2024.4.23. Tiger 2+3 and an Arctic bird research

4/23, Tuesday. The weather forecast for the rest of the week (including weekend) is a bit wet. Headed to Tiger in the morning. It's good to come early. No one at the foot of Jakob today ~9am.

The highlight today is the woodpecker. I think I startled him. He flew out of somewhere and landed on this tree close by. He has no red crest. Saw some trillium. Quite some yellow violet, lots of bleeding heart.

The clouds were forming. Despite of clouds, the view was very clear. Olympics, highrises of downtown Seattle and Bellevue. Stopped at Tiger3 to air my boots.

Continued on to Tiger2, better view. View of Rainier and Baker on the way. Not sure why most hikers turn around at Tiger3.

I took the same way down this time, so I could fill water at the Issaquah Community Center. I ran out of water. It was warm. It seems they open at 7am, so I could have stopped by earlier. They close on Sundays.

In the evening, went to Town Hall for a lecture on Black Guillemot on Cooper Island by George Divoky. Cooper Island is a flat strip of sandbar off north Alaska. What's amazing is Dr. Divoky continued his study there every summer for 50 years, regardless whether he had funding or not. Other than the obvious climate change witnessed by the island, many data might be interetsing to biologists.

2024.4.22. Earth Day

4/22, Monday. Sunny. Many events today and throughout the week in the theme of earth. I had this new temporary addition to my small home.

Seattle University hosted (seems like annually) Earth Talks at Pigott Auditorium. Many short talks by both students and teachers. I especially like the bioswale projects by Mark Grey (property manager and investor) and Jeremy Febus (civil engineer), to clean highway storm water in Fremont. The last talk is by Jessyn Farrell (head of Office of Environment and Sustainability of Seattle). She talked about the planning for electrifying Seattle.

At 4pm, I went to a tour and 54th birthday party of Environmental Works, a community landscape/architecture design firm (that I'd never heard of) founded on the first Earth Day. 54 balloons, 54 candles on the big birthday cake. Nice friendly people.

2024.4.21. UW Arboretum

4/21, Sunday. A nice stroll in the arboretum. Azalea is still not peaking, maybe in 2 weeks. Still some leftoever cherry and magnolia blossoms. Saw a couple of Fawn Lily. I shall come back for the next First Thursday guided walk.

2024.4.20. Snow Lake winter scramble via Source Lake

4/20, Saturday. A beautiful day with impending rain. Windy. Headed to Snow Lake, a very popular summit destination. This will be my first try in winter. Downloaded Brad Wagenaar's GPS track to Wright Mountain on 4/24/2022, assuming similar condition.

I was picked up ~9:20am. Parked at Alpental - the last weekend of operation this year. We took the winter route, above Source Lake - which is always quite pretty. The route is via skier's exit track, which is officially only for lift users.

Above Source Lake, it gets quite steep. I followed some skier. The snow was slushy, still sinking at times even with snowshoes on. My partner didn't bring ice axe, plus unfamiliar with the new snowshoes, he turned around. My track turns out to be higher than Wagenaar's. Here is avalanche terrain. I could see some old avalanche debris, which is nice to walk on now, because it's more clumpy, so better traction and no sinking. A few skiers flying down from high gullies.

This steep section is only about 15 minutes. Then it's a skiers highway, wider tracks, and then a plateau with such typical winter beauty. Flat, a bit more windy. Once over the ridge to Snow Lake side, it got more windy. I found a good overlook to take a photo, and then turned around.

Took off snowshoes to glissade the steep section. Then put them back on, because I was sinking too much. Followed the regular track on the the north side of the creek. Once into the woods, I took off snowshoes and put on micro-spikes. The track is well trodden. At the junction to Snow Lake summer trail, saw well trodden boot track up. Not sure how many made it up this side: more avalanche prone.

When I realized that the track would lead me to a farther parking lot, I scouted for a place to cross the creek. This is, maybe the worst scrambling today. Both banks of the creek are quite steep. Made to the car at 2pm. Ate my lunch then.

On the drive back, more clouds were forming. By the time we were in Seattle, it was gloomy. It did rain later, but not much.

