking wet! This is the 2nd time this has happened, the 1st time was when dad laid the backpack on the bed and all the water leaked out on Mom’s side of the bed!

After we visited the Visitor Center, the Ansel Adams Gallery and the Sports Shop we decided to catch the shuttle bus back to the car. This meant traveling most of the way around the park by bus, but that sounded ok. We could also stop at the bike & raft rental place in Curry Village and see if we wanted to rent bikes or raft tomorrow or Thursday.

I’d used the busses exclusively in Acadia and thought they were just about the greatest thing ever so was anxious to experience it again – it’s nice to to have to drive and to be able to walk, then catch the bus back!

As we were walking across the street a bus pulled up to the stop, we couldn’t make it, but we were pretty much 1st for the next bus. There were about 8-10 other folks who didn’t fit on the bus so we all stood there an waited about 10 minutes for the next bus to come. Right before the bus pulled up a HUGE crowd of people formed at the bus stop. The bus pulled up and stopped and all the people who’d just gotten to the bus stop started getting on through the back “exit only” doors!!!!! They were filling up the bus and there wasn’t going to be room for those of us who were standing in line!!!!! I start, loudly, explaining how that’s not OK, and that it’s not fair for them to just come up and get on when we’d been standing there. Finally I just jumped on through the back door also, because otherwise we never would have made it. The bus was jammed packed, barely even standing room.

We got off at Curry Village and checked out the bike and raft rental, then got right back on and headed to the car.

By now it was 4:00 and we were heading out of the park to be back at the campground for dinner. That is until we got stuck in a HUGE line of traffic and weren’t moving. We were right by the trailhead for Lower Yosemite Falls so we pulled in and Dad and I walked the .6 mile loop. While we were gone Mom did some investigating and discovered that the Lodge had a food court, so we went back and got sandwiches for dinner.

Almost every evening Half Dome turns colors as the setting sun hits it – this is called Alpenglow. We’d wanted to stay and watch one night and since it was already late and there was a ton of traffic, we decided to stay and wait out the Alpenglow. We found a spot where we could see Half Dome and we set up our chairs and ate dinner and then watched as the mountain changed color. It was pretty cool!

After the sun was gone we headed out of the park and got back to our campground around 9:30. My replacement Kindle was due to arrive today, but the office closed at 8 so I was planning on getting it tomorrow morning, but when I walked back from the bathroom Dad had it! Someone from the office had walked it up to our site when we saw that we’d come back in! :-) Of course I can’t do anything with it until I can hook it up to the internet, but tomorrow AM we’ll go to the restaurant!

This afternoon as I was walking from the hotel to Yosemite Village I heard a bunch of sirens and I saw a Ranger cutting to traffic – bleeping his siren as needed to get people to move out of the way. I figured something was going down, but you never have any idea what! Later I was checking Facebook and saw that Yosemite NP had posted that the Mist Trail was temporarily closed because of an unconfirmed report that 1 or more persons had gone over Vernal Falls. Mom and Dad later talked to someone who’d been there (and had to hike the long way out because they closed the trail and no one could come through!) and they said that 1st one person slipped and then the husband or wife (I’m not sure which) grabbed them and they slipped and then a friend tried to grab them and the friend slipped. So it sounded like 3 people when over the falls this afternoon. I haven’t seen these falls up close, but considering how impressive they were from a distance above I’m guessing that one doesn’t go over the falls and live to tell. :-( While we were watching Half Dome I saw a news truck leaving the park, and then we saw another news truck leaving when we were leaving, so I’m guessing the story made the evening news around here. I have no idea if it has hit the National news yet or if it will, but we were no where near the falls when it happened! Dad and I were considering a hike up there either tomorrow or Thursday, but I have a feeling we won’t be going now!

Yosemite: The Valley

Yosemite: Glacier Point, Sentinel Dome, The Fissures

2011-07-18T14:15:00.000-04:00

This morning Dad and I drove into the valley by ourselves to hike and explore. We didn’t really have a plan when we headed out, just that we’d hike a few hikes from my “Best Easy Day Hike in Yosemite” book. As we drove we decided that we’d go out to Glacier Point and check it out and hike up Sentinel Dome and then hike to The Fissues and Taft Point.

It took us just about 2 hours to drive from our campground to Glacier Point. There wasn’t a lot of traffic, it just takes that long. We didn’t get into the Valley itself, just drove to the Glacier Point Rd intersection and turned right to go up the hill again to get to Glacier Point.

Glacier Point is a spot high above the valley where you can see everything! The most prominent features are of course Half Dome and the waterfalls! You can see both Nevada Falls and Vernal Falls as well as both Upper and Lower Yosemite Falls. Sweeping panoramic of granite, water and evergreens! I took a whole bunch of pictures, all of which look a lot alike.

After Glacier Point we drove back a few miles to the Sentinel Dome/Taft Point trail parking area. Sentinel Dome is similar to Half Dome in that you can climb up and look at the whole valley. It’s different because it’s only a 2.2 mile hike and the climb up the rock is very gentle (Half Dome is a 16 mile hike with a 5000 ft elevation gain!!!!). When I came around the corner and saw the dome going up and knew I had to climb it I decided that I’d never be able to do Half Dome! Even more so when I got to a point where I realized that one wrong step and you’ll slip and fall 2000 ft to the bottom of the valley. Almost didn’t make it to the top, but I kept going and made it!

Sentinel Dome was pretty amazing – full 360 degree views! You could see pretty much everything in the whole park! I took at 360 panoramic picture with my phone, but I couldn’t upload it when I tried. (There is pretty good AT&T coverage in the park, but my dad’s Verizon phone didn’t have anything! I think so far this trip we have been in more situations where my phone worked, but his didn’t than vice versa.)

The sun was very intense! There was very little shade, not a cloud in the sky and we were surrounded by granite. I applied sunscreen before I left home, but forgot my chest area – my shirt today was more low cut than normal. Luckily Dad had some in his pack that I used – I applied it twice, but my chest and possibly my neck still got burned!

When we got back from Sentinel Dome we decided to continue on to Taft Point and The Fissues. The Fissures are deep cuts in the rocks and you can walk right out on them! There are no railings and the cliff is sheer! Definitely very “edge-o-phobia”! Taft Point is a rock outcropping that also has a very steep edge to it, although there is a railing around one tiny section.

By the time we got here I was tired and the sun was really getting to me so I went to sit in the shade and have a snack while Dad explored the view. The hike out was much better than the hike in – this was a “upside-down hike” – we went down 1st and the back up to the car.

Finally we were back at the car and headed down. It was 4:30 and we’d told Mom we’d be back at 5 – we weren’t going to make it! We stopped at the Tunnel View again and got better pictures, then we got to see El Capitan from the valley – very impressive that way! When we saw it from the top it wasn’t that impressive!

It took about 2 hours to get back to the campground, but we finally made it! Now with dinner eaten, pictures uploaded and blog written, it’s time for bed!

Tomorrow we are going to take Mom into the Valley and explore the Valley floor – probably check out the waterfalls and the Valley trail!

Yosemite: Glacier Point, Sentinel Dome, The Fissures

Yosemite: Tioga Rd and Sonora Pass

2011-07-17T14:15:00.000-04:00

Yosemite is VERY crowded in the summer, especially on weekends. With that in mind I’d suggested that we drive out Tioga Rd, CA 120, instead of going into “The Valley” today since I knew Sunday would be a busy day. Monday might not be much better, but we’ll see. I figured that most people who are in The Valley won’t venture up to the high country and it would be less crowded up there. The lady at the campground confirmed my suspicions and we decided that it was a plan.

Suzy, the gal at the campground, said that to really beat the crowds you need to leave the campground by 7 am. With that in mind I set my alarm for 5:15, only later realizing that I’d set it to go off at 5:15 on WED morning! Oh well, I woke up on my own at 5:55. I was ready to head out by 7 am, but Mom and Dad had overslept and weren’t ready to go until 8.

We didn’t encounter any traffic as we entered the park and started up the road. As soon as we got up over about 2000 ft the views started! We stopped at a few overlooks and a picnic area to check things out as we drove in.

The best part of the drive up was when we got to Olmstead Point. From there you can see into the valley and you have a great view of the backside of Half Dome! I wasn’t expecting to be able to see it from there so it was doubly exciting! We took pictures and Dad got out his spotting scope so we could see the hikers on the cables on Half Dome. We realized we must be looking at the truly hardy souls (or those who made their Half Dome climb a two-day affair) since you have to walk 8 miles before you get to the cables and it was only 10 am. We were letting anyone who wanted to take a peek in the scope and almost upstaged a Ranger’s program, but he was good sport, in fact he might have been happy to have someone else run the show for a few minutes!

The next stop was Tenaya Lake. Tenaya Lake is a crystal clear lake presumably formed by glaciers. It has wonderful views of what might be Polly Dome (not to be confused with Polychrome Pass in Denali) and another dome. Dad and I walk a short way around it, we would have gone further but the trail was flooded over and there was no way around without getting wet!

A little more driving and checking out the domes and marveling at the climbers and we finally reached Tuolumne Meadows! It was a beautiful flat spot with grass and the promise of wildflowers soon. The snow only recently melted up there!

We found a picnic table for lunch and then it was decision time. How to get back? Go back the way we came? Or take the extra scenic route over Sonora Pass. Suzy at the campground had said that Senora Pass is just awesome and that you can do a loop of the Tioga Rd, then up 395 to CA 108, over the pass and back around. It’s about 250 miles though. Mom said she wanted to see something different and we were already going to be driving 100+ miles even if we just went directly back, so we decided to go for it.

Before we did we took a quick 2.2 mile hike into the backcountry near Tuolumne Lodge. We hike down the John Muir Trail to a spot where 2 foot bridges cross the Lyell Fork of the Tuolumne River. What a magnificent spot! Water, meadows, mountains, and the bluest sky you have ever seen! WOW!

When we got back to the car we continued east to Tioga Pass, which is at 9,950 ft (or close to that) and headed down! The mountains on the other side were pretty amazing! I was stunned that no one had told us about that! We continued down the mountain, mom and I both trying to take pictures as we went down! At the bottom was the town of Lee Vining and Moro Lake, which a friend of my parents had told us to go see.

We stopped at the Whoa Nellie Deli and got ice cream and other snacks! I got a big bottle of water because I’d drunk most of what I had and I had a horrible headache that I was positive was from the elevation (it was about 9,000 feet when I really felt it hurting) and thought that drinking more water was the best cure. Lee Vining was also exciting because I had full cell phone coverage!

We blew right past Moro Lake – we didn’t have time to explore! The landscape had changed and now was more desert looking and I wasn’t that interested. Soon we were cruising down the road toward Sonora Pass.

I was looking forward to Sonora Pass, but not to the elevation gain, it was also over 9,000 feet, because my head hurt so bad! I remembered the 1st day in Sequoia when my head hurt and I’d attacked it with water, Advil, and my inhaler and that made it better – I wasn’t sure what part of that equation worked though. I was already trying the water, I’d drunk almost a whole liter since Lee Vining and it wasn’t helping so at the 1st overlook where Dad pulled over for pictures (and for me to use the “ladies room” because of all the water I’d drunk) I used my inhaler…and wouldn’t you know, it helped!!!!!! Within a few minutes my headache was almost gone! YAY!!!!!

Sonora Pass is simply AMAZING. You climb higher and higher and there are mountains of all types – snow covered, tree covered, grey rock, brown rocks, alpine looking, desert looking. There are also meadows and rivers and wildflowers! I’m sure there are also bears and other wildlife – we saw a deer and a marmot. The road was tight – 26% grade in places! and not for the faint of heart, but of boy was it worth it. To make it even better….no people. Well, very few, a few cars, most overlooks were empty. (They are all in Yosemite Valley!) There were a ton of National Forest Service Campgrounds in there there and many of them were empty. You can’t get a big RV into the campgrounds though, but still they were mostly empty.

After enjoying the last little bit out of the daylight, and knowing we still had close to 100 miles to go to get “home”, we headed into the town of Sonora which was much bigger than I expected! I had some surprise cell phone service, 3G even….and it lasted most of the way up the mountain! We grabbed dinner at Carl’s Jr. before heading back to our campground in Buck Meadows.

Tomorrow Dad and I are heading into The Valley to do some hiking, hopefully it won’t be took crowded. After a full day of driving today neither of us is willing to be ready to leave by 7 so we’ll sleep in bit and hope we aren’t too late to get a parking space!

Yosemite: Tioga Rd & Sonora Pass

Drive Day

2011-07-16T23:33:00.002-04:00

Surprisingly I got a good nights sleep in the Super Wal-Mart parking lot! It was a bit noisy around midnight, but then it got quiet and it even got cold just before dawn! Last night before I went to sleep I ran the generator for about an hour to bring the battery up so the fridge would stay cold all night. The generator is like a lawn mower engine and it’s right under my bed. It was so loud it was like a sound machine on steroids, and it made the bed vibrate. That’s when I realized I was sitting on my bed, in the back of my van, in the Wal-Mart parking lot AND my bed was vibrating. I bet there are people in West Virginia who would pay money for a Friday evening like that!

Since I didn’t have a picnic table to sit at or my Kindle to read I took my coffee and wandered through Wal-Mart! At 8 am on a Saturday I had the place mostly to myself. It was kinda nice! I also picked up a few things I didn’t get yesterday.

Dad fixed some pancakes and eggs for breakfast, then I went and got a Jamba Juice smoothie – a big treat since we don’t have one near me! After a lengthy discussion about which way to go and finally getting Dad’s GPS software on his computer to concede that we could go the way we wanted to, we were on our way.

We started out going back to 99 and then getting off near Merced (elevation 127 feet) and winding around through the cow pastures to a big lake. We found a pull off and had lunch right by the lake, then we continued up over the dry arid foothills and then finally into the mountains proper on the John Muir Historic Path.

We found our campground, The Yosemite Ridge Resort, easy enough! We have 2 nice sites here with electric, water and sewer hook ups! My 1st priority was getting the electricity plugged in so my fridge would run. The next step was to empty the toilet cartridge. It was much more difficult this time and let’s just say that my next RV, whether I own it or rent it, WILL have a black tank. This system sucks. I’m also glad that there’s a nice bathhouse with public toilets and showers less than 50 feet from my site – going to try NOT to use the toilet in my RV so I don’t have to empty it!

Our campground is about 45 minutes from the Yosemite Valley and supposedly traffic is horrible, especially on weekends. We don’t really have a plan for the rest of the week, but tomorrow we are planning to drive out the Tioga Road to Tuolomne Meadows since there will likely be fewer people out there. This will be a car trip with maybe a short walk or two.

We have wifi here at the campground, but it’s only at the restaurant so I may not be on much – just an evening check in. My phone doesn’t have service up here, but rumor has it there are cell towers in the valley – we’ll see!

Drive to Yosemite

Sequoia NP: Muir Grove Hike

2011-07-15T22:47:00.002-04:00

This morning brought more RV power issues. I gave up on trying to keep the battery charged (I can’t run my generator in my loop in the campground and driving it uses too much fuel) and it died completely. Not even the water pump would work this morning! This was going to put a major crimp in my plans since I’d planned to shower (no water pump means no water!) before we drove to Fresno so I could dump and so the bathroom would drain as we drove! I solved the problem by driving over to the loop where Mom and Dad are and there was an empty site over there so I could park there after Dad and I got back from our hike and take run the generator!

Since we were planning to drive to Fresno this afternoon Dad and I were up and out early to hike to Muir Grove. It was only 4 miles, but sometimes we get to looking at stuff and taking pictures and 4 miles ends up taking a lot longer than it should!

The trail was located right in our campground, but it was in a far loop (this campground is HUGE - 200+ sites!) so we drove my RV over there, I was attempting to charge the battery by driving.

We were hiking to a remote-ish sequoia grove that I guess John Muir frequented, it’s named after him (then again almost everything in the park is named after him!). This grove is off the beaten path so most people don’t see it! As we headed out at 8 am, there was no one else on the trail. In fact we didn’t see anyone else until the way back! The trail was nice because it was more rolling as opposed to straight up and then straight down. The ups and downs were mixed up which is easier on the legs! In just 2 short miles this trail had pretty much everything you could want in a hike: forest, meadow, rocks, wildflowers, views, streams, a cool destination, and wildlife. We saw a deer in a clearing and then Dad saw the butt of a bear! We started making noise right after Dad saw it so the bear ran away and I never saw it!

About a mile in we came to a big rock outcropping with views of Big Baldy, again though it was obscured by smoke. We could also see the tops of the sequoia trees we were hiking to! The sequoia grove was pretty cool! The trees were huge! We had a snack and took some pictures and then headed back.

Typically when I do “out and back” type hikes the way back goes much faster than the way out, but that’s still usually when the constant walking (especially if it’s all downhill) starts to get to me, so today I brought my iPod! This hike was short and interesting enough that I didn’t really need it, but I pulled it out anyway! It definitely helped me keep my mind off the fact that my left sock was bunched up by baby toe and hurting with each step!

We were back from our hike about 10:30 and I got started on my RV chores. I got parked in the campsite and popped the generator on and got a shower (it was a very efficient shower since my grey tank was almost full!), then drove over to the dump station to dump the grey tank. I’d also discovered that the toilet was out of water to flush with so I had to fill that up. This was more difficult because the toilet tank is on the wrong side of the RV to use the dump station water, so I had to use 2 containers my parents had to ferry water from the spicket to the toilet.

Once my chores were done we had lunch and then headed down the mountain. It had gotten cloudy and cold but I still drove with my window down (and the heat on) because it was so nice! We pretty coasted down the mountain, losing 6000+ feet of elevation as we descended into the valley!

We were looking for a Wal-Mart, hoping to stay for free since we’d already paid for our site in Sequoia that we gave up. Luckily we found a very nice Super Wal-Mart in Sanger, CA that allows RVs to stay overnight. I actually think this is pretty cool! Sleeping at Wal-Mart! We’ll talk in the morning about how much sleep I actually got! It is cool because you can go shop at anytime! No need to remember everything the 1st trip!

As soon as we got here and got clearance from the manager that we could stay overnight I went off to call Amazon about my Kindle. As soon as I explained what had happened they told me that they’d have to replace it. The guy sounded like I should be upset by this, but actually I’m happy! Not only are they replacing it, but they are mailing me a new one 1st then I’ll mail the defective one back in the box the new one arrives in. AND….not only that BUT…BUT…they are mailing my new Kindle to the campground we are staying at and it will be here Tuesday!!!!! YAY!!!!! I’ll have it for the plane ride home! :-) GO AMAZON!

After my success with Amazon I made the rounds of Wal-Mart picking up all kinds of odd things I can’t find at home: chocolate marshmallows, Cremesicle Oreos and Cherry Nutri-Grain bars! I love those and can’t buy them anywhere so I got two boxes so I could take one home!

It’s quite hot here in the valley but it’s supposed to get cool as soon as the sun goes down which should be any minute now! Spending the evening uploading pictures, posting blogs and reconnecting with the outside world! Four days away was kinda nice! I didn’t miss the internet as much as I have in the past!

Tomorrow we are off to Yosemite! Here’s hoping there aren’t too many people there! (Yeah, right!)

Sequoia: Muir Grove Hike

Kings Canyon National Park

2011-07-14T21:23:00.000-04:00

The day started early when the folks in the campsite next to me started their car at 2:30 am. The car was sitting there running, they were at the campfire. I couldn’t figure out what the deal was. I knew it was a mom and dad and 2 kids so it seemed very unlikely that they were up partying! I listened to the car idling, trying to go back to sleep for about 30 minutes before I decided that I needed to let them know that it was disturbing others (I’m the only one nearby in a “camper” everyone else is in tents and I’m sure I’m not the only one who was bothered by a running car at 2:30 am. Not only that but the cars headlights were on – no shining in a tent directly, but any light seems brighter when it’s pitch dark.

I crawled out of bed and got my shoes then crawled back over my bed to put them on so I could go out the back door. I put the right one on, one of my purple sandals, and picked up the other shoe that I’d gotten and discovered I’d picked up one sandal and one trail runner. Oh well, a 3 am neighborly confrontation does not require matching shoes! Only problem was that the trail runner was also a right shoe. Back over the bed to get the other sandal, then back over the bed to the door. I couldn’t get the door unlocked from the inside so I grabbed the keys and used the remote to unlock the whole van. When I did that, the headlights came on! crap! Luckily my van isn’t shining in someone’s tent!

The family at the site wasn’t at the campfire so I headed to the tent when I saw them all walking from the bathroom. I asked if that was their car that was running, and yes it was. I asked if they could please turn it off, being as it was 3am and all. They explained that they were charging the battery on their light because they’d seen a bear! A few minutes later the car was off, but it took me forever to get back to sleep!

This morning we were driving out to King’s Canyon National Park, about 40 miles away. Both Sequoia and King’s Canyon are right here together, but they are totally different!

The way to Kings Canyon is to go back the way we came in, which meant we’d be right by the entrance station. On Monday when I came through I discovered I had good signal there on my phone thanks to a well timed text! So plan was to go there 1st and see if I could download the Kindle book I’d been reading so I could at least read it on my phone. No luck. Mom had read the stuff that came with her Kindle and discovered a way to reset it, but that didn’t work either. Something has happened with the “e-ink” and the top 3/4 of the screen is all blank with lines. After the reset you can read the bottom 1/4, but what good does that do ya? I’m still SOOOOOO freakin’ pissed about this. I’d considered calling Amazon, but the entrance station wasn’t a good place to call and the signal was iffy at best (got a bunch of texts, and Words with Friends moves, but it couldn’t get my emails or my book), not only that but we’ve decided to go into Fresno tomorrow afternoon rather than waiting till Sat AM so I’ll have full phone/internet/wifi by dinnertime tomorrow, I’ll deal with it then.

As we headed into the canyon the views became expansive! There were mountains everywhere and the terrain was different. Sequoia is very “foresty” and these mountains seemed drier – more desert-like. They were mostly rocks and small trees. In the middle of the way down there were tons of yucca plants. As we drove down we stopped at lots of overlooks and took pictures, not really sure of what we were seeing.

Finally we reached the bottom and saw the river that carved the canyon! WOW! What an impressive river! It was so rough there’s no way you could even raft it! We were down in the bottom – river on one side and steep, high mountains all around!

We stopped for lunch at a picnic area with a HUGE waterfall – Grizzly Falls. Then we moved on down the road, finally entering King’s Canyon National Park. The park is bordered on all sides by National Forests and Wilderness areas. The National Forest areas are a lot more rugged and wild, as evidenced by the pit toilets – the ones in the National Forest aren’t fit for man or beast (in the 2 that we visited both had #2 in places it should never be) and the National Park Service pit toilets are lemony fresh (I’m not even kidding!). The National Forests definitely feel more “naturey” while these 2 National Parks feel more “Disney World”. (more on this tomorrow!)

Once in the park proper we drove toward “Roads End”. We were almost there when we saw a pull of for a paved walk to Roaring River Falls so we made our way out there to see a very impressive waterfall! Soon we were at “Roads End” where we hiked out to Muir Rock – it was a whopping 300 feet from the car! This was the place where John Muir addressed the Sierra Club about making King’s Canyon a park. It was a cool rock in a great setting, however there were about 50 people there – sunbathing, sitting in chairs on the beach, and the kids were running wild playing “Harry Potter” and waving sticks at each other (admittedly I’m glad to see kids using their summer vacations for such fun pursuits – playing by themselves, running around etc…) and it took away from the ambiance of the rock.

After Muir’s Rock Dad and I hiked the 1.5 miles around Zumwalt Meadow! That was a nice, quick, walk! We climbed over boulder fields where we got great views of the meadow from above and the granite rock faces that were soaring above it!

Our last stop in the park was the Cedar Grove area where they have a little store and a motel and a few other services. We all got an ice cream treat and then we were on our way back out of the canyon.

On the way back up we revisited many of the overlooks we’d stopped at on the way down – the views now made a lot more sense since we could place them geographically!

We took a bit of a different route back to camp – there’s a road the cuts off the corner by the entrance station and it’s mostly on US Forest Service land so it was a bit more rugged and windy and adventuresome!

Once back at Dorst Creek we got dinner and made our plans for tomorrow! After dinner Mom and I did the dishes so Dad could play “find the elusive water leak”. He was not successful so I have a feeling we’ll get to play again another night.

