2017.10.29. Lookout Mountain east of Hood

10/29, Sunday, low clouds turned to sunny. I walked to Priyanka's home with a box of chanterelles at 6:45am. We met the other 3 ladies and 2 dogs at Gateway TC. All piled into Susan's SUV. Drove to hwy-35 for Gumjuwac Saddle, Lookout Mt trail. Park on the west of highway south of a bridge, walk across the highway and over the bridge to Gumjuwac Trail.

The trail is smooth for the most part, covered with pine needles, gentle on the knees and ankles. The grade is not steep by steady. Most climb is to get to Gumjuwac Saddle, where 3 different trails and a road meet. Passed 2 trickles on the way. Brooke is super fast. She and her dog Jack were hiking back to meet the others when I approached the saddle. Too bad that I had to wait for the others at this viewless spot. I picked a sunny log to sit on and read my guide book. Continued on a flat grassy mile, and then zigzag up to the ridge, passed one more trickle (bigger than the previous two, but still a trickle), where the trail was muddy for ~5 steps. Just before the ridge, is the trail junction to Big Prairie trail. But I picked the viewing rock on the ridge to wait for the others. A bit rocky, but almost flat from here. You'll see two parallel trails, maybe 1/4 miles to the former lookout site, now only piles of rocks where people setup camps. Along the way, quite a few spots for campsite, but all small and no water. The straighter trail is all in the shade and no view, a bit of snow now. I chose to walk along the edge, no snow, and can pop out for a better SE view at anytime.

I setup my Uno chair in a spot where I could see 3 mountains simultaneously. If you walk around, you can see Jefferson to the south, Mt Hood up close to the east (where my 4 companions sat facing in this photo), and St Helen, Rainier and Adams to the north. Some golden larches and maples dotting the green forest below. Badger Lake is sparkling to the south. Low fog to the north, and desert to the east. Quite a few groups came and went, while we were having our leisurely lunch.

Down as we came. Total about 10 miles, 3000'. Would be nice if we could loop around High Prairie, which would add ~2 miles with little elevation change. Back to Gateway ~4pm. All the way, we were discussing where to go in the winter months, and our pending travels. Priyanka dropped me off at home.

2017.10.28. Mushroom walk with Bark

10/28, Saturday, beautiful autumn weather: crisp and sunny, fall color in full swing. 19 of us (including the lead and a helper from Bark) met at Trader Joe's in Hollywood at 9am. This hike was originally scheduled on 10/8 (too early for mushrooms due to dry summer). We drove to a potential timber sale area by Clackamas River, a very pleasant drive with big trees in fall color lining the river bank. Mark, the leader, gave us a short talk on how important the trees are to mycorrhiza fungi. This is the goal for these outings, to promote the protection of forest in Mt Hood area. We were told the general area where we can wander off, so we don't get lost, and we were assigned a number. Then we were set loose. Met at the cars for lunch, and had a 2nd round of hunting afterwards. I found quite a lot of chanterelles (all golden) despite of the obvious signs that this area was already swept by shroomers recently. Fallen leaves and needles covered all the ground, so it's hard to see. I got bored after my bag got a bit heavy, so didn't bother to look for edibles after lunch, so not to crush the ones I already picked. I looked for other mushrooms, found 2 purple stemmed Zeller's bolete, nothing much otherwise. Mark was patient enough to go through your harvest to make sure that you don't take home bad specimen. One lady's chanterelles have stems covered with some white mold.

The walk isn't as educational as I hoped. So I probably won't be joining them next year. However, the car ride was fun. I was in the car with Tatiana whom I met before on trails, Julia (driver) and Tina (the youngest but the most knowledgable about mushrooms). Julia didn't find any mushroom (common with first timers), so she wants a chanterelle instead of gas money. I gave her two, and 4 to Mary in the evening. The photo above shows what's left. I got back in downtown by 4pm, which is nice. So I repackaged the harvest in two cardboard boxes. The next evening, I sauteed 3 chanterelle with shallot (Tatiana's suggestion) and fennel -- see photos, and put the two little bolete in soup. The rest I gave to Priyanka.

