2015.8.30 Siouxon Creek

Finally, we have rain. Very windy Saturday, I didn't go anywhere. Two of my co-workers were running the 198 mile Hood to Coast Relay with a bunch of students half of their age. Their team of 12 finished in 30 hours - an admirable number, and also about the median. They started around noon Friday. The fastest is from Nike (one of its many teams) who finished in 18h19'40", an unbelievable feat. That's nearly 12mph, in spite of the gust of wind, broken trigs and rain. The closing party at the beach had to be hastily rearranged to town, so not much of a flair.

2015/8/30, Sunday. Rain. About a dozen amateur photographers and fake like me hiked along Siouxon Creek. Lots of camp sites along the creek. Water is low, so waterfalls are small. Siouxon Falls is about 2 miles in. Quite nice.

There an over-kill bridge at Horseshoe Falls. A bit disappointing compared to when I saw it last year. We encountered a group of kids at the bridge, one of them is carrying 4 1-gallon water jars. There's a short trail to the left further along the trail to go down to the bottom of the falls for a better look. There, a nice camp site facing the lower half of the falls.

Continue for another mile or so, without crossing another over-kill bridge, is the 14 Mile Falls. It's pretty low. The bridge itself straddles a small gorge, a good point where all my fellow hikers turned around (if not earlier).

Cross the bridge, passing the little island full of camping remnants, 0.25 miles further is Chinook Falls. To get a better view of the falls or get closer, you have to wade water in a normal year. This year, I was able to get pretty close without taking off my shoes.

2015.8.28. Ai, Weiwei's Zodiac at Portland Art Museum

Friday after work, I walked by Portland Art Museum, and was surprised to see a lot of people, a band, and an advertisement for free entrance. So I walked in to check out Ai Weiwei's small installation of Zodiac. 12 bronze animal heads of size of human head, each on a plate of the same material (different patterns). I would love to see the big set of 10' tall. The current size doesn't have the power it should.

2015.8.22-23. Ptarmigan Ridge at Mt. Baker

Affected by fire last weekend, as well as this weekend. High temperature and continuous dry weather made this summer's wild fire more frequent. Fire in Chelan County continued after a week of burning, still only 30% contained. Changed from our original plan at Cascade Pass, to Mt. Baker, our plan C -- turned out to be an excellent choice, even though no distant views could be attained.

Saturday 8/22. It's a 3+ hour drive from Seattle. Lunch at Artist Point (~5100'). Hiked Ptarmigan Ridge to Camp Kiser, in front of Rainbow Glacier, and set up tent at the bigger jade colored tarn. Saw a group (~8) of young ptarmigan along the trail, totally undeterred by human presence. Rest. After an early dinner, hiked up the ridge to the east of the tarns for sunset. Saw few more ptarmigans and a lone goat. 2 more tents here.

Sunday 8/23. Up by 6am for sunrise. Mt Baker was beautiful in its permanent white clad, perfectly reflected in the tarn.

After breakfast, hiked to the end of the trail onto Sholes Glacier. Many campers there. What a view! The last ridge above all the camping area is absolutely incredible.

As we hiked back out, Mt. Baker slowly disappeared into the smoke. On the contrary, Shuksan slowly emerged, like a mirage.

Fall colors are starting. Huckleberries are already dried out. Mostly leveled trail, a bit of loose scree when coming down to the camping area. Have to come back again when it has more snow, or more berries.

~5 miles on Saturday, ~9-10 miles Sunday. No significant elevation gain/loss.

2015.8.19. Tech Crawl

2015.8/19. Wednesday. Hot: in high 90s°F. Is this Portland only? First time for me. I joined the crowd at 5:45pm for the opening speech of 4th annual Tech Crawl. About 2 dozen downtown small tech companies opened their doors with snacks and drinks (beer, kombucha, cider on tap at some offices). Their location and openings are printed on a nice colored map. I only managed to visited ~7 (see photos of Aruba and Janran), and maybe only talked to 2 hosts (Cedexis + Aruba). Jive's office is the most impressive, with its balcony all around the building (see photos to the left).

