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.