Tomorrow morning very early (he’s picking me up at 7:30!) Dad and I will hike out to Muir Grove from the campground, it’s only 4 miles so we should be back by noon. Then I’ll take a shower (yay!), and hope I don’t totally fill my grey tank! Then I can dump the grey tank before we head back to Fresno!

Kings Canyon NP

Sequoia: Little Baldy Hike

2011-07-13T21:23:00.000-04:00

I was up early and ready to go hiking! Dad and I were going to hike to summit of Little Baldy and then back to the campground. We had Mom drive us to the trail head and then we could walk back! Little Baldy is a large rock outcropping at the top of a mountain, similar to Moro Rock and the domes around Yosemite.

We set out about 9:30 AM and the trail was deserted! We saw no one! :-) There were wild flowers everywhere and the sun was out! Took a ton of pictures going up! We could see what we thought was Big Baldy – although it was very hazy with smoke from a nearby prescribed burn.

The trail continued up the mountain in long switchbacks so the view didn’t change much, but you could see more and more of the mountain and the mountains around it.

When we were almost there the trail leveled off and meandered through a meadow – it was a little like the meadow at the top of Hogback Mountain in Shenandoah, grasses and flowers with trees! These trees weren’t the sequoia trees, but rather some other kind of evergreen. The area had burned – there were a lot of charred trees and downed wood.

The trail went along the ridge until the final uphill push which was very steep, but pretty short and finally we were there! It was a huge slab of granite and we walked way out on it. The views weren’t the greatest – there was a lot of haze/clouds/fog, but you could make out most of it! At the actual summit there was a US Geological Survey Benchmark! I don’t think I’ve ever seen one of those when I’m out hiking before so that was cool! Right next to the benchmark someone had built a rock carin and then written “Little Baldy” on the top rock in what looked like Sharpie!

Almost as soon as we arrived at the summit the clouds started moving in and very quickly the entire mountain was ensconced in thick fog! No more views at all! It was also windy and generally not very pleasant to we started back and found a rock in the meadow to eat lunch on.

After lunch we headed back down! The fog was rolling in between the trees like it does on the coast and there were no more views of the mountains! The trip down is always my least favorite part – walking downhill hurts! Luckily this went fast and soon we were back at the road where we’d begun.

We still had about 1.2 miles to walk. There’s a trail that connects the Little Baldy trail to the campground and this morning we asked the ranger about it and he said “Oh, you don’t want to do that. It’s REALLY long.” When we told him we were just walking the connector trail back, he said that’d be ok, but was discouraging us from starting in the campground and hiking all the way. As we walked this connector trail I saw why. It wasn’t particularly interesting and it seemed to go one forever. Part of that was because we were still walking downhill! My legs hurt so bad! Dad had noted at the top that it was about 1000 feet of elevation change between the summit and the campground and that’s huge! ugh. We should have hiked from the campground and had Mom pick us up at the Saddle. I’d much rather gain 1000 ft than lose it! Finally, after was was surely the longest mile ever, we made it back to the campground!

Now it’s time for our RVing lesson of the day. All RVs have holding tanks for fresh and waste water. There are two waste water tanks – a grey tank and a black tank. The grey water (that goes in the grey tank!) is the water that runs down the sink drains (kitchen and bath) and the shower. The black water (in the black tank) is the toilet. When the tanks get full you go to the dump station pull out your sewer hose, attach it to the opening, put the other end on the hole in the ground and open the valves. I know it sounds icky and gross and difficult, but it’s actually really easy (and not messy! I mean dump station mishaps do happen, but it’s preventable)

My RV does not have a black tank, it has a grey tank, that is emptied the same way as normal, but the toilet has it’s own special system. The toilet empties into a small holding tank that you have to remove from the RV and drag around to the dump, then take the lid off and line up the nozzle thing on the tank and lift it up and dump. It felt like a dump station mishap waiting to happen.

Anyway….why is this important tonight? Well, last night I the bathroom started smelling like a latrine (just like your toilet at home, an RV bathroom should never smell!!!) and when I looked down the hole it looked like the tank was full. Which means, it hadn’t been emptied, no way I filled it up in just 2 days! So I decided I’d empty it to see if that helped the smell.

So after we got back from our hike I went off to the dump station to tackle the toilet! It was much easier than I expected and it seems to have reduced the latrine smell! Still, when/if I buy and RV, it will have a black tank because that’s MUCH easier to deal with!

After the dump station I went to pick up Mom and Dad. The plan was we were going to drive my RV, to charge the batteries, which we were now dead again, to keep the fridge going – this electric fridge thing is a total pain, and go first to Lodgepole so I could take advantage of the public showers (I have a shower in my RV, but I prefer to use regular showers for a lot of reasons – none major, just how I like to do things) and then go to a BBQ and living history show out at one of the picnic areas.

We got to Lodgepole and I gathered my stuff, plus $3 – thinking I’d taken a lot extra! I changed my bills into quarters, found out that each shower costs $3, then waited for a shower to open up. The bathroom was full of steam from hot showers and I was looking forward to enjoying every second of my $3 shower. When I got my shower stall I got all ready before I put the money in, however when the last quarter went in the shower didn’t start. I tried EVERYTHING to get it to start, nothing. grrrrrr…. I put my clothes on, gathered my stuff and went to ask for help in the store. The gal came out and fixed it (she opened up the money part and put one of the quarters back in) and the shower came right on! I quickly got all ready, not wanting to waste a second of my $3 shower. When I got in though, I discovered that it was cold. Ice cold. I turned both handles every way I could and it wouldn’t get warm. I tried just dunking my head anyway – I did not want to get dressed again w/o having taken a shower, but it was too cold. Finally I just shut it off, put my clothes on and stormed out. I went back to my RV and showered there (yes, in the parking lot at Lodgepole Visitor Center) where I had plenty of hot water (even though I’d just turned on the hot water heater!) I decided not to wait because the bathroom is also the shower stall and the drain is in one corner – my campsite isn’t level and if I shower here the water will collect in the opposite corner and not drain. I needed to shower at Lodgepol so the water could slosh around as I drove back and drain out, which it did. I’m thinking maybe tomorrow I’ll drive back over to the Lodgepole Visitor Center parking lot and offer hot showers for $3.50! ;-)

The BBQ and living history thing was nice! It was an all-you-can-eat buffet and a guy gave a talk about mule trains in the Sierra while we ate! When I opened my utensil pack (this was a picnic BBQ!) the utensils were really nice….solid, not flimsy! I said “WOW, these are nice plastic spoons” and the guy said “They aren’t plastic, they are plants! It’s made from corn!” Cool! Yes, I swiped the ones we’d used (double recycle!).

When we got back I took my Kindle over to Mom and Dad’s MH to discuss plans for tomorrow and Friday. When I got there and opened my Kindle, the screen had lines through it and when I turned it on the lines didn’t go away and there were blank spots! You couldn’t read it! Everything else seemed to be working but the screen was totally busted. I have NO idea what happened. It had been sitting on the “couch”/seat in the RV all day – I’d picked it up to read it while I waited for Mom and Dad to pick me up before the hike, but it had been on the seat ever since. I’ve only had it for 2 months so Amazon should stand by it (they better!), but I have no way of contacting them right now! I’m pretty pissed off about this, but it can be fixed, hopefully soon (and it’s a reminder that I need to look into a SquareTrade warranty for it!) It is kinda funny that I’m pissed off because my book stopped working. Score 1 more for paper books – very rarely does your paper book spontaneously become unreadable without obvious cause. And if the book does get damaged most times you can fix it. Only something catastrophic can take out 40+ paper books in one swipe, but hardware failure on your Kindle can wipe out everything in seconds!

Tomorrow the plan is to drive into Kings Canyon and check that out. We have to go back near the entrance station where I had cell phone service on Monday when I came in so hopefully tomorrow AM I’ll have service again and I can call Amazon see what they can do for me. Worst case I guess is there’s a Best Buy in Fresno, I can just buy a new Kindle.

Sequoia NP: Little Baldy Hike

Sequoia: Scenic Driving

2011-07-13T21:22:00.000-04:00

I got an early start today, waking up with the sun around 6 am. I got more sleep in my little RV than I’d gotten in the hotel so that was good! My day started with getting organized and unpacked, then I got ready for the day and finally enjoyed coffee and breakfast and my kindle at the picnic table, where it was so chilly I needed my fleece jacket! :-)

Around 9 I walked over to meet Mom and Dad and we headed out to explore the park. Our primary destinations today were most of the “must see tourist spots”.

We started at the Lodgepole visitor center where we got our passports stamped! Then we moved on to the General Sherman tree – the biggest living thing on earth – by volume or weight or something, they clearly made that statistics work for them. It was a nice paved walk down to the tree – lots of people! It was a pretty good climb though, but very “touristy”.

After the tree we had lunch at a nearly deserted picnic area – I was amazed that it wasn’t overrun with people!

Next up was Moro Rock – another popular tourist stop. It’s a 1/4 mile hike up 500 rock steps to the top of a granite rock where you can get a 360 degree view of the mountains, the valley, and the Great Western Divide. It was a great view and a neat rock, even if it felt like something out of Disney World rather than a natural phenomenon!

The final thing on the agenda was to walk around Crescent and Log Meadows. Supposedly Crescent Meadow was John Muir’s favorite, which I thought was odd because there are granite steps at Mt. Rainier engraved with a quote from John Muir that would lead you to believe that the Paradise Meadows were his favorite! Not sure what’s going on with that but here are my speculations:

A) John Muir hadn’t seen Mt. Rainier yet when he said Crescent was the best.

B) Whatever meadow he was standing in at the time was his favorite.

C) Someone is twisting John Muir’s words to mean what they want it to!

The meadow was very nice, however at first sighting I wasn’t too impressed, mostly because I was standing on a paved trail. The meadow had lost some of it’s wonder in the process of making it accessible to all. The meadows were surrounded by giant sequoia forests and it was very nice, except for the pesky pavement and touristy feel to it.

About 1/2 way into the walk we came to a “log cabin” – a cabin made by the guy who discovered the park and it was a hollowed out downed Sequoia tree! It was pretty cool. After the cabin the trail became dirt and had more of a “wild” feel to it! We walked through the giant sequoias and you could get some space between yourself and the other people, and there were fewer other people!

When I was almost back to the parking lot I spotted some cool tiger lilies in the meadow and I wanted to take a picture. You can just trample into the meadow, you’ll kill the flowers that have a very short growing season to begin with, I quickly saw the solution to my problem – there was a dead tree that was close to the trail and went out into the meadow, so I climbed up and headed out. Once I got out on the log I saw hundreds of flowers, many different types, that I hadn’t noticed before! I took a bunch of pictures! By now it was late afternoon and the sun was starting to sink – the colors in the meadow changed several times over the 10 or so minutes I was on the log and I’m pretty sure *this* was the meadow that John Muir saw and fell in love with! I wonder what he’d think if he knew that we’d paved a path around his favorite place so that every could visit? Would he be happy? Or would he be mad that we spoiled it?

After the walk we headed back to the campground for dinner, and charging my RV!

Time for our “RVing Lesson of the Day”":

RV’s can plug into power if you are at a campground that has hook ups or operate on batteries if you are “dry camping”. We are currently dry camping – no hook ups. This means the battery is VERY important. The battery runs things such as lights, the water pump, and the ignition for your propane stuff like the fridge or the hot water heater. In most cases an RV fridge runs on both propane and electricity and it will switch itself back and forth depending on what’s available. In my case however, the fridge runs on electricity only - which means it’s powered by the battery when there’s no hookup.

This morning I checked the battery and it was almost dead! I couldn’t believe this because I’d driven ALL day yesterday and driving charges the battery, so it should have been good and full and should have been able to last me almost the whole time we were here.

I do have a generator in my RV so it’s easy to just run the generator and charge the battery. In theory. My campsite is in the “no generators” loop of the campground, meaning it’s never OK for me to run it. My parents are in the generator loop so we decided that I’d drive my RV over and find an empty campsite and squat for an hour or so while I ran my generator. This was a better plan than me going for a drive b/c it wouldn’t use up as much gas (there is gas in the park, but it’s ridiculously expensive $4+/gallon).

The site next to my parents was empty so we ran back and got my RV, but by the time I got it over there the owners of the site had moved in! There was another empty site right across from them so I backed in there and got the generator going. Almost as soon as I did the owners of that site showed up! They told me I could stay, so I stuck around about 30 minutes, hoping that would be good enough. These people didn’t need to listen to my generator (sounds like a lawn mover) or breathe the exhaust! Just in that short amount of time the battery was back up to 2/3 full so it should be good for the night.

I don’t have much in the fridge that needs to be super cold so I turned it way down – it was set at it’s highest setting (no wonder the battery died!) and my carrots were frozen this morning! No need for that! One thing I’ve learned is that if I ever own an RV, it will have a fridge that runs on propane!

It’s starting to get really chilly in here! We saw a weather report (that had been printed out on Sun so it was old) that said it was going down to 38* tonight! Brrrrrr! Glad I have my 0* backpacking sleeping bag, I’ll be toasty warm!

Tomorrow Dad and I are going to hike to Little Baldy which is very close to the campground, I’m pretty sure it will be a lot like Moro Rock minus the hordes of tourists!

Sequoia NP - Sherman Tree, Moro Rock, Cresent Meadow

Sequoia!

2011-07-11T21:22:00.000-04:00

I’m nestled all snug in my little RV/van! Snug being the operative word there! This RV is great, but it’s not spacious! The small van was great to drive, easy to back up and maneuver in tight spaces, however it’s a bit lacking in storage and living space.

The majority of the day was spent driving from Oakland to Sequoia NP! I didn’t get much sleep last night so today was rough, but I made it!

After going over all the finer details of my home on wheels I took off! Took me about 30 minutes of driving in circles around Oakland before I got on the correct highway (there are at least 5,000 highways in the Bay Area all with “80” somewhere in them – 888, 580, 380) heading in the correct direction. When I first found 580 – the highway I wanted, I headed east. I was after all going to the mountains, the mountains are east. I was quite confused by the fact that the sign said “580 East Oakland” but I have no sense of geography for the Bay Area so maybe I still hadn’t gotten to Oakland, even though I was pretty sure I was done with Oakland. A few seconds later I had my dopeslap moment….I’m on the West Coast….the mountains are EAST, the OCEAN is west!!!!!! AGGHHH!!!!!! So, I had to figure out where to get off and turn around! (Andy, I know you are laughing at me, stop it!)

I stopped in Modesto to have lunch at In and Out Burger. Everyone talks about how great that place is and I’d never been. I don’t see the appeal. Five Guys is WAY better! I didn’t even eat the fries – they had no flavor! After lunch I hit the Save Mart for supplies then continued down Highway 99.

Highway 99 is rather forgettable. It goes through the dry, flat, unattractive valley and there are tons of trucks. It was double hard because I was so sleepy, but finally I made it to Fresno!

To get to Sequoia from Oakland you go to Fresno and turn left on 180. Once I turned on 180 I drove out of town very quickly. I knew I’d wanted to get gas before I got to far into the mountains so I asked Google Maps where I could find some. I found a small town about a mile or so off course with both a gas station and a Subway so I could bring my dinner in. Only problem was the road into the town was closed! agh! I found a detour and bounced my way down a few backroads through farms and followed the handwritten “gas and food open” signs to a veritable metropolis out there in the nothingingness. I pulled into the 1st gas station – it was cash or debit only. I used my debit card, which was rejected. I’d had an issue with Bank of America earlier with the credit card and trying to charge (they thought it was fraud because I was so far from home), but I thought I’d worked it out. So I had to go to another gas station – they took my other Bank of America Visa without a problem…hmmmm. After picking up my sandwich, I decided that I should probably call the bank and make sure things are straightened out. After 30 minutes, most of it on hold, thank goodness AT&T lets me surf the internet while I talk, I have been assured that all is well and functioning. Here’s hoping.

After my gas stop the real fun began! The mountains! They start out as little hills rising gradually up from the valley and they are all brown with little pockets of green, but mostly brown. It’s very dry and hot. At about 4000 feet (the road had a marker every time we gained 1000 ft of elevation) the ridges were capped with trees, and by 5000 ft there were evergreen (Sequoia?) trees all around – some were HUGE! After checking in at the entrance station and discovering that I had enough cell signal to check in on Foursquare, I made my way through the park to our campground. The scenery was great, but I was so tired I just wanted to be there and it was taking a very long time.

Finally I pulled in and was surprised to see a mama bear and her two cubs right along the road! The ranger says they are here a lot! Each campsite has a bear box to keep the food in – even the cars aren’t safe (although apparently motorhomes are – go figure – if I post this I did not get eaten by a bear! :-)

Mom and Dad got here mid-afternoon so I walked over to their site to eat my dinner and catch up with them.

My site here is less than scenic – it’s basically a parking spot! There’s another car parked right next to me even! But it’s all good! I have a view of another families campfire and the air is crisp and chilly, what more do I want? I can hardly keep my eyes open and it’s getting cold in here – I need to get in my sleeping bag and get some sleep! Tomorrow we are off to explore the park!

2011-07-11

Good Morning From Oakland

2011-07-11T11:15:00.000-04:00

Usually my summer trips involve early morning flights that mean leaving home at the pre butt crack of dawn and driving off into the early morning darkness. Not this year! My flight wasn’t scheduled to leave Dulles until 6:00 pm! And it was direct! What a luxury!

I had a very nice morning: reading my Kindle, packing those last minute things, and tying up loose ends at home. I left around 2:00 to run a few errands then head to the airport.

I arrived at the airport a little after 3, parked the car, got the shuttle, and walked right up to an open check-in kiosk at the Jet Blue Counter. When I checked in though I was informed that the flight was delayed. We now weren’t going to leave until 7:00. Glad I already built extra time into the plan.

The line for security was massive. I’m not sure why but I thought it would be better later in the day, wrong. They were herding everyone into two big lines and then taking turns which line got to head downstairs to the main screening area – once down there the line wound around a bunch of times before you actually got to go through.

Standing in line I pulled out my Kindle and discovered that reading on my Kindle is far superior to reading a book when it comes to reading in line! I just had to hold the device – no worrying about turning pages or losing your page which always happens when you try to read one handed! And it was easy to see over so I could read and shuffle along (it was just like reading sitting in traffic! LOL!) Kindle: 1 Paper Books: 0

When I got up to the security screening area there was a guy with a BIG guitar looking case. It was about 4x the size of a guitar so I’m guessing it was a bass or something. The case was solid, shiny, white, plastic and it had a black rubber looking bumper on the edge. At first glance it looked like a Stormtrooper. Now, that would make flying better. Replace all the TSA agents with Stormtroopers. Of course they were the bad guys, but whatever, they are still cooler than your average TSA agent.

I did get to experience the “backscatter” machine. They had it set up where some people went though that and some went through the old metal detectors. It wasn’t so bad – you just stood there – hands up on your head like you are being arrested and then the gal tells you to come out. I did have one security “oops”. Despite having read TSA’s website so I’d know what to do I didn’t see that my computer needed it’s own bin so I put it in a bin and put my shoes, purse and meds on top. The gal had to take it back and run it all back through again. She was very friendly until I asked if I could just take the stuff on top (thinking it had already been scanned) and her whole tone changed and she said “No, I cannot let you have access to the property at this time.” Well, then.

I was kinda glad for the extra hour now because at this point it had taken 45 minutes to get through security and I still wanted to hike down to the A terminal to get a Cosi sandwich! Of course Cosi was alll the way at the end of the A terminal – a mile or so (at least! ;-) from where the train dropped me off! I then had to walk all the way back to almost the end of the B terminal! It was good to spend my extra hour walking! Not only that but Cosi has San Pelligrino in bottles! :-) Of course it was close to $3.00 for a 20 oz bottle (I pay about 60 cents for a liter of fizzy water at Wegmans!) so it was like drinking Platinum!

The rest of the wait went quickly and soon the plane arrived and we boarded and were ready to go! I settled in with my headphones, iPod and Kindle. I was happily reading away when the flight attendant announced that we needed to turn off ALL electronic devices. uh-oh. I thought I’d just play dumb until she clarified - “that’s anything with an “on/off” switch, including: Kindles, cell phones, CD players….etc….” The fact that she specifically mentioned Kindles and mentioned it 1st made me just turn it off and wait till we we were airborne. The folks who lugged paper books were still reading away. Kindle: 0, Paper Book 1.

The flight was uneventful and soon we were landing in Oakland. As I stepped off the plan onto the Jetway the outside air felt WONDERFUL – it was crisp and chilly and not a speck of humidity! As I was waiting on the curb for the Holiday Inn van to pick me up I checked the weather – it was 59*! Very nice, even if my teeth were a few degrees away from chattering!

The Holiday Inn is very nice and I have been sufficiently pampered, even if I did sleep much! The bed was plush and comfy with high threadcount sheets (even if id did set my allergies off…), the shower spacious (my whole RV is prob smaller!) with a premium showerhead, free wireless, and though expensive, tasty room service breakfast! In a few minutes the front desk will summon me a taxi to wisk me off to San Leandro to get my RV!

Next post will likely not be until Saturday….see ya’ll then!

California Dreamin’

2011-07-09T13:02:00.001-04:00

Two years ago, September of 2009, I watched Ken Burn’s documentary masterpiece The National Parks: America’s Best Idea. I’m usually not a documentary fan, but this one was different! I actually watched the whole thing, which is saying a lot because a Ken Burns documentary is usually very long, this one being no exception! It started Sun night and ran at least an hour and half (or maybe it was 2 hours) each night that week! Thank goodness for TiVo! I TiVoed the whole thing and watched over the course of several months!

Rather than starting with Yellowstone, the first National Park, and going through a chronological listing of how the parks came to be like I was expecting, Ken Burns started with an overview of what the parks are and why they are special. The whole first episode talked a lot about Yosemite and John Muir. At the time Yosemite wasn’t really on my list of places to go, and while I’d heard of John Muir (I’d visited his woods outside of San Francisco) I had only a vague idea of who he was. The first episode of the Ken Burn’s documentary suddenly made me want to go to Yosemite and sit in the meadow in the shadow of Half Dome and read everything John Muir wrote!

That’s exactly what I’m going to do this summer! Tomorrow evening I’m heading to California for 2 weeks to explore Sequoia/Kings Canyon National Park and Yosemite National Park! I was thrilled to learn that most of John Muir’s writings are free on Kindle! Yes, I did have to purchase a Kindle (which I love), to read my free books, but I think it will be worth it!

Mom and Dad, after some debating due to Mom’s sciatica/back pain, left Williamsburg on July 3 and have been driving like crazy all week are currently about 400 miles from our campsite in Dorst Creek Campground. I’ll be flying into Oakland and after a night at the Holiday Inn I’ll pick up my rental RV and head down to meet them.

I’m extra excited about my RV rental this year! Mom found a company that rents small class B camper vans! I have seen these on the road and checked them out online and they are very appealing in terms of purchasing one! Easy to drive and park yet they have all the comforts of home! I’m a bit worried about how small it’s going to be, maybe too small, which I why I’m excited about renting one before I decide if it’s something I want to buy!

So for the next two weeks I will be “Living in a van, down by the river” and thrilled about it!

Stay tuned to this blog for updates and pictures as much as the internet connections allow!

Oh and if you are interested in watching the episode of the Ken Burns documentary that inspired this trip go HERE. If you have AmazonPrime it’s even free! You can also view video clips on the website linked above.

100,000 Miles!

2011-06-05T20:23:00.002-04:00

I remember hearing the family story about the day that my grandfathers car turned over 100,000 miles and he was so excited he pulled off the road, found a hotel and spent the night. I don’t know which car of his it was or what year or any other details, just that he was super excited about it. My grandfather was quirky man, but it made me think about the day my car would reach 100,000 miles.

My first car, a 1986 blue Volvo station wagon was within 10,000 miles of the magic number when it was totaled in “The Great Alpha Phi Omega Car Accident of 1996”. I was very sad to lose that car, because we’d had some awesome adventures in it, but I was almost sadder that it never saw 100,000 miles.

The next 2 cars that I owned, a green Volvo station wagon and a white Chevy Cavalier, I’d bought used and were never really mine. I have no idea of their mileage either when I bought them or when I sold them.

Then in 1999 I bought my 1st Saturn. It was a blue sedan and it had 7 miles on it when I drove it off the lot in Edmond, OK. I was going to drive that car till the wheel fell off. Well, or until Saturn gave me a good reason to trade it in!