Mayor addressed the crowd. Allegedly over 1000 people signed up. Maybe less than half showed up then. I didn't see a whole lot of people in each location. I didn't go to this after party, which is a bit out of the way. I'm surprised to see these many people in the after party photo. .

2015.8.13-16 Wallowa River Loop

2015/8/13-16, the classic Wallowa River loop, in the Eagle Cap Wilderness, south of the small town of Joseph in eastern Oregon, ~5 hours drive from Portland. Hike #21 in Douglas Lorain's book "Backpacking Oregon", clockwise. Total 6 people, ~36 miles and ~7000' elevation gain. I did a bit more (orange line on the map) than the other 5. The entire loop is of gentle trail, mostly dusty/sandy, occasionally rocks. Nowhere steep. Countless lakes, autumn colors. Will come back when there's more snow on the mountains and more flowers on the meadows.

Thursday. Drive to South Wallowa Lake St Park (TH @4400') and hike to Aneroid Lake (7500'). 6.3 miles, 3200' elevation gain.

Betty picked me up at 6:15am at Gateway TC. 3 women + 1 dog. Slow going. Breakfast, multiple bio breaks, even stopped at 1 gas station + 2 stores. Reached Joseph at 12:30. Meet the other car (2 guys 1 lady 1 dog) at the trailhead. Lots of parking west (right) as you go in, the other side is for trailers. More break and chitchat (typical downside with a friendly group). Bathroom with running water, big trees, green grass with shade, picnic tables. Didn't start hiking until 1:30pm. ~90°F.

View of Wallowa Lake can be had 15-20 minutes into the trail. Soon, you left it behind. First long stop is 1 hour into trail, at a pond with some locked cabin. Along the way, my left arm was mostly in shade. Forest with some openings. Occasional views of the east fork Wallowa River. Encountered plenty people for a weekday, both on foot and on horses kicking off dust. 2nd long break 1 more hour later, no water here. I was getting slower, aftermath of a 2 hour sleep last night.

There's a short diversion, one trail for inbound, one for outbound. Soon after the reconnection is a lovely meadow, with a creek running through. I would camp here, if tomorrow's mileage weren't long. Continued further to another meadow. At about 5:30pm, we reached the bigger Aneroid Lake. At 6pm, sun was already setting behind the mountains. Hazy. The sun was a pink ball. Our camp site is high on a rock. Fetching water is a chore. Everyone crawled into tent around 8:30pm.

Warm night. Woke up at midnight to release my bladder. Stars were not very bright. Clouds at low horizon. Strong smoke smell. Saw maybe 5 shooting stars, more flash light on the horizon behind trees without any obvious tails.

Friday: Hike to Frazier Lake (7120'), over Polaris Pass (8850'). 11.8 miles, 2200' elevation gain.

Alarm set at 5:10am. Didn't need to be so early. I walked to the southern end marshy area. Before the marsh, better camp sites, closer to water, 2 running creeks, some flowers. The cabin (Camp Halton) owner laid some boards over more muddy stretches. At ~5:45 clouds started to change color. The mountain top wasn't lit till 6. The rest of my group started getting up by 6:30. However we only headed out at 8am. Twice of 10 minutes drizzle before we even left.

Gentle zigzag to a meadow, where a junction to Bonny Lake. Pick the right fork, going through the meadow, now brown with some aster and yellow daisy like flowers. 2 creeks now dry. Up more gentle slope to a lovely pass (~45.1893N, 117.2052W) east of Peters Point, 360° expansive views. A few minutes of drizzle, then it cleared out (albeit of the smoke which blows in every afternoon) the rest of the weekend.

At ~10:50, I reached Polaris Pass. Grand views, windy, very smoky this weekend, so all distant mountains were barely visible. What a pity! Lunch and rest for an hour.

Down Polaris Pass is endless zigzag, long and flat. If you cut short a couple of turns, you wouldn't know which way is up or down. At ~3:30pm, we reached Frazier Lake. Very smokey. I found a nice tent site more south than the rest of the group, who camped on grass at the lake outlet. Lake is shallow and muddy. After setting up the tent, I scrambled a bit up the hill to the SW. Didn't go far: too hazy for a better view. Later, I found an incoming creek south of the trail junction towards Hawkins Pass for a good wash. Water is better here.

