2022.6.25-26. Snowking Mountain

6/25, Saturday. I arrived at Northgate TC at 6:30am (yak!) to meet the organizer R for Snowking Mountain. This weekend is expected to be warm. I took my new down quilt for testing, which has a few baffles badly filled.

We parked the car right after the bridge over Cascade River, next to another car. Elevation less than 1200' (yak! again). Started walking ~9:30am on S. Side Cascade Rd, which has a few washouts. R drives a sedan, so we didn't want to risk it. The road looks drivable for only a few minutes, with multiple creek crossings and serious overgrowth very quickly. Crossing Vee Creek requires sandals, especially the one at ~3/4 mile from the bridge (see photo on the right). Not sure what to expect, we wore sandals, and I got many scratches. I put on my boots at the 3rd crossing of Vee Creek, on this nice big log (part of a fallen bridge). Watch out for long nails on the log, you don't want to trip on them. Finally at about 3 miles from the car (1.5 hours later), we reached the TH (elevation just shy of 2400'). Saw some TP here, a fire ring. Possible to scramble down to get water. Not sure what to expect, I filled my water bottle here. We took a good break. I then realized that the cozy I sewed for my crampons had been whisked away by one of the million branches I had to brush past.

The trail starts off quite steep, and continued to be steep for ~1500'. I had to request a break. Then the grade eases a bit, still going up steadily. At about 4500' we hit snow, patches first, then solid, so couldn't see the already faint trail anymore. Totally relying on the GPS tracks we downloaded, because we were still in the trees.

Once we broke out of the trees, we could see where we were heading. Views got progressively better. I was so upset after the first "hill", we had to do a steep downclimb. That repeated a few more times, until we got tired, and started traversing on the side, which gets a bit tricky, especially right above Cyclone Lake. It was very steep. We stopped at a tree well, took ice axe out. I also put on helmet, just in case. R made good steps, and we prodded through slowly without any incident.

Finally, just before 5pm, we reached the saddle before the climb, above Cyclone Lake. I pitched my tent in a tree well (see photo taken the next day). Very small space, no room for rainfly. There were a couple of big rocks that I could sit on. R. pitched his tent on snow, over a small incline, so we don't see each other, but close enough that we could hear each other. The lake is too steep below us, so I used snow to wash a bit. Sun was shining so strong, that it was warm enough. Refilled my bottle with snow. I hung my hat inside to tent to block some sun. I fell asleep so early that when I woke up, it wasn't even dark. Stars were not bad, which I could see through my tent.

6/26, Sunday. We started out shortly after 5:30am, hoping for more solid snow.
The sun already risen, but cool enough. All along, the view is superb. Here, in this photo, you can see Cyclone Lake, and our camping location, as well as the route coming in. We would be going above this hill instead of traverse the lake side on the way back.

Soft snow, but sticky (not powdery), so make good steps, and we don't sink too much. The upper reach is steeper, but nothing I don't feel comfortable. The last bit is rock, but super short (as the snow continues to melt, this rock scramble may become a problem. But today, it's super easy).

At 7:15am I reached the summit (R was ahead of me). Found 2 geo markers here among the rocks. Not sure why 2. The summit view is of course breathtaking. Baker, Glacier Peak, Rainier, and all the peaks in the North Cascade. R knows many of them. We took a long snack break, taking photos.

~8am, we headed down. Down-climbed the upper reach of the snow, then, glissaded and walked. Never need to use crampons. Back to the camp ~8:35am. Compared to getting here, this climbing is easy and swift. R decided to take a nap. I didn't expect that I would wait for him, so left my book in the car. Oh, well. I slowly packed up.

~10am, we hiked out. Cutting some ridge tops. Got a bit off trail in the woods. All was well, and we reached car ~4:10pm. At the creek crossing, I changed into sandals, and stuffed my socks in the boots. At the car, only one boot still had socks inside. Bummer!

Quilt: turning is not good. But the ill-fitted baffle didn't seem to be too bad.
Update: 1 week later, I received a message that someone found my socks.

2022.6.24. Pride Pop with Seattle Symphony

6/24, Friday, 8pm. I was running late (as always). Arrived a couple of minutes late. There were still some latecomers picking up tickets, when I ran by the ticketing window! I passed those people and ran into the auditorium, huffing, puffing and sweating. The show didn't start until a few minutes after I sat down. All events seem to anticipate laggers like me.

This Pride Pop concert is a lot of fun. Two drag queens, Thorgy Thor and Anita Spritzer, with outrageuos hair, and colorful clothes. The conductor Lee Mills also had 2 nice shiny outfits, and very lively. I always like Seattle Men's Chorus. The song "I love you more" between suprano Alexa Jarvis and the chorus is very moving. I also like their retake of Beethoven's 5th symphony and their rendition of "Over the rainbow".