2017.10.22. Fall Color Tour at Hoyt

10/22, Sunday 1-2pm. No rain. I decide to check out the Fall Color tour at Hoyt. Hoyt hosts an hour long tour on many Saturdays at noon, suitable for all ages. But it was raining too much yesterday. Today's is member only, probably a more knowledgable guide. We are lucky to have Curator Martin Nicholson today, and no kids. We started at Japanese Larch, much taller and supple than those that I'm familiar with. I I showed Martin a photo taken last Sunday. He said it's Subalpine Larch and not Western Larch, due to the elevation and the size. Larch is one of the 5 conifers that are deciduous. Others are Pseudolarix (Golden Larch), 3 types of cypress: Bold Cypress, Dog Redwood, and Chinese Swamp Cypress.
Under some gigantic vine maples we were told why the leaves turn color. We then walked by typical northeast US with flaming sugar maple, and yellow birch, and can clearly see the allelopathic effects on yellow birch. Both can be tapped for syrup. Next to some sugar maple, there's a Japanese Beautiberry with little purple berry. Next, Ginkgo land. A lot of them, not quite yellow yet. Same with Japanese maple, the color is not quite set. Last, we visited a couple of Red Dogwood, again, the color is still turning.

2017.10.21. Hillsboro Air Show

10/21, Saturday. Rain. 11-3. Port of Portland organized this event. I went to Hillsboro Airport ~1:30pm. I'm familiar with the terminal building: flew in and out on Intel shuttle many times, and rent cars a few times. Didn't know anything about the rest of the airport. Today, despite of rain, I saw quite a few people, lots of kids. Photo ops and costumes. There's a 2-seater plane that you can climb in and move whatever you can without power. There's a mobile X-ray beast (rather big) that operated by the Homeland Security.
I Took the last bus tour of the air field. The guide pointed out various buildings and we tried to look through the foggy windows. Didn't know that the first runway was put in the 1920's. Fuel tanks are both underground and above on high. You can fly international to/from here: there's a Homeland Security office. Hillsboro has the largest air training school in US. The most interesting is going into Global Aviation's hangers. They are one of the two Fixed Base Operators here. Their office has a lovely Chihuly chandelier. The hangers are spacious and clean. Saw a couple of people working.

2017.10.14-15. Golden Larches: PCT from Rainy Pass to Snowy Lakes

I wanted to see golden larches. The weather forecast for this weekend is partly sunny on Saturday, and mostly sunny on Sunday, wind 8-10 mph. That's as good as I could hope. Picked http://www.wta.org/go-hiking/hikes/golden-horn and posted it on a backpacking meetup on Wednesday. Two interested parties, none committed. Even I, wasn't so sure, was still checking weather.gov Friday morning. Loaded USFS topo map on my phone. Here're GPS maps of Cutthroat Pass and Snowy Lakes Pass. The side trail to Snow Lakes is not on any map I can find.

10/13, Friday. Rain at times. Picked up a rental car at 6pm. Drove home to pick up my gears, cooked dinner, and took a shower. Drove out at 8pm to Seattle area, unhappy about the traffic jam on Hwy-26 to 405N at this late hour. The rest of drive was smooth, but I was getting drowsy towards the end, despite of all the coffee I had in the morning (I slept less than 5 hours last night). Arrived at a friend's house at 11:25pm. Didn't go to sleep in another 2 hours, chatting with them and I still researching a plan B.

10/14, Saturday, overcast. Rose at 7. Unfortunately woke up the lady or the house. That was bad, delayed my start till 8am. I reached North Cascades visitor center (half a mile off Hwy-20 in Newhalem) around 10:30. They have the same National Geographic map as I have. Not the best map series, in my opinion, missing a lot of perfectly good side trails. The girl at the front dest has never hiked to Cutthroat Pass. However friendly, quite useless. Let's hope she's new here. I then visited Gorge Lake C.G. which is waterfront, but limited views. 5/6 sites were taken already. I drove to Rainy Pass, turned north to the PCT north trailhead. My car registered 36° F. A lot of cars already, despite of the low lying thick clouds. Snow on this short access road. I was afraid of getting stuck in ice tomorrow, so parked close to the turn. Walked the rest of the way to trailhead in snow ~12pm. It's a winter wonderland.