Just about a year after I bought my Saturn sedan, Saturn introduced the VUE it’s lineup and I wanted one! I was a bit disappointed that my car was so new and it would be ages before I could get a VUE. In December 2005 I got an offer in the mail that I couldn’t refuse. I don’t remember the details, but I remember getting more for my trade in than it would have cost to fix some of the problems that had developed and I got a $500 Target Gift Card – that’s like cash!

My Sedan was close to 100,000 miles, but not quite there yet. I can’t remember the actual mileage but I’m guessing it was around 80-90,000.

So, my VUE hitting the 100,000 mile mark was a milestone I’d been looking forward to for a long time!

When the car turned over 90,000 miles a few months ago I started calculating how many miles I drove each week to estimate about when we’d hit 100,000 and I knew it was coming before the end of the school year. I was extra excited when I saw that it was within 150 miles the day before I was heading to Shenandoah National Park with Penny!

I was prepared, I’d googled the distance so I knew it would happen on Skyline Drive. As we drove I perfected the art of taking pictures of the odometer while driving so I record the big moment!

It all went down on Saturday May 28, 2011 between Mile Marker 20 and 19, I was heading north on Skyline Drive!

One of my new favorite songs, Michael Franti & Spearhead’s I’ll be Waiting, was playing on the radio! Oddly enough I haven’t heard the song all week!

I pulled off into the first overlook I came too, luckily it was within the same mile, and got a picture of the car with the view…the VUE with the view! LOL!

The car no longer has a “good side” there’s body damage on the front and the back, all my fault. I hadn’t gotten it fixed because I thought there might be a major issue with the transmission, but there’s not.

I took a few more pictures to record the moment:

The Skyline Drive Mile Marker that just happened to be right across from the overlook for convenient picture taking!

The sign indicating the name of the overlook:

And several pictures of the view:

I think I’d make my grandpa proud, even if I didn’t stop and spend the night!

As I was driving to and from the park that day I was thinking about just where all those 100,000 miles have taken me. Sadly most of those miles were accumulated driving to and from work. I drive about 20 miles each way, 40 miles a day, 200 miles a week…it adds up fast. Throw in weekend trips to Fredericksburg to see friends, Williamsburg & Richmond to see family, and the mountains to hike and it’s no wonder my 5.5 year old car already has 100,000 miles on it!

There have been a few epic road trips though…

In August of 2006 I drove up to Duncansville, PA to visit my friends Drew and Brenna at their new house! They’d moved in earlier in the summer and their oldest son was a year and a half and Brenna was newly pregnant with their 2nd.

In October of 2007 I drove to Western Maryland for my friend Rachel’s Wedding! I also saw Drew and Brenna and Alex and Evan! Read about that trip HERE.

In December 2008 I took a New Years Road Trip to Canaan Valley, West Virginia. That link is to the 1st day, there are 4 total posts about the trip!

In February of 2009 I returned to West Virginia with Susan and Mike for “Blogfest 2009”, when I finally met Russell, Amy and Annette!

June of 2009 brought us the most epic of all road trips…Susan, Amy, Russell, Leah and I took a day trip to NJ to meet Janet Evanovich!

In December of 2009 my parents and I went to the Great Smoky Mountains after Christmas – it was an 8 hour trip and this remains the farthest I have ever driven this car! Hard to believe that I have accumulated 100,000 miles with 1 long distance road trip! I didn’t blog about that trip at all though.

The car has also taken me on many days to Shenandoah, Catocin Mt, George Washington National Forest, Liberty Mountain PA for snow tubing, Sky Meadows State Park, and more…just check out the blog archives!

And before I go, one quick story about the 1st day I had the car! I took delivery of my car on a rainy weeknight in December 2005. I carefully drove home in the dark, unsure of myself in the new car. It was about 35 degrees and raining. The next morning I woke up and checked to see if we had a delay, nope. The weather was still 35* and raining. I headed out. At the intersection of Mohican and Old Bridge the back tires skidded on the ice, but the car handled it and all was fine. The drive to school continued uneventfully as I enjoyed a Christmas Concert on the pops station on my brand new XM radio (Springing for the satellite radio was the best decision I’d made in years!!!!). When I passed Hayfield HS though I knew something was up – the parking lot was empty! Usually the High School is well into 1st period before I come through, hmmmm…did we have a delay I didn’t know about? I was really close to school so I kept going. When I arrived at my school and saw the parking lot empty, I figured that we must have had a delay. I went in and saw one of our custodians and he informed that yes, we had a 2-hour delay and I was 3 hours early for school! It had been a late call and had I not been listening to my XM radio I would have heard the announcement! Oh well! Even if I’d heard when I was on my way to school I probably wouldn’t have gone back home! In the 9 years I’ve been teaching that has only happened once though!

My VUE has been a great car and I’m looking forward to the next 100,000 miles! :-)

Penny’s First Hike

2011-06-05T14:13:00.002-04:00

In March Penny, Susan’s and Mike exchange student from Thailand, came and spent the night with me so I could take her to Fairfax in the morning for her TOFEL test. As we were eating breakfast she was admiring the photographs of my trips to Alaska, Maine, Yellowstone and Grand Tetons that are on the walls in the living room & dining room. As I described hiking she was a bit incredulous about why anyone in their right mind would climb mountains and walk miles for fun. But she was also interested in seeing some of these places for herself. We made plans for me to take her out to Shenandoah National Park to see the mountains!

Last Saturday we headed out! I’d decided that we would go into the park through the Thorton Gap entrance then drive down to Big Meadows and go for a quick 1.4 mile hike to Dark Hollow Falls and then drive up Skyline Drive from Big Meadows to Front Royal and then take 66 back to Alexandria to drop Penny off with Susan’s sister Judy.

Susan dropped Penny off about 9:45 and it was about 10 when we headed out. My car was just about to turn over 100,000 miles and in an attempt to have an idea of where we would be when that I happened I’d google-mapped the route to the park so I could see the milage. In the process I discovered a new route to get to the park that cut 10 miles off the trip! YAY! As we were driving through rural Faquier County VA we saw a random sign, in Thai! I was going to fast for Penny to read it, but she got a chance when I realized I’d missed a turn and we had to go back! Turns out it was a sign to a temple and the Thai words were just the name.

Soon we made it to Warrenton and stopped at the Sheetz to pick up lunch and get gas. Turns out Penny LOVES Sheetz and was thrilled that we were stopping there! While I was checking out the snack options I discovered a bag of Chex Muddy Buddies. I’d never seen pre-made Muddy Buddies before, and they are Penny’s favorite so I had to get them to try them. Turns out they are more powdered sugar than peanut butter or chocolate and neither of us ate more than a handful.

I love making the trip down 211 into Sperryville and up the mountain to Skyline Drive because almost as soon as you leave Warrenton the mountains become more and more visible and there’s lots of anticipation. I was hoping to share than anticipation with Penny, however Mother Nature had other ideas. The mountains were totally covered in low clouds. Low clouds that got thicker as we got closer. Hmmm…it was not supposed to rain. In fact it was supposed to be sunny and in the 80s. I was worried about being hot.

After we passed through Sperryville and were heading up the mountain the sky opened up and we were in a torrential downpour! It was a quick downpour and by the time we got to the entrance station for Skyline Drive it had stopped raining, although it was cloudy and cool. When it was raining Penny asked what happens to people when they are hiking and it starts to rain – not sure she was satisfied with my answer of “They get wet”. When we passed through the entrance station I asked the Ranger what was up with the rain and she simply shrugged her shoulders and said “the forecast was for scattered showers.” I pulled into the Panorama parking area because I knew I had 3G service there and checked the radar – there were just 2 tiny green spots, so I figured it would be fine.

We made our way down Skyline Drive and Penny, who is a afraid of heights, was in awe of how high we were! We stopped at the Pinncles Picnic area and broke out our Sheetz Picnic. My first stop was the “comfort station”. I walked in and discovered that there was a lady who was stuck in one of the stalls and needed a screwdriver to get out. I was pretty sure I had a screwdriver in the car so I walked back to get it. It was a Phillips Head but I hoped it would suffice. By the time I got back to the comfort station though the woman had jiggled the lock until it released! It was only then that I remembered I had my “picnic knife” in my backpack and the knife blade would have doubled as a flat head screwdriver!

Penny and I enjoyed the cool, cloudy, but not raining, weather as we at our lunch. She introduced me to Sheetz onion rings – YUM! After our picnic we continued down Skyline Drive.

The clouds were breaking up somewhat, and there were views from the overlooks. We checked out Stony Man Mountain and Hawksbill and finally made it to Big Meadows. The parking area and the overflow parking for Dark Hollow Falls was filled so we headed over to the Visitor Center first. As we pulled in I noticed a HUGE, very dark cloud just south and west of where we were.

I parked kinda far from the Visitor Center, but close to the trail that would take us down to the trail. We went into the VC and were checking out the exhibits. I was gave Penny the Cliff Notes version of the history of the park – wasn’t sure how much an 18 year old Thai student would truly care about the history of the park! Just as we were finishing up the rain started. It was so loud we could hear it on the roof of the building! We went to the window where we could watch all the folks hiking in the meadow getting totally drenched! It looked like someone had turned the shower on! We checked out the gift shop and just as quick as it had started the rain slowed.

We decided we needed to go to the Wayside and check in the campstore for a poncho for Penny. Luckily for me my raingear happened to be in the car (not on purpose, it was just luck). We found a nice $5 “rain insurance policy” for Penny and headed back to the car. As soon as she got it on I told her that now that she’d bought that, it would stop raining and not start again. She didn’t think that was funny. (it did however turn out to be true!)

Back at the car I donned my rain coat (I was unfortunately dressed in all cotton otherwise I might not have bothered – it was cool, but not cold enough to be comfortable in a rain coat.) and we gathered out water bottles and cameras and headed out.

I’d hiked to Dark Hollow Falls twice before, once the 1st day I’d ever visited Shenandoah and once when Dad and I hiked the Rose River Falls loop. Oddly through I remembered little of the trail so it was like seeing it for the first time.

The trail is .7 miles down to the lower falls and then .7 miles back up. The creek flows right next to the trail most of the way so there were plenty of photo-ops and things to look at. We’d been walking about 10 minutes when the clouds began to break up and the sun came out. Off with the rain gear! About 10 minutes later the clouds had completely broken and the sun was shining and the sky was blue!

We finally made it to the bottom of the falls! There were a lot of people there! Some had stripped down to bathing suits and were swimming in the pool, others were wading, and others were just vying for a good spot to take the perfect picture.

Penny and I took the obligatory pictures of the falls and of each other with the falls, and then attempted to go down the trail a bit to get a better view, but better views were not to be had. On the way back up I decided that I wanted to get to the other side of the pool to get “the perfect shot”. This involved taking off my shoes and socks and wading in. The water was cold, but not too cold! I got in a good position and got a few great shots, however many of them had “idiot of the day” in them – a guy who was climbing the falls!

Soon we were on our way back up the trail. About halfway up Penny declared that going up was better than going down! Spoken like a true hiker!

Once back at the car we headed back over to the wayside to replace the calories we’d burned with some Shenandoah exclusive blackberry ice cream! YUM!

As we entered the wayside we noticed the “Penny smasher” machine – Penny has been collecting these smashed pennies everywhere she’s been so we had to get her one. In all my travels I’d never smashed a penny so I thought my hike with Penny was a great place to start! It took us a try to figure out how to use the machine, so Penny ended up with 2 smashed pennies.

Now for the easy part of the day – driving abut 50 miles of Skyline Drive! The sun was shinning, the clouds were gone, and the temps were still comfortable. It was the perfect afternoon for a drive! We stopped at a few overlooks and took some pictures from the car, but basically just drove. Soon Penny fell asleep. She was out cold!

The car hit 100,000 miles at mile marker 19! I’m going to write a separate post about that, but Penny slept through the whole thing! She also slept through my pulling off the road to take some pictures of newly bloomed Mt. Laurel and me stopping at Dickey Ridge to check in on Foursquare – I was hoping to become mayor of Shenandoah, but I was still 1 day away. :-( Penny slept about an hour and didn’t wake up until we were on 66!

We spent the rest of the trip trying to find music in my iPod that Penny was familiar with. I realized that I listen to some obscure music, but even the current “teen pop hits” that I have weren’t familiar to her! I told her she had to stay another year to familiarize herself with American Pop Music! After a quick dinner at Arby’s, one of the few fast food joints she had yet to try, I dropped her off at Judy and Lucas’ place in Alexandria and headed home myself!

Penny @SNP 5.28.11

Kindle

2011-05-24T17:58:00.001-04:00

I never really wanted a Kindle. It’s not that I’m truly against them, I just love the feel of books!

I love the textures – some are smooth, some are bumpy, some have smooth pages, others have pages that feel like construction paper. Library books are the best – they have those plastic covers and most are well worn hardbacks. The pages are soft from so many hands. The binding is loose but not broken. Paperbacks have softly frayed covers. Sometimes you get extra lucky and you are one of the first readers of a brand new book – it’s special library cover is crisp and the binding cracks a bit. One time I was reading a Janet Evanovich book from the library and it dumped sand all over my bed – it had spent a fun week at the beach that summer! Books are meant to be read and enjoyed and library books are fulfilling their destiny!

eReaders kill the feel of a book in your hands, and I wasn’t ready to take that step.

My mom got a Kindle and I played with it a little, but didn’t really like it. I kept trying to touch the screen to get it to do stuff and it didn’t work! There were too many buttons and the interface was clunky. I decided that it definitely wasn’t something I wanted.

Soon after Amazon introduced the Kindle App for iPhone I downloaded it and it quickly became one of my favorite apps! I always had a book in pocket! AWESOME! Now if I was stuck waiting or stuck in traffic (only when the car is completely stopped at a red light or bumper to bumper traffic) I could read! Last summer when we went to Washington State I bought all my hiking guides on Kindle and it was so handy having the guide books with us at all times without the added weight and bulk of the actual book! So far I have read 15 books on my Kindle App and didn’t really miss the “book feel”

A few weekends ago I was at my parents house planning our summer trip to Yosemite and Sequoia/Kings Canyon and I was thinking about how I could cut down the amount of stuff I needed to bring. I was trying to think of things that I always feel the need to bring with me but never use or really need. The 1st thing that came to mind: books. I always want to bring a lot of books, but I never read them. Books are heavy. Books take up space.

But a Kindle is small. And light. And holds LOTS of books!

Also, I have a bunch of books by John Muir, that I’m planning to read when I’m in CA or at least start, and they are all on Kindle. They were free too!

So I broke down and bought a Kindle. It’s the “small” one – 6 inches. Wifi only. I opted not to get the one with “special offers” because I didn’t want to have all the ads. I also got a cool cover for it that has a light that pulls out and is powered by the kindle battery so never needs batteries!

I LOVE IT.

I love it more than I thought I would! It has a bar at the bottom that has little hash marks denoting each chapter so you can tell at a glance how much farther to the end of the chapter – perfect for an anal reader like myself who hates putting the book down before the end of the chapter. Turning the pages is just a tap on a button. The e-ink is very easy to read. Much easier to read than on my phone. In it’s cover it fits perfectly into the book clips on my treadmill – and I don’t have to hold it open like I do with a paper book. I have a ton of books in my hand so if I get bored with one, I can just read another! This morning, when I had jury duty and did a lot of sitting and waiting, this feature was really nice!

The only problem I have with it: you have to buy the books. Over the last few years I’ve been pretty good about getting my reading material exclusively from the library, therefore my reading habit is mostly free. Now, if I want to read it on my Kindle I have to pay for it. And frequently I’m finding that the kindle version of a book is more expensive than the paperback version!?!?!

I’m looking forward to the launch of the lending library service Amazon has promised later this year.

I hope that I still love “real books” as much as I did and the Kindle never takes the place of “real books”, but in the meantime I’m trolling Amazon to find cheaper books to download and read! :-)

The Great Hogback Mountain Butterfly Chase

2011-05-24T17:06:00.002-04:00

Saturday I went hiking! The pollen seemed like it was lower, or at least it wasn’t bothering me as much, so I took advantage and hit the trail!

It was forecast to be in the 80s in Woodbridge and it was already hot as I headed out. I was worried it would be too hot – it gets too hot for hiking very quickly! However, as I made my way into the park I watched the temperature drop on my car thermometer! By the time I reached the trailhead it was a pleasant 64 degrees! :-)

I was planning to hike over Hogback Mountain and then down the Sugarloaf trail and back up a fire road. Since it was such a nice day I figured (correctly) that the parking area by Hogback Mountain Overlook would be full so I parked in the less popular Keyser Run Fire Road. I’d hiked this trail back in 2001 and I thought I remembered the trail exactly, however, I quickly learned that my memory is not for navigational purposes!

As I headed up the trail I noticed that there was what appeared to be a bumper crop of wild geraniums and violets, there was little variety in the wildflowers though. I passed a few people coming down, including two folks who I’m pretty sure were thru-hikers. Soon I reached an rocky outcropping at the top where I stopped to take pictures and attempt some self portraits, there was no good place to put the camera down though so I headed down the hill! I was at the top of a smallish mountain and I could see a big mountain in front of me, I thought, “man I’m glad I don’t have to climb that!”

I was feeling very accomplished! I was thinking I’d already done the major climbing part of trail and was almost to the quiet wilderness part of the hike. I did remember that there was a radio tower at the top of Hogback Mt, and I knew I I hadn’t seen it, also they laugh hang-gliders from the mountain…wasn’t sure why I hadn’t seen those things. The trail quickly descended into the overlook and it wasn’t the overlook I thought I’d be in! Hmmm…consult the map!

Ahhhh…turns out I’d only hiked up and over Little Hogback Mountain. I did indeed need to climb the big mountain! Well, at least it looked easy – the trail seemed to follow one contour line and skirt the summit! Off I went!

The overlook was in a saddle and there weren’t many trees, just lots of brush and there were butterflies everywhere! I attempted a few pictures, but they were very hard to photograph! Butterflies don’t stay still very long!

As I climbed the mountain and went up switchback after switchback I guessed that I had mis-read the map! It wasn’t hard, just steeper than I had expected! The butterflies were still flying around – all kinds, yellow ones, brown ones, blue & black ones, some small moth like butterflies. It was pretty cool! I made several attempts at taking pictures, but as soon as I’d get the butterfly in the frame it would fly away!

Soon I reached the ridge and the open-is meadow! There are tall trees but they are wildly spaced and undergrowth is low. I’m guessing the area had been cleared for farming at one time. The butterflies were still dancing around and there was a cool breeze!

Right at the top there was a post in the middle of the trail. Posts in SNP indicate trail intersections. I went up and read it: Launch Site- 100 yards. Skyline Drive – 400 yards. Great! I’d reached the top!

I walked over to the launch area and it was deserted so I spent about 10 minutes taking pictures, including a bunch of self portraits with my timer, and having a snack. I then headed back the way I came, assuming that the trail that continued on just went to the radio tower I could see at the end, when I got to the post I turned down the hill, once again please with myself and what good time I was making!

Soon I came to Skyline Drive and instantly realized I was in the wrong place. I was supposed to be in an overlook, but I was just by the road. I quickly realized that I’d mistakenly taken a spur trail to a spring rather than the trail down. I was faced with 2 options: walk along Skyline Drive to the overlook or climb back up the hill 400 yards to the trail. It was a busy day and there were lots of cars and motorcycles on the road so I chose the “up the hill” option. I quickly got to the top and continued down the trail.

As I reached the top there was a couple with their 2 dogs coming down the trail. We played hopscotch a few times before I finally let them get ahead of me while I photographed some really pretty pink flowers. I was pretty excited that I’d walked back up the hill because I never would have seen the flowers if I hadn’t! (turns out the flowers were in abundance further down the trail.

Soon I reached the road again and when I did I completely lost the trail. I was right on the edge of the overlook, which hugged the road – basically the road was just a bit wider there as the overlook curved around. I couldn’t figure out where the trail had gone. I got out the map, but that didn’t help – it looked like it crossed Skyline Drive, but I couldn’t see it anywhere on the other side. I knew the trail crossed the drive on the other side of the overlook so I just walked through the overlook, enjoying the view and taking pictures!

I picked up the trail again and doubled back over the territory I’d just covered while walking through the overlook. In just a few minutes I saw the couple with the dogs that I’d encountered on the top of the mountain. They must have been able to find the trail!

I was almost back at Skyline Drive before I got to the Sugarloaf Trail! I probably ended walking at least a 1/2 mile out of my way! Things should be easier now – it was just down the Sugarloaf Trail, across the Pole Bridge Link Trail and up the fire road. I did however shove the map in my pocket since I kept having to stop to consult it. Ended up not needing it again the rest of the hike.

By this time I’d been walking for about 2 hours and had covered only 2 miles. I needed to pick up the pace a bit! I stopped taking pictures and focused on walking! The Sugarloaf trail would be an awesome place to hike when the Mt. Laurel is in bloom! WOW! I had to simply imagine!

I saw more people than I expected to see – all going the opposite direction as me, but otherwise the trail was uneventful.

Soon I reached the fire road. I’ve hiked up this fire road before and I know that it’s pretty boring. It’s well graded making the uphill hike nice, but it’s boring so before I conquered the last mile I pulled out my iPod.

I’d been walking a little while, and I’d been guessing that I was about 1/2 way back to the car, when all the sudden sirens pierced through the silence and the music on my iPod. It sounded like there were a million and that they were close. My thought was I was much closer to Skyline Drive than I’d thought and that there been a bad accident.

A few minutes later I heard a loud, low rumbling sound – my 1st thought was “motorcycles” – also in keeping with the idea that I was closer to the Drive than I’d estimated. But the sound continued for a long time. I then thought maybe it was a helicopter for the accident – but helicopters make a “thwap thwap” sound…this was more of a train coming at you. The sound kept going and going for almost a minute. If I’d been in Mt. Rainier NP I would have thought “Lahar”, but there aren’t any volcanoes nearby. My other thought was “tornado” but it was really sunny with barely a cloud in the sky. Oddly, “earth splitting apocalyptic earthquake” didn’t occur to me until later! I had no idea, but was eager to get back to the car to find out!

The car was a lot closer than I’d thought and I was there within minutes. I quickly changed my shoes and headed to Elkwallow to grab a snack and a cold drink before heading home.

As I passed the Hogback Mountain Overlook (the one I’d hiked through, the one that’s just a wide spot in the road) I saw that there was a whole mess of motorcycles! It looked like there were about 50. I suspected that’s what I’d heard on the trail. As I headed down the Drive I didn’t see anything that could have explained the sirens.

When I got to Elkwallow the motorcycles weren’t far behind! They all pulled in as I was getting out of the car! I counted 25, but I’m pretty sure I missed some – the kinda scattered and they were parked in clumps. While in store I saw many of their riders and learned from the patches on their vests that they were Eagle PA Harley Owners Club!

After seeing no evidence of anything requiring sirens I concluded that I must have been in an acoustical “sweet spot” when I was on the Fire Road and it simply amplified the road noise from Skyline Drive.

Snacks and cold drinks in hand I made my way back down Skyline Drive to I-66 and home!

Hogback Mt 5.21.11

Extreme Makeover: Plant Stand Edition

2011-04-30T19:22:00.001-04:00

When I got my 1st apartment in 1997 my grandmother was downsizing and moving to a retirement community in Florida. As a result I got a bunch of furniture that used to be hers. Many of these pieces are projects waiting to happen (and have been waiting for almost 15 years now!).

Possibly my favorite piece from everything I got from my grandma is a funky little 3 level plant stand. It’s wooden and was painted a basic white. I think you could also use it as a bookcase or an end table but I put it in the bathroom at my 1st apartment and put a plant on it and it’s been a plant stand ever since. I’ve carried it around with me from PA to OK to Alexandria and now here – always wanting to do something with it. Finally inspiration hit! I’d cover it with pictures of flowers! It was after all a plant stand!

Here’s a picture of it before I started:

The first step was to paint the whole thing green, gloaming green to be exact…yes gloaming green is the official name from Valspar!

Next I had to gather the pictures! I knew I had tons of pictures of flowers, and plants, from all my travels! I gathered them all in an album in Picasa and uploaded them to Snapfish and then had them printed to pick up at my local Walgreens! In the process of finding the pictures I did discover that I was missing pictures from my Alaska trip and that I don’t really have any of my pictures from Maine. I’m not sure what happened to most of my Alaska pictures. I have about 300 but there are whole days missing. My only guess is that they were on my school laptop and that I didn’t back them up all up correctly before the computer was reimaged. I know that using my school computer is what happened to my Maine pictures. I didn’t have time to back everything up before turning the computer over for reimaging and I knew my Maine pictures were on Picasa Web Albums. When I downloaded the pics from the web I must have only downloaded the thumbnail. I have them, but they are tiny and you can’t make them bigger or the resolution falls apart. :-( Luckily I did upload a bunch of Shutterfly when I had them blown up for the walls! Those pictures are fine, and I have 2 walls in the dining room with framed prints from Maine. I guess I’ll just have to go back to Maine and Alaska! Bummer! In the meantime, I’m super glad I have my own laptop now and hopefully won’t lose any more pics to reimaging!

