Cougar Mountain, Issaquah Washington

Sat, 5 Apr 2008 14:55:42 -0700

I took a hike at Cougar Mountain, a reasonably rugged area east of Seattle near to Issaquah, Washington. While it was a bit colder than one would have liked, at least it was dry. And considering that we have had and continue to have rather rainy weather it was quite a treat to be out for three hours without getting wet.

These pictures are taken with our new Canon Powershot S5 IS. While I have used the same camera during our honeymoon, it was not till today that I had an opportunity to really try out the more advanced features. All the shots here are taken in manual mode where the user has control over f/stop, exposure time, ISO setting, and manual focus. The difference, especially in super macro mode, is astounding. Whereas AUTO mode does a decent job of determining what it is you are trying to photograph, manual mode allows you to take pictures with a level of control on par with SLR bodies; which is to say, with an order of magnitude more confidence and finesse. You will also note that I was able to keep up light levels and color saturation by dropping the ISO setting to 80 while increasing the exposure on the shots of the waterfall. Typical exposures were on the order of a second; and no, I did not use a tripod, just a very steady hand. Enjoy!

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Pumpkin Picking 2007

Sun, 21 Oct 2007 20:14:00 -0700

I did the annual visit to the pumpkin patch to pick us some pumpkins! We naturally went to my old haunt of Serres Farms in Redmond. Before we could undertake such a momentous task we needed to first fuel up at Brown Bag Cafe; a place where only Herculean hungers may sojourn and find haven. Once we were powered up on the Earthly wonderment that is the equivalent of Olympia’s ambrosia and nector – served in two pound portions – we headed off to the farm to get us some gourds.

Upon collecting our fill of cute little orange guys we headed off on WA-202 to see what a fine Washington fall day might include. We happened to stumble upon another autumnal oasis of goodness at Fall City Farms in, of all places, Fall City, Washington. There Erica had an episode of ADD whereby she ran from the freshly picked apples to hot cider press to local vegetables in a small state of abject wonderment. We picked up, among other things, a jar of pumpkin butter, some apples, and three piping hot cups of cider and a dozen fresh donuts to fuel on us on our adventures back up the WA-203 into Woodinville.

We ended the evening with a fresh loaf of wheat bread from Brown Bag Cafe, a nice bottle of Sauveuse 2003, hot soup from Central Market, some French butter with bites of sea salt, and a collection of cheeses. A very lovely day, indeed.

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Mount Saint Helens

Tue, 21 Aug 2007 17:26:16 -0700

I spent a lovely weekend hiking around Mount Saint Helens this past weekend. This is a camping trip that we had till now delayed twice before for other matters. So it was great anticipation that the day finally arrived and we pulled away from our home and headed southward to Iron Creek camp-site situated some ten (10) miles south of Randle, WA for a well-deserved hiatus from our daily schedules.
On Saturday we awoke around 0700, driving south from camp along National Forest (NF) 26. Unfortunately, this road was blocked by a land-slide some 15 miles from the road entrance. The road itself is paved but relatively narrow; only sufficiently wide for one car at a time. Given this fact we drove between 30 and 35 miles per hour. We did not want to give up on our hike so we drove back to the juncture with NF25 where we proceeded south to NF 99 which led us to the Norway Pass trailhead; our original point of destination.
Once at the trailhead, we proceeded to follow trail 1 till coming the intersection with trail 227 which follows in a southerly direction along the north-eastern area of Spirit lake. Granted, the trail is some 600 feet above the lake without only enough width on the path for one person a-breast. While the drop-off was not a sheer drop, falling from the trail would certainly require possible professional assistance to extricate yourself. Given the ash and sand composition of the trail Erica and I tried to move as rapidly along this section of the trail in case of sudden rains. We finally connected with trail 227 that lead us back north to trail 1, completing a 7-mile loop. It took us approximately 4 hours to complete with an additional 45 minutes not included for time spent taking photographs.

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Hoover Dam

Tue, 12 Jun 2007 13:51:16 -0700

I had not expected to have a chance to stop at Hoover Dam on this short jaunt to Grand Canyon. But given the time I had this morning as I came upon the outer suburbs of Las Vegas I was granted a reprieve; and I took it.

The tour of Hoover Dam is quite impressive. It is not the largest dam in existence; but, given the then extant engineering technology it is certainly a marvel.

What is may be the most unexpected and interesting fact cleaned today during the tour is that the dam was constructed not to produce electricity but to provide water management for the surrounding farms. The production of electricity is only a means of financing the project by securing promised purchase of all produce electricity by California. For the past twenty years the dam has operated as a wholly self-sustaining operation from the sale of electricity at cost to its customers.

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Sedona, Arizona

Tue, 12 Jun 2007 13:34:41 -0700

I took a detour yesterday down to Sedona from Grand Canyon via Flagstaff, Arizona. I wish I had had more time to drive in the area to see all of Sedona and its surrounding area. It is hard to drive and look along the winding turns of 89A. Nevertheless, I did get a good chance to drive in relative solitude this morning as I wound myself back north along 89A in Flagstaff.

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