2025.6.15. Earl Peak via Bean Creek

6/15 Sunday. Went to Teanaway area for spring flowers. Very pleased to see quite a few endemic species. Especially Snow Douglasia, which was beginning to bloom, and the abundance of Scarlet Gilia and shooting stars. We timed this outing to shooting stars, because we loved our last trip here.

It's a 2+ hour drive. The last mile is rough, but brings you to elevation ~3600'. The trail starts along the east slope of Bean Creek. Quite lush first half mile with many flowering plants. As the trail goes higher, even though not far from the creek, but above creek, it was getting drier and drier. Gilia, arnica was abundant in the next mile.

As the trail cross Bean Creek, we found the first batch of shooting stars. A few butterflies gathered right at the path crossing the creek.

Here is a trail junction. I headed towards Earl Peak first, which has a well-established trail (even though on Gaia and Caltopo, it's marked as dot-dot). In fact, the dot-dot part is just a normal trail, easy to follow. Not noon yet, this western slope still had shade. As I went higher, started to see many Anemone in prestine condition, even a couple of glacier lilies on baldy parts of the slope. Some Pine Voilet in flowers.

At the saddle (many trees, plenty shade), you can see a peak looming to the north. It's a false summit. The trail continues down to Standup Creek, where you can connect to Stafford Creek (and ultimately to Navaho Pass).

Now heading to the false summit, starting to see a lot of Snow Douglasia, buckwheat, phlox, tuft saxifrage. View opens to the south, could see Rainier, all the way to Adams. View to the west is closer: Stuart stands tall. Can see the green Bean Creek Basin, Bean Peak, ...

From there, there's more to the real summit, then down to the saddle. Dusty and crumbly. Seemly baren slope is dotted with flowers. Even thought it's a proper trail, some dexterity is needed.

Finally, at ~7000', the view is excellent. Found a couple sitting here enjoying the view. They came here from Standup Creek, east of my route, more elevation gain. They are the first people I met since I left the junction. On my way down, met a backpacker couple, who plan to go camping below Navaho Pass.

Last, went to Bean Creek basin for lunch. The shooting stars are as good as I remembered. Swaves of pink. Just lovely.

For the reference of plant species along this hike, check WA Native Plant Society's list for Earl Peak summit area and Bean Creek. I learned a couple of new plants: Shasta Fern, Wenatchee Mountain Lomatium* and Oreocarya Thompsonii*. Saw quite a few of them. (* is endemic to Wenatchee mountains.)

2025.6.14. Kenmore Camera summer sale

6/14, Saturday. My driver bailed Friday evening, so I took a bus to Kenmore Camera for a series of photography talks during this weekend's summer sale. I went to these 4 talks. Here are some notes, not that I'll pursue any.

• Canon Explorer-of-Light Adam Jones
• Better Wildlife Photography - Lewis Kemper
  He photographs birds from a canoe. Use high ISO, denoise in post-processing.
  • bird in flight ~1/2000
  • animal in rest: under 1/500
  • many birds ~1/60
  • F10 usually to capture from beak to tail
• Chasing Eagles - Steve Ball, who shares some best locations to see eagles:
  • Chilkat Bald Eagle Preserve, Haines, Alaska
  • Dutch Harbor, Unalaska, Alaska (winter)
  • Homer, Alaska, Eagle Lady
  • Stuart Island, BC (spring-summer)
  • Nov-Dec: Fraser River (Alaksen NWR) BC, Brackendale Eagle Provincial Park BC
  • Dec-Jan: Welcome Bridge in Deming WA, Skagit Wildlife Area (The Eagle Tree)
  • Jan: Klamath Lake area, OR
  • May-June: Seabeck, WA (difficult parking)
• Color Management: Simplifying the Print Process with Moab
  The Moab representative recommends these full spectrum light sources:
  • Calibrite GrafiLite Professional Viewing Lamp
  • SORAA VIVID PAR20 bulb

2025.6.13. Jess Walter at Elliott Bay Book Co.

6/13, Friday. 7pm. Walked up to Elliott Bay Book for an author reading event. Jess Walter is in town promoting his new book So Far Gone. My bad of arriving late. Thankfully there were still a couple of seats left. I really enjoy listen to Jess Walter. During Q&A, he talked about arranging short stories into a collection, his growing up in rural WA, his father, his brother. He also mentioned that his books are more hopeful as he gets older and sees more ugly truths, or rather he tries to be more hopeful. This is the 3rd time (all in this year) I hear him talking. Will go again.

