2022.7.8. Beargrass at Bandera

7/8, Friday. I took off Friday afternoon to hike Bandera's flowering slope with 2 of my ex-coworkers (L & L) whom I haven't seen for ages. We met at the waterfront condo of one of them at 12:30pm.

We started right at I-90 exit 42, followed a bootpath, gaining ~600' (~0.7 mile) to reach the road near the TH parking lot. This saves driving on the long gravel road off exit 45. I actually enjoyed this section: it feels more wild, and the path is next to a small creek, which involves 2 log bridges.

The main trail is very boring, looking more like a logging road than a trail. After about 3 miles of this, finally we reached the bottom of the flowing slope. There were already some beargrass before the junction.

The trail here seems better than before. My coworkers, who are both in their 60s, took some time. This is the first time for both of them on this slope. As suggested by one hiker coming down, L left her red daypack on the rock by the trail, and transferred water, wallet and snack into my day pack. We made to the ridge for a peekaboo view of the north side, and came back down in the flowers of for a long break. Beargrass this year is amazing. The only drawback is the many little flies. Too cloudy today to see Mount Rainier, but it provided a cooler temperature for the hike.

2022.7.4. Teneriffe again

7/4, Monday. The weather looked better than forecast. Partly sunny in Seattle. Decided to do my usual Teneriffe lollipop. I carried a gallon of water this time. Got on the 10:41 Trailhead Direct at ~10:50. About a dozen on board. Got off at Teneriffe TH at ~11:35.

A few minutes slower than last time (~1 month ago). Made to the waterfall at 12:45pm, summit at 2:20pm. The waterfall is very thin already. No snow all the way. Phlox on the summit, about 5-6 bear grass on the wooded ridge. A lot less people above the waterfall today. I was overtaken by 2 trail runners (2 different parties), and they disappeared in minutes while I was panting and sweating. Near the summit, met 3 hikers coming down (2 different parties). Met an Indian guy named Malay at the summit. He asked me to take photos.

I ate my belated lunch, lamenting the clouds to the NE. Seems the ridge I was on sits between clouds and sun. When a third person arrived at the summit, I started down ~2:40pm. Malay followed me. We chatted on the way. At the waterfall, he continued on the trail, while I took the old path, and then to the faint connector to Roaring Creek trail, and out to Si parking lot at 4:45pm. After the waterfall, I didn't meet anyone until I was near the TH. Missed the bus scheduled at 4:40. The next bus (supposed to be every 30 minutes) didn't arrive until 5:30.

Home early enough to clean up, and eat dinner, before heading out to see the fireworks at South Lake Union (10:40-11pm). A lot of people.

2022.7.2-3 Seattle Bot Battle

7/3, Sunday afternoon, I went to check out the Robot Combat at Seattle Center's Armory. A few rows of tables full of tools, maybe 2 dozen people were tinkering their robots. 2 fighting "boxes", with TV monitors mounted on the top. Each has a trap (hole) at one corner, where the winner supposed to drive the losers into it. I saw 3 battles. The 3rd one had 5 people completing 5 small robots. One lost a wheel early on. Another stuck in the corner not moving. I like the larger robots which fought in the large box. Glad to see 2 girls in the participants.

2022.7.2. Navaho Peak

July 4th long weekend is spoiled by the rain on Sunday 7/3. Day hikes only to skip Sunday.

7/2, Saturday. I had to get up very early, in order to to meet my driver at 5:20am, because they want to meet at the TH at 7:30. Guess what, our car is the only one that arrived on time. I originally signed up with a different group of 15, too large for my liking. S from my last year's Daniel climb said they have space, so I joined them, hoping for a smaller and faster group. I ended up in some hiking group from Microsoft. Out of the 8 hikers, 6 are from Microsoft (1 is related to Microsoft), and 6 are Indians (except for my driver T and me).

Shooting stars are out, but not as good as I hoped. This patch is right at the trail junction (to Early Peak, next to a creek), the first good patch near the trail. I slipped into the mud after taking this photo, and spent considerable effort afterwards trying to clean my clothes.

This Microsoft group (except S) is quite slow. We made many stops. They are a nice bunch, young (in the 20s-30s). The breaks were pleasant enough with small talks. Just before the meadow, I asked S' permission to go ahead, because I was afraid that they would turn around at the pass. I reached Navaho Peak at 11:30. On the way, noticed a few of this Elegant Jacob's Ladder, which is new to me. Ate a small sandwich. 10 minutes later, I headed down, put some snow into my water bottle. The snow was about 50' below the summit, for ~100'. Not much.

1/3 way down the peak, met half of the group, so I walked with them up again. This part of the trail is a bit slippery (loose stones), need a bit of care. At about 12:40, the last few arrived. The summit got quite crowded.

Headed down again at ~1:20. They decided to meet at Cle Elum bakery after the hike. But it was closed, and downtown Cle Elum was blocked off for some event. Drove home after a gas stop.

2022.7.1. Brazilian music at Seattle Cetner

7/1, Friday, 7pm. Seattle Center hosts various small performance and events. This sunny evening, Entre Mundos Quarteto performed next to Seattle Rep. Easy listening. 2 dancers in beautiful dress also danced from time to time, and at the end, invited the audience to come up to dance with them.

The space is agreeable, steps to sit, shades here and there. However, sitting there, I found little mites about 1mm climbing up me.