PCT is well maintained, with gentle slope. Just in 20 minutes, had the first glimpse of the mountains on the other side of hwy-20. But you headed into the woods again. A few tiny creek crossing, all super easy. 1.5 hours later (~3-4 miles in), saw the first larch, and more as I hiked higher. Long and gentle zigzag going up the pass, views are open, can see all other hikers (oops). Eventually above tree line. ~2:20pm, I reached Cutthroat Pass. Cutthroat Lake looks very small from here. Frozen. A bit of wind to make it chilly.

Continue left, very soon it's the junction of PCT and Cutthroat Trail (TH 5.5 miles). You lose all the crowds behind. It's almost flat here for a couple of miles, and the view is grand. Even though the dark low clouds are thick, you are high (~6800-7000'), this stretch is still the best view along the entire trek. Will post photos taken on Sunday (the sun makes a big difference). Walk carefully, as the snow is deep, trail is narrow and the slope is steep. Met a couple (day-hikers) on this stretch. My phone shut itself when I tried to take a photo. Too code. I put it and the extra battery in my breast pocket to keep them warm. Then the trail drops down in quick successions of zigzag to Granite Pass. On the way, more larches. The clouds sank lower, and I practically walked in freezing fog. Larch needles were covered with frost. Super pretty. However, I was worried about the weather, and kept looking for feasible camping spots. There was a plateau by a bend, full of frosty larches which I was considering spending the night.

The trail continues lower after Granite Pass, but slowly. I was very surprised to see 2 guys coming up ~3:30pm. So I inquired where they turned around. They said Snowy Lakes, and many people camped at Upper Lake. I asked how to find the side trail to the lakes. Answer is easy, there's a cairn. I was delighted. Only now, I realized that I would be reaching my goal. I was also told there was a PCT thru-hiker camping there, who started in April. Continued another ~2 miles, slowly gaining elevation, until the valley towards Snowy Lakes. At a flat meadow, there's the small cairn, and boot track to my right. Soon into this side trail, saw the first of the 2 pink ribbons low on some branches. This half mile is the steepest of today. That kept me warm at least. I saw no one at Lower Lake, so setup my tent here, by a larch. Afterwards, hiked to Upper Lake, which is less than 10 minute walk, and minimal elevation gain. It's larger. I saw a total of 3 tents, 6~7 people, scattered about, all by one or another big boulder. Didn't see any single tent. To the end of Upper Lake is the Snowy Lakes Pass, where you can see the mountains fading in and out behind clouds. Even though the lake basin is right below Golden Horn, I didn't see the mountain until the next day. Walked back to my camp, put on all my clothes, cooked dinner. The lake was frozen, so had to melt snow. I used my new titanium cup, but it's no good. The flame made a burn mark quickly at the bottom, even though snow is still high inside. The water inside doesn't heat up well, as the cup is loosing heat on the side in a bit of wind, despite of a lid. Took much longer to make dinner. After cleaning the cup, I filled it with snow and tried to make hot water for my bottle. I went to blow my air mattress. Then I saw flame by my cup, and god knows how it happened, the flame somehow hit the igniter button and set the plastic on fire, while the water inside was still not hot. I turned off the switch, and removed melted plastic. This stove is done for. No more warm sleeping bag, and no hot breakfast tomorrow. I remembered seeing rodents dashing across the trail from under the snow earlier. So put all the food in a plastic bag under the larch near my tent.

I failed to fall asleep right away (did I mention that it was very cold? I slid my entire backpack under the air mattress, so I don't hit the snow when I turn sideways. The fly flapped from time to time and brought in a draft or two.), so read my Kindle until about 10pm. Surprising, I slept okay. The temperature didn't drop further.

10/15, Sunday, sunny. I woke up at 5am, and unable to fall asleep again, nor did I wanted to brave the cold outside. Air was still. Read until it's light out, and crawled out to clear sky at 7am. Took some time scraping off the frost off the tent fly. Cold, but not colder than last night. Someone chewed a hole in the ziplock bag that contained mixed nuts. Everything else is intact: Lara Bar, fruit peel, even chocolate. I still have a long way home, so didn't wait till the sun shining at the camp. Started hiking out at 8am. Only then, did I see Golden Horn, as well as Tower.