The stupid reason of being late, is that before the book talk, I went to an open house of COVE, a waterfront restaurant and bar. They do catering. Free food and drink (nothing extraordinary). Good view. I over-estimated my speed for eating and walking!

2025.6.10. AI for Good - the Future of Health at Gates Discovery Center

6/10, Tuesday, 4-7pm. Gates Foundation's Discovery Center hosted AI for Good - the future of health, with a distinguished panel:

• David Baker, Nobel Prize in Chemistry 2024 and Director of the Institute for Protein Design at UW.
• Matthew Rielly, Philips Ultrasound, who brought a portable AI powered ultrasound machine.
• Bilal A. Mateen, Chief AI Officer at PATH

A good turn-out, but disappointing for me, maybe because I had too high of an expectation. Talk panel didn't start until past 5pm. Then the moderator, Rachel Sibande - Senior Program Officer for AI at Gates, introduced herself in great length (cute and nice, for example, fish in Lake Malawi, but unrelated to the topic) and then introdced the 3 panellists, which took ~20 minutes. At about 5:45, it was Q&A. So the 3 guests didn't have much time to say anything. I didn't learn anything new insight. What a waste of their time. Out of the 3, I found Dr. Mateen to be the better speaker and with more conviction. You can watch the recording at the link in the first sentence.

Path has a table. UW Medical Data Science program has a table. Microsoft's Bill Weeks, Director, AI for Health Research, has a table and gave away his book AI for Good. He seems quite approachable. I didn't know Microsft has an "AI for Good" lab. Not surprising though, at least for PR purpose. These are all recipients of Gates' funding.

2025.6.8. Lake Angeles

6/8, Sunday. The 3 of us met at 6am to catch the 7:10 Edmonds-Kingston ferry. Seems on Sunday, no need to get there so early. The 7:10 ferry was only ~60% full.

Turn right before entering the national park gate on Hurricane Ridge road, soon it's the trailhead for Lake Angeles. Found forget-me-not next to the parking lot, and a fairy-slipper at the begining of the trail. The trail is well-maintained with gentle but steady incline. A nice one-log bridge near the beginning. Large trees. Plenty shade along the way. Not as hot as I dreaded. Seattle today hit about 88°F.

The lake is good size, with nice camp sites. However, the view is a bit disappointing. Yes, good view of the Klahhane Ridge. Almost all melt out. There's a trail going from this lake up to the ridge. Another ~2000' gain. We didn't bother. Too hot. Lots of pollen and quite some logs floating on the water. Found a log to sit on for lunch. Return as we came.

Back to the car, we drove up to Hurricane Ridge. It's always spectacular. Quite some tourists. Some deer munching the grass without any care of the human. We walked a little bit, soaking in the view, also catching some view to the north and the Sound. The northern slope still had a bit of snow left. The nice wooden visitor center building was burned last year. Now two tin sheds.

Driving down the road, we stopped at this pullover (the first real pullover with parking spots). To the left, quite a lot flowers growing on the cliff side. Now I was able to stop and investigate. A lot sedum, tufted saxifrage, some wall flowers and vetch. Found a some Lomatium Martindalei (new to me).

Filled gas in the town of Port Angeles. It was only ~3pm. The return ferry at Kingston was already filling up. Google!Map tries to direct you away from the conjestion. It was quite stubborn, even when we selected the "red" route, it continued reroute us. I guess the algorithm doesn't understand why we want to be stuck in the traffic. Once we parked in the sun baked parking lot. We walked into the town. 88°F now. S. queued in front of the first shop, a creperie. It was slow moving. I walked further, got a scoup of ice cream. When I was back, S. was still in the queue. S.C. also decided to queue up. I finished my ice cream, the ferry arrived, cars drove past ours. The two of them finnaly got their order, we ran back to the car, while they balancing their crepe in one hand. We got on the ferry. ~5pm.