Anyway, back to the plant stand….

Arranging the pictures was harder than I expected because most of them were zoomed in so much! It was hard to overlap! It was also hard because there wasn’t a lot of surface space on the plant stand! I tried to fold the pictures around the edges, but I couldn’t make them stick so ended up just cutting the overhang off. On the “front” of the stand I put pictures on the supports, in the end I didn’t like that, I think it looks too busy. Unfortunately Modge Podge is permanent and I can’t pull them off!

Here’s the finished product:

This is the “front” with the pictures on the supports…see what I mean…too busy!

This is the “back” – I decided to put flowers on it just in case I ever decided to use the piece in the middle of a room or as and end table!

Here’s the plant stand back in action in the plant corner:

The Calla Lily in the front is new. I got it at Wegmans last week – it’s purple! It had one flower when I got it, now it has 5 with another on the way!

While I’m showing off the plants, here’s a current picture of the split leaf:

It’s obviously doing very well. I repotted it a few months ago – I think it was during my January snow days because I remember having to wait till the dirt thawed! The shiny leaf is brand new! It’s had a monopoly on the window for the last few months but I need it to start growing up rather than out so I’m hoping moving it back will help a bit. It’s almost time to stake it!

And here’s the Norfolk Pine that will celebrate it’s 36th birthday this week. Guess I need a plan for what to do when it hits the ceiling.

In the lower right corner of the picture is a chair. I’m pretty sure this chair was left behind by the previous owner of our house in Cincinnati. I’m unsure of how it ended up at my house unless it got thrown in the truck with the other stuff my parents shipped to me. I’ve debated throwing it out several times, it really serves no useful purpose, except for back at Christmas when one of my students parents gave me a poinsettia! Just today it occurred to me that this could be my next project…I think it could use a little decoupage! Then I could put more plants on it, or use it for seating (gasp!)

Just so they don’t feel left out, the plants that live on the pie safe:

Crochet-a-pa-looza

2011-04-30T18:48:00.001-04:00

I’ve been doing a lot of crocheting lately. A lot. I’m getting pretty good at reading instructions and fixing mistakes and stuff!

The first project I finished is a baby afghan I made to donate to a worthy cause. A few months ago I discovered a local yarn store called The Yarn Cloud. It’s a great store! Almost all of their yarn is unique to them, made just for their store in the Cezch Republic! The owner of the store had a box set up by the door that was piled up with knitted and crocheted donations that she was giving to the pregnancy crisis center in Manassas. She said this was a year round collection and I knew it was just the place to donate the afghan I was planning with some leftover yarn!

I had 2 skeins of white Bernat Baby Coordinates Yarn left over from making a baby afghan for what we thought was Baby Jack, who later turned out to be Leah! It was too much to just toss, but there weren’t any babies on the horizon so I’d decided to crochet it up and donate the afghan.

My first idea for the afghan was to make granny squares and then connect them – I started it that way to use up some of the blue I also had left over, however when I joined them I didn’t like it very much so I pulled it all out. When I did Baby Jack’s afghan I used my big afghan hook, it worked ok, but since then I’d seen a swatch with the same yarn only it was done really tight and it looked nice so I’d decided I’d use a smaller hook this time. I didn’t want it to be huge, but after I started it I realized that it was too narrow so after I stitched up the 1st skein I decided to stitch along the long side on both sides to made it wider. One day over spring break I spent all day stitching along the side of the afghan – I was going to make 20 rows on each side and I was about 8 rows in when I realized the rows were curving! It was bugging me. A lot. I realized why…I’d made a stitch in each space along the side and therefore there were more stitches than rows, which I knew would make it curve. So I ripped out about 6 hours worth of work and started over. It was frustrating, but worth it. After I finished adding 20 vertical rows to each side I crocheted all around the whole thing until the yarn ran out. By this time I was ready to be done with the whole thing, yet the yarn simply wouldn’t end. Every time I looked at what I had left it appeared that I’d hadn’t made a dent in it! Friday night I thought I’d stay up till it was done, about 11:30 my hands couldn’t crochet anymore and I gave up. I started up again Saturday morning and crocheted for 4 more hours before it was done! Glad I didn’t stay up Friday night!

Here’s the finished afghan:

When I was at The Yarn Cloud in December I picked up a skein of thick purple variegated bamboo yarn. It had the feel of shoelace, but it was very soft and pliable. I thought it would be perfect for a placemat. My plan was that when I finished the afghan I’d start on that since I was pretty sure I’d need more yarn and when I went to get more yarn I could drop the afghan off at the store. Within hours of finishing the afghan I started on the placemat. Before I could get started I needed to know what size hook to use, I knew the info was on the Yarn Cloud’s website so I went to take a look, and when I did I learned that the store had been closed all week and the 1st chance I’d get to go would be Wed afterschool! Hmmmm…glad I didn’t finish the afghan sooner! Luckily I have a hook that is close to the correct size – I used a size smaller to make it tighter – so was off and running quickly. I used a placemat I already have as a model for the size. Unlike the baby yarn I crocheted my way through this skein in about an hour. I did fall in love with the yarn though! It’s both stiff and soft. It’s perfect for placemats and rugs! The only problem is that a skein is only 90 yards and costs $10. The owner of the store told me that she made a bathmat with yarn and it took 14 skeins. Yikes!

All week I was looking forward to my trip to the yarn store on Wed afternoon. I ended up leaving work later than I’d planned and then there were some huge storms coming through! A tornado warning was issued for Prince William County when I was about 1/2 way there, but things didn’t look bad where I was, despite the huge, bright red storm heading my way that I could see on the radar! I forged ahead with the plan. I was in and out of the yarn store in 10 minutes and even saw a rainbow on my way out! Later I found out there were tornados with the storm that was practically on top of me when I was at the yarn store!

My plan for this piece also involved doing a double crochet body and then going around it for a border. With this piece I was going to make a row of double crochets followed by a chain stitch to make it open. After I finished the body I went around the whole thing with single crochets and then started the round with the double crochet/chain pattern. I discovered that the corners didn’t come out right if there were an odd number of rows. I forged ahead though and it wasn’t until I started the next round that I realized how I’d done the corners was going to make huge holes so I figured I needed to add another row to the body so that both sides had an odd number of stitched. So I ripped out the whole border (about an evenings worth's of work) and started over. I added a row to the body and started the border again. Only to discover that adding the row didn’t fully solve the problem, so I ended up doubling up the stitches on the corners and it seemed to work. Also I decided that I needed to use treble stitches for the row with spaces instead of doubles, glad I did, it looks much better now!

Here’s the finished placemat:

I also have 2 projects in progress:

A few weeks ago I went to Williamsburg for the day to help my grandma with her computer and as a treat when I was done I paid a visit to Knitting Sisters, what a lovely shop! While there I found a number of delightful yarns, one of which was made from sugar cane! It was soft and shiny and pink! They had a number of other colors but the pink struck me so that was the one I got. I decided I’d crochet a purse for Leah with it. When I started crocheting with it though I decided that it just wasn’t the right type of yarn for a purse, it was too delicate. I shifted gears and decided to make a scarf out of for a friend who recently survived breast cancer. (I hope she’s not reading this…hmmmm….oh well…I’m sure she knows who she is…act surprised! ;-) I also decided that this was the perfect opportunity to try out one of the stitches in my new book of crochet stitches!

I got started the other night, but when I got to the end of the 3rd row I discovered that I hadn’t chained the correct number of stitches. So I ripped it out and started again, carefully counting the chains this time. Once again I got to the end of the 3rd row and realized I didn’t have enough stitches. So I decided to try it with some different yarn and a bigger hook. This time I got it and worked through one repeat of the pattern before going back to the cool sugar cane yarn and the tiny hook. Third time must be a charm because this time I got it!

Here’s what I’ve got so far – just a few hours worth of work on it so far:

I recently bought some glow in the dark yarn on Ebay. I’d read about the yarn in a Crochet Mystery I was reading and googled it only to discover that it was discontinued! Ebay to the rescue! I’d been debating what to do with it, when I decided that a rug would be cool. I found a pattern in my crochet shapes book that had a 3-D flower in the middle of a square! I did a practice square a few weeks ago and was ready to get started. I decided to use some cotton yarn I’d gotten on sale for the background. I have a limited amount of the glow in the dark stuff so I want to make it go as far as I can. The nice thing with these squares is that I can do each one in about an hour or so and it’s perfect to work on in the evenings! After doing 2 squares I like how it’s coming out, however I’m seeing it more as a bed spread/blanket than a rug, we’ll see if I have enough glow in the dark yarn!

So far there hasn’t been any crochet drama with this project, but I did have to spend about an hour untangling the glow in the dark yarn because I couldn’t figure out where to start it! The glow in the dark yarn is also not the best texture – it’s an acrylic/polyester blend so it’s just kinda weird – seems to be prefect for the accent flower though.

Here’s a picture of the 2 squares I’ve done so far (I couldn’t capture the glow in the dark factor on film, maybe when I have more squares it will glow brighter):

The Quest for Trillium

2011-04-19T17:40:00.001-04:00

Ahhhh….Spring Break! Easter is super late this year, which make Spring Break super late! It’s nice because it’s the tree pollen peak and I’m welcoming not having to fight through feeling miserable to teach. It’s not so nice because it’s the tree pollen peak and it’s hard to get out and do stuff! Between the pollen and the sky high gas prices I’m tempted to just hole up in my house with projects and not leave until Monday morning!

Two years ago I made the trek out to Linden, VA and the GR Thompson Wildlife Management Area to see the largest concentration of trillium in the US. You can read about that day, and what exactly trillium are here. The trillium at GR Thompson Wildlife Management area are usually at their peak around my birthday, and with spring break being so late, my birthday is only 2 weeks away so I figured that there’s be some trillium action.

The pollen was holding me back. Sometimes I just have to say “screw the pollen, I’m doing what I want.” That’s what I decided I was going to do today. I decided I’d drive out there, hike for just one hour – 30 minutes out and then turn around. I’d simply accept whatever “consequence” the tree pollen threw at me and hope I could get some good pictures of trillium and maybe, if I was lucky, a showy lady’s slipper.

I headed out about 10:30 this morning – wearing shorts since it was supposed to be in the high 70s, and cotton shorts at that, I was only planning to hike/walk an hour and I had other errands to run. I’d also simply grabbed a bottle of water, a few granola bars, my trusty PATC map, and my camera. Bare minimum in terms of gear – I was simply looking for flowers so didn’t feel I needed much. As I was walking out the door I did grab my fleece jacket in case it was chilly.

I wasn’t even out of Lake Ridge yet when it started to rain. That’s right – rain! The weather forecast had been calling for a 30% chance of rain – and that was isolated thunderstorms in the evening! I pulled up the radar on my weather channel app and sure enough the whole area was green with rain!!!! I did I quick u-turn and went home for rain jacket!

As I drove west the rain continued to fall steadily! In places it was pouring! The temp was also dropping – when I left home it was in the 70s, by the time I reached the trailhead parking it was 51! brrrrr!

I parked in the same place as I did the last time I came out there and headed toward the AT. The first thing I noticed was that the trillium that had been everywhere 2 years ago were no where to be seen. :-( There were some other white flowers in abundance, but no trillium.

I headed down the old road checking out all the little wildflowers and snapping pictures! And then I heard it….a low, distant rumble….thunder. Yes, this trip to hunt trillium is sounding a lot like the last time I came out here! The thunder didn’t sound too aggressive and I’d checked the radar before I got out of the car and there was no red – only yellow. I figured that it was garden variety storm and nothing to worry too much about.

A light rain was falling, distant thunder was rumbling and while it was chilly, it was very pleasant. I headed down the trail, happy that I’d made the trip out and that the weather had “cooperated”! :-)

I saw a few trillium about to burst and a few that had buds that were starting to open. As soon as I turned onto the AT I saw hundreds of trillium leaves, but no flowers. I was too early. ugh. Too late one year and too early the next. I walked a little farther and then the thunder started rumbling directly overhead, it was cold, and I wasn’t seeing what I came for, so I turned around and headed back to the car.

The air was so crisp and pollen free I had to keep the windows open! I zipped up my raincoat so I wouldn’t get wet and cranked the heat and drove most of the way back to Manassas with the window open!

I went back to Manassas to run my errands and checked in on twitter which is where I learned that the oak pollen had popped and today’s pollen counts were over 2000, despite pollen.com’s assurances that it was a lower pollen day!

Here are the few pictures I got:

SNP 12-23-10

2010-12-23T20:41:00.002-05:00

Last week I decided that I was going hiking today! It had been a really long time since I’d gotten out and it was the 1st thing I wanted to do over winter break! I was really excited when I realized it was a Thursday, in December no less, so I figured I’d be able to get a parking place at any trailhead I wanted! (so often I go out there on weekends and there’s no parking where I want to hike!).

I was thinking I’d park at Meadow Springs and hike up to Mary’s Rock – a great viewpoint. Well, my plan was foiled by the fact that Skyline Drive was closed. That severely limited my hiking options. I could still get to Mary’s Rock, but I’d have to go up the AT and it was potentially very icy. Another option was to hike part of the Dickey Ridge Trail up in Front Royal. Going to Thorton Gap would give me more options if one trail was too icy.

I headed out this morning, arriving in Thorton Gap, the spot that was formerly known as Panorama, at about 11 am. When I pulled into the parking area there were 2 other cars – I saw the occupant of one of them as he was heading out. I expected to see him again, but he must have gone north on the AT because I never saw him again and the car was gone when I got back! Just before I got out of the car a HUGE gust of wind blew up and shook the whole car! yikes. I hadn’t considered wind. If it was this windy down here, it was going to be extra windy at the summit which was 1,000 ft higher than I already was!

I donned all my layers and headed out! It was more than a bit brisk. And the wind was whipping something fierce. Once I got into the woods the trees blocked most of the wind, but it was still very loud! It was a sustained wind at about 20-30 MPH, with gusts topping 50 MPH (when I got home I discovered that the area was under a wind advisory!). The trail was in good shape! There was a dusting of snow, but there was no ice!

As I began to climb I started to get hot. Temps in the 20s with a 50 mph wind and I was hot. Go figure. Just goes to show that with the right gear there’s no such thing as bad conditions!

The trail wound around the mountain and soon there was no wind because the mountain was blocking it! YAY! It was a steady climb, but not hard and not very steep. I’d hiked this trail once before in 2001 and I remembered it being very steep and narrow. Today I didn’t notice any of those things – the trail felt very wide! Must have been my newbie hiker viewpoint! It might have seemed narrow before I climbed the 90 degree rock face hand over hand to get to the top of Penobscot Mt in Acadia!

I was happily hiking along enjoying the views, probably 3/4 of the way to the top, when I came to a HUGE stretch of solid ice. The trail was completely obscured by a solid sheet ice. hmmmm… There was a way around it, I could bushwhack a bit up the hill by the side of the trail and get around it, but I was worried about getting back, I was also concerned with what else I would encounter as I got closer to the summit. I’d considered doing a loop using Skyline Drive as my return route, but that was looking pretty unappealing since Skyline Drive was cleared of snow, just a road walk. Even if I’d decided to do a loop, there was still the possibility I’d encounter more impassable ice and have to come back over this section.

So, deciding to err on the side of caution I turned around and headed back to Thorton Gap. My plan was to eat my sandwich in the protection of my car and then head down to Buck Hollow to hike some more!

On the way down I saw some burned out trees from the big fire of 2000. That was the 1st year I was here and I was actually in the park the day it was burning! I’d been hiking near the Dickey Ridge Visitor Center and decided to drive to Thorton Gap and exit there. I knew there was a big fire and that the Central District of the park was closed, but I hadn’t expected to see the fire! The sun had just set as I was driving into Thorton Gap and it was pretty dark and the side of Mary’s Rock Mt was glowing red with flames! It was a pretty amazing sight! The rest of the hike back down was quick and easy and soon I was back at the car!

I quickly ate my sandwich, responded to a text I’d gotten (3G service at Thorton Gap is a blessing and a curse!), and then headed down the mountain to Buck Hollow.

Buck Ridge – Buck Hollow is an excellent hike that you can get to from the park boundary. It’s about 5 miles round trip – up to Skyline Drive and back. I hiked it a few years back with Daisy Mae! I’d considered hiking the whole loop today, but I’d read a trail report from a week or so ago and it said Buck Hollow (the return, downhill, trail) was icy in places, so I was hesitant to attempt the loop. I thought that the Buck Hollow trail went along a stream, so I decided I’d hike up that trail until I either ran out of time, or encountered too much ice.

I was the 4th car in the parking area, so I was anticipating seeing some other hikers.

The trail starts with 2 stream crossings. One that I wasn’t a huge fan of as the rocks were uneven and it was a little scary, but I made it over (and back later!). The other crossings were very easy thanks to the hard work of the PATC I’m sure! This trail started much lower on the mountain (although it’s the same mountain I had been hiking on earlier!), so there was less snow at 1st but as the trail gradually climbed there was more snow and more ice!

It was a lovely quiet walk. The wind was high in the trees and not bothering me way down in the valley! The sun was peeking over the mountain making it very warm (yep, I was hot again!).

I’d been hiking about an hour when I ran into the only people I’d see on the trail that day – a couple who told me that they’d just gotten engaged! He’d drug her into the woods and popped the question and I was the 1st know! His timing was pretty good – I encountered them only a few feet from where he proposed, I’m glad I didn’t walk up on “the act”. What is trail etiquette for walking to engagements in action? I congratulated them and offered to take their picture which they thought was a great idea! They posed and I snapped a shot with his iPhone look-alike phone and headed on up the trail.

Soon I came to a section of the trail was all iced up! It was easy to get around as the terrain is very flat and I could just go off trail a bit. Then I quickly came to another stream crossing. This one had some patchy ice on some of the rocks. I knew I could make it across, but I wasn’t sure about getting back, so I decided to call it a day and turn around. It was 2:00, only 30 minutes shy of my “turn around time”. I wasn’t done hiking yet though, so I walked back as slow as I could! By this time the sun had sunk below the mountain and it was getting chilly!

When I got back to the car the parking area was deserted! I knew that one of the cars had been the newly engaged couple and I guess the other 2 people had hiked down Buck Ridge (which is VERY steep – it’s better to go up that way so I was surprised!) and that’s why I hadn’t seen them.

I drove back up the mountain to use the facilities at Thorton Gap before heading home. The Pass Mountain Trail parking area on 211 was also empty (there had been 2 cars earlier), as was the Thorton Gap parking area. It was only 3 pm, but I guess the cold and wind had driven everyone away early!

Since Skyline Drive was closed I had no choice but to just drive home! I was amazed that I made it home before dark!

SNP 12-23-10

Rally to Restore Sanity

2010-10-31T20:54:00.003-04:00

Yesterday was Jon Stewart and Steven Colbert’s “Rally to Restore Sanity and/or Fear”. I’m not big on politics at all, and until about a week ago I’d never watched The Daily Show and never even heard of Steven Colbert. But this looked like a rally I could get into. It’s wasn’t about subscribing to a certain political viewpoint, but rather about big ideas we should all be embracing. Ideas like being reasonable and listening and disagreeing appropriately. And most importantly: Don’t be douchey.

This CNN article about the rally really hits the nail on the head about what it was all about:

http://www.cnn.com/2010/OPINION/10/31/avlon.rally.sanity/

In the 10 years that I have lived here in the DC area, I have been into DC for 2 major events – this rally and the National Book Festival a year ago. So I was excited even to just be a part of something this big and exciting! And big it definitely was! An estimated 215,000 people were there. They are saying it was the biggest event in DC since President Obama’s Inauguration!

We managed to have a near perfect experience with the whole thing! We couldn’t have done better if we’d planned it!

Andy and I met at the Woodbridge Commuter lot a little after 8 and headed up to the Springfield Metro. There was a short line of cars getting into the parking garage but after we got in there were TONS of spots! We got a spot right by the stairs and walked into the station and right onto a train! The one bit of pre-planning we did – me going to the metro station a few days early and securing fare cards for both of us – really paid off as there was a line of people waiting to get their fare cards. It was nothing like it would be later in the day – people waited over an hour just to get their fare cards!

It’s another story for another time (it’s a great story that makes me very happy, but has nothing do with the rally!) but I had a pink flamingo hat from my Halloween costume and I decided that it would be fun to wear the hat at the rally. The flamingo had no real significance whatsoever, but it was fun! Random flamingos are always funny! As we got on the metro the people behind us remarked about the flamingo! It was one of the ladies’ favorite animal! She even took my picture to send to her daughter! We started chatting and had a few good laughs! I wore the flamingo hat for the pre-show but when we sang the national anthem I took it off and then realized how hot it was!

We arrived at L’Enfant Metro station at 9:20 and waited about 30 minutes for Keith and Virginia to arrive from Vienna. There was a steady stream of people headed to the rally but it wasn’t that busy yet. We walked up the street and right onto the mall and into the rally area. We quickly found a good spot, right in front of one of the big jumbotrons! We were between the National Gallery and the Air & Space Museum, closer to the museum. We had a view of the actual stage, but we couldn’t see what was going on.

Right after we got there we all pulled out our phones to check in on Foursquare or Facebook. There were so many people there that the cellular networks were overloaded and not working! I finally was able to check in on Foursquare through the Official Rally App using the free public Wifi. When I checked in I unlocked 5 new badges, including the “Epic Swarm” badge – that’s when more than 1,000 Foursquare users check in at the same place!

We settled in and watched all the people who were streaming into the rally area. There were some awesome signs! Everyone was encouraged to bring a sign and there was a wide range of signs from the silly to serious. Some were political, others were just goofy, others just had good ideas! I took pictures of the ones I saw that I liked, and there are a bunch of others here:

http://www.buzzfeed.com/mjs538/the-100-best-signs-at-the-rally-to-restore-sanity

Right before the actual rally began the Mythbusters did a pre-rally show. We did the wave and all jumped simultaneously to see if it would show up on the seismograph and we did the 200,000 person “cheek pop”. They showed live views of the crowd on the jumbotrons – there were packed people from the Capitol building to the Washington Monument! We could see the steps of National Gallery and they were PACKED with people! So many people every where!

The actual rally was almost a parody of other rallies! There were poems, a benedictions, awards, musical performances, and celebrity guests, all kinda silly, but still getting to the point that what’s really silly is how crazy politics and Americans in general have gotten.

When the rally ended we’d planned to just stay put for 20-30 minutes to let people clear out but somehow we didn’t. We packed up and started heading toward the American Indian Museum. We’d naively thought that there wouldn’t be anyone there. HA! Since we’d gotten there so early and so painlessly and then hadn’t moved, we really had no concept of just how many people were packed into the National Mall area! The streets and sidewalks were packed! We could barely walk! The flamingo hat came in very handy! I lead the way and everyone followed me! We were holding on to each other clothing and bags, but still the flamingo hat made it easy to stay together! We headed over to the museum anyway in hopes of getting some food and finding a bathroom that didn’t have someone sitting on it! (yes people had climbed on top of the porta potties to get a view of the stage!) Our hopes were quickly dashed when we saw the line to get in! So much for that!

None of our phones were working, even the free public wifi on the Mall wasn’t working. So we struck out in hopes of finding something! We headed down 3rd away from the mall and very soon the crowd thinned out, however, there was really nothing down there. We finally got one of our iPhones to work and found a McDonald’s nearby and headed to it. By this point we were all getting a little cranky and tired so it got a little tense. We finally got to the McDonalds and after waiting in line for 10 minutes to finally use the bathroom with the extremely sticky floor and only one functioning toilet, and water so scalding hot you couldn’t get your hands under it(I really should have just taken my chances hiding in the bushes in front of the Health and Human Services Department building!) I felt a lot better!

We went back and forth on what to do next – we didn’t really want to try and get back on the metro, but there weren’t many options for places to hang out. Finally we decided to accept my friends Matthew & Michael’s invitation to come over to Michael’s place on Capitol Hill to hang for awhile. Keith and Virginia weren’t up to walking all the way over there and really wanted food so we decided to part ways.