Saturday: Hike to Horseshoe Lake (~7130'), over Glacier Pass (8500'). 8.5 miles, 1500' elevation gain. My favorite day.

Alarm set at 5:30am. Clear blue sky. I scrambled up the same hill again, this time almost to the top. View of Little Frazier Lake, as the sun rose.

Back to my camp, cooked breakfast, packed, and waited at the trail junction. At 8:35, I decided to go ahead alone. After getting out of the lake basin (some elevation gain), it's simply fabulous: along a beautiful jagged river valley, gentle grade, autumn colors are starting on the slope, very meadowy and green at creek's side. Then, above a short waterfall full of yellow monkey flowers, is gorgeously Glacier Lake (8166'). ~10am. A few little islands in the blue lake at the foot of steep granite cliffs. I dumped my pack at the junction (full of yellow monkey flowers) and headed east (left) along the lake shore. Lots of gentians. My group arrived shortly, and we had a long break. Betty informed me that camping here is not allowed. No wonder the lake is so pristine. However, I did see a couple of campsites (fabulous view).

From here, it is steady up, but fairly short. 0.5 mile? Reached Glacier Pass at ~11:50. Brushy. Can only see one side. Glacier Lake is clear in view, but sadly the west side is again smokey. Didn't linger here. Zigzag down, some small creeks and meadows. An hour later, we reached Moccasin Lake (~7470'). Long lunch break. Smokey.

I suggested visiting Mirror Lake (~7600'), but no one was interested, nor mind if I went alone. So I did. As I hiked up to Mirror Lake, the view of Moccasin Lake got much better. It's much larger than we thought. Mirror Lake is prettier: closer to granite. Also quite big. I found Lisa's group there, in the process of packing out. Very happy to chat with them. They came in from Lostine Meadow (Two Pan TH).

The Lake Basin loop trail from Mirror Lake to Douglas Lake isn't very interesting. The tiny Sunshine Lake provides an alternative camping option for those in Mirror Lake area (option to hike up Eagle Cap). I met John from Eugene and his college roommate from Colorado at Crescent Lake. John was wearing a Rim2Rim T-shirt. As I did that hike last year, we chatted a bit, and heard some stories of Grand Canyon, including a guy who did Rim2Rim over 100 times in a year. Soon after Crescent Lake is Douglas Lake. Both quite pretty. Douglas Lake is rather big. At the junction here, turn north (left), signed for Wallowa River TH. (otherwise, back to Moccasin Lake). At the next unnamed junction, I took right to visit Lee Lake (just a forest lake, no view of mountains), and then continued to Horseshoe Lake. I found a very nice and big camping area when first encountered Horseshoe Lake (before a board crossing a muddy lily pond outlet) - see the view from the rock I camped on. Dropped my bag, and walked along the lake in search of my group. 10 minutes later, found them camping right next to the trail. It was already 5pm, and they were ready for dinner. I went back to my camp. Visited the lily pond next to the trail at sunset. It's rather swampy: not easy to find good footing. Swam a bit, washed, fought with 2 chipmunks for my dinner (they disappeared at ~7:30pm, and returned ~7am the next day).

Sunday: Hike out to trailhead, 9.4 miles, loss of elevation.

Woke up just before 6:00. Walked to a little island just west of my camp. Mist float above water. Very pretty and calm. Went to the lily pond for more photos, before breakfast and packing.

I joined the rest of the group shortly before 8am - our set departure time. However, we didn't leave until 8:10. It's all the way down. Dusty and easy. Immediately after 2 creek crossings one right after the other, we reached 6-Mile Meadow at 9:20. A very nice area for camping. Flat valley bottom, tall mountains on both sides. From here on, it's flat, a bit rocky and muddy. Reached the junction to Ice Lake in an hour. A long break. Saw a few day hikers here. Lots of thimbleberry and raspberry, slowing me down from the first of the group to the last. As we approach to the TH, multiple trails split. I took the left (W) one to hike along the west fork Wallowa River. The river bank got steeper and more scenic towards the end. Arrived at the car shortly after noon.