2024.4.19. Potlatch Symphony with Seattle Symphony and regional first nation artists

4/19 Friday. 7:30pm. A free community concert at Benaroya Hall. A good turn out: ~80% full. Program:

Max Dawes             - Creation
Swil Kanim            - Father Distant Daughter
Sergei Prokofiev      - Troika from Lieutenant Kijé, Op. 60
Astor Piazzolla       - Libertango
Paul Chiyokten Wagner - Kwaanuk
Janice Giteck         - Potlatch Symphony 2020

Dawes is a 21 year old senior student at Cornish College of the Arts. He conducted his own composition. The structure is violin with a background orchestra with increasingly loud harmony. The violin is a bit weak, not as pretty as the background. Overall, quite nice.
The violin of Kanim is a solo. I like his vest.
Then drumming noise came in from the lobby. Soon 2 lines of indigenous people, some in straw hats (I like those) and few in traditional attire filed in onto the isle and then to the stage, while drumming. One in wheelchair. For some unknown reason, some audience member decided to stand up and watch them, blocking the view of those behind them.
Then, Chiyokten played a flute solo. It's an interesting flute with a distinct sound. However, his breathing is too loud.
Last, the world premier of Potlatch, simulating a gift giving ceremory, where Chiyokten narated a story of two sisters, acompanied by the orchestra. I didn't care of Chiyokten's voice. The story is okay, fairly simple with a good message, but could be better told, or written. The melody is not more or less classical.
Sunny Xia is the conductor tonight. I like her.

The whole thing with some speeches lasted ~an hour. Overall, I enjoyed the concert. I appreciate the effort to foster new works, and the promotion of traditional teachings.

2024.4.19. Invisible Beauty - a documentary movie

4/19, Friday. Pigott Auditorium at Seattle University. Screening of Invisible Beauty with writer and director pair of Bethann Hardison and Frédéric Tcheng, featuring Bethann and her fight for diversity in the fashion industry. It's a treat today, because both Bethann and Frédéric were in attendance to answer questions.

I enjoyed the movie, even though I couldn't care less of the fashion industry. It's a little too long. Good message. Bethann is very nice, looks young for her age (81). I even chatted a little with her after the Q&A. When asked to whom would she hand over the baton, she said there isn't a baton, rather everyone in the community.

2024.4.14. Jazz in the City at Frye Art Museum

4/14, Sunday, 2-4pm. O.K. went with me to Frye to attend another jazz concert. This time, Duende Libre. The trio features pianist Alex Chadsey, percussionist Jeff Busch, and electric bass guitarist Farko Dosumov. Every piece today was composed by Alex (he talked a bit about each piece). Quite nice. However, I'd prefer to hear at least one familiar tune. The auditorium was about 60% full today.

During the intermission, we went through the new exhibitions. Didn't like most of them (as usual) except for Semantha Wall's drawings. This one is called "the space to grow".

Walking back to downtown is not good for my legs: so sore.

Before the concert, we checked out briefly the Japanese Festival in Seattle Center (Fri-Sun). I liked the Ikebana display and a short demo of setting up 4 flower arrangements. One booth shows paper-dolls in intricate detailed clothing. The paper she uses is very soft and clothe like. I even sat down and folded some color paper. There were some quite complicated examples of animals, people, made by folding paper. The Judo (?) performance of mostly teeagers is fairly basic. They kicked or broke a square wooden plank by hand. There were a group doing drumming and dancing. Again, very simple.

2024.4.13. Baring Mountain

4/12 Friday, O.K. arrived ~9:30pm. We had agreed to climb Baring Mountain a day earlier. It was badly burned 2022, which made the standard access (via west ridge using Barclay Lake TH) difficult. According to a trip report on April 2nd, someone approached it from the south side, and we planned to give this a try.

4/13 Saturday. Up at 6am, left home ~6:35. Arrived at the FR-6028 at ~8am. The gate was locked. Took us some time debatting what to do. Meanwhile a truck pulled behind us, and a guy in camouflage outfit and an orange hat rode in on a bike. Should have brought my bike! Walking the 3.78 mile (according Gaia)! Only cut one short zigzag. Less than a mile in, we saw the blue bike of the hunter on the hill to the right. Lots of logs. Good gravel road, clear to drive if you could open the gate. There's a second gate, but wide open. View of Mount Index.