Andy and I headed back toward the Mall – there were still people hanging around, but for the most part the crowed had all headed out. We got a little lost – thank you Google Maps for 1) not loading (the cellular service was still a bit wonky) and 2) when you did load you lead us the wrong way! We finally used the “phone app” on our pocket computers and Matthew helped us find the place!

It was awesome to hang with Michael & Matthew and their friends for a little while! They had the 3 things we needed most – a plug for Andy’s phone, a place to sit, and water! (Not having any access to a bathroom all day lead all of us to avoid drinking and we were a bit dehydrated!). We hung out there until about 6:30 and then headed back to the metro.

The closest metro station was Union Station so we walked the 5 or 6 blocks over there and got on a red line train. We had to switch to a blue train at Metro Center and when we arrived at Metro Center the train we were on was PACKED! We were trying to get off and everyone was pushing and shoving. There was a man in wheelchair who’d gotten on at Union Station with us. He was with 4 other people and I’d noticed they were all talking in sign language. When we arrived at Metro Center the man in the wheelchair and his friends were trying to get off the train, but there were soooo many people they couldn’t get off. And, because they were deaf they couldn’t yell “move it” or ask people to move. Like a moron I asked one of the friends if they were trying to get off? Then I got smart and motioned to the door and the gal nodded that “yes” they were getting off. So I said “Hey, can you all let this guy through” and promptly everyone near the door parted ways for the man in the wheelchair to get out. The only problem was the people in the back didn’t see and they started yelling and pushing. We all yelled back “chill out, we’ve got a wheelchair here!” They mostly stopped but there was still a crush of people getting off! I finally got spewed out on the platform and stepped back to wait for Andy. He was one of the last to get off the train and he later told me that the door closed on his leg! He said he pulled out pretty quick, and that the door opened again right after he pulled it out!

Considering that was our only real metro issue on a day when there were 215,000 people in DC for a rally, I say it was awesome!

We finally made it back to Springfield a little after 8:00 and drug ourselves to Andy’s car! Our legs were not willing to carry us even a foot further!

It was a great day! Fun rally! Great ideas to think about! Fun times with good friends! :-)

See Virginia's Rally pictures here:
http://picasaweb.google.com/vleveland/RallyToRestoreSanityAndorFearOct302010#

My Alpaca Scarf

2010-08-25T17:05:00.001-04:00

When we were in Washington we took a day trip out to the San Juan Islands. We only had time to check out one of the many islands so we went to San Juan – the most developed of the islands. There was lots to see and do in Friday Harbor and the rest of the island and in just a few hours we were able to check out most of it, even if it was at a Speedy Gonzalez speed!

One of our stops was at the Krystal Acres Alpaca Farm. When we got there our first stop was to check out the cute and cuddly alpacas that were grazing in their pens.

They would come to the fence, but if you tried to pet them, they’d walk away. They were very entertaining though!

After a little bonding with the animals we went to check out the gift shop!

They had some beautiful hand knit sweaters, socks, and scarves as well as stuffed animals. I found a pair of socks that I really liked and as I was admiring them I struck up a coversation with the gal who was working there. Turns out, she not only hand knit the socks from the “wool” (not sure if it’s called wool or just fiber) from the alpacas we’d just met, but she hand dyed the fibers as well! I was pretty sold and was about to buy the socks, until I saw the price tag! $60. For socks. I get why they were so much, but I just couldn’t do it.

I was ecstatic when I saw that they had yarn for sale. Hand dyed no less, by the woman I’d been talking to! As I was admiring the yarn the saleslady showed me the crochet patterns that she had created. There was a simple scarf pattern that used exactly one skein of the yarn! It looked easy enough that I would be able to figure it out (I have never crocheted from a pattern) I was sold!

The only challenge was picking the 1 skein of yarn that I liked best! Naturally I picked purple!

When I got home it was time to start working on my do-it yourself souvenir.

All my supplies, ready to begin! I did have to go purchase a crochet hook in the proper size – I was surprised how dainty it was, I’d expected it to be a bulky scarf, but in the end the yarn was very thin.

Before I began working on the real thing I did a practice swatch to make sure I was reading the pattern correctly and that I understood what I needed to do. I did this before I got the new hook with some leftover cotton yarn so it’s much bulkier than the scarf was.

The only stitches involved in the scarf were single crochets and chains!

As I worked keeping the yarn from getting tangled became an increasing problem! As you can see in the picture above the yarn came all wound around itself and as soon I started pulling strands it started getting tangled. I decided it would help if I hung the yarn up so I stuck it on the sliding glass door handle:

The yarn kept getting stuck on the edges of the door handle. No good.

So I decided to hammer a nail into the wall and hang the yarn on it:

This was actually worse because the other end of the yarn started getting tangled. Eventually it was so hopelessly tangled I had no choice but to stop crocheting and starting with the loose end of the yarn, wind it into a ball. This was a slow and tedious process because the yarn is very fine and all the same color and the knots were tight. As a further complication the more tangled it got the more it started to fuzz up and there were lots of little (and not so little) fuzzies compounding my untangling! Finally I got it all rolled up into a nice ball and I was ready to keep going.

Here’s a close up of the detail:

The rest of the scarf continued until I ran out of yarn! I managed to get it exactly right as I was left with about 8 inches of yarn when I was done and I didn’t have to rip anything out because I ran out of yarn before I’d finished it!

Here’s the finished scarf:

I really like it! It’s very soft! I’m also really excited that I made it myself, following the pattern and it came out right! It’s a little short and a lot daintier than I’d expected so I’m not really sure when I’ll wear it, but it was lots of fun to make! :-)

Seattle

2010-07-31T16:50:00.000-04:00

Today was the day to return my RV and make my final preparations for heading home.

I was up early to shower and finish up my RV chores – pack, clean, dump, fill with water, etc. I left the campground at 8 and headed back to Everett, an hour away! Once in Everett I got propane to replace what I’d used and filled up with gas before returning to Cruise America. My check-in went flawlessly and soon we were on our way to Seattle!

The plan was to hit the two biggest Seattle tourist attractions: Pike Place Market and The Space Needle. We were heading to the Needle 1st, but it was cloudy so we decided to go to Pike Place. Took a bit of navigating – with 1 iPhone, 1 Driod, 1 Jeep Navigation System, and 1 paper map – to find parking, but once we did we headed up to the market.

What a cool place! The flowers and fresh fruit and veggies were so pretty! There was fish and meat all on display too! I could spend all day exploring all the other little shops!

After we wandered through the market we went to Etta’s for lunch! Mom and Dad had eaten at Etta’s when they were in Seattle 10 years ago and have raved about it ever since. Salmon is their specialty, and it was really good! :-)

After lunch it was still cloudy, but the weather channel said it was going to be sunny later and the sun was trying to break though the clouds so we decided to go to the REI Flagship store for a little while then hit the Space Needle.

The REI store was very nice and very big, but it had all the same stuff they have at home so I didn’t need to spend a lot of time there. Also, we were at the end of 3 weeks of hiking, I don’t need gear now!

It was almost 4 before we headed over to the Needle. As we were walking up to it we noticed preparations being made in earnest for this evening’s Torchlight Parade. People were beginning to line the streets, claiming the good viewing spots, police were barricading streets…hmmmm…we hadn’t planned to stay in Seattle that late, the parade looked like fun, but we really needed to get out!

We got our tickets and waited about an hour to get up to the top of the Needle. It was very cool! It’s only 570 feet, but it seems so high! Many of the hikes Dad and I did over the last 3 weeks went much higher than 570 feet! You could see everything! Mt. Rainier was out, but not Mt. Baker. You could also see the Olympic Mts! Lots of folks up there had no idea what they were looking at and I educated a number of people about the Mts!

We came down and checked out the tacky souvenirs in the gift shop then prepared to head out.

By now the parade was really getting going – the convertibles were lines up ready to go, the balloons were being inflated, and people were descending on the city. The parade was set to start at 7:30 and it was now 6:30.

We got the car and made it back to I-5 in less than 10 minutes. We did have to detour from our original plan, but we made it back to the highway very quickly. I challenge anyone to even try to get out of DC moments before a major city event!

We had dinner at Bahama Breeze – very good also – then after dinner we made our way to the Coast Gateway hotel where Mom and Dad dropped me off to catch my flight in the morning!

I’m ready to go home, 3 weeks is a LONG time and I miss my friends, my house, my bed, etc….however, I LOVE Washington and I can’t wait to come back! :-)

Seattle

San Juan Island

2010-07-30T16:50:00.000-04:00

This morning we took the ferry out to the San Juan Islands! There are hundreds of islands, but only 4 are serviced by the Washington State Ferry – San Juan/Friday Harbor, Shaw, Lopez and Orcas.

Since we only had one day we decided to just stick to San Juan/Friday Harbor.

We were up early to get to the ferry terminal to get the 9 am boat. We’d debated bringing the car or renting a car on the island, but when the ferry had room for cars we decided to take the car.

This ferry was MUCH bigger than yesterday’s ferry! It had 2 levels in the car hold and 2 levels of passenger decks! It was pretty full too!

When we set off from Anacortes it was very foggy. We couldn’t see a thing! And it was cold! About 1/2 way to Friday Harbor the fog broke very suddenly and just like that it was sunny and clear! I still have 3G service on my phone so I was able to use google maps to attempt to identify the islands. It’s very hard because they all have jagged coastlines and there are lots of little islands.

It totally reminds me of Maine! The islands are rounded and filled with evergreens and exposed rock. I see why a friend mistook one of my pictures from Acadia for the West Coast!

We arrived in Friday Harbor and found a good place for lunch and then wandered a bit before we ate! I can’t remember the name of the place we ate, but it was great! Lovely curry chicken salad and chocolate cream pie!

After lunch we began our “Speedy Gonzalez” tour of the island. We had to catch the 6:40 ferry back to Anacortes!

We went counter-clockwise from Friday Harbor. We drove out to Roche Harbor where we visited a cool sculpture garden! There were hundreds of sculptures, but we only had time to check out a few! We also watched several small planes land and take off from the airstrip just behind us.

The next stop was Krystal Acres Alpaca Farm! The Alpacas were so cute! They had a great gift shop too! The lady who was staffing it also hand knits many of the products they were selling from hand dyed Alpaca yarn! Rather than buying an outrageously expensive pair of socks, I got a skein of yarn and a scarf pattern that the owner made up – looking forward to making my own scarf!

Up next was Lime Kiln State Park – they had a lighthouse and whale watching opportunities! There’s a pod of killer whales – Orcas – the frequent the Strait of Georgia right by the park. Dad drug the spotting scope out but didn’t see any whales, just a few dolphins. I checked out the rocky tide pools, but there was nothing interesting.

Off to the next stop! We did get a bit sidetracked by the view of the Olympic Mts, and the possibility of more whale watching, but eventually we made our way around to the Pelindaba Lavender farm. WOW. Huge fields of lavender! Amber waves of purple! I took a whole bunch of pictures and then checked out the gift shop. It was nice, but it was lavender run amok. Everything you can think of with lavender – lavender soap, cleaning products, honey, cookies, shampoo, lotion, wreaths, everything. It was neat, but it was a little much!

We started heading back to Friday Harbor – we’d missed the 4:50 ferry so had to wait to 6:40. We thought we might have seen Mt. Rainier, but it was clouds. We had some awesome views of Mt. Baker.

Back in Friday Harbor we had some time to kill before the boat so I checked out the bookstore and then we got some dinner. The service was slow and we still hadn’t gotten out food when the ferry pulled in so we got it to go and ate in the car! We had plenty of time before the boat left, but we didn’t want to risk it, especially with the car sitting in the loading lane!

The trip back was clear the whole way! I stood out on the deck and took about a hundred pictures! Great views of Mt. Baker!

Once back at the campground I finished up my packing and headed to bed!

San Juan Island

Travel Day

2010-07-29T00:38:00.000-04:00

Today was our last big travel day! We headed out from Salt Creek early to get to the Ferry Dock in Port Townsend to wait our turn to ride across to Keystone on Whidbey Island.

It was very foggy the whole way, but otherwise uneventful.

When we arrived at the Port Townsend Ferry dock we were told that we wouldn’t make the 11:15 crossing because they were too full – too many large vehicles already in line. They let us in the holding area though and we were able to make lunch and enjoy some American cell phone signals! We all caught up on emails, facebook, etc.

I’d never driven my car onto a ferry before, I’d been in cars which were driven onto a ferry, but never as the driver, so it was exciting! Since we are driving RVs we had to be sure the propane was turned off so Dad had to show me how to do that! Soon it was our turn to get on. They loaded him on 1st and then loaded some cars and then me. It was really easy, just pull in and park!

I was parked in the middle and couldn’t see anything so I got out and went up to the deck where I could watch them load the rest of the cars and then watch the water, and the fog, as we crossed.

Loading the ferry is a job for people whole like puzzles! You have to see the cars you have and figure the best way to get them all on so that the most cars fit! I’m thinking it would make a good story problem about measurement for my kids! We could even use matchbox cars!

As soon as we were arriving on Whidbey Island the sun came out! Doesn’t that figure!

We drove up WA20, the same road we’d driven through the North Cascades 3 weeks ago! At one point we must have been by a Naval or Air Force base because fighter jets were flying overhead. One fly directly over my little RV and I nearly wet my pants. It sounded like it was coming right at me and I couldn’t see it! Those things are LOUD!!!!

We arrived at our campground and got parked up. It was now very sunny and warm and we had seen views of Mt. Baker – North Cascades resident volcano – so we went to walk on the beach at the campground to see if we could get some good pics – we couldn’t, there’s a refinery or something industrial right in front of it!

Later we were walking on one of the campground roads and we saw what looked like another snow capped mountain to the south. Mt. Rainier! I took a bunch of pictures! Then when we were walking back it looked like Mt. Rainier had moved. Hmm…maybe I had just moved…better view now…more pictures. A little while later we were driving out of the campground and what we thought was Mt. Rainier had grown – it was now a huge mass of towering white! Unless it erupted and we didn’t hear it or feel it, our Mt. Rainier, was a bunch of clouds! :-)

We were headed back to Deception Pass, we’d come though there earlier and it looked neat. We decided to stop for an early dinner 1st though because the place we wanted to eat at closed at 8. After dinner we headed down to the pass. As we approached we noticed the fog. The thick, impenetrable, fog. When we got to Deception Pass you couldn’t see a hand in front of your face! Oh well! We drove back to the campground – where it was sunny and clear – for an early night. We all had stuff to do – Mom and Dad had computer stuff and I needed to pack!

Ferry

Olympic: Olympic Hot Springs & Hurricane Ridge

2010-07-28T00:39:00.000-04:00

Today we went on what I’m pretty sure will be our last hike. I’d looked through my guidebook and decided that Olympic Hot Springs would be a good hike – it was only 5 miles, not too much elevation gain, and I’d never hiked to a hot springs before!

We decided that Dad and I would take my little RV to the trail so Mom could have the Jeep to go into Port Angeles to get the mail and a few other errands. We were going to meet up with her later in the afternoon.

The trailhead is at the end of the Olympic Hot Springs Road – a twisty, windy, narrow, and in some short place not paved. I’m pretty sure Cruise America would not recommend me driving their RV on it, but we made it!

The book said the trail followed the old road – there used to be a resort up there, similar to the one at Sol Duc, but they tore it down. I have hiked many old roads in Shenandoah and they are simply wide trails so we were both surprised when this old road was paved. And not only just a little, pretty much the whole way! There were sections of this trail/road that were in better shape than the road we drove in on!

The good news was that it made the walking easy and we got to the springs quickly.

The hot springs were a bit disappointing. They were very shallow and very muddy. We walked all the way back and tried to find a good pool to soak in, however most weren’t very inviting. We finally went back to the 1st one, which we thought was the coolest (temperature wise) and chatted with some folks who were getting out. They said it was very very hot, but that your body gets numb and then it feels good. ok.

I put my feet in and it was so hot it hurt and I couldn’t imagine putting more of myself in. Dad got his legs wet and kinda sat on a rock, but he didn’t really get in.

We ate a quick lunch then headed back down to the RV. Once again the paved road and lack of much scenery helped up get back to the RV faster!

As we drove down the road we came to an overlook at Mills Lake where both our cell phone connected! Dad called Mom to set up our meeting place and I took pictures and checked email!

Back in the early 1900’s the folks living in the Elwha Valley dammed up the Elwha river, creating 2 lakes that I’m guessing they used as reservoirs for drinking water. This dam interrupted the salmon migration up the Elwha River so the park service has decided that they will remove the dams and restore the river to the salmon habitat it once was!

As we made our way to the Olympic National Park Visitor center we stopped for gas. I went to pay at the pump and saw that they only took debit at the pump and you had to go inside for credit. This is the second time I have encountered this and it’s my only complaint to the State of Washington? What’s up? Why can’t I use my credit card at your gas pumps? Fred Meyer lets me do it!

Once we met up with Mom we drove up Hurricane Ridge to the visitor center there. We climbed to about 5000 feet! Olympic is such a HUGE and diverse park – Coast, Rainforest, & Glacier covered peaks! At the Hurricane Ridge visitor center area there were alpine meadows just like at Mt. Rainier.

We grabbed a quick snack at the snack bar before they closed and then went out to explore the paved loop trails around the meadow. Yes, that’s right, more paved trails. There were more wildflowers here and views of the entire snow covered ridge. The sun was in exactly the wrong spot, but we got some pictures anyway.

One of the loops, the one that looked down into Port Angeles and the Strait of Juan de Fuca had a HUGE snowdrift in the middle of it! Odd because it was the only place there was snow! The woods around the trail had no snow, only the trail!

After we walked we drove out a dirt Jeep road to Obstruction Point. No idea why it’s named Obstruction Point as the view is fabulous! The road was rugged – narrow, windy, big holes. Funny that the closest thing to a trail that we went on was a road that we drove down!

It was car hiking at it’s finest. The views & the wildflowers were abundant. We also saw several Spruce Grouse, a Marmot, a deer – that for some reason was licking our Jeep, even left tongue marks – and some bunnies.

When we got back to the visitor center it was already after 9. Our campground claims that they lock the gates at 10 and you can’t get in. If you have the car you can just park outside the gate and walk in, but I had my RV out! I needed to get it back to it’s campsite or I wouldn’t have a safe place to sleep tonight! I hopped in and hightailed it back to the campground, arriving at about 9:45! Mom and dad were right behind and also got in before the gates closed.

Olympic: Cape Flattery

2010-07-27T00:38:00.000-04:00

When we were planning the Olympic portion of our trip Mom kept saying she wanted to go out the “pointy thing” and kept pointing to this place WAY out on the end of the state. Looked like it was a million miles from anything. Dad and I kept telling her it was too far and we weren’t going.

Then we met someone on the top of Dege Peak in Mt. Rainier and he was saying how spectacular Cape Flattery was. The Makah tribe had built a nice trail and you could walk out to the overlook and see all kinds of stuff. Ok, I guess we’d have to go!

We decided to go later in the day because it seems like it’s foggy in the mornings and the late evenings and we wanted the best chance for it to be clear on the point.

Low tide this morning was at about 9 so we decided to walk out to the check out the tide pools on Tongue Point before heading out to the Cape.

The tide pools here weren’t as interesting as the ones on Rialto Beach, there was more seaweed and mussels, but we did see purple sea urchins and a HUGE orange orchre starfish! It was a nice walk, although rocky and slippery! There were a number of “thunder" hole” places where the waves crashed into holes in the rocks and I got a little to close to one and got my shoes and pants wet with a rogue wave!

We got back around 11 and started getting ready to head to out to the Cape. I think it was about 1 when we left.

It took 2 hours to drive out there. The road was windy and slow! But there were some great views of the Straight of Juan de Fuca!

Cape Flattery itself is not part of Olympic National Park, it’s on land owned by the Makah Nation and they have built and maintained a trailhead and trail. To get to the trail you have to go though the small town of Neah Bay – also part of the Makah Nation. The Makah do charge visitors $10 a carload to come in – your permit is good for the rest of the calendar year from when you bought it though. The money from these permits goes back into the community, and from driving through I can say that this town is in dire need of some money. Poverty runs high on the Makah Nation. :-(

The walk out to the Cape was nice! It was .75 miles out, most on boardwalks, with several overlook points. Dad hauled his spotting scope out there and we stood at the last overlook for a long time seeing what we could see.

When we got back to the car is was dinner time! We’d brought a picnic, but I think Mom was hoping to find something. I would have liked to find something in Neah bay, support the economy of the struggling Makah, without whom our walk would not have been possible! But, unfortunately, despite their trail building skills the Makah didn’t offer and good places to eat!

We ended up eating our picnic at a picnic table on a hill overlooking the Strait. In one of Mom’s books she’d read about the Running Fish, we thought it was in Callum, and we were hoping to see it. When we parked at the picnic table I looked up and there it was!

After dinner we we were getting back in the car when Mom and Dad spotted what they thought was a Golden Eagle. We watched it in the bincocluars and Dad got out the spotting scope. It flew away so we got in the car and were about to drive off when it (or another one) came back! Back out of the car, pull the scope back out. This time they got a better look, didn’t look like a Golden. Hmmm…. Better get out the bird book. They stood there and debated which of 2 hawks it could be. The thrill of seeing a relatively rare bird had worn off for me and I was in the car reading. I glance up from my book and see a Bald Eagle fly by. That’s when they realized that it was a juvenile Bald Eagle. Not that exciting. Finally, everything was packed into the car and off we went back to the campground.

Olympic: Cape Flattery

Olympic: Sol Duc

2010-07-26T01:41:00.000-04:00

Today was a move day! We had 3 nights in Forks so we could see the stuff on the western side of Olympic and now we have 3 nights here in Joyce (near Port Angeles, kinda sorta).

We left Forks around 10:45 and headed north and east. It was only supposed to be an hour, but road construction and waiting for pilot cars made the drive take 2 hours!

We are staying at a county park in Joyce, WA called Salt Run. It is right by Crescent Bay and the Strait of Juan de Fuca. Our campsites are up on a hill and this afternoon we had awesome views of the strait and Canada!

When we arrived I was waiting for Dad to figure out what he was doing, where he was going etc and I picked up my phone – on the top it has information about network and signal strength. Right by the bars it usually says “AT&T” and next to that it says either 3G or E depending on the network. When I picked it up in the campground it said “ROGERS” where the AT&T belongs. A few minutes later it said “TELOS”. Turns out those are Canadian networks!!!!! I do not have “roaming data” turned on so I have no data coverage on those networks – and don’t want any, AT&T sent me a text when I 1st connected to the Canadian network and told me “Unlimited Data does not apply in my location using roaming data will cost me $15 a Megabyte!!!! Yikes! Luckily Mom and Dad’s aircard (Verizion) works so we have wifi! My one question though is text messages – I’m wondering if I will have to pay a surcharge on the texts I send/receive while using ROGERS or TELOS? I plan to fight the charges if I do, I’m not in Canada and my phone isn’t giving me the choice or warning me of the consequences like it did for the data. I don’t get that many texts anyway! And, we aren’t just sitting at the campground – as soon as we get back to Highway 101 I have AT&T E! In fact it comes and goes here – no provider is solid.

While we were eating lunch I saw a Coast Guard ship going up and down the strait and it made me wonder – do the crab fishermen head out this way to to get to Alaska and the Bering Sea? Would it be possible to see the Nothwestern heading out from this campground? I’m thinking I need to send Capitan Sig a Facebook message or a tweet and ask if he’s going this way in the next few days so I can watch for him!

After we got some lunch it was off to the Sol Duc area of Olympic. We decided to go back through all the construction because it was probably faster than the other route we found which was double the mileage! While we were waiting for the pilot car we got great views of Crescent Lake and I even climbed over the guardrail to dip my feet in the lake. I would have gone for a full swim if I’d had my bathing suit on!

Our first stop in Sol Duc was the short, .8 mile trail out to Sol Duc Falls. The trail was a bit hillier than advertised and Mom wasn’t as happy about that, but she made it! The forest was really pretty – tall evergreen trees, moss covered rocks, although not as much moss as in the Hoh Rainforest, little creeks running everywhere. It seemed much wetter than the rainforest was! The falls were pretty cool – especially when the spray made a rainbow!

