Monday, July 24, 2006

Dinner on the Tug


On Saturday night, my longtime friend Steve Vogel invited me over for dinner on his tugboat, along with my brother Tim and sister in law Cathy. The main focus of the night was to go over the pictures (printed from genuine film!) Steve had taken on a recently finished solo bike tour he took in Scotland. Much of the countryside was what you might expect--a lot of green rolling hills, many bays and inlets with the ocean always in the background, and thousands of sheeps, oftentimes threatening bike riders on the very narrow roads. There were very few trees, but the area was absolutely filthy with castles and the remains of castles--very picturesque!

For dinner we had some barbecued pork ribs, corn on the cob and potato salad. It was very pleasant sitting on the boat, with its marvelous view of Lake Union and the hundreds of boats going by. We talked mostly about bikes and biking and had a very enjoyable evening. Steve was excited about a new $2900 touring bike he had just ordered, which should match up perfectly with his non digital camera. He has always been one for the classics, though, much like my non microwave sister, who has a telephone that actually rings and has a genuine rotary dial, to boot. But Steve is a classic figure himself: professional woodworker, furniture maker, extremely well-read and now, it would seem, a diehard long distance bike tourer.

Pearl Jam


The highlight of the summer, so far, was last week when Savi and I went to the Pearl Jam concert in Portland. I had done the design work and the printing for the event's program (through a sponsor) and was offered comp tickets and a quick backstage tour if I helped out with a little pre-concert organizational work.

We left for Portland at about 8am Thursday, as our first meeting was at noon. We got into downtown Portland at just about 1130, did a quick meeting and had just enough time to check into our hotel (the venerable Mark Spencer, just a couple blocks from Powell's bookstore), before another quick meeting at 200 at the Art Museum, which is just across the street from
Schnitzer Hall, the concert's venue. We then had a chance to go backstage, and into Pearl Jam's dressing room, where I took a picture of Savi standing in front of Eddie Vedder's wardrobe locker.

It was then a 15 minute walk back to the hotel, which in 100 degree afternoon heat, was not altogether comfortable. We hung out in air-conditioned room for an hour or so and then headed to Baja Fresh for an early dinner. At about 515 we started back to Schnicter Hall, where had worked for a couple hour distributing VIP will-call tickets. Finally at 730 we went into the hall and found our seats in the first row of a huge balcony, dead center and not more than 75 feet from the stage. There was a warm-up comedian and then Sleater Kinney played a quick 7-song set, which I enjoyed very much. Finally, at about 9pm, Pearl Jam came on stage and every seat in the ornate, 90-year old theatre was jumping.

They played for about 2.5 hours and the band seemed very tight, and Eddie Vedder, especially, seemed in good spirits and was very personable and was a huge crowd favorite. Their second encore, which they performed with Sleater Kinney was the old Neil Young song, Keep on Rockin in the Free World, which was one of the best live rock performances I had ever seen--it was absolutely stunning.

It had been a very long day, with all the heat and the walking etc, so we left after the third encore started and got back to our room at about midnite. Sav then watched a couple episodes of her favorite TV personal, Rachel Ray, and finally at about 1 am we called it a night.

Next day we had a nice little breakfast in the hotel lounge, went to the bookstore for about an hour or so and checked out at exactly noon. On the way home, we stopped by to see me Aunt Jean (my mother's only sibling) in Vancouver. It was extremely hot, but we had a good time and I was happy to see how well she is doing for an 82 year old woman. We finally got home at around 530 pm.

Sunday, July 23, 2006

Annual backpacking trip




Last weekend the girls and I headed up to Thorp Lake for our annual backpacking trip (if you can call one night a trip). I believe this was the first time that everybody had on full-size backpacks, although I was still stuck with the bulk of the load, including a totally separate tent for Tiana, who insisted on sleeping by herself.

The hike up to the lake, though not really that long, was very steep, gaining over a thousand feet vertical in the first mile. Tiana led most of the way, and was even able to pick her way over some snow, which obscurred the trail in the shadows near the lake. Savi also did great, without a single complaint.

When we got to the lake late in the afternoon, there was only one other party already there, at the main camping area, so we headed to the opposite shore where a very picturesque peninsula had our name on it. We made camp well before dark, had dinner and made a nice fire. It was quite breezy, so there were just a few little mosquitos buzzing around.

The night, as always, was a long one for me. Tiana and I were awokened by an animal shortly after 11pm and I was not able to get back to sleep for a single minute, despite taking a couple Tylenol PM, one quarter of which would have knocked me out back home. I think a lot of the sleep problem is not having a pillow. Sometimes, if I have room in my pack, I can bring along extra clothes or a soft jacket which I can use for a makeshift pillow, but because the lake was so high making the night temps so low, I was wearing what little extra clothing I had, and therefore had absolutely no pillow. Miserable!

Savi and I did a little fishing Sunday morning and actually got a couple bites. We left before the heat got to be too bad and were back at the cabin by around noon.

Wednesday, July 05, 2006

July 4th weekend hike


After being abandoned by the kids for the long weekend (one had a friend coming over, the other was going to a friend's), I packed up the might Subaru wagon and headed east, toward the heat, for a couple days in Cle Elum.

I got to the cabin at about 2pm and the temperature was well into the 90s, without a breath of wind, which is unusual for this time of year, where it usually blows a gale from mid-June through August. The town was having its annual Pioneer Days Festival, which includes a 3 on 3 basketball tournament. It was so warm downtown, with the sun baking the brick buildings, that main street was virtually deserted, except for a few diehard spectators trying to stay cool in the shadows, watching the unfortunate players suffer on the asphalt courts.

Next morning I got up reasonably early and felt like a climb, so I headed out past Lake Cle Elum, intent on climbing Mt Thorp, which at over 5800' would make a reasonable 3500' vertical gain hike from the trailhead. Quite surprisingly, there were no other cars at the parking area (which admittedly is not shown on most maps). I headed up the trail's first mile, which is quite steep, but passed through very lush brush and an overflowing spring creek. After passing through a lovely meadow, the trail headed steeply up again, mostly through smallish pine trees, which provided ample shade in the morning heat.

It was here in the shade that I ran into the first snow, which covered the trail for hundreds of yards at a time. It was fun to practice my old route-finding skills, especially since there hadn't been any recent hikers, so there were no footprints to go by. Shortly thereafter I passed by beautiful Thorp Lake (see picture) and was absolutely amazed that there was nobody here either. I had the whole lake to myself and kicked myself for not bringing my fly-rod.

From there I had to go off-trail, climbing more or less straight up the side of Thorp Mountain, hoping to run into the Knox Creek trail, which would take me to the summit trail. After about 45 minutes I did hook up with the main trail and an hour later I was on top, where I saw two people sitting on a snow bank with their dog.

There are stunning views of Mt Rainier, Lake Kachess and the Stuart Range from the summit, and it's little wonder that it served as a fire lookout for many years. I only had my cell phone camera, which didn't really do justice to the spectacular surroundings. I had been up here once before, nearly twenty years ago, and I can still remember the fierce wind that almost blew me right off the mountain. This time there was a dead calm

I was pleased that there was cell phone reception as I was able to send some real-time photos to a few friends.

It only took me 90 minutes to return to the car, and less than five hours after I left the cabin, I was back home again--beer in hand.