After the concert, there was a "party" in the lobby. Franz' salty caramal chocoloates, blinking LED lights, and music. All the lights were purple, why?

I couldn't stay long, because I had guests coming today. I bought them tickets to the same concert tomorrow! Surprised to realize that the auditorium today was only ~60% full.

2022.6.19-20 Baldy + Deception

Weather wasn't good on Saturday. My hiking buddy from Oregon, O, contacted me to do a one-day climb to Mount Deception, and something else the next day in the vicinity, because her company has Juneteenth as a holiday.

6/19, Sunday, cloudy. Baldy-B loop (the purple lollipop on the map).
O picked me up in Tacoma ~9:20am. We drove to Upper Dungeness TH. Only ~half dozen cars on this misty Sunday.

Ate and loaded food in my bear can. I wasn't able to attach it to this backpack, so carried it in my arm. It's only ~1 mile walk to our camp, at the junction of Royal Creek and Dungeness River. Pitched our tents south of the bridge. Elevation ~2650'.

With a much lighter pack, we started towards Baldy (6806'). Follow the regular Royal Creek trail for a little bit, and then go up steadily through trees, until suddenly, ~400' later (~1:20pm), we popped out onto this decommissioned road. Looks quite nice now that grass has taken over.

Turn left and follow the road (Upper Maynard Burn Trail) for another easy 400' elevation. Now the trail goes up, quite steeply for ~1200'. Saw many fairly slippers along this section. All along, no water. At ~4800', the grade eases, snow on trail. Need to be careful at times, as the trail sometimes traverses steepish slopes and it's under snow.

Finally (at ~5600', a little before 3pm) we broke out of the trees onto a meadowy gentle slope with creeks running (easy crossing), and glacier lilies popping out. Would be ideal to come here in 2 weeks (more lilies, less snow). Our view was obscured by thick clouds.

Before we reached the next trail junction (still in snow), we took to left, and started going up to West Baldy in snow. Then go down on its west side, along the ridge, and then up another bump, and finally about 3 "peaks" more of less the same height. I don't know which one is the Baldy. No geo marker, no summit registry. On the ridge, we saw some Douglasia blooming.

Back to the buried junction. We decided to continue east on the ridge, loosing elevation. Even though lower, it was covered with snow for awhile. Once the grade goes up, we saw the trail. Followed it all the way to the base of Peak B. Scrambled up to Peak B (6119'). Fairly easy from the west. The peak is consisted of many rugged rocky teeth. I like this peak more than Baldy. We scrambled over a couple of these rock points, and headed down southeast, which is a little loose.

We hit the trail, which goes to Tyler Peak. We caught the Tyler Peak Way trail going down. Clouds cleared a little bit on our way down, so we had a little bit of view beforing going into the woods again. The trail is well made, all the way to the road. No car at this TH (bad road?). Take another decommissioned road (Lower Maynard Burn Trail). Immediately, crossed Mueller Creek (the biggest crossing of the day, not hard). Connect to our original trail, and back to camp. 7:40pm. All day, except at Dungenous Trail, we didn't see a soul.

I didn't bother to bring a stove. Instead, I brought real cooked food. Soaked quick oats for breakfast tomorrow.

6/20, Monday. Mostly sunny. Mount Deception attempt.
We started out shortly after 6am, because Decelption is far. The climb starts at Royal Basin, which is ~7 miles away. As soon as we crossed the bridge, I got misled into a trail along the creek side, wasted a few minutes.
Reached Lower Royal Meadown ~8:30am. A lot more water this time of the year. There is a land slide before this (with multiple down trees piled together), which took some time to get over. See this log, from water to water. Quite a few muddy sections. But all along, the trail is snow free and easy to follow all the way to Royal Lake. Arrived at the lake at ~9am. Met a couple hiking out. I took a break up some camping spot. O continued.

We took to the right of the lake. Soon, more and more snow, and I lost the trail quickly. Using GPS map to guide me, and finally broke out on to the meadow (now snow covered) below the Upper Royal Basin. I reached Imperial Pond at ~10:20. Quite pretty now with a blue ring.

Continue! I could see O ahead. I didn't follow her. She's in the pink circle on this photo to the left. I was planning to go up more to the right (see the right pink line), because it looked easy from afar. The climb was getting steeper and steeper. By the time I reached my pink line, it was on a very steep slope, and was still far below the ridge. I traversed towards O's track, one slow step at a time, because all on very steep slope, with rocks here and there. Thankfully, the snow was sticky, not too soft that you sink completely. That traverse took me maybe a full hour.