A little before 10am, ~2400', we turned left up scrambling the forested slope. Mostly burned. It was easy first, but soon it got steep, and steeper. Loose ground, loose charred branches. Crossed 2 creeks in deep gully which involved some down climb. Put on my helmet.

At ~4200', we hit snow. At ~4500', we put on snowshows. I reached the ridge at ~1:30pm, ~4800'. (The beginning of the red line on the left photo.) That's 3.5 hours for just 1.5 miles! Here, the view opens. I saw that O.K. was already on her ascent in the gully (see the circle on the right photo). Go down ~2-300' to the basin below, and then up the gully. It's very steep, typical avalanche terrain. The snow now is quite sticky, fairly stable. But once awhile, snow crashed down from the jaggard South Peak, which is scary. Not much snow still clang on the straight wall of the South Peak.

Arrived near the col between the two Baring Peaks a bit before 3pm. ~5550' Just below the col, turn left (north) to the main peak. It starts steep, I was debating taking off the snowshoes. At the next steep section, I packed them up. Postholing a lot. Here, plenty trees. Grab a branch here and there to pull myself up, but my snowshoes hindered my progress, got entangled in the branches sometimes.

Only at ~15 minutes before I reached the summit, I could see my destination. Here, detoured to the left (west) and attained the summit all on snow. ~6100' 4pm. 6 hours for ~3 miles!

The view of the summit is spectacular. Yes, you can see that you are higher than the South Peak (see the left photo). I was worried about running out of daylight. Took a few photos. In less than a minute, I turned around. For some reason, I didn't see O.K. during the last 2 hours. I followed her footsteps down. Glissade at the gully. But the snow was too sticky, only slid down ~400', had to walk the rest. Put on snowshoes, took out my sandwich, finally ate my lunch at 5pm. O.K. was waiting for me at the bottom of the basin. By now, my shoes and pants were very wet from the snow. We stayed together for the rest of the scramble.

Going down the slippery forest slope is worse than coming up. I kept my helmet on, but wouldn't help if I'd fall on any dead branches poking skywards. We routed higher than the creeks to avoid the traverse. But the terrain is a bit worse. At one point, we down climbed one bad section one at a time, kicking rocks and dirt down. Reached the road just before 8pm. Black, dirty, wet boots. Very orange sunset. Had to turn on headlamp for half of the road walk. Cressant moon.

I drove back, sitting on my fleece shirt (so to keep the seat clean). Stopped for gas in Monroe. Got home ~11pm. A very long day. ~7.5 mile road walk + ~6 mile scramble. Maybe 4000' real hike, 1000' road.

2014.4.12. Fat Ham at Seattle Rep

4/12, Friday. The first preview performance of Fat Ham. Advertised as "2022 Pulitzer Prize Winner, 2023 Tony Award Nominee". I don't understand how, or the world is becoming too politically correct. It's labeled as "for family" 16+. Aabsolutely not for children. Explicit sexual reference: blowjob by a gingerbread man? It's acted out. Funny, yes, but I don't see the point.

Plot:
Juicy, a young queer Black man, is taking online classes for a college degree in HR. His mother just married his uncle after the untimely death of his father, whose ghost appears demanded that Juicy avenge his murder. Plus, the uncle and mom used his tuition saving for remodling the house and the wedding.

The scene is a BBQ at the yard. The family (only 1) who arrived happens to have a Lesbian daughter and a gay son who's pretend to be straight. They ate, played games, sang karaoke, and the uncle died. Not very coherent and a bit contrite.

The last drag parade is fun. I like the costumes and some dialogs. I like the actress who played the mother. I don't like the story, nor the structure. Seems badly mushed together.

Single act. I arrived late, sat in the balcony which is fine.

2024.3.30-31. Snow camping at Pratt Lake

My first backpack this year.
3/30, Saturday. 5 of us met at a Eastgate P&R and drove in 2 cars. One from North Bend met us at TH, or not quite, since we all had to park ~1/4 mile out. Talapas Lake TH is very popular: short hike, short drive, despite of the potholes.