Lunch at Terminal Gravity Brewery in the town of Enterprise. I had a buffalo burger and an Eagle Cap IPA. Both were ok. Outdoor seating is quite nice. Dog friendly.

Direction (~330 miles to downtown Portland):
* I-84 east to exit 261 in La Grand
* OR-82 east to Joseph
* OR-351 to the trailhead

2015.8.12. Perseid Shower

9 women gathered at Rooster Rock State Park, at my initiative, to see the meteor shower. OMSI is hosting a star watch party, with telescopes and talks tonight for the best chance of this year's Perseid. No moon. But the city light pollution is significant. Lots of cars coming and going, casting bright head beams. Beautiful setting by the river. But probably better in the less popular Stub Steward State Park. The very first tonight was at 9:37. It's the best. So bright that its tail was visible for a good minute. The sky wasn't even dark yet. You can see milky way after 10pm. We saw maybe a dozen shooting stars, during the 2+ hours there. Way below expectation. But the night breeze is nice, everyone brought food to share. A pleasant picnic under the stars. When we left around 11pm, a long line of cars were coming in: would be better after midnight. But I had to catch the last train (11:40) to go home. Got back home at 1am.

Tomorrow,  I need to catch a train at 5am!

2015.8.8. Code Rush at Impact Hub

8/8 Saturday. IDEEA organizes this all day Code Rush at Impact Hub in Pioneer Square, Seattle. This is sponsored by Facebook, geared towards Android mobile development. Three 30-minute talks promptly started at 9:30 (few minutes before I arrived from Portland):

Twitter - "Dealing with Unreliable Networks"
Cyanogen - "Cyanogen Platform SDK"
Facebook - "Scaling Android Teams"

Each actually took less time. I thoroughly enjoyed the Facebook talk on good API. 3 kinds of very hot coffee by Convoy in the morning, soda and chips later. Pizza arrived ~12:30 (really big, 24" boxes and big slices, not the best). Chips shouldn't been brought out before the talks end. It was very noisy. By 11am, challenges (labeled as novice to advance level) from Cyanogen and Facebook were revealed online, and prices to be awarded to the first few submitters with good solutions. Half of the audience disappeared in the afternoon, so was I. When I returned at around 4:30, the main hall appeared to be deserted. There were people coding upstairs. At 5pm, winners were announced. Then most of the tables were removed, and more people left. At 6pm, 3 kegs of beer (IPA, Pale Ale, Red from ) and some cider arrived, so were a few more people for the 2nd part of today's program "Meat and Greet". I got half a glass and seated myself upstairs: more comfortable. Dinner arrived at 6:45. A lot. Provided by Papa Bois (macaroni and cheese, Chipotle chicken) and Cheese Wizards (a food truck, grilled cheese sandwich and salad).

2015.8.6. Kevin Palau talks with Sam Adams at Powell's

Thursday, former Portland mayor Sam Adams sat with evangelical priest Kevin Palau at the occasion of speaking about Palau's new book Unlikely at Powell's. A large turn out, a few had to stand. The main theme is City Serve, which grew under the civic leadership of the then mayor Adams, to foster the evangelical community in participating a larger scale of volunteer around city of Portland (300+ schools, Embrace Oregon - a foster care group (who was also present tonight). Adams stressed that there're more common goals between different aspects of the society rather than differences, and we need to encourage and grow the common beliefs.

2015.8.6. Central Library's Eco Roof

Thursday at noon, at least once a month (slightly more frequent on weekends), a library employee will take public (maxed at 10) up to the 5th floor to gaze down at the eco-roof through glass windows. No access to the roof other than for the maintenance personnel,  which is a disappointment. Our amicable guide, in a typical Portland manner (a stretch of green hair, ear rings, tattoos, casually but choosily dressed, trim, soft spoken) said he has never seen anyone out on the roof, ever since the green trays were put in in 2008. I did see the HVAC system on roof and the earthquake reinforcement bar against the balustrade.