After the hike we went over to the Sol Duc resort for dinner and a soak in the Hot Springs pools! This was our 2nd meal at a National Park Resort in Olympic and I must say I’m impressed with the quality of the food. The service has been slow in both places, but the food has been surprisingly good! The pools were nice – there were 3, a very hot, a medium hot, and a chlorinated swimming pool. I went in all 3. It was very nice, even though the smell of sulfur is pretty nasty!

When we got back to the campground the fog had rolled in pretty thick. It was still daylight, but you couldn’t see the Strait at all. It was 51 degrees when we got out of the car! I’m huddled in my RV all bundled up in long underwear ready for a chilly damp night! Sounds pretty good! :-)

Olympic: Sol Duc

Olympic: Beach Day

2010-07-25T12:27:00.000-04:00

I am NOT a beach person. I enjoy maybe a couple hours max at the beach swimming and reading and then the sun and sand start to get to me. I HATE the sand the way it sticks to everything like a coating of shake and bake! As soon as you get wet, as I always do, I can’t resist, the sand launches it’s attack. Well, anyway, the beaches here in Olympic are NOTHING like that. They are awesome!!!!! And coming from a non-beach person that’s a big statement!

Dad and I wanted to hike to the Hole-in-the-Wall from Rialto Beach – it was only 3 miles round trip, but it was a better hike at low tide. Low tide yesterday was at either 6:58 AM or 6:58 PM. Well, 6:58 AM was never going to happen, so this was going to be an evening hike!

We needed something to do all day though.

Mom had seen that there is a lodge/restaurant on the ocean at Kalaloch, about 30 miles down 101. So we headed down there for a little exploration, and lunch.

When we got there the ocean was ensconced in it’s usual fog. But as we hung around a bit the sun worked it’s way through and the fog lifted.

Down on the beach there were lots of people enjoying the day despite it not really being “beach weather”. There were some folks building a fort out of driftwood! How freaking cool is that?

Dad and I walked down there and I noticed that the beach was more sandy than Rialto beach that we’d been to. It was a fine sand, very dry on top, but very wet just under the surface. Just under the surface it’s very packable too, much better for sand castle making! I ended up getting my feet wet (and the bottoms of my pants, is anyone surprised by this?) and I was worried that the sand would get hopelessly stuck to me feet, but it didn’t. We sat for a minute on a long and I played in the sand with my feet. Very quickly all the sand had wiped right off my feet! Non-stick sand! How cool is that? (maybe it’s teflon coated – the sand is black after all!)

We wandered up to the restaurant for lunch – it was very good, better than we were expecting! While we were waiting for our food Dad noticed something white in a tall flat tree. I picked up the camera and zoomed in on it – sure enough it was a Bald Eagle! He was still sitting there after lunch so we were able to check him out in the binoculars and the spotting scope!

After lunch we headed back up the road toward Forks, stopping at Ruby Beach. Ruby Beach has tiny pieces of garnet stuck in the sand giving it a red appearance. We ended up nor going down to the beach, just checking out the overlook and the view from the parking lot. It was very foggy and it was getting late, Dad and I needed to get back to get ready to head out Rialto Beach.

We left the campground about 4:00 and headed over to Rialto Beach. When we got there it was totally engulfed in fog. You couldn’t see the sea stacks we’d seen the 1st first night. You could barely even seen the ocean. Thick, dense, impenetrable fog.

We headed out up the beach in this pea soup fog. Slogging through loose rocks that are almost like walking on snow. Finally the rocks gave way to packed hard sand! YAY! As we walked it looked like the sun was making an effort to clear the fog. It was definitely looking brighter!

As the fog started to lift the sea stacks became visible! Just before the 1st sea stack there was a big rock and I saw people on it so I guessed that there must be tide pools! I climbed up and the saw a family – a mom, a dad, and a 2-2 1/2 year old little girl. The mom had a purple starfish in her hand that she was showing to the little girl.

PURPLE STARFISH???? It was all I could to wait patiently and not try and snatch it away from the mom so I could look at it! They finally put it back in the pool, but I didn’t want to pick it up right away so I took a few pictures, checked out everything else in the area and then went back and picked up the very cool purple starfish!

Finally we had to move on and as soon as I rounded the corner of the big sea stack I could see the Hole-in-the-Wall!

As we got closer to it there were more and more rocks and when you climbed up on the rocks they were full of tide pools! I saw a bunch of starfish, both purple and orange! Just as I was heading into the official “Hole-in-the-Wall” another gal handed me the prettiest purple starfish! It was dark purple – kind of like the purple in my living room, only darker! I wish I’d put him on a rock and gotten his picture before I put him back in the water, once he was in the water he was holding on tight and I couldn’t pick him up!

On the other side of the Hole-in-the-Wall there were tons of tide pools, with starfish a plenty. On almost every rock, in every pool there were starfish! All purple and orange. I probably saw close to 100 but didn’t take pictures of them all!

It was early, we’d gotten to Hole-in-the-Wall around 6:30, just before the official low tide. Since we had time and the sun was now out, we walked up the beach a little ways over some different rocks. These looked to be clearly made from lava, although there were 2 different types. And they had tide pools, but no starfish. None. I guess they don’t like that kind of rock!

On the way back I walked back over to the tide pools to look for the starfish again. They were gone. I couldn’t find any of them. What? Where did they go? I also noticed that the rocks were drier and there was more seaweed. My best guess is that as the tide goes further out, we were now at the height of low tide, the tide pools drain and the starfish end up under the seaweed. I didn’t lift the seaweed looking for them them. The ones that we’d found in deep pools of water were still there though. I’m glad we got there just before low tide, apparently if we’d gotten there even just 5 minutes later I wouldn’t have seen the purple starfish!

The trip back was nice! The sun was mostly shining – still hazy and there was fog way out at sea – the waves were crashing and packed sand was easy to walk on!

When we got back to the parking area the sun was sinking low and glowing red! We decided to stay for sunset! I changed my shoes, I’d wisely worn my hiking boots for the hike, and headed back to the beach. This time I was going to get wet. I’d been wanting to wade since the 1st time we got to the beach, but I wasn’t wearing clothes I could get wet in.

Walking across the rocky beach barefoot was painful, the water was like ice, my feet were red instantly, and then frozen. After 2 waves I hobbled up the beach away from where the waves crash, sat down in the rocks and put my shoes on! So much for wading in the Pacific! :-)

The sunset was the best yet!

With beaches like this, I just might change my opinion. Maybe I could be a beach person yet! :-)

Olympic: Beach Day!

Olympic: Hoh Rain Forest

2010-07-24T12:14:00.000-04:00

Olympic is a tough park to see. It’s HUGE but most of it in the interior, meaning you have to drive 20-30 miles in to get to trails, visitor centers etc. Also, the trails all seem to be either really long backpacks – across the middle where there is only wilderness – or short 1 & 2 mile nature trails. As a result we are doing a lot of “car hiking”. The good news though it that mom can come!

I got up and and was taking my time getting ready and noticed that I hadn’t seen or heard from Mom and Dad. Finally about 9:30 I made my way over to see what what going on – turns out Mom had some computer issues and they were up most of the night trying in vain to fix it! They were packing their stuff to go, it seriously reminded me of what Mr. & Mrs. Howell must have packed for their 3-hour tour! We hauled several big bags of stuff to the car and headed out. It wasn’t long until we realized that we’d forgotten the map. All that stuff and we still didn’t have what we needed! Oh well, they had another map at the visitor center.

The rainforest is pretty cool! Big trees, lots of ferns and moss growing on everything! It was very dry though, I expected it to be wet and foggy. It was a bright sunny and hot day and I’m guessing that has been the weather pattern for awhile.

We had a nice picnic on an moss covered picnic table. I found a slug on the path to the picnic area took a great picture and then we discovered he was dead. :-( As my dad points out, dead animals are easier to photograph, they don’t move as fast!

After lunch we all headed off down the Spruce Trail – 1.25 miles, mostly flat. It was a nice walk through the moss covered forest. After that Dad and I walked the Hall of Mosses trail – this one was only .75 miles and it had some uphill, but not much.

Having done everything there is to do at the Hoh Rainforest Visitor center we headed back down the road. There were 2 little gift shops along the road and we stopped at one of them – Dad got new hiking clothes and I got some t-shirts.

We got back to the campground early which was good because Dad could try and fix Mom’s computer and Mom and I worked on making meatloaf.

After dinner I headed out by myself to go back to Rialto Beach to catch the sunset. It was nice to do something by myself! :-) There was less fog tonight and the sunset was a lot better! I walked around a bit on the rocks and the driftwood and took pictures of the sunset until my battery was almost dead.

Olympic: Hoh Rain Forest

Drive Day

2010-07-23T02:26:00.000-04:00

I usually wake up in the middle of the night to go to the bathroom and last night was no exception – I was up about 2:30 am. I had just dozed off when I heard something fall and hit the floor. WTH? I was suddenly wide awake. My 1st thought was “geological hazard” – all the signs warned us over and over about if we felt the earth shake or heard a train – shaking earth at 2am *could* make things fall on the floor. Did I mention that the idea that Mt. Rainier could erupt while were sleeping and send mud & ice down the river that was just feet from us terrified me? I didn’t sleep well the whole time we were there. Anyway, that was my 1st thought, that my worst fear had come true! I laid there a minute or two, listening. I didn’t hear anything else, so I reached for the flashlight to see what had hit the floor. All I could see was a Diet Dr. Pepper can. Also there was other stuff on the table that would have fallen over and rolled around had the earth been shaking, so I quickly ruled out “geological hazard” and breathed a sigh of relief! But there was still the issue of how the Diet Dr. Pepper can had gotten from the table to the floor. I scanned the RV with my flashlight – sleeping in the cab-over makes this particularly easy! As I swept my flashlight over the cab area I saw the culprit. Right between the 2 front seats was a tiny, and rather scared, mouse. I kept the light on him as he (or she) ran into one of the crevices along the floor. I then decided to take the granola & cliff bars out of my backpack so the mouse wouldn’t chew a hole in my pack. This morning I found a nibbled cliff bar on the table! When we were at Fred Meyer we bought some of those scary the mice away with a high pitched noise thingys that I had plugged in – I hope it works!

This morning we were heading out early to drive to Olympic NP – about 250 miles! Since it was so cold I just got up and put some clothes on over my long underwear and decided to put on “regular” clothes later when it warmed up! Since getting ready was so easy we were able to roll out of the campground right around 8am.

We got to the Bonny Lake Fred Meyer about 9. Dad put gas in the Jeep, Mom and I hit McDonalds for breakfast, then we went to Fred Meyer to get groceries for the week. It was about 11:30 before we headed out down the road!

The drive was pretty good, especially after we got past Olympia! Dad’s GPS kept giving him bad information which was causing us to continually change lanes – I felt like I’d signed up for “lane changing in your RV 101”! :-) Once we got past Olympia it was all 2 lane highways so no lane changing issues!

We arrived in Forks around 4:00. It’s not particularly scenic here – lots of logging and clear cuts and the campground is an open field with a trailer park on one side, but we have full hook ups and great wifi! What more could you want?

We got an early dinner and then headed out to check out the Forks Outfitter – grocery store, hardware store and clothing store all in one – pretty nice!

After the store we drove out to Rialto Beach in the Mora area of Olympic National Park. Very cool beach. It has huge piles of drift wood – huge dead trees that have washed up, and lots and lots of rocks! In fact there was very little sand – and the sand that was there was black. Out in the ocean there were islands with trees on them that would get covered with fog and disappear, then reappear. I of course stuck my feet in the water – it was cold! But it was so nice to walk back on rocks rather than sand – no grit between my toes! The air temp there was cold too, especially with the wind whipping! The sunset itself was underwhelming – there was a low line of fog that obstructed it. The beach is WAY cool, we are planning to go back and walk up the beach to a hole in the rock or something, probably Sunday!

I’m ready to crawl under the covers – it’s chilly here – mid-50s, but not as cold as it was in Mt. Rainier! I’m looking forward to a good nights sleep now that I’m not right under that scary volcano! :-)

Olympic: Rialto Beach Sunset

Mt. Rainier: Dege Peak

2010-07-22T20:18:00.001-04:00

There were a few good hikes in the Sunrise area, but Dad and I decided that the short-ish, only 4.5 miles, trek to Dege Peak was the best bet!

Despite the fact that it was a short hike, we started early in hopes of getting to Sunrise to see the early morning sun hitting the mountain. Unfortunately, there wasn’t any early morning sun today because it was cloudy!

We left the campground before 9 – something we hardly ever do – and headed up the mountain. We stopped to take a picture of the cool sign for the park/national forest. When you are traveling WA410 heading north the sign over the road says “Entering Mt. Baker- Snoqualmie National Forest”, if you are driving south on 410 it says “Entering Mt. Rainier National Park”

We got to the Sunrise parking area and headed off up the trail. The trail goes up through a meadow, which should be covered with wildflowers at the peak of their season right now, however it’s been a late spring this year as much of the snow has just now melting!

It was a fairly gentle climb to the ridge and then we went up and down a little as we walked the Sourdough Ridge. The views could have been spectacular, however there were low clouds clinging to the mountains blocking most of the views.

Soon we came to a spur trail that took us to the top of Dege Peak. It was a great view, but again obstructed by clouds. It was sunny and warm on the peak though! While were hanging out on top eating lunch and chatting with some other folks who were up there the clouds finally cleared away from Mt. Rainier! They were hanging on tight to the other ridges though!

As we walked down we had awesome views of Mt. Rainier, now totally “out” with no clouds anywhere near her! This was the best way to do it as we couldn’t have really seen the Mt. on the way up anyway (our back was to the mountain)!

On the way down Dad pulled ahead so he could have some time to look at the mountain in his spotting scope and I enjoyed a leisurely walk down listening to my iPod. When I got to the bottom he was just settling in with his scope so I went to find some wildflowers to photograph. When he was done we went to the snack bar for some soft serve! It was only vanilla and it was VERY soft, but it was tasty.

After we ate our ice cream we walked out the Emmons Glacier views. The Emmons Glacier is the largest Glacier in the lower 48 and it runs into the White River, which is what runs by our campground.

Even though it was only 3:00 we headed back down the mountain. I was glad to have a little “down” time in my RV to read, look at my pictures etc. The only little glitch is that it is FREEZING outside down here! The temp is only in the high-50s! And the wind is blowing. brrrr. I could turn the furnace on my RV, but for now I’m sitting here in my fleece pants and long underwear! Supposedly it’s going down to 45 tonight! Sure beats the heat wave that won’t end that’s going on in DC right now! :-)

Mt. Rainier: Dege Peak

Mt. Rainier: Ohanapecposh & Sunrise

2010-07-21T20:17:00.001-04:00

We weren’t able to get a reservation at Cougar Rock for the whole time we wanted to be in Mt. Rainier so we had to move over to the Silver Springs Campground, a National Forest Campground on the White River near the Sunrise area of the park.

I was up early this morning – 7 am – because I was freezing. Not sure what it was about last night that was so cold, but I was freezing! I got a shower, made coffee and read my book for book club until about 8:30 when I started getting ready to go. Mom and Dad were pretty much ready then too so by 9 we were on the road.

We were driving through the park to get to the other side – so we headed back up toward Paradise but went beyond into parts of the park we hadn’t seen yet! We stopped at a few overlooks along the way but mostly drove straight through to the other side of the park.

We climbed and climbed the mountain and when we got to the top and started to go down my phone sprung to life! It was going crazy getting texts, emails and facebook notifications! I haven’t really missed my internet much except for Monday night when we got back after being lost and I really wanted to tweet about it and connect with my friends, but it was good to hear the phone doing it’s thing again! I resisted temptation to stop there and read facebook, emails etc and we continued on to Ohanapecosh.

Ohanapecosh is the southeastern section of the park and it’s very quiet – there are fewer “services” there, just a campground, a picnic area and a small visitor center.

After we checked out the visitor center we headed up the road a little bit to take a walk on the Grove of the Patriarchs Trail. This is a short trail with a boardwalk loop that features old growth Cedar, Douglas Fir and other big evergreen trees. Some of these trees were already 500 years old when Columbus “discovered” America in 1492!

After our walk we went back to where we’d parked the Motorhomes and had lunch before heading up the road along the eastern edge of the park to get to the campground.

We began to climb out of the valley and guess what? My phone had a connection at the top of the mountain! This time I pulled out so I could get through all my emails and post a tweet. As I was pulling into the pull out I saw a Ranger behind me with his lights flashing! YIKES! What did I do? I truly didn’t know. Other than pick up my phone to LOOK at it I hadn’t broken any laws. Turns out there was another car between me and the Ranger that I couldn’t see and the Ranger was pulling them over! Phew!

I spent a few minutes sorting through emails and sent my tweet before continuing down the mountain. It was only a few minutes later when we got to our campground and guess what? I have coverage here! It’s slow and not very reliable, but it’s there!

Many of the campgrounds we camp in have sites that you have to back into. Our 1st night at North Cascades I just backed my RV right in with no problems, and no help. Later I moved to another site, and Mom and Dad were both helping me – they were screaming directions, most of which I didn’t understand and did the opposite of which resulting in yelling and frustration on all parts. The next time I needed to back in, Dad helped and again it dissolved into fighting and frustration because I just didn’t understand what he wanted me to do. I finally asked that they let me do it myself and that they couldn’t watch or provide input. I assured Dad that I’d get out and look and make sure I wasn’t going to hit anything.

When we arrived at out campground we discovered that our campsites are very far apart – he went off to get his MH parked and left me to my own devices to get myself parked. Guess what? I did it! I got my little RV into the site – on the 1st try, got it positioned just right and better yet – didn’t hit anything! :-)

As I was walking up to see what the plan was for the rest of the afternoon I see Mom on the ground with Dad next to her! She’d tripped over the edge of the road and cut her hand, bruised her arm and her leg! Nothing was broken – just bumped and scraped.

After she got cleaned up we went to check out the Sunrise area of the park. The road is about 10 miles in and of course it has excellent views of the Mountain! This time we are viewing the east side and there is a lot more snow on the mountain here – oddly enough not as much on the trails though! We checked out the ranger station and the day lodge (the visitor center there is under construction). Also while we were there we made a plan for tomorrow!

As we were driving back we realized that we needed gas in the Jeep – we have enough to get to to Sunrise and back but that’s it. We had no idea where the gas station was so I pulled out the phone and google mapped “gas stations” and found one close, then got directions to it, then we even called it to see if they were open (we didn’t want to drive all the way down there and use up all our gas to discover they were closed) – I really wondered how in the world we’d survived 3 days without the phone working! ;-)

Mt. Rainier: Ohanapecosh & Sunrise

Mt. Rainier: Narada Falls & Wonderland Trail

2010-07-20T20:17:00.001-04:00

We were very lazy this morning – not really getting moving until about 10:00.

We started the day driving back up the road to Paradise so we could check out the Nisqually River bridge, which Dad and I could see from the trail yesterday, and other sites along the road. We’d seen several overlooks and waterfalls to check out.

We stopped a Narada Falls to use the porta-potties and as we were getting back into the Jeep Mom spotted a mouse in the car! My parents had a bit of mouse problem that we discovered in North Cascades but they caught a mouse when we were at Mt. St. Helens so we assumed that the problem was taken care of. We chased the mouse around the car for a few minutes, then mom saw it run out across the parking lot – we assume that was the mouse from our car!

We continued down the road checking out overlooks and such before heading back up to Paradise. We had lunch at the Paradise Inn, it was ok – pretty much what I would expect at a National Park Inn. Then we walked over to the Visitor Center. When I walked up to the information desk the Ranger was discussing the Paradise area trails with a guy – I overheard part of their conversation when he was telling the guy that the Skyline Trail was closed. I strongly advised the guy NOT to try and hike it. The Ranger said that they had people out there today marking the trail but that it was in fact closed. I related to him what the other Ranger had told me and suggested that they communicate more clearly when trails are closed. Dad and I NEVER would have gone down there if we’d been warned that is was snow covered and clearly the Rangers knew that the trail was hazardous.

After lunch we headed back to Narada Falls and Dad and I headed down the trail and Mom drove back to the campground. Our plan was to hike down to Narada Falls and then continue on the Wonderland Trail back to the campground.

The Wonderland Trail is 93 miles and it goes around the perimeter of the park – the movie said that it had 23,000 ft of elevation change! That has to be up and down as Mt. Rainier is only 14,400 – so that number doesn’t make much sense!

The Wonderland Trail is much lower so there was no snow at all! This trail was impossible to lose! It was wide and even flat in places! It followed the Paradise River but you really couldn’t see it. There were 2 waterfalls, both were pretty big. The scenery was not quite as impressive as the alpine hike we did yesterday, but it was nice! This hike was in the forest and there were tall trees and moss covered rocks and ferns! It was a nice gentle hike – all downhill, but not uncomfortably down hill!

At the end of the hike we crossed the Nisqually River and had great views of Mt. Rainier. Clouds were now covering the summit and big clouds were rolling in from the East – which seems strange, we’ll have to see what they do!

Mt. Rainier: Narada Falls & Wonderland

Mt. Rainier: Skyline Trail

2010-07-19T20:17:00.001-04:00

The Skyline Trail is one of the most popular trails in the park. It also has some of the best views in the park!

Yesterday when we were in the visitor center I asked one of the Rangers at the desk for a map of the trail (there are lots of trails in the area and my map was very hard to follow) and she informed me that the trail was snow covered, but entirely passable. She suggested that we bring trekking poles. We talked about how much fun snow in July is and I walked away looking forward to a great hike!

Dad and I got on the trail about 11 am – he got a new backpack and so it took a bit longer to get ready, also we had to stop and buy a new topo map because the other one we had got lost.

We began heading up the paved portion of the trail. We quickly reached the place where the snow covered the trail. Soon the entire landscape was covered in snow!

It was a picture perfect day! Clear blue sky, warm but not hot. Mt. Rainier was out in her all glory. As we climbed views of the Tatoosh range, Mt. Adams, Mt. St. Helens and even Mt. Hood came into view!

There were lots of people hiking up and it became like a party. We were all chatting with each other and enjoying the view together.

A little more than 3/4 of the way up we came to a switchback where people had been sliding down the steep mountainside in the snow rather than walking the switchback. We watched a group of climbers come down and watched them all slide – some sitting, some standing – and I decided that I had to try it! It did mean walking up the hill twice, but I decided it was worth it! I was right! I left my pack at the top and picked my chute – the tracks were carved out like bobsled tracks! I zoomed off – it was so fast! I was laughing the whole way! Even when I hit a big bump and caught air! :-) After my ride I hiked back up and we headed to Panorama Point.

At Panorama Point you could see everything! The Tatoosh Range, Mt. Adams, Mt. Hood. Mt. St. Helens, and of course, Mt. Rainier. We enjoyed lunch there with several other hiking parties. There was a college/HS age daughter hiking with her parents and she and I were talking – she said that the ranger they talked to told them not to hike beyond Panorama Point because the trail is snow covered, not marked, and hard to follow. I related what my ranger said about the whole trail being hikable.

After lunch we started out with another couple – don’t know their names but he was wearing an orange Clemson shirt and she had on a Kentucky shirt. Their daughter was working at the lodge this summer and they were here visiting.

We began the descent down snow covered, but well marked trails. We were chatting with the other couple and having fun! There were numerous places where the snow covered trail was steep and we took to just sliding down, making our own chutes – none as long or as much fun as the one on the way up, but still fun!

Soon we came to a cool snow cave that had been carved by the melting snow and it was here that we were talking with Mr. Clemson and he showed us the map he’d gotten from the ranger that morning that showed the Skyline Trail as closed after the Golden Gate trail and said the ranger had told them to go down the Golden Gate. Interesting that my ranger didn’t tell me that – oh well, maybe they decided to close it after I talked to her.

When we reached the junction of the Skyline Trail and the Golden Gate trail we saw our Clemson/Kentuky friends heading back up. They said that there was no sign saying the Skyline Trail was closed and the Golden Gate looked steep so let’s go that way. So we headed off down the Skyline Trail behind them.

Right way things seemed different. There were a few places where you could see just how much snow was covering the trail - 7+ FEET in many places! Also the trail wasn’t as heavily traveled, we only passed one other group of people! Very quickly the trail became hard to locate. It was not marked like the trail had been on the other side. In one place we saw another other group coming up and that lead us where we needed to be, in another place there was a bridge across a creek.

It was after the bridge that things got interesting. We stopped to have a rest and a snack and I looked at the map. It looked like we were almost to a trail junction and a memorial to the 1st guys who climbed Mt. Rainier. We kept hiking thinking we’d see them soon. We didn’t.