Temperature was rising, snow was melting. No more snow or frost on any of the larches today. What a difference does a day make? Not even 24 little hours. Everything looked brilliant today. I stopped on the trail to fetch sunglasses, and was startled by an "excuse me". I thought I was the only one on the trail at this hour. One by one, 3 climbers passed me by, on their way to Snowy Lakes basin. They were climbing both Tower and Golden Horn. Gee, when did they start this morning? At around Granite Pass, one backpacker overtook me. He wasn't wearing gaitors, seems to have just trail runners on. I didn't see a single person tent last night. There must be at least 2 more tents at Upper Lake somewhere. Gaining the elevation back up from Granite Pass is tiring. Eventually broke up to the ridge. Splendid view everywhere I looked. The next flat 2 miles is heaven. Now I could see the red huckleberry leaves. Not much left. While some larches were still half green, some needles were coating the snow golden. At the trail junction, saw the first couple of day hikers. At 11:20, I was at Cutthroat Pass, all by myself. But not for long. I sat for awhile slowly eating my burrito, hoping for the sun to shine on Cutthroat Lake. It was calm, no wind. Just splendid. Compare this panorama photo with the one yesterday, taken from the same spot.

From there on, it's all the way down. More and more day hikers on their way up. More and more larches, but little snow was left on the branches. Then more and more pines and firs, less larch. I Had to wear a shell to shed the constant dripping from the trees. As I walked back into trees, saw a woman with a full pack. She was planning to go camp at Snowy, but wondered if it's worth the extra miles. I was back at the TH at 1:12pm.

Changed my shirt, socks and into sandals. Down a can of beer and then a can of V8. The good thing about cold weather is that all my food and drink stayed fresh. I gave up the idea of Blue Lake (4 miles RT), but decided to hike Ross Dam trail which I thought would be quick. But it took over an hour, and the trail is ugly, passing roads twice. No view to speak of, other than at the dam. Ross Lake Resort looks nice. I don't think I'll hike this trail ever again. I prefer the view at the Diablo Lake Lookout, which I stopped next, briefly. Sun was shinning at the wrong direction for a good photo. It was 3:30pm.

Drove 3 hours to a friend's house, whom I haven't seen for over a year. Visited their workshop for woodwork and antique kerosene lamps. Then the topic turned to conspiracy theory regarding to Las Vegas shooting. Disturbing. I left ~7:30pm, drove straight back to the car rental office. A long and satisfying day. Total driven 718 miles. My phone registered 29k and 34k steps.

2017.10.13. ACE's Columbia 10 Best Coffee

10/13, Friday morning. I went to yet another coffee cupping. This one organized by Alliance for Coffee Excellence. Only later did I realized that I'm not the target audience.

Darrin Daniel, ACE's US Executive Director, led the tasting. He introduced the organization, competition selections, regional differences, process methods. He's very patient, answered all my amateur questions regarding to judge selection, roasting consistency. He showed us the water filter system in the lab, which has 2 separate filters and 2 mineral injection cartridges, as well as Water Standard (copied below) in a thick manual from American Specialty Coffee Association of America. From SCAA's website, I found the flavor wheel at the bottom of this blog, and also Green Coffee Standards, Brewing Best Practice, Cupping Standard (including coffee-water ratio, grind and roast level and tasting temperature 200°F, plus cup size, table and room sizes -- a bit too much). ACE uses a Probat BRZ2 sample roaster in the lab.

Odor	Color	PH	Chlorine	TDS	Calcium Hardness	Alkalinity	Sodium
odor free	clear	7	0	150 mg/L	4 grains (68 mg/L)	40 mg/L	10 mg/L

A long table lined with the top 10 coffees that participated this year's Columbia competition on each side (to allow more event participants), according to the ranking, with a label of farm name, region, elevation, tasting notes. Few score carts, and a dozen iPads loaded with a new app hoping to replace it. 2 cups on each side, with a tray of roasted beans. This is not a blind tasting. Even for amateur, I can tell that #2 is much more floral and mild. #1 is heavy. A few of them preferred #8. Not too many people today. A couple and me are consumers. The rest are professionals.

Overall, an educational experience.

2017.10.12. Murder can be such a drag ...

10/12, Thursday. The title of this play is so long, that I used the tagline here. The Farndale Avenue Housing Estate Townswomen's Guid Dramatic Society's Production of Murder at Checkmate Manor produced at Bag N' Baggage. It's a farce, which reminds me of Noises Off, but not as good, feels much more contrived. This is a play about a group of ladies putting on a play called "Murder at Checkmate Manor", with missing staircase (well done), broken chair, missed cues (many times), wrong order of things. The interesting part is that all the ladies are played by men, and the inspector (only male character) is played by a woman. The French maid (as well as the main narrator and a few other characters) and the daughter look very good in drag. Well acted, as always. Enjoyable.