2015.8.1. 1-day road trip to Whistler

A very busy Saturday, in every sense. This happens to be a long weekend (BC Day on Monday), and there's a fireworks show tonight, my sister has a visitor who brought a coworker, I brought a visitor. A late start. Driving along Sea To Sky highway by the Howe Sound is always a delight. First stop (~10:30): Porteau Cove Provincial Park. It's very small, but right by the water, with some water front campsites. Quite a lot of scuba divers today. 2 sunken ships provide diving interest. I wasn't able to find a parking spot, so didn't linger long.

2nd stop: Shannon Falls (11:15). It's such a disappointment, show the alarming dryness of this summer. This waterfall used to splash onto the viewing platform. Still lots of people. I parked dad's car on the opposite side of the highway. Had our snack / bathroom break.

3rd stop: Squamish windsport spit (12:15). Super windy. This is my favorite, after discovering it a 3 years ago at a kiteboarding festival. There're quite a few players here. Colorful kites dotting the blue sky, snowcapped mountain as a backdrop. It's fun to watch. All my passengers have never seen something like this in action.

4th stop: highway view point for Tantalus Range. We also stopped at the opposite side of the highway on the way back. Have to hike there someday.

5th stop: Brandywine Falls (13:40). Rainbow. This is a short walk across a railroad, a nice covered bridge over Cheakamus creak. The water is very clear. After seeing the lovely waterfall, you can continue along the fence of Cheakamus Canyon to an overlook of Daisy Lake and its drainage below. Can see Black Tusk clearly from here and its nearby 2 microwave towers. 2Km further, there is a suspension bridge: Bungee Bridge over Cheakamus River. There're two trail north of the falls, Swim Lake (before the railroad) and Lava Lake (after the covered bridge, ~3Km). Not sure if they are worth going.

6th stop: Rainbow Park at the shore of Alta Lake (15-16:00). Had a siesta here. Parked along the road. A train went by. Lots of people. The view across the lake to the Whistler mountain range is unbeatable. Can see the Peak2Peak gondola. This year, the mountains are almost bare.

7th stop: Walk along River of Golden Dreams to Green Lake (16:30-17:30). Continued along the boardwalk to Nicklaus North neighborhood with beautiful craftsman houses, highly manicured lawn, golf course and a seaplane dock. Quiet and winding small creek, with many kayaks and canoes. Bikers on the section of Valley Trail that we walked on. I had walk back to the car, and pick my folks up at the golf course clubhouse.

8th stop: Olympic Park (19:00). This is my least favorite of the day - not on my agenda, but dad insisted. The park is closed at 4:30pm. So we had to walk along the highway. Not much to see here.

Coming back to town along Sea To Sky highway at sunset is again a treat.

9th stop: fireworks (22:00). Celebration of Light was sponsored by Honda this year. We drove along Lions Gate Bridge, by then almost 9pm, and it was smooth without traffic. I dropped my 3 passengers at Denman, so they can walk to the Beach Ave, where my brother-in-law would pick them up. I, instead, had to find a parking. As I walked to English Bay, I could hear the explosion and see the higher shots and the brightly illuminated sky. Arrived 15 minutes into the 25 minute program, so many people on Beach Ave, David and Denman street that police has blocked the foot traffic. Beach is fenced off here. I watched the last 10 minutes of the pyrotechnic show standing on my tiptoes behind fences, people and trees. Not ideal. A huge police force tonight, who directed the foot traffic to one way. I returned to my car in ~35 minutes, then waited for 40 minutes for my sister to drive my guest and parents out. Again traffic all the way to Hwy-1. It's almost 1am when we reached home. Very tired. CBC News reported about half a million showed up.

Notes on transportation. Friday 2pm bus from Portland to Seattle hits all the traffic possible. Since it's the same bus going to Canada, I wasn't worried, when it was late. Sunday morning, August 2nd, my Bolt bus of 11:30am from Vancouver to Seattle had some mechanical issue. As we went through the border, the driver called the back office to send a different bus. However, seems either no replacement bus or a very late one. Thanks to Quick Shuttle, most of us managed to get to Seattle only ~15 minutes late, despite of traffic. The driver took local roads at various places. Their drop off at 8th between Pine and Pike is about 30 minutes walk to Bolt Bus station. I was able to catch my 4:30pm bus to Portland, no traffic.