We hiked on, following footprints assuming they were the trail. In a few places the snow was melted an we got confirmation that we were near the trail. There were a number of places where we couldn’t tell where the trail went so we followed the footprints down.

Eventually we realized that we weren’t going in the right direction at all. We were lost. We consulted the map and couldn’t figure out where to go. We decided to continue following the footprints because there was another trail in the area that would lead us to the road, although it was really far from where we’d parked the car.

Eventually the footprints ran out. Uh-oh. At this point we decided to walk parallel with Mt. Rainier as far as we could. We knew where the visitor center was, we just had to get across a gully to get there. This plan didn’t last as once we got to the ridge it was a steep drop off.

I’d been thinking about how mom was supposed to call the rangers if we weren’t back by 7 (it was 5:30) – and I thought it would be a good idea to at least be closer to where we were supposed to be – the Skyline Trail. If we were off that area even a bit it would make it harder for rangers to find us.

I was also remembering the cardinal rule of getting lost – stay put and do not get yourself even more lost, I was worried we were doing exactly that.

So as much as we didn’t want to, we headed back up the ridge. This time we stayed close to the trees, out of the snow as much as we could – it was much easier walking! We consulted the map and determined that we were likely on the ridge that the trail crosses so we decided to continue to stay up close to the trees that way we could spot the trail as it crossed the ridge to descend the other side.

At this point it was getting late in the evening and both of us were seriously considering a night out on the trail. I wasn’t too excited about losing the trail again and was considering just sitting down and waiting for help when I knew I was close to the trail, since I knew mom would call the rangers and I figured the 1st thing the rangers would do is look on the trail. We were only 2 miles from Paradise so I figured it wouldn’t take long!

Then, finally, Dad said “Trail”. It sounded like he was calling it like you call a dog, so I said “It won’t come when called!” Then I saw what he’d seen – we had in fact found a trail. It wasn’t the right trail, but it was a trail. We kept walking up – scanning the trees for the Skyline Trail. It took some eagle eyes and a lot of luck but we spotted the trail where it went through the trees to go down the other side!!!!!!

We headed down, always making sure we could see the next trail marker – the rock barriers, a water bar, the gravel trail bed. At one point we were having a hard time locating it and we saw two guys walking in the woods. In shorts and t-shirts heading up.

We questioned them about the trail and they assured us that if we just followed their footprints and stayed by the river we’d come out at the road. Right, because following foorprints has worked so well. I offered them any sum of money they wanted to lead us out, but they didn’t bite on that one.

We followed their footprints – occasionally seeing evidence of a trail – along the river and finally to the road!!!!!

We’d gotten off on a different trail from the Skyline Trail and come down to the road at a different place from where we’d parked the car. We were looking at at least 2 miles of uphill road walk, which is usually a bad thing, but today I was SOOOOO happy to walk the road! Hard to get lost walking on a road.

We were in luck though! I spotted a retired couple walking to their car – they both had big walking sticks and looked friendly. I explained our predicament and asked if they could drive us to Paradise. They graciously agreed! Joyce and Howard were retired and live in Packwood – just a few miles down the road. They’d been up at Paradise a few hours earlier when Joyce had noticed my RV – the sun was hitting the graphic on the front in way that made the green really pretty. She said it was the only thing she’d noticed – and here we were the owners of the RV! It was wonderful meeting them and I thank them so much for being willing to pick up 2 wet, muddy, and very tired hikers!

Back at the RV we took off wet socks, got drinks & snacks and started heading down the Mt. A top priority when we got back was to check in with the rangers in case Mom had called and they were out looking for us. We didn’t see any rangers at Paradise, but on our way down, right before we got to the campground we saw a NPS Ranger SUV heading up. I fully expected him to turn around and follow us, but he didn’t. (seriously the graphics on this thing are hideous, but make it easy to know if that’s who you are looking for!). When we pulled in the campground there was a ranger guy getting into his golf cart so we flagged him down – sure enough mom did have the Rangers looking for us! They called dispatch and called off the search.

I will admit that once we found the trail and I figured we’d get out without spending the night in the woods, I was kinda hoping a Ranger would come find us 1) because they know the trail and would make it easier and 2) because we might make the NPS Morning Report!

We aren’t sure what happened to our Kentucky/Clemson friends – we never saw them again. Hopefully they made it out last night.

We got back to camp about 8:00 and ate dinner and I’m heading to bed. Long day, but boy am I glad to NOT be sleeping on the side of Mt. Rainier.

Not sure what the plan is for tomorrow, but I’m thinking a short hike at a lower elevation – no more snow! Or at least make sure it’s a VERY well marked trail.

Mt. Rainier: Skyline Trail

Mt. Rainier: Paradise

2010-07-18T20:16:00.001-04:00

This morning we drove about 100 miles from Castle Rock to Mt. Rainier NP. This morning was my “last chance” internet since I was fully expecting not to have coverage here – and we don’t.

The drive was uneventful, we stopped at a grocery store in Morton to pick up a few “must haves” then came into the park.

It was very crowded at the entrance station – long lines of cars trying to get in! Luckily we have National Park Passes and were able to go in the express lane. We drove up the park road to Cougar Rock campground – lots of cars and traffic on the road!

At the campground things got a little tense as my Dad was trying to get his MH into the campsite! This campground has a strict 35 ft limit – and they mean 35 ft, not an inch over! My parents MH is 36 ft! It was a bit harrowing driving it through the windy tree filled campground road and then backing it into the pull through! He got it in with no permanent damage to the trees or the motorhome!

I was quite excited because my site was also a pull through and I was able to pull right up and park! No stress! :-) And, I’m perfectly level!

We got some lunch and then took advantage of the weekend shuttle to Paradise. Paradise is where there is a lodge, a visitor center, restaurants, and many trail heads. There are also views of Mt. Rainier (when it’s clear!) and the Tatoosh Range. Needless to say this a very popular area and the parking lot quickly fills up on weekends, especially sunny weekends! The shuttle only runs on Friday, Saturday & Sunday so today was the only day we could use it!

One the way up we had the bus to ourselves! The bus driver works in the transportation office of a local school district and like Acadia many of the shuttle bus drivers are school bus drivers making some extra summer money!

Paradise was crowded with people! And snow. Much of the famed wildflower meadow is buried under snow!

We checked out the visitor center, the gift shop, and the movie! It was a good introduction to the park & the mountain!

We rode back on the bus with a few other folks who had hiked up from Longmire! That sounds like a good plan to me – it’s all up, then mom can come get us!

After dinner we went to the Ranger program here in the campground. It was actually pretty good – the Ranger told about her grandmother’s journey to the park in 1914 and the adventures she had!

One thing about Mt. Rainier that I hadn’t focused on is that it is an active volcano. There was a display in the visitor center today showing what types of damage would be done to different areas should the volcano erupt – we are solidly in the “everything gets swept away or buried under mud” zone. Tonight at the Ranger program, the ranger told us how to evacuate the campground should we hear the sound of a train – the rumble would be followed by a siren – we are supposed to go up the ridge – here’s hoping there’s not lava and stuff gushing down the ridge! I assume that the NPS has scientists watching the mountain carefully – especially since a major eruption would be catastrophic to the Tacoma/Olympia area! Probably shouldn’t have visited Mt. St. Helens 1st!

Mt. Rainier: Paradise Visitor Center

Mt. St. Helens

2010-07-17T02:31:00.000-04:00

I can’t say as I was truly interested in Mt. St. Helens before today, it was one of those “gotta see it” things that was close to where we were and fit with plan we had.

I didn’t know much about it, just that it erupted in the 80’s and that the eruption was a big deal. In fact prior to a few weeks ago I didn’t even know it was in Washington – I knew it was over here somewhere, but not sure exactly where.

The history and the geology and the stories behind the event & the mountain made today very interesting!

We started at our campground and headed out down The Spirit Lake Memorial Highway – a road built by the State of Washington just so people can get out to the National Volcanic Memorial! It replaced a road that lead to a summer camp on the shores of Silver Lake was destroyed by the eruption.

There are 5 visitor centers along the road! One was a Washington State Park, we didn’t go to that one and one was closed.

At the 1st visitor center (I can’t spell or find online the name of it) there was lots of information about the YMCA camp that was on the shores of Spirit Lake that was completely destroyed. There was also a nice overlook, although the view was obstructed by low clouds.

The next visitor center was all about forestry and it was put together and staffed by the Weyerhaeuser Paper Company. Weyerhaeuser owns much of the land surrounding Mt. St. Helens and the eruption impacted them in a big big way! The visitor center was a combination of telling the story of Mt. St. Helens though the eyes the company and educating the public on the logging practices they use and how logging is actually good for the environment.

I wonder how much of their “this is a good thing” is real and how much is propaganda! Do they really do all the good stuff they say they are doing? And, is the “management” of forests and trees a good thing? Are the humans trying to control nature too much? I have read enough Carl Hiaasen to know not to trust big business, especially in the area of environmental responsibility! One of the things I saw that made me raise my eyebrows was that they feed the bears! When the bears wake up in the spring they are hungry and they frequently eat the bark off the trees which damages them and sometimes kills the tree. Well, naturally they don’t want that, so they put out bear food until the berries ripen and the bears switch to eating berries.

After taking in the exhibits there we traveled back to the 1st visitor center because they had a restaurant for lunch! While we were there the clouds lifted and the mountain showed herself!

We spent the rest of the afternoon driving down the road, stopping at overlooks and taking pictures!

At the end of the road is the final overlook and visitor center, this one is run by the National Forest Service, although it looks and operates like a National Park! This visitor center was more focused on the earth science and geology behind the eruption and was really interesting!

Dad and I walked a few short trails and got some up close views of the Mt and the surrounding destruction. It’s been 30 years and the area around the volcano is still very barren! The areas owned by the paper company were replanted and “restored”, however the the area under the ownership of the National Forest Service has been left to it’s own natural devices.

Dad and I were able to catch a glimpse of Spirit Lake, where the famed summer camp used to be.

After we finished at the last visitor center we headed back down the road to our campground! We stopped at Mile 19 – a little family owned restaurant for some outstanding burgers and wonderful homemade cobbler!

Today I also learned that all my mountains that I have come to love are actually volcanoes! Mt. Rainier, Mt. Hood, and Mt. Adams, all active volcanoes! After seeing the power – being able to compare Mt. St. Helens to the others and see the difference having it’s top blown off makes helped me see the immense power – makes me think twice about wanting to live where I can see them all! I’m sure that location is firmly in the blast zone!

Tomorrow we are heading to Mt. Rainier National Park – definitely a highlight of the trip that I have been looking forward to, however, I’m anticipating not having any internet or cell coverage the whole time we are there! YIKES! We will be there for 5 days. Sunday – Fri. I’m seriously starting to twitch. Going cold turkey! It’s probably a good thing to unplug and put the iPhone away, but it’s like part of me, and it’s my connection with my friends and I’m having a hard time imagining going 5 whole days without knowing what’s going on. The good news though is that once we get to Fri I will have coverage or campground wifi the rest of the trip!

2010-07-17

Portland: Emily, Phil, & Lila

2010-07-16T02:17:00.000-04:00

Picture it: North Tarrytown NY, Christmas Eve, 1979 –neighborhood Christmas Party. Two little girls, both 4 years old at the time, hiding behind their mothers – both a little shy and both probably more than a little overexcited about the coming of Santa Claus and both likely up past their bedtimes!

That was when I met Emily! After that night we quickly grew to be friends! The following Fall when we were both enrolled in Kindergarten our moms made sure we were in the same class! As the years went by we did all kinds of things together – we went to see Goonies, in the theater, we had many outings to the Crest (local swim club), we even went away to camp together! We played on the rocks, had Barbie weddings, sleepovers, and were tormented by her big brother John.

Then just before 5th grade Emily and her family moved away. 2 hours away. We still saw each other occasionally, but the distance was great and it was hard.

Right after we both graduated from high school in 1993 we managed to get together for lunch when we both happened to be back in North Tarrytown on the same weekend.

After that we lost track of each other, but thanks to the wonders of Facebook we have found each other! Emily’s parents have moved and now live about 2 hours from me on the Eastern Shore. Emily has gotten married and has a 9 month old baby girl Lila. They live in Portland now so making sure we worked a visit to Portland into this trip was a priority!

Fast forward 31 years from the Christmas Eve: Today I hung out with Emily after not seeing her for close to 20 years! We went out to lunch and got to see a little of Emily’s neat neighborhood! Then we sat and chatted all afternoon, while Lila napped! It was so much fun reconnecting and seeing the house that she and Phil have fixed up and of course meeting Lila! It’s great to fun to know that even after 20 years we can still hang out and enjoy the afternoon together! :-)

Emily and Phil are coming to the east coast in August and we are making plans to get together again then too!

As we were driving back to the campground from Portland this afternoon we got some great views of Mt. Hood – we were stuck in traffic on the Interstate Bridge (as soon as the traffic screeched to a halt, I remembered Emily’s warning about Friday afternoon traffic being horrible!) so I had a few opportunities to snap a picture. Now I’m wondering if there is a place I could live where I could see Mt. Rainier, Mt. St. Helens, & Mt. Hood? Hmmmm….wherever that might be it’s closer to Portland and I already have some friends in Portland! ;-)

Drive Day

2010-07-15T21:44:00.000-04:00

This morning we headed out from North Cascades and back into “civilization”!

It took about 2 hours to drive back to Everett, we hadn’t planned on going back there necessarily, but my parents needed to pick up their main which had been delivered to general delivery there.

We arrived back at the Fred Meyer – the one we were at a few days ago that I thought needed it own “People Of” site – and as soon as we arrived I set about getting my pictures uploaded and blogs posted (and I’m glad I did because the wifi here isn’t as reliable as it was in Everett!). Then Mom and I went in to do our shopping and Dad went to fetch the mail. Unfortunately, the mail wasn’t there, we aren’t sure why, but it’s not my problem!

It was 1:00 and Mom and I were still wandering the aisles looking at everything – I decided that I wanted to get back to my computer and get some lunch so I quickly finished up my shopping, paid and went to put the groceries away.

It was close to 2 before Mom and Dad were done with their shopping and we got some lunch and then I went to put gas in my RV, then we headed out from Everett about 3:00.

Before we left Dad had checked Google Traffic on his phone and he said “There are few red spots, but I-5 looks mostly clear” – so we headed down I-5.

All was moving along for about 10 miles, then things came to a screeching halt. We were close to Seattle and I was guessing it was normal traffic. It wasn’t so bad inching along, every so often I caught a glimpse of Mt. Rainier in all her glory and that was exciting!

I didn’t realize how enormous Mt. Rainier is. She’s HUGE! She’s also sitting out by herself which makes her seem even bigger! Today the top was very clearly visible, but the bottom wasn’t so it almost looked like the mountain was an illusion!

I also killed some time trying to adjust my mirrors, especially the passenger side one – it has a regular mirror and a convex wide angle mirror. There is no way to relay on just the regular mirror because it has a huge blind spot, so I played around with the position of the mirror so that I could use both mirrors effectively.

Then we were stopped right under the exit sign for Federal Way, which is where my good friend Andy and his family used to live so I had to take a picture and send it to them. Since we weren’t moving at all here I was able to send them the text! Andy, Sherry and I texted back and forth a bit (I was only typing when the RV was completely stopped, which unfortunately was frequently!).

I’d thought that as soon as we got passed Tacoma things would open up. I was wrong. It actually got worse. We were totally stopped. I pulled out my phone to check Google Traffic – it was read all the way to Dupont - 10 more miles! ugh! And we’d turned south a bit and I could no longer see The Mountain.

At this point I started doing the math – we’d gotten on I-5 in Everett, mile 189, and we were currently close to mile 116….hmmmm….we’d traveled about 80 miles in 2 and half hours. That had to be some kind of traffic record – shortest distance gone in the longest time!

Now, we must keep things in perspective here – yes, it was a LONG day of sitting in traffic, however we had attempted to traverse the entire Greater Seattle/Tacoma/Olympia Metropolitan area during rush hour. It took 2.5 hours. Let’s consider doing the same thing in let’s say DC – I dare anyone reading this to leave Baltimore MD at 3:00 pm EDT and drive to Fredericksburg. I’d bet you wouldn’t make it under 4 hours!

No, sitting in traffic wasn’t high on the fun meter, but it did give me a chance to understand what is where in Seattle and see how it all works! Most of the urban development is very concentrated – as soon as we drove south of Olympia there was nothing! Well, that accounts for most of the traffic right there – a big city in a small space! I was also able to see for myself where Seattle is in relation to other places and now I feel more like I "know” Seattle!

We weren’t very far from Olympia when another big mountain came into view. I thought it was Rainier again, but it looked different. The biggest difference is that this mountain had no top! It must be Mt. St. Helens. Not sure what I expected with Mt. St. Helens, but it’s HUGE also! And it sits out by itself as well. Like Rainier, St. Helens is covered in snow!

Even despite my day getting intimate with Seattle traffic, I’m currently thinking that the place to live might be between Mt. Rainier and Mt. St. Helens – where you can see one out the front and one out the back! :-)

North Cascades: Hidden Lake Hike

2010-07-14T16:41:00.000-04:00

After 2 days of clouds and some rain, today was finally sunny! Brilliantly sunny in fact!

Dad and I had planned to hike to Sauk Mt. – a four mile hike to the top of a mountain that promised 360* views of the Cascades as well as opportunity to see Mt. Rainer and Puget Sound on a clear day, which today was!

With high hopes for a great walk we headed out toward Marblemount – the town just before the road enters North Cascades and the sign says that it’s the last “major” services for 69 miles! These major services consisted of 2 gas stations – one of which was closed and 2 family owned resteraunts. Yep, North Cascades is remote! As soon as we entered Marblemount Dad’s phone beeped at him – he had coverage here! I, however, did not! Dad needed gas in the Jeep so we stopped at the Shell Station, while he was pumping gas he checked his messages and had a few people to call back. While he was dealing with the phone calls, I went to check out the ladies room in the store!

Soon we were headed to the trailhead! We found the Forest Service Road we were supposed to go up, and when we got there there was a sign: Sauk Mt Trail Closed July 12-15 for trail maintenance. WHAT?????

The extra frustrating part here is that on Sunday we were at the visitor center and the ranger had highly recommended this trail to us, and told us nothing of it’s impending closure. The reason for the lack of information I realized is because we were talking to a National Park Service Ranger, the majority of the hiking trails, and overlooks and such, in the area are operated and maintained by the National Forest Service, as was obvious from a number of interactions with NPS personnel, the two government entities do not seem to communicate with each other!

Ok, going back to today… Luckily we had a few other options – and luckily the hiking books I’d bought were on my Kindle App and I could get them from my phone! After consulting the book and the map we decided to head to Hidden Lake.

At this point we decided we needed to let Mom know we’d changed the plan, just in case something happened and we didn’t come back on time – we decided to call and leave a message on her phone in hopes that she would travel into Marblemount to get help to find us. It later occurred to us that she likely wouldn’t drive the Motorhome and that was the only vehicle she had!

My book claimed that this hike is the “best hike on the face of the planet” – so needless to say the expectations were high! We headed down 2 Forest Service Roads to get to the trailhead and were way back into the wilderness!

The trail started out in a deep forest with tall cedars and lots of moss and plenty of creeks to cross! It was a steady climb, up, up, up! Eventually the trail came out of the forest and into an avalanche chute with expansive views! The trail continued to climb through the meadow and as we gained elevation the views got better and better!

The trail was 4.5 miles long ending at an old fire tower that looked down on Hidden Lake. Neither my dad nor I was really up for a 9 mile hike so we’d decided before we left that we weren’t going the whole way and that we’d probably walk for 2 – 2.5 hours and then turn around. This ended up being a good plan because at about 2.5 miles in there was a snow covered stream crossing that I wasn’t too excited about crossing. Dad went across and said it wasn’t too bad, but when I wouldn’t cross it he came back and getting back was much harder!

We settled into lunch right on the trail – I’d found a ledge to perch on and Dad just sat on the trail. While we were eating a man came down the trail coming from the top – as he crossed the creek he sunk into the snow up to his knee! He said he’d only made it about a mile beyond where we were before the snow got too deep and treacherous. Since it has been warm, the snow is soft in some places and hard in others and sometimes it’s melted underneath and you can’t see it on top! We knew then that we were for sure done going up and were heading down after we ate!

The downhill actually went fast and seemed relatively easy! I usually hate the downhill part, but this wasn’t so bad! Soon we were back at the car and heading back down the Forest Service Road to the campground!

Today I did something I have never done before – hiked with my iPod. I have always thought that hiking was about listening to the sounds of the forest and enjoying being outside, and usually it is, but having my iPod today really helped! Just like tunes help a road trip, they also help a good hike! Dave Matthews, Lady Gaga, & Rusted Root make great hiking companions!

North Cascades: Hidden Lake Hike

North Cascades: Miscellaneous

2010-07-13T16:41:00.000-04:00

We decided that we needed to go back to Washington Pass so Mom could see it, so the 1st part of the day involved driving back out Highway 20!

As we drove this time stopped at all the interesting things we’d seen the other times we’d driven the road but not been able to stop and look at! We looked at all the overlooks and waterfalls and took lots of pictures.

When we got to Washington Pass it was much cloudier than it had been yesterday, but it was still impressive and Mom was impressed! We had a picnic lunch there – in the car because it was so windy & cold! It was 48 degrees!

After lunch we drove back to the Newhalem area, once again stopping to look at interesting flowers and pretty views!

When we got back we stopped at the Skagit General Store in Newhalem – it was just your basic middle of nowhere convenience store, but Mom found some stuff to buy!

There are a number of small, relatively flat trails in the Newhalem Campground area and one can walk from the general store the campground via the “Trail of Cedars” trail. Dad and I sent mom back to the campground in the car and he and I headed out down the trail.

We took a side trip to Ladder Creek Falls, which wasn’t that impressive, and then continued on to the Trail of the Cedars.

The Trail of the Cedars is a flat, almost paved trail that winds through a grove of big cedar trees! Almost everything is covered with moss and it looks a lot like a rainforest! The moss seems to have attacked anything that is on the ground like kudzu!

It was only about a mile or maybe 2 back to the campground and since it was flat we walked it quickly!

When we got back I had some RV chores to take care of – my water tank was just about empty, I needed to fill it and treat it with chlorine to kill anything that might be in it (who knows what the person before me put in the water tank!) and the battery was low so I wanted to drive it for a little while to charge it up!

Dumping the RV is one of those things that sounds like it would be awful, but really it’s not too hard, or too gross. This dump however was the exception! It wasn’t as bad as it could have been, but it sure was stinky! The good news is that now I know which valve is the black tank (toilet stuff) and which is the grey (shower, sink water) tank which will make the process a lot neater next time!

I got it all taken care of and Dad helped me get it parked back on my site!

North Cascades is an interesting park. I think it may be the best kept secret in the whole national park service It’s huge and the scenery rivals, or is better than, anything seen in the “big” National Parks like Denali, Glacier or Grand Teton, however, there is almost no one here. There are only a handful of campers in the campground, the overlooks have been almost deserted, and we have never seen more than 2 or 3 cars at the visitor center. I find this amazing considering that Grand Teton or even the Smokies are likely teeming with people and have huge traffic jams and crowded campgrounds! We have been discussing why this is and the best we can figure is that it’s because of the remoteness of the park. Yes, the park is about 2 hours from Seattle, but to get to the high country it’s a long day trip. Other than campgrounds, there are no places to stay, I’m sure that keeps the tourists away! I’m betting that most the vacationers are down at Mt. Rainier NP and that our week there will be a whole different experience! I’m really glad that we came here and that we stayed for 5 nights as it gave us a chance to really get to know the park!

The other interesting thing about North Cascades is that the NPS has a very small foothold here, they pretty much run the campground, visitor center and 1 overlook – the majority of the area falls under the jurisdiction of the National Forest Service!

North Cascades Misc.

North Cascades: Blue Lake

2010-07-12T16:41:00.000-04:00

This morning was cloudy and cool and the weather forecast was calling for a 30% chance of rain. We weren’t sure what to do, but we knew that a hike to a high vista with views probably wasn’t a good option.

Yesterday when we hiked to Heather Pass we encountered some other hikers who suggested we hike to Blue Lake. We looked that up in our guidebooks and it was a 4.4 mile round trip hike – sounded perfect!