I got on to the rocky ridge at 2pm. Too late to continue. Saw a track on the other side (see the pink line), towards Mt. Deception. I thought it was O, and decided to wait for her here. (Later, O told me that she got on the ridge at ~12:30, but couldn't find a safe way to descend the rocks onto the snow towards that track.)
I took off my wet socks and boots, set them on the rocks to dry, taking pictures of both sides. After an hour, I decided to return.

Going down is scary. Nothing is stable. So I packed up crampons, and tried to glissade, punching ice axe deep into the snow to slow down my slide. I stopped very often so the speed couldn't pick up. After an agonizing hour, thanks to the soft snow, I was safely back on the basin floor, with bleeding hand and red snow. I didn't feel the pain because of the cold snow. As I was typing this blog 10 days later, the scratch is still not healed).

Nothing interesting to report on my way out, except that I met a couple camping at the lake. Saw no one else all day. A few minutes before I reached the camp (8pm), O was heading in to look for me. We couldn't figure out how is it possible that we didn't see each other. Packed up, walked to the car. By then, it was 9pm. We decided to sleep in her car and drove out the next morning. She has a Suburu Forester. The back seats fold down, and all is completely flat. For short people, this works very well.

O didn't want to drive to Tacoma again (a small detour for her + a toll), so we agreed to drive to Olympia. There's a bus running once an hour, and I may make the 8:09 bus, if I hurry. I drove very fast, but got a speeding ticket:( As we pulled into the bus stop, O went to the bus and planted herself at the door, while I retrieved my pack and wet boots from her trunk. The bus ride was smooth. At Tacoma, I was able to stop the Seattle-bound bus as it was pulling out of the station. Got back at home ~10:40am. O arrived home at more or less the same time. She sent me a txt: my gaitors fell out of my bag and was still in her car. What a day!

2022.6.18. Fremont Solstice Parade

6/18, Saturday. Took bus to Solstice Parade. Bus schedules were all erratic due to the traffic. I may be able to walk there in the same time. I only caught the end of the parade. Lots of people, lots of craft boothes lined the streets nearby. It's been at least 10 years since I last watched this parade.

2022.6.16. Verdi Requiem

6/16, Thursday. 7:30pm.

Conductor      Giacomo Sagripanti
Soprano        Katie Van Kooten
Mezzo-Soprano  Silvia Beltrami
Tenor          Bruce Sledge
Baritone       Dashon Burton
Seattle Symphony + Seattle Symphony Choir

Great concert. Full stage. The conductor has tons of energy. A pity, only ~60% full. Kudo for putting up the super-title!

I also enjoy the pre-concert talk at 6:30, by Gary Cannon, Artistic Director of Cascadian Chorale and Vashon Island Chorale.

2022.6.11. Granite Creek

6/11, Saturday. I signed up with a new group for a "morning" hike to Granite Creek. The meeting time was 7am, but we didn't leave until 7:35am. If I ever go with them again, I'll arrive late too. There are 11 of us, all younger than me. There's one professional guide (river and bike guide in his prior career). They are all into outdoors, quite fit, very friendly. However, too much chitchatting, so slow moving. So this became a very easy outing, not a workout. I was in a car with 3 other girls: Rachel (in marine biology, moving to Portugal for grad school soon), Serena (seems to have an action-packed life), and Charlotte (working in food preservation, beginning climber, going to attempt Rainier in 2 weeks). I learned TooGoodToGo app from them.

The TH is 2 miles past Mailbox, which is overflowed, cars parked along the road for a long stretch. All WA state parks are free this weekend, no wonder. Thankfully, Granite Creek TH has a large parking lot, and it's not as popular. Only 1/3 filled ~8:30am.

Granite Creek trail almost follows the creek. The trail is much higher than the creek until this bridge (at 1.8 mile). The view of the water is mostly obscured by trees. Over-engineered. You can pile a lot of people on the bridge. Good view of the creek. There's a bench before the bridge (and a few scattered along the trail).

The trail has 2 junctions. The first is at 1.1 mile. The main one is at 3.5 mile. Turn right and going a little lower to the lakes. The left fork goes up to Thompson Lake and Peak. We headed to right. More water on the trail. Also the drizzle had become really rain. Everyone was in rain jacket, except Serena (she wore T-shirt till the end). This is the widest crossing, a little higher than ankle height. Bucky (the guide) changed into sandles. There are tree branches left by prior hikers if you didn't bring your trekking pole. After my crossing, I handed my pole behind to some one in my group. The whole group stayed together more or less all along.

We reached the end of the trail a little after 11am, but there's a larger creek to cross. I found a way over some snow (surprising to see snow so low in elevation ~3100') to an opening at waterfront, and went back to fetch them. We spent ~1.5 hours here, because M? decided to try fly fishing. He even borrowed Bucky's sandles, walked into the lake. The rest of us all begining to get cold. Hanah didn't bring enough clothes, so she was jumping up and down. The sun came out in the middle of our wait. So at least we saw the lake without too much cloud cover. Conversation never died, so I didn't have to take my book out. I passed along a bar of Theo chocolate, barely made the round. Bucky told us his river raft trip with Ivana Trump, and other tales.

