2021.2.27. Hex Mountain snowshoe

2/27, Saturday. Brought gear for a more risky hike, but ended driving to Hex Mountain for a safe trek. Avalanche danger is high these days.

Started late, ~9am from Seattle, sunny. More and more cloudy as we headed east. Around Snoqualmie Pass, everything was coated with fresh snow from last night, very pretty. Icicles hung by the road. Less snow east of the pass. A bit icy on the road, but not too bad. Over a dozen cars parked along the road. As soon as we parked, another car pulled behind us. Quite popular.

I was here Dec. of 2019. This time, the clouds were higher. So we had the view of Cle Elum Lake most of the way, even on the road walk. I really like the ridge half way up (didn't see a thing last time). Excellent view. However a bit windy.

Above the ridge, you dipped into the woods again in a broader burnt forest. Only the upper part of the forest had coat of snow.

The very last ~100' is a bare butte. Great view, but not as good as last time. Clouds were getting thicker. They obscured the distant peaks. Had lunch on the summit, everyone else left. A bit windy, so didn't stay too long.

Back at the car, found a parking ticket, because half of the car was not inside the shoulder. But the shoulder was covered with old snow half my height. Well, all the cars, except the few inside the white line got tickets. A bitter blow on a beautiful day.

A few skiers, one carried a snowboard, one family playing in the snow on the road, dragging little wooden sleds. Half of today's hikers wore face masks when passing us.

2020.2.21. Museum of Pop Culture

2/21, Sunday. I don't remember ever visited MOPOP, now open Fri-Sun only, with advanced ticketing. I received a free annual pass from Chase, was wondering how to use it. So I showed the pass to the gatekeeper at its 5th ave "east" entrance. He waved me in, to the line in front of the ticket counter. At my turn, the ticket agent complained that I should be using the current digital pass. The physical pass is for 2020 and older. But due to COVID, it's honored in 2021. I also told him I don't use GooglePay. He grunted, asked if just myself? I don't know if I could bring anyone. Then he issued me a sticker for some discount in the shop, and a touch pointer. Off I went. This photo is the main entrance, which is closed right now.

This tower of guitar is a centerpiece. Quite striking. Next to it is a room with guitars owned by various artists from 50s to now, with a small bio of each. A diagram of guitar's component. A list of recent models, and their famous users. I, not a pop song lover, had never heard of any of those.

Jimmy Hendrix and Kurt Cobane each has his own room here. Historical letters, photos, posters, and guitars. Pearl Jam occupies a larger section on the 3rd floor. I'm more interested in this staircase leading to the exhibit area. I also like the main hall: empty with a few cushion benches and a giant screen, even though I didn't care for what's playing on the screen.

There's a horro space (down one floor, with photos of screaming faces filled the wall along the stairs), and a fantasy land (small). MineCraft occupies an entire floor, and plenty stations that you can play it. There's a separate video game room which you can try various games.

The current "temporary" exhibit is on tattoo. I'm surprised to see the percentage of adults who have tattoos. I know very few people who have them. Maybe 10%. I guess my world view is very skewed.

As for COVID precautions: many automatic hand-sanitizer dispensers, exhibition rooms with capacity numbers posted (but not enforced, usually twice as many as allowed), a foot puller at the bottom of the bathroom doors, drinking fountain shut-off. I got very thirsty while inside.

2020.2.20. Another trip for birds

2/20, Saturday. Forecast for this weekend is 40% rain on Sat and 80% on Sunday. Took off Saturday ~10am. Minor drizzle on the way. Arrived at the location where I saw thousands of white birds last Friday. But during the day now, almost none. Did see smaller groups here and there, they are trumpet swans. Instead of just my car, there were almost 10 cars here. 2 bald eagle and a nest right beside the parking lot. I didn't even notice it last week :( Saw another big bird flying around with blond underside. Maybe a cooper's hawk.

Made a second stop a couple miles west. Here, we walked down to the marshland to the waterfront, and climbed up a tiny island. You need waterproof boots here, better calf-high rubber boots, which some people were on. We had to pick our way around, but still got quite muddy. I scrambled up the island from the north, requiring some bushwacking. The southern side is grassy, muddier, but easy to get up. View is excellent. Occasional sunbreaks.
Had lunch here. Saw quite a few more bald eagles, and some falcon-like big birds. Many ducks and gulls too. Mt. Baker is non visible under thick clouds today. I picked up some trash from the marsh on the way out. When we arrived at the road (no parking lot, just park along the road), saw a big bird fly by. Someone said it's a short-ear owl. I didn't get a good look at it. A pair of old ladies were giving out parking tickets.

Our 3rd stop is short: a small secion of dike with public access sandwiched between private land with fence and warning signs.

Between the 1st and 2nd stop today, saw some people "planting" life-size white bird cardboards in the fields. Odd.

Got back in town by 3pm. A good day out, even though not much excercise.

2020.2.13-14. Snow blanked the city

2/13-14. All hikes this weekend were canceled due to the snow forecast. Not much wind, not heavy snow either. Just cold enough for the snow to accumulate. Saw a plower in the city. Quite a few people out. Some took plastic sliders or just cardboards to slide on snowy slopes.

Many snowmen, in various outfits, some accompanied by snow-dogs. Saw one girl on snowshoes! At least a pair of seals, many ducks.

Light rain Sunday evening. The accumulated snow melting fast. I received another pair of Kuhl softshell pants in the mail on Thursday. Good chance to try them out in the snow.

2020.2.12. Oyster Dome

2/12, Friday. Took today off from work. However, stayed too late last night (researching where to go for the impending bad weather), so by the time I picked up a rental car, it was almost noon. Drove to Chuckanut Drive to hike to Oyster Dome, an all-season trail. Thick low lying clouds thinned out as I drove north. Could see North Cascades clearly.