We didn't start hiking until well over 11am. Before Olallie lake, 3 of us (LE, A, and me) put on snowshoes and scrambled up the slope directly towards the ridge for Pratt Mt. It's my 5th(?) climb to Pratt. Today, we found a track to follow pretty soon. So quite easy. However, couldn't find the intersecting trail under the snow. So set down our backpacks once we reached the ridge. Some minor adjustment. Then followed the ridge to the summit. There, we met 3 people. A bit cloudy today. View is still quite good.

Once we picked up our packs, continued on the ridge down, and intersect the trail. There, going down to the Pratt Lake basin. It must be a swap in the summer. The trail circles around the head basin. The 3 of us opted to go more or less straight, along a creek. Hit the trail on the rightside of the bridge. Then, we followed the track our teammates had made, and we caught up with them. Also found one guy, Brat, who was postholing, and ruined the nice snowshoe track that was just made. He didn't even bring gaiters. Borrowed T's.

By the time we reached the camp area, it was 5:30pm already. We decided to settled here for the night, instead of Lower Tuscohatchie Lake as advertised. As soon as I stopped walking, my feet soon got cold, painfully cold. Sweat and maybe snow was making my socks and boots damp. Boiled water to put in my sleeping bag. Crawled into my tent, and it took awhile for my feet to revive. My regular size sleeping pad doesn't fit my short sleeping bag (which has a nice wrapper).

• Lesson 1: bring camp shoes to swap out of wet boots
.
• Lesson 2: bring a short air pad to pair with a short bag, but regular foam pad
.

3/31, Sunday. Up at 6:30am, at agreed 7am, A is ready, but LE is not. The rest planned to head out at 8:30. 15 minutes later, A decided to go back. LE and I continued in snowshoes towards Lower Tuscohatchie Lake. Found the trail soon, but then it was mostly buried in snow. This is side hill along a fairly steep slope. LE was breaking the trail. Amazing how capable he is at age 19, with a pair of snowshoes without side walls. The lake and valley we walked over is quite pretty. It took 40 minutes there, and faster coming back.

We were surprised to find that everyone was still at camp. Sun didn't shine on us until we left camp. LE and I cooked breakfast. I lifted my tent fly, shaked off the ice, and set it on a tree to dry. Well, had to pack up everything wet. We hiked out at 9:50am.

Going back all the lakes in reverse order, at least now it was sunny. Pratt had dimples on the surface, very interesting. At its south end, the group followed our old prints cutting up the circular detour. At some point, LE considered a slope I treaded on has avalanche risk, and thus risking the group below me.

At Olallie Lake, the rest of the group walked all around via a more gentle trail. I dropped off to the lake via some boot tracks. Put snowshoes on for that. Then, walked over the lake near its west edge in snowshoes. Saw some footprints end in blue water! I followed some track, no sinking.

Picked up the trail there, and continued to Talapas Lake. A short break and then out to the car. The trailhead parking is now more available. There, LE criticized me endangering the group's safety. Well, we have different assessment of the avalanche risk. Point taken.

• Lesson 3: in a group setting, I should avoid making others' worry, regardless of my own assessment of risk.

A. dropped me off at my building: that's easy.

2024.3.24. More cherry blossoms

3/24, Sunday. The sun came out in the afternoon. Went to Arboretum to see more cherry and magnolia trees in bloom. Surprised to see some azalea and rhodies in bloom: too early. A lot of people. A lot of pedals. A very nice day for a walk. Bad traffic around Montlake Bridge.

On the way back, walked to UW's cherry quad. Maybe because of the 5k/10k/Half Marathon Cherry Blossom Run, or maybe because it's free parking on Sunday, I had never seen this many people in UW. Nor had I seen this many "green latrine"s on the Red Square. The ring of the fountain is covered with sitting folks for photos. No Rainier from the Rainier Vista, nor last weekend.

A group with animal costumes were posing for photos. They are very cute, and happy to take pictures with anyone. Festive.