Back at the parking lot, half of them used the toilet. Drove back in sunshine. Nice day to walk home, about a mile for me. Tried the new app, and ordered some food for tomorrow. Will see.

2022.6.10. The Bonesetter's Daughter at Book-it

6/10, Friday. 7:30pm. The adaptation of Amy Tan's novel The Bonesetter's Daughter by Desdemona Chiang. I like the adaptation. It's not easy to distill a book into a single narative of less than 2 hours. Book-it Repertory Theatre staged 6 actress, who played a variety of charactors (including male) of different ages, spanning from early 1930s till current day.

Stage set is always a bit disappointing here. Just tables or chairs, aided by video projection. Good acting.

I actually went to the theatre on 6/8. But the performance was cancelled, without any notice on the website, or around the theatre. Later, I found the announcement on Facebook. Really? They think everyone is on these social sites?

2022.6.9. All Tharp by PNB

6/9, Thursday. I arrived at 7:30pm. After checking vaccine card and buying a ticket, I was let in, but told to sit at any empty seat in the back so not to disturb others. At the first intermission, I found that my seat was taken. So I went back to where I was sitting.

All Tharp celebrates Twyla Tharp. The 3 acts all choregraphed by Tharp, all quite different. The 1st act, Brief Flings, is pieces of solo, dual, triple, quad, and group in different color pallet of clothing (in Scottish theme clothing, but not Scottish music). Checker pattern used on pants look too much like pajama to me. More traditional. The 2nd act, Sweet Fields, is accompanied by voice only (a proper choir). I was on orchestra level, so couldn't see any singers. I like the 3rd act, Waiting at the station, with a nice stage set and everyday clothing.

It's a nice change of what I do. Haven't seen a dance performance for ages.

2022.6.7. Tiger by bus

6/7. Sunny. Took 2 days off for an overnight trip. However, I hurt my back on Saturday so canceled my RSVP. I made a rental car reservation, but I had to cancel, because I lost my driver's license at ACT theatre on Sunday. Still I didn't want to stay home on a sunny day. Took a bus to Issaquah to hike Tiger. V. joined me. Not sure where to park, we agreed to meet at Highpoint TH (large parking lot) at 10:20.

Took West Tigar 3 trail, cut off to Cable Line trail (steeper) to Tigar 3, and then continue to Tigar 2, and last Tiger 1. V is much faster than me going up. We stopped on each summit to take photos. Clear cut on the top looks ugly, but it cleared the view. On a clear day like today, Olympics and the Sound to the west, Rainier to the south, Baker to the north. On Tiger 1, you see Glacier Peak, and more peaks to the east. It's the highest. Just don't look down: what a carnage! I hope in 20 years, the dead branches will rot or be burned, and grass will claim the summit. I originally planned to go to Poo Poo Point for view, but decided to skip it, now we have better views here.

Back the same way, but didn't use Cable Line to go down. Back at TH shortly after 2pm, so he can go to a movie with wife ~3pm. I continued to Round Lake (ugly, but I saw a bear 2 years ago nearby under the power lines.), on the way, visited the rusty bus again. Then the Traditional Plateau trial to East Sunset Way TH. There's a small parking lot which belongs to the city, would be a better meeting spot. From Highpoint TH, it's about 7 miles and 2900'. For me an extra ~300', but ~4 more miles (to/from bus stop). I think I'll do this as an after work hike, or sunset hike (need to look at bus schedule).

I watched a recorded training video on Youtube, and found it reasonable. So gave it a try this time. I have been hiking all wrong.

• train at least 40 minutes each time (twice a week is recommended) when fasting (so your body will get used to switch to digest fat), and do not refuel until the end (so your body will NOT be habituated to wait for the quick energy boost).
• go slow and do not rest. Slow enough that you can continue without stopping. Carry an occasional conversation, able to breath through your nose is a good indication of not going too fast. This way, your body won't be habituated for a rest whenever tired.
• you should be able to recover in a day.

I didn't stop until on Tiger 3 (at some point, maybe 10 minute before the summit, I felt the need for sugar. But I didn't refuel, as long as I wasn't trying to go fast, I was able to continue), and didn't eat until we were on Tiger 1. From the Highpoint TH parking to Tiger 3 is 1 hour. Good training. Apart from Tigar, it's difficult to find a longer than 40 minute up-slope in town.

On the way back, stopped at Uwajimaya, picked up some pink strawberries. They are a disappointment. Tasted the same as regular red ones.