2017.10.10. Roastery Tour and Coffee Cupping at Nossa Familia

Tuesday at noon (seems every Tuesday), Nossa Familia hosts a free public tour and cupping event at their Pearl Roastery (which will move further NW end of this year). I went to a design talk by Nossa Familia on their new logo and packaging last week, thus a bit curious about their coffee.

First, we were given a few green coffee beans. They have no taste, very hard. Then some dried pulp from coffee cherry. They have a slight citrous smell. Doesn't taste much. Apart from the genesis story of the company, how sustainable and direct sourcing in the company model, we were shown one of the very first 6 Roring Roaster ever made, a single burner which recycles heat. We also learned the different processing methods of coffee beans: washed, natural, honey, and why they might affect the taste. Nossa Familia sells organic coffee too. So the factory has all the tools used for organic process separately labeled.

Next, we were led to the "lab" for cupping - my first ever. 5 different coffees, each in 3 identical ceramic cups (12.5oz coffee in each cup). Step 1, smell the aroma of the dry roasted coffee; Step 2, pour hot water until fill to the brim; Step 3, break the top (after a few minutes of cooling) in 3 succession of spoon moves and smell the aroma (personally the dry coffee smell much better); Step 4, use 2 spoons to scrape off the floating solids; Step 5, tasting. This means: scoop coffee with your spoon and slurp in from the spoon, rinse your spoon in the empty cup (now half filled with hot water -- note, this cup of water is not changed, so you are rinsing in someone else's diluted saliva), compare the 3 cups. Of course, I tried all 5 coffees. To a non coffee drinker, they all taste similar. I could tell the minor difference when tasting side by side, but not a minute later. Finally, we were shown which coffee we were testing. The Brazil decaf is a surprise: full flavored.

During the tasting, a young lady from Guatemala joined in. She received a US grant for Latin America entrepreneurs to tour US' related business. She was assigned to Portland for a month, and NYC next month. She's a representative of some community coffee exchange program. Very good looking and speaks good English.

I told the guide that I was going to Guatemala soon. She suggested De La Gente's Coffee tour in Antigua, as well as Coffee District, Augusto's cafe in Guatemala City. Augusto is the founder of Nossa Familia.

2017.10.8. Fun Home at Portland Center Stage

10/8, Sunday night. The reviews are super positive, so I decided to watch Fun Home. Arrived at the theatre ~7:35pm. They let me buy the ticket and get into the theatre, but I couldn't sit down until the first song was over -- this is okay, my fault entirely. However, I was disappointed in a few ways. 1) The voices are not good (especially the kids) -- seems common in musicals. 2) The articulation of the kids, especially when they sing, is often incomprehensible. They are adorable, and do a pretty good job acting, but not singing. 3) the story about the dad is ill conceived: why he fights with the wife all the time, and why he kills himself after the daughter's newly awakened homosexuality. With a lesbian daughter and understanding wife, he ought to be happier to pursue what he had been doing all these years, or even make a change. 4) Why funeral home? Just to make it funny? I actually like the funeral home part. But for a short play, it might be a good idea to devote all energy to the main theme (homosexuality). Right, the play is not well written.

I like the idea of simultaneously using 3 women to play the daughter. The retrospective sense is well conveyed.

2017.10.8. Rare, Threatened and Unusual Conifers - a guided tour at Hoyt

10/8, Sunday. 12:50-2pm. More sun now. The tour started at noon. I was ~35 minute late when I walked into Hoyt Arboretum's visitor center. Could be sooner, if the Wildwood trail were fixed at the Japanese Garden. This time, to avoid scrambling, I detoured into residential area on concrete, and still wasn't sure where the connection is (didn't find any sign). Using my phone's GPS, I eventually was on track. Since my last visit on 4/30, I've been thinking of joining another tour. I enjoyed this walk too. The lady at the visitor center gave me a map, and told me that the group ought to be on the other side of the road. That narrowed down the search by half. It took me over 20 minutes to find the group. The arboretum is very pleasant to walk about, so I wasn't too bored looking for the group.