At least 10 cars parked along the road, narrow pullouts. 35°F. Walk over the highway first, and headed uphill. The trail sign and map is quite up into the trail. All through, well signed, well maintained. After the initial ascent, the long zigzags were flat. Frozen groud, not much snow. Icicles on rocks.

Reached the summit in 1.5 hours (3 miles, 2200'). The view over the sound is nice. I initially planned to do a loop over Lilly and Lizard Lakes. But I realized that I was running out of time, so headed back the same way.

I did walk to Samish Overlook (which you can drive to). About 5 cars parked here. Even though ~700-800' lower, similar view. I headed down there, cut two zigzags. Not sure if I saved any time. At least made the hike less boring. Got back to my car ~4:30pm. Still 4 other cars. I brought micro-spikes, but didn't need to use them.

I marked a few spots to check out snowgeese. Did see a few on the drive here, in a couple of spots, but maybe only ~50 total. The first place I stopped looks depressing. Saw a flock of little black birds. The 2nd spot is very nice. Quite pretty. Could see Mt. Baker still, even though the clouds were thickening. I walked about, didn't see any white bird. As I turned back, a cloud of white birds took off. Hundreds? Thousands? Too bad that I forgot to bring my binocular. They were too far to tell trumpet swans or snow geese. They flew about for a few minutes, and settled down the other side of the water. That made my day. ~5:30pm. Getting cold. Below freezing now.

As I drove back to Seattle, snow started falling.

2021.2.7. Mount Ellinor

2/7, Sunday. My two different outings were postponed one after another due to strong wind and precipitation. The rain shadow on Olympic Peninsular promised better: 20% chance of rain, calm and then 5-8mph wind. I met V. at the last stop of lightrail, and headed to Mount Ellinor at 7am. As described by a trip report on WTA of last Friday, the road had plenty hard snow, and cars were parked by the road about 1 mile before the lower trailhead. 33°F. V. was over confident of his car, and we got semi-stuck in the snow. Wasted sometime to put chains on, turned around, and parked with the first bunch of cars. Geared up (this time, he carried crampons). I took a pair of mini-crampon. Walked the road to the TH, in microspikes. On the way, I scanned the slope on my right to see if we could cut the turn. Yes, we could, but it was rather steep. So we followed the road all the way, both directions.

By the time we reached the lower TH, it was already 10am! Blue sky ahead :) The trail heads up to your left, gentle grade, all in the forest. It was open enough that it took me awhile to find a spot for bio break. It was warm, I stopped 2 more times to remove a layer. We were both down to base layer. I didn't see the junction to the upper trailhead on the way up (saw the sign only on the way down). We passed 4 skiiers. It's not fun walking on cruchy snow in skis. Once, there was some obscured view of Lake Cushman through trees. Right before this open meadow, be careful of a big hole to your right. It was already ~11:30. After inquiring condition from a guy heading out (in microspikes), we took a longer break to stash our snowshoes, and changed into crampons. You can clearly see the hikers on the steep avalanche chute (pink line on the photo).

The avalanche chute is very steep, but the snow is solid. No avy danger. Up to where the rock is (where this photo was taken), the snow was soft enough. Good footholds. Also plenty hikers were ahead of us, creating these footholds. The slope eases out for a little, and gets very steep again. Around this time, clouds rolled in, and snow started falling, and wind also picked up. Some turned around here. I stopped here to put on a thin fleece and rain jacket. I was just complaining it was too hot in the sun 5 minutes ago! The snow was harder above here, making steps is harder. We followed a pair of skiers. The young lady was kicking the slope hard. Their ski boots made good footholds. My right crampon fell off. The strap was broken: some Chinese junk. It took me awhile to re-tie it onto my shoe, but not very secure. My left one held well.

Above the avalanche chute is a large plateau. Very beautiful here. Saw brief sunshine again, and I was sweating. Cross the plateau following footsteps. Snow was soft-ish here. Without snowshoes, you'd sink outside of the beaten track. Clouds rolled over us again, but V was determined to go to summit today, and he was charging ahead.

After another bump, you can finally see your destination. Once on the ridge, it's a short walk left to the summit. 1pm! Took a few photos before the clouds engulfed us. The two skiers who were kicking steps also arrived. The guy posed photo with his ski with a bright orange "SICK DAY" skin. It was a bit windy. V. went down. The guy who were on micro-spikes and no ice axe also arrived, and immediately he turned back. I waited for a bit, ate a sandwich, watching the two skiers getting on to their skis. The girl had some problem with her frozen binding. However, the clouds only got worse. I got cold and gave up. On the way out, I had trouble seeing where I was supposed to go. Almost a whiteout. Light snow was falling, and wind was also kicking off snow from the ground. Rejoined V at the plateau, and we headed down together from there. Saw another group heading up. Once below the big plateau, no more wind.

I was much slower on the way down on the avalanche chute, because I couldn't trust my mini-crampons. Next time, bring real crampons. Still there were people going up. Back to where we stashed our snowshoes. Another break. Sun came out, but still not as good as when we arrived. Couldn't see Mt. Rainier any more. ~3pm, packed up, and hiked out in spikes. Saw one more hiker coming in around the junction to upper TH, this late.

Back at the car, saw an Indian girl walking up the road on her own, V asked if she was alright. She said she just wanted to see what's ahead. Nothing really. She was wearing the same boots as mine, even identical color. 3 more cars parked further down the road. By now the snow was softer and dirtier.

On the train home, I was reading a book, and overshot one stop. Had to get on the return train. It's good that the lightrail runs every 15 minutes. Total today, maybe 8 miles, 3500'. V's AllTrails says it was over 4000'.