Dad and I got our stuff together and headed back down Highway 20 – the Blue Lake Trailhead was just on the other side of Rainy Pass so we had to go back the same way we’d gone yesterday.

The weather was rapidly deteriorating as we drove, the clouds were rolling in thick and low and threatening rain. Ahead of us though there was blue sky, but I was expecting that the clouds were headed that way. Once we got past Rainy Pass however the clouds vanished and it was blue sky all around!

We quickly noticed that the mountains had changed, it was a lot more barren – looking like a desert! We quickly surmised that the rain rarely makes it over the ridge. The rest of the afternoon proved that hypothesis as we watched the clouds build on the horizon, however very little moisture fell and us and the day was mostly sunny! It was however, very cold – the temps were in the 40s!

The trail to Blue Lake was well worn and somewhat boring. It wound through the cedar trees until we came to a bowl that looked like it had been recently cleared by an avalanche! We could see several mountains and as we climbed more mountains revealed themselves! We had some more winding through cedar trees before coming out in the bowl yet again, only higher!

We’d gained about 1,000 feet from the parking lot and that was obvious by the snow patches! I think there was actually more snow on this trail than there was on the Heather Pass trail! A few of the snow patches were rather scary to cross as there was tiny ledge to stand on and it dropped off, but we made it!

After what seemed like forever, especially for a 2-mile hike in, we finally made it to Blue Lake! Interestingly enough, Blue Lake was not blue! It was more green, but it was very clear! It was also not very big. We found a nice rock and pulled out lunch!

We were just finishing up lunch when I noticed there was something white blowing in the air. I asked Dad what it was, his thought was seeds or maybe pollen. I had just pulled out my gloves because the wind was making it really cold and one of the white things landed on my gloves and I noticed that it melted…hmmmm….the next one that landed I put on my tongue, it was cold….hmmmm…that white stuff, falling from the sky must be SNOW! In the middle of July it was SNOWING! AWESOME! The light snow/sleet showers continued pretty much the rest of the day, although it was still mostly sunny.

We made our way back down the trail and back to the car. It was about 4:00 when we got back to the car so we decided we go over and check out Washington Pass, the highest point on Highway 20. I admit that I didn’t have high hopes, Rainy Pass was a bit of a disappointment in the views department, so I figured Washington would be the same. Boy was I wrong!

Washington Pass is just amazing! There’s a huge valley surrounded by peaks that are probably 8,000+ feet high! The overlook was a giant rock with a barricade around it – when you walked right up to the barricade you could see the road far below with the mountains soaring high above it! It was a breathtaking view! We decided that we had to come back and bring Mom!

North Cascades: Blue Lake Hike & Washington Pass #1

North Cascades – Rainy Pass Hikes

2010-07-11T16:40:00.000-04:00

This morning we headed out to drive the North Cascades Highway to Rainy Pass – one of the highest points on the highway and one of the highlights of a trip to North Cascades.
Before we headed out we stopped at the visitor center right by the campground to talk to a ranger about some possible hikes and if there were some other options we hadn’t considered.
One of the guys who was working the cash register was very knowledgeable about the area and the hikes, he suggested that we hike to Heather Pass from Rainy Pass – that it was a better way to see Lake Ann and the rest oft he mountains. He did warn that we would likely encounter snow, so we ran back to the campground to get our Yak Traxx, just in case!
Finally we headed out to drive the road! We stopped at the Diablo Lake Overlook and spent a long time checking out all the views and taking lots of pictures! Diablo Lake was created by the Seattle City Light Company when they dammed up the Skagit River to create power! The other big lake in the area – Ross Lake was created for the same purpose. There are also two “Company” Towns in the park: Newhalem and Diablo where workers for the power company live. I’m wondering if that’s why I have AT&T coverage on my iPhone – maybe Seattle City Power has an AT&T tower for their workers iPhones? This evening when we drove through I saw some kids out playing – hmmmm…maybe they need a teacher????
After Diablo Lake we continued down the road. The mountains are ENORMOUS! And there are so many of them! Around almost every corner there is a huge waterfall!
Finally we made it to Rainy Pass! The pass itself is developed, but very primitive – pit toilets and a few picnic tables. We found a good table and got out our picnic lunch! Soon the mosquitoes made lingering over lunch uncomfortable, so we headed out to walk to Rainy Lake. The walk to Rainy Lake was only 2 miles (round trip), paved and flat, so Mom was able to go with us! The trail itself was rather boring, but the lake was pretty awesome! Reminded me of Avalanche Lake in Glacier.
After we got back from the walk to Rainy Lake, Dad and I got ready for our hike to Heather Pass. We’d guesstimated that it was about 2 miles each way for a total of 4 miles and that we’d be back in a minimum of 2 hours and up to 4 hours as the absolute longest it would take. We left Mom at the car with her Kindle and headed into the woods.
The initial part of the trail was deep in the cedar forest and was rather boring, but soon we came to a big bowl where the views opened up! Here it reminded me of Cascade Canyon in the Tetons. Soon we were back in the trees again, but not for long! In less than 1/2 a mile we we were out above the trees on an exposed and rocky trail with views all around! We continued to climb and as we did more of the mountains revealed themselves to us and it was amazing! I could hardly walk for stopping to take pictures! As the trail continued to climb we got great views of Lake Ann as well! Pretty soon we were at the end of the lake and the trail turned up again and we climbed even higher making out way to Heather Pass.
Soon we came to some big snow patches that required extra care, but not Yak Traxx, to cross. It’s an interesting experience to swat at mosquitoes while navigating snow! It was after of these big snow patches that we ran into a guy coming down, I was getting pretty tired and ready to go back so I asked him how much farther – he said it was just a few more minutes and it was worth it – so I pushed on! After traversing the final snow fields we reached the end of the road – Heather Pass! WOW what a view! HUGE mountains in every direction!
In addition to the mountains, there was snow in every direction! Lots and lots of snow! The trail formed a loop and conceivably you could have walked all the way around, but we couldn’t tell where the trail went, even with a map! Good thing we’d already planned to go back!
We were a bit concerned about the time – it had taken us more than 2 hours to walk there, what we’d expected it would take 2 hours round trip! It was here that we realized we’d likely underestimated the mileage! We started back down, only stopping occasionally to take pictures – those "I’m pretty sure I got this, but I’m taking another shot – just in case” shots. It felt like we were hiking faster, but the downhill is so slow! I hate walking downhill! When we came back to the bowl I had to take more pictures because the light was different!
We finally got back to the car at 6:00 – our “outside chance” return time and we’d just barely made it! Mom had had a nice afternoon at the car, despite nearly being eaten alive by mosquitoes!
The day ended up being a bit more than we bargained for hiking wise – Dad and I ended up hiking about 8 miles and gaining about 1500 ft of elevation – but it was TOTALLY worth it!

North Cascades: Diablo Lake & Rainy Pass hikes

Wonderful Washington: Travel & Day 1

2010-07-10T16:40:00.000-04:00

Yesterday’s travel day was uneventful! Kendra and May kept my car and drove me to Dulles. I got there in plenty of time and whizzed through security! I got to ride the cool new train out to the B terminal! I am sad to see Dulles’s “space age” shuttles go by the wayside though. When they built Dulles back in the 70’s it was very “futuristic” which of course just looks silly and dated now, but I think it has a certain charm!

The flight from Dulles to Long Beach CA was 5 hours! Thank goodness for the seat back TVs on Jet Blue! I channel surfed the whole way there! I had a 4 hour layover in Long Beach. Let’s just say 3 hours and 45 mins would have been sufficient to exhaust all possible activities at the Long Beach CA airport! The gate area for Jet Blue was simply a big room with about 4 gates – looked like a temporary building! Thank goodness they had free wifi! And as a bonus, I found a plug so I could play away and not worry about losing power!

When we finally arrived in Seattle the sun was setting over the mountains and I got great views of Mt. Rainier and other mountains! The setting sun bathed the mountains in glorious pinks and oranges! WOW! :-)

I successfully navigated my way to the courtesy van pick up point and got the shuttle to my hotel for the night! I arrived at the hotel around 9:30 and I was in bed by 10! (after 1 am on the East Coast) It wasn’t the best night of sleep, but it will do!

This morning Dad picked me up at the hotel and we went back to where they were camping. It was a glorious clear sunny day and we were rewarded with awesome views of Mt. Rainier as we made our way to the campground!

Soon we were on our way to Everett to pick up my motor home! We got there about 2 hours before our appointed pick up time, but my motorhome was on the lot and ready so they let us pick it up! After we headed over the Fred Meyer and mom and dad went on a little wild goose chase to find the mail and I stayed behind and unpacked all my stuff!

I have a “compact” RV – it’s only 19ft! It’s a breeze to drive, but it’s tiny! Lots of little “hidey holes” though for all my junk, I just hope I remember where I hid everything! My favorite thing so far though is that it has an MP3 jack so my iPod plays through the speakers!

After a quick lunch at Wendy’s we hit Fred Meyer for supplies. We had gone to Fred Meyer in Alaska so I was looking forward to going again, however this was the most ghetto Fred Meyer ever! I saw so many atrociously dressed people I think it needs it’s own “People of” site!

Finally, about 2:00 we were on our way to North Cascades! What a drive! We started on the highway and could make out the mountains in the distance. Eventually we turned off the highway and headed up the back roads to the park! The mountains just got bigger and bigger! Soon there were lakes and rivers too! I think North Cascades could be the love child of the Kenai Peninsula and Denali in Alaska!

We rolled into the National Park campground around 5:30 and had a few moments of confusion about how to proceed. We had reserved sites so we decided to go right to the site. We weren’t sure how to get there so when we stopped at a stop sign Dad jumped out of his MH to look for direction. Seeing that he was going for a walk I decided to take that opportunity to go to the bathroom so I put the MH in park and got up. I was mid-pee when I heard his big diesel engine roar off! Oh NO!

I quickly finished up and started driving, but I quickly lost my parents! I had no idea where they had vanished to and no idea where I was. I kept driving. The road eventually turned to a narrow gravel road and it was pretty clear that they hadn’t come that way. There had been no sign or anything to let me know where I was, or that I wasn’t supposed to be driving there. I had no way to turn around so I had to keep going and hope for the best! Luckily, the road ended at a maintenance building with enough space for me to turn around! Then I was worried I’d encounter another car on the 1 lane road as I made my way back. Luckily I did not!

Finally I used the radio and figured out where mom and dad had gotten too! Later I was looking at the map and the road I was on is a dashed line – meaning that it’s not really a road meant for vehicles! yikes! :-)

After dinner we spent the evening planning what we will be doing the rest of the time we are here! Right now it’s 9 pm and it’s not even dark (you could read a book sitting outside) but I’m ready for bed! The time change is a pain!

Washington Day 1: Mt. Rainier & Seattle

Time for a Road Trip!

2010-07-08T19:04:00.001-04:00

If it’s July it must be time for what has become an annual camping, hiking & kayaking expedition into our National Parks!

Although this year I am taking not 1 but 2 iPhones with me so we might as well dispense with the idea that this is a “camping” trip right now! :-)

This year’s destination is the Pacific Northwest! I’m flying into Seattle and from there will travel to North Cascades National Park Complex, Mt. St. Helens, Mt. Rainier, and Olympic NP.

I will also be taking a side trip to Portland to visit with my best friend from Elementary School and her nine month old daughter! :-)

As has become the tradition I am renting an RV! This year I went with Cruise America – they are a nation-wide company and they typically cover their rental units with giant graphics! Not looking forward to that! However, they offer a “compact” RV and at 19 ft I think it might be just about perfect for me!

Unlike last year’s trip to Maine, this year I will have some traveling companions – my parents! They left Williamsburg about 2 weeks ago and have been driving like the wind to get to Seattle ahead of me. I think they will roll into the Seattle KOA later afternoon tomorrow and I arrive around 9 pm!

Be on the look out for blog posts about the trip to follow! I’ll likely be blogging daily and posting as internet connections allow!

Camp Hoover

2010-05-31T19:56:00.002-04:00

After last weeks very successful, allergy free, kayak trip I decided to go for gold and go hiking!
Saturday morning was very cloudy and dreary looking, and there was a chance of thunderstorms late in the day. The sun kept poking out though so I decided to go for it – I’d headed out in worse weather and ended up having a great day.
Last week I’d noticed that the Mt. Laurel was in bloom at Mason Neck, so I was thinking, and hoping, that it would be in bloom in Shenandoah as well.   That hope was what lead to me decide to hike to Camp Hoover, near the Big Meadows area.   Camp Hoover was President Hoover’s summer retreat and several buildings have been preserved. Beyond Camp Hoover is the Laurel Prong trail that runs along the Laurel Prong of the Rapidan River – the last time I’d hiked this trail was in the early spring and I remember crashing through the laurel thinking how spectacular it would be when it was in bloom. In addition the area was once home to a magnificent stand of old growth hemlock trees. These hemlock trees have all been killed by the woolly adgelid. When I was here last it was about 10 years ago and the hemlocks had just recently been killed off, I was curious to see how the forest was recovering from the loss of the great trees.
As I drove up 211 toward Skyline Dr I noticed that the tops of the mountains were fully ensconced in a cloud. As I drove down Skyline Drive the fog was so thick in places that I couldn’t see 2 car lengths ahead of me. The temps were in the low 60s as well.   I decided that it might be a good day to explore Big Meadows. This main feature of the park is not something that I have ever wanted to explore before because it’s usually hot and buggy and generally not appealing. Today though, the cooler temps and the fog made the meadow appealing.
I parked the car at the Rapidan Fire road parking area and was getting ready to hit the trail when the clouds parted and the sun came out! I headed out down the fire road in full sun! The walk across the meadow was nice, but not something I need to do again.
About a mile from Big Meadows I came to a speed limit sign?!?! I was wondering what a speed limit sign was doing way out there, but then I remembered that the park service uses that road to bring van loads of tourists down to Camp Hoover for tours! A little while later I turned off the fire road and onto a trail. As I was walking down the trail I started hearing “road noise” and I couldn’t figure out how I’d gotten so close to Skyline Drive! I glanced back over my shoulder and saw the tour bus heading down the fire road. ugh. I would be sharing the camp with a tour group.
The trip down to the camp was right about 3 miles.   I got there in just about an hour! Pretty good I think!
When I arrived at the camp I noticed that there were little paths between the buildings that I didn’t remember from the last visit! I’d planned to spend a few minutes checking out the buildings and then head up Laurel Prong a little ways.
I spotted a Mt. Laurel bush and wandered over to take some pictures and was walking back to the buildings when I encountered the tour group. The ranger who was leading the tour invited me to join them, I kinda didn’t want to, but he said that they were heading into the Prime Minister’s Cabin – I had no idea you could go into the buildings so I took the ranger up on his invitation. They had put some exhibits in the cabin but it was pretty true to what it looked like in Hoover’s day. It was neat to glimpse into what the camp was like back then!
After I finished in the cabin I tried to leave, but the ranger said that next they were going to Hoover’s cabin and I wouldn’t want to miss that. Oh, well, I guess I was in the tour for the duration.
I was standing on the porch of the cabin waiting for everyone to come out so we could move on and I noticed the guy leaning on the rail. I knew I recognized him and it took me a minute to place him, but I finally did – I was pretty sure it was Sean our Graduate Assistant from Summer Clinic at UVA. I almost snapped a picture to show the folks from UVA but I didn’t. As we were walking to the next stop he struck up a conversation with me (I’d mentioned to the ranger that I was a teacher, I was asking about SNP’s teacher ranger program) and that’s when I knew it was him! It was pretty fun running into him!
Next we went into the “Brown House”. Not only was it actually a brown building, but it was a bit of a joke considering that Hoover’s other residence was the “White House”! HA!
It was interesting to see the insides of the cabins and see how the were built and how many amenities they had! All the cabins had electricity & running water! Part of the reason Hoover picked the location he did was because of the great stands of hemlock trees. The hemlock trees that are now gone. It was hard to visualize what the area had looked like back then.
As I was heading back to the trail I saw Sean taking a picture of his family so I offered to get all 3 of them and we chatted for a minute or two about what he’s doing these days, then he says with amazement “You walked all the way down here?” I said “Yep, and I’m walking all the way back”. He was pretty amazed.
In the tour group there was a couple about my parents age and they were dressed for hiking and had daypacks and hiking sticks. They clearly stuck out in a group of folks who were clearly on a bus trip. At first I’d assumed they were simply overdressed. But as the ranger went on and on they kept glance at their watches and a few times voiced that they were concerned about the trip back up the hill. The sky was getting cloudy again and we were anxious about rain.
The three of us ended up heading back up the trail together. I wasn’t sure about this at 1st, I generally hate hiking as a part of a group as I tend to just go with the group and not listen to my body, but I went with it! Somehow I ended up in front and set the pace and they seemed happy with it so it worked! Turns out they were RVers! They were camping at Loft Mt in their 37 ft Winnebago! They were from Vancouver and were in the middle of big tour of the states. This trip they were doing the perimeter! They’d visited most of our national parks and we headed to DC. We had a great time chatting the whole way up!
It was 2 miles from the camp to Skyline Drive – we did it in just under an hour! WOW!
Their car was parked right there, but mine was still about a mile away so we said good bye and I headed off down the AT.
I’d only gone a few feet from the parking area when I encountered a little boy and his mom. The little boy, prob about 3, started talking to me very animatedly about something, I felt bad because I couldn’t understand a single word. His mom translated for me, turns out the child was speaking in German!
The portion of the AT I was walking on was entirely flat! There were tall trees, but they were thinly spaced and there were lots of ferns growing and I was just walking in my own little world. Then, all of a sudden, I saw a large black animal cross the trail in front of me! It was a bear!!!!! Holy cow! A Bear! He was a good distance from me and not a threat to me. I was pretty sure he’d clearly seen/heard/smelled me and was trying to get away. I froze right where I was – scanning the forest to see if there were more, but there weren’t. Then I went for the camera! I had a great view of him from where I was so I started taking pictures – they looked great in the view finder, but when I snapped them they were horrible. The reason? I’d been playing with the shutter speed taking pictures of the waterfall and left it on “slow”. ugh. By the time I fixed everything, the bear was gone.
As I walked down the trail, kicking myself for not getting good shots of the bear, I was thinking it would be great if the camera had a special mode you could put it in that would override any other settings you’d put it in and take a great picture without having to take the time to reset everything, especially when you need to shoot something quick – like a bear. Then I remembered that the camera did in fact have a mode like that – simple mode. Dope Slap.
The rest of the hike was uneventful! I made it back to my car and made a quick pit stop at Big Meadows, then headed home.
The sun had been shining all afternoon on Skyline Dr, however there were thick clouds just beyond the mountains and there were no views driving down Skyline Dr – quite bizarre!

Camp Hoover 5.29.10

Going on an Eagle Hunt

2010-05-22T18:11:00.001-04:00

I’d been wanting to go kayaking for awhile, but the spring pollen season was making me think it would be a bad idea. I’d been taking the kids out for recess and hadn’t had any issues, and the pollen all seemed to burst out about 3 weeks early so it made sense that it was done already so, I decided that some outdoor fun would be in order.
I’d decided that my next kayaking adventure would be at Mason Neck State Park, a small state park right on Belmont Bay. The big pull of Mason Neck is that they have several mated pairs of bald eagles and there’s a good chance you’ll see one while you are there!
It was cloudy and humid as I headed out to the park, with rain and thunderstorms predicted later in the day. I rented a kayak and was quickly on my way up Kane’s Creek in search of eagles.
While I was out in the kayak the sun came out and it turned into a beautiful morning! On the shore the Mt. Laurel and other flowers were in bloom and on the water there were many types of marsh grasses to navigate through.
I saw a Great Blue Heron and paddled into a little cove to see if I could get his picture, the heron flew off before I could get the camera out, but I spied a HUGE black snake sunning himself on a log so I paddled over there. I actually bumped the log with the kayak trying to get a picture of the snake, and that’s when it occurred to me that the snake was really long – I could see most of him all curled up – and if he got mad at me he could be in the boat with me pretty easily! I enjoyed looking at the snake, but I didn’t feel the need to get any closer, so I slowly backed the kayak away!
As I paddled further up Kane’s creek I started seeing more and more Great Blue Heron’s. I couldn’t decide if I was seeing lots of different herons or the same 3 or 4. When I got back the ranger told me that I’d probably seen lots of different herons because there is a heron rookery not far from Kane’s Creek.
I paddled as far as I could up Kane’s creek. The combination of low tide and the "no trespassing” signs put an end to m explorations! As I paddled back I took my time and enjoyed the beautiful morning!
As I paddled back across Belmont Bay I saw another snake, this one was swimming! He stopped swimming as I crossed his path and looked at me like: “what are you doing here?”
Back at the Visitor Center I found out that I’d paddled about 3 miles! In under 2 hours too! It was a great way to enjoy the morning and didn’t take all day! As I left the park I was seriously considering purchasing my own kayak.
I have done some research into buying a kayak. It’s about a $1000 investment and you have to jump in with both feet – you have to buy the whole package – kayak, paddles, life jackets and car top carriers, so that’s slowing me down. I don’t want to buy one and then not use it.

Kayaking @ Mason Neck

Sunset & Stargazing Hike in SNP

2010-04-18T15:20:00.001-04:00

A few years ago I went on a sunset hike with The Center Hiking Club. It was a neat hike and something I wanted to do again sometime. Andy and I are always talking about going someplace to look at the stars so I decided to schedule the hike with our meetup group – Miscellaneous Mayhem.

I put it up for the middle of April thinking we could get the hike in before the pollen unleashed it’s fury. Mother Nature has other plans. For some reason the trees all came to life with a vengeance about a month earlier than normal. All week I debated canceling the hike, but ultimately decided it was worth the suffering to get out and go hiking.

Although there were 5 people signed up as “maybes” on the event, none of them showed up and it ended up being just me and Andy! We drove out the park and got there about 4. It was a beautiful afternoon. The sky was as blue as can be and barely a cloud to be seen. It was on the cool side, with a stiff breeze blowing. Most of the trees has unfurled their leaves and many of the blooming trees were in full bloom. I was downright giddy just to be there!

A quick stop at the Dickey Ridge Visitor Center so I could pick up a book I wanted and we were on our way to Jenkins Gap. It was only about 4:30, sunset was a 7:50 and the overlook we’d planned to watch the sunset in was only 2 miles away so we decided to hike up to the summit of Compton Mt, 1 mile round trip.

On the way up we took our time. Stopping frequently for pictures of flowers, rocks with moss, interesting downed trees, etc. It was extra fun because Andy was noticing fun things that I probably wouldn’t have noticed on my own! We finally made it to the summit and it was beautiful, although very windy! You could see spring advancing up the mountain. Down in the valley the trees were full of leave, about halfway up the color changed to a more yellow green color and at the top of the mountain the leaves were just buds.

A quick check of the time revealed that we’d taken about an hour to get up there! We were going to be pressed for time to get to the overlook before sunset. We headed down not stopping as much for pictures and moving at a pretty quick pace. As we hiked we talked about all kinds of things! At more than few points I thought this afternoon was just about as perfect as it can get – beautiful day, beautiful mountains and a good friend to share it with!

The second half of the hike wasn’t any tougher, but the up part lasted a lot longer than I thought it would and we were both getting tired and it was time for dinner. I have a bad sense of distance and kept saying “just around the bend we’ll go down”, only to be greeted by more up. We pushed along and finally came to Skyline Dr. We continued along Skyline drive until we reached the overlook.

Sunset was at 7:50 and we arrived at 7:45! We found a spot on the wall and pulled out dinner. It would have been very nice if it hadn’t been for the crazy wind. It was blowing so hard and making it very cold! My hands were so cold that I couldn’t eat the other half of my sandwich. The clouds had also rolled in and you couldn’t really see the sunset. We were so cold that we packed it up and started back down Skyline Drive before it was even good and dark.

The trip back to the car was much easier because we were walking on the road and it was all downhill. As we walked Andy was pointing out the contestations that he knew as they emerged! He eventually pulled out his iPhone and used his cool astronomy app to figure out what was where. We were even able to see the two bears that make up the big and little dipper.

Eventually we made it back to the car and started the trip back home. When we got back to my house I stepped out of the car and looked up and there was the big dipper! :-)

I’m definitely paying for the extending amount of time outside in the pollen today. Paying more than I have all season thus far, but it was worth it! I look over my pictures and I’m so glad we went! :-)

Check out pics from the day here:

http://picasaweb.google.com/purpleplaytapus/SunsetStargazingHikeSNP41710?feat=directlink