We were shown various trees, one has separate male and female cones. What I remembered are Monkey Puzzle, which really stands out. Even their dead branches stand out, and don't fall off. There's another Araucaria closer to the visitor center, but I forgot what it is. Two Patagonia Cypress, both don't look so happy in our climate. The selective breeding of Port Orford Cedar to combat root rot. Hoyt is one of the very few institutes that have some of the new strands from this breeding program.

The walk lasted till 2pm, 30 minutes past the scheduled finish line. Our guide today Julian is very enthusiastic, very happy to answer questions regarding to these trees. Another educational and enjoyable tour at Hoyt. I shall come more often.

All along in the rain. 9 adults started at the visitor center, and one jogger joined us midway. One lady from West Virginia doesn't even know the word conifer refers to cones. I took the park shuttle bus back to Japanese Garden, and then walked down to downtown via International Rose Test Garden. The garden still has a lot of blooming roses. Quite a few people, but not as many as in summer.

2017.10.8. Japanese Garden

10/8 10:30-12:05, Sunday. Cloudy. Free for Bank of America card holders this weekend. Lots of people.

I walked from Washington Park Max stop, through part of Hoyt Arboretum, then to Wildwood Trail (directed by a sign to Japanese Garden). But when I was practically at the back door of the garden, a sign says "trail not finished", but no alternative direction was given. I continued onto a road, outside of this fence. Saw ~2 park vehicles going by inside the fence. Eventually there's no space beside the fence that I could safely walk on. Had to grab on the vines and branches to scramble down a rather steep slope towards the giant parking lot. Gripe #1.

I was still early, about 10:30am, so no line at the ticket booth. Once inside, still enough people blocking my way. There's a nice looking terrace with narrow zigzag (paved for wheelchair) slowly inching up, but no steps to bridge the zigzag. Gripe #2.

At the end of this zigzag, a very nicely done set of stairs next to this water feature. Then, it's the original paved path to go up to the garden itself. A few new buildings, nicely done. This education building has the office of the director (locked) on the 2nd floor via a beautiful staircase. There's a nice courtyard you can see from the glass wall. 1st floor has classrooms. Outside, wood screen where you can slide open, like vertical blinds (except you don't turn the blade).

The next building seems to be offices. I was taking photo of this bench. Clean and elegant design. A park employee (or volunteer) told me it's white oak, and the wall is Alaska western cedar, so is the wood screen. But the entrance wall of this building is Japanese chestnut. The door is seamless in the wall. I didn't notice that it was a door, until someone opened the door. He told me the chestnut was knocked by Japanese adze to create bamboo like patterns. Expense for the eyes, but serves no function.
Behind this building is a small bonzai display area. Many of these twisted plants are as old as me. I was also informed that these new buildings have green roof - covered with sedum, at least this has practical benefit.

At 11am, I joined a guided tour. Our guide is originally from Japan. I like her. She's straightforward and cheerful. She tried to think of wheelchair accessible routes (not an easy task in this garden), but eventually lost everyone but me and 2 other guys. I didn't know that the garden was built on the old Oregon Zoo. The waterfall and fish pond was the bear den. According to her, this garden serves 3 purposes: culture awareness, education, tourism ($15 ticket price is certainly high). Preservation and environment is not a concern. There're 3 elements in a Japanese Garden: stone, water, plants. Flowers are a side effect, more of a distraction than a decoration. Green leaves and moss are more harmonious. She pointed to different strategic placement of stones, winding paths to make you slow down, view obstruction and borrowing to make the garden appear larger. She showed us the proper way of entering a tea ceremony and the tools used. She said that we shall come late in the evening, when it's much quieter. We finished the tour at the main Zen garden, which is a departure of the usual stone gardens: the little stones were raked like rice paddies now for the harvest moon festival last week, 2 green islands representing sake cup and gourd. These little stones are from a Japanese river bed, no longer legal to harvest. They stay white and glitter a bit under the sun. I really enjoyed her tour, especially the latter half, when the participation dwindled significantly.

When I left the garden, the noon tour just started. A long line in front of the ticket window.

I'll probably come back in a month to see fall foliage. This year, the color seems to turn later. For more photos, see my last visit in spring: more color.

The walk through the rose garden is always a delight. Quite a few admirers, less than in the summer, so are flowers.