2026.8.5/7/12/19, 9.2. Art classes resume at Art Love Salon

Wednesdays 1-3pm. Charcoal Drawing with Garima Tripathi Art Love Salon studio, 8 sessions. I attended 5.

8/5 Maple. We pick one of the few printouts. Here's my result and those of my classmates.

8/12 Alder. This time, we had a selection of branches and leaves. Here's my result of a small trig.

8/19 Red Cedar. This time, we did a composition study. 6-8. Then we select one for the final drawing.

9/2 Willow. Today is from prints. Here's my 30 minute drawing.

Garima gave me quite some leftover oil paints. I hope I'll have time and mood to use them.

---

Fridays 12-2pm. Gesture Drawing with Ester Ohman at Art Love Salon. I attended 2 out of 6 sessions.

8/7 and 8/21. The pose is 1 minute each. We did one set of 2 minute poses, which is minimun for me to draw. A good excercise.

2026.8.16. Mt Ellinor

8/16, Sunday. Smokey in all directions except for Olympic Peninsular. Headed to Mount Ellinor, armed with some sandwiches from yesterday.

Well maintained trail with wooden steps. Quite some Cone Plant in the wet forest.

Above the trees, quite a lot of aster, yarrow, ... still blooming. Very cloudy.

A lot of people today. I guess, we don't have much choice. Waited a long time at the summit. The clouds never left. No view.

2026.8.15. Lower Duamish boat tour + Belltown Block Party + Seattle Design Fest

8/15 Saturday. Belltown Block Party. Mural artists live painting on large wooden canvas. They were just starting when we walked to the waterfront around 1pm. By the time we came back, ~4:30pm, some were near finished. It was very lively. Vendors, visitors. One block was reserved for strange bikes and 2 unicycles. Anyone can try one of those. Looks fun.

There is also a block party at waterfront, Pier 62 and 58. Saw a K-pop dance. More vendors. My buddy bought some orange chicken.

2pm, Duwamish River boat tour. Suprised to see all the sandwiches, and spring rolls. Free. Soft drink too. There were also interpreters of ~5 languages.

Various agencies spoke of their partnership in cleaning up the river. The worst contaminants were dugged out (see the left photo where they were piled on, waiting for transport). Some were encased with gravel or other materials. With all the noise of engine, people, food, kids, hard to hear. They were around to answer questions, which I find more useful. A nice day out on the water.

Afterwards, I walked to South Lake Union Park to checkout the installations of this year's Seattle Design Festival.

2026.8.9. Gothic Basin and Del Campo

8/9, Sunday. Clear sky. After a week of haze and high temperature, this is a welcome reprise.

A lot of cars at Gothic Basin TH. Trail is straighforward, all the way to Foggy Lake. People dipped into the cold water after the sweaty hike. A lot of people though.

After lunch, I headed to Del Campo. There is a clear trail all the way to the talus field. Still a bit of snow left at the bottom, where I filled up my water bottle. This photo on the left was taken from the trail, no scramble needed yet.

I made a mistake scrambling all the way to the end of that field, because I remembered turning left there, and rounded back. A mistake. Had to back down, and scaled the peak more or less directly. There were a steady stream of folks trying to climb Del Campo. I forgot to pack a helmet. The view on the summit is stupendous. Not a lot of room. I stood on different spots to take photos so not to have other climbers in my shot.

I climbed down very slowly. Always feels more dangerous on my way down. I might be the last person off the mountain, even though 2 more went up on my way down.

On my hike out of Foggy Lake, I stumbled onto the southern shore of the lower Foggy Lake. It's a very nice detour. No one out here. New to me.

Saw a few more backpackers hiking in, on my way out.

A couple of take-aways:

• always bring a helmet, if climbing
• cannot rely on my memory

2026.8.1. Summerland - Panhandle Gap

8/1, Saturday. This year, no more timed entry reservation at Mount Rainier. For fear of long line at the gate, we left home before 7am. Thanks to the unfavorable (40% precipitation) weather forecast, there was no line at the gate. There was a sign at the turn to the Sunrise Road, warning parking lot full. Luckily, got a parking spot right at the TH lot. It was drizzling as we laced up our boots. The car next to ours, the driver had his seatback down, sleeping.

Summerland trail starts in the forest. The light rain was mostly blocked by the trees. The asters near the Panhandle River is always nice. Passed prime now, as this year had been very dry. By then, the rain had stopped. Low clouds, limited view.

Continued past Summerland towards Panhandle Gap. Still very foggy. Monkeyflowers are still abundant. Some gentium. Lupine all dead. Saw only 1 marmot.

At Panhandle Gap, a group of Chinese backpackers were taking photos of each other. Very happy and loud. Too cloudy. Couldn't see Adams.

From the gap, I headed up right (west) towards an unnamed peak. There is a clear boot track which I followed to its end. Then rocks. After some scramble, I gave up. Good view looking down to the gap. Too bad: so cloudy.

Back the same way, and waited a bit more for the clouds to lift. No luck. Back to Summerland and out. It was less cloudy than on our way up, but still too cloudy. Never saw Rainier. Beautiful non the less. Temperature was perfect for hiking.

We were very luckly. The following week, the road to Sunrise was closed due to fire.