Lake Tahoe '10

Ken and Marie invited us for a week at Lake Tahoe for the second year in a row, and again we had a fantastic time. The weather was perfect and there is so much to do there that one should never get tired of visiting. We hit the beach twice, took a side trip to Virginia City, and Ken and I went hiking. In between there was shopping, eating, games, the pool and jacuzzis, movies, arts and craft fairs, and a classic car show. A lot packed into one week. Here are some pics:

Ken and Marie brought 4 of their pups on the trip and also brought along these snazzy strollers for the boys to cruise in.

The classic car show was held in the parking lot of the Montbleu hotel/casino. I know nothing about cars, but there were some really neat ones there.

Case in point.


Another cool ride. At one point, while I was admiring a certain car, its owner sidled up to me and said simply "Stock." "Pardon me?" I responded. Silvie later informed me that the guy was telling me that the car had its original engine parts. Geez, I'm really pathetic sometimes....


Church steeple in Virginia City.



The woman's dress in this painting is made of silver dollars. I put a cute girl in this snapshot to give the painting some perspective.



Virginia City was once a bustling silver/gold mine town. The output of the Comstock Lode was some 1.2 billion dollars, and the city financed the government during the Civil War. These days it's a tourist trap with saloon/casinos and gift shops galore, all lined up conveniently along one strip.


The highlight of the trip to Virginia City was the cemetary (which is actually several distinct graveyards side by side).


Some of the plots were bordered by iron or wooden fences and many tombstones were weathered, vandalized, or missing altogether.


One of the more striking statues in the yard.


While many of the stones had dates from the 19th century, there were some more recent markers to be seen too. This was one of my favorites. The inscription reads, "I lift my eyes toward the hills whence cometh my strength."




This place was equal parts fascinating and creepy. Just look at this shot and imagine having to spend a night here curled up in a sleeping bag on the hard ground, listening to the wind whistle through the chaparral while an iron gate squeaks on its last hinge; and thinking all the while that you can make out a low moan and approaching footsteps....

Okay, as a remedy to the creepiness I give you a hot chick sunning herself against a boulder at the base of a ski run at Heavenly.

We rented bikes and rode a path through woods a few hundred yards from the beach.

Marie pulled the chihuahuas in a cart attached to her bike.

I think they enjoyed the ride!

Ken, Marie and Silvie taking a break while walking the pups.

Our gracious hosts Ken and Marie, with Biscuit, Piglet, Teacup and Rusty.

Silvie lookin' hot in her Freshies T-shirt in one of the casino parking lots. Freshies is a vegan-freindly restaurant with some fab dishes.

Sil and I hit the beach and preferred to hang in the shade when not in the water. The temps were in the 80s with minimal clouds the whole week we were in Tahoe.

I located a hiking trail in the area of our resort and Ken and I took a three-hour hike.

We started out for some place called Castle Rock, but as we were walking on a boring forest service dirt road, we decided to head up through the trees and brush and walk along the ridge line until we were free of the trees.

Once above the treeline, the views were spectacular.

At the top of the hill there was a mass of boulders which offered a panoramic view of not only the Lake Tahoe basin, but of the farm fields which stretch out for miles in the opposite direction...

... as well as the intervening mountains and valleys. In the very center of this picture are the tiny rooftops of the distant Ridge Tahoe where we were staying. The lines carved in the mountain are the ski runs of Heavenly.

A partial view of the Tahoe basin. As I was first climbing atop the boulders, a helicopter passed by at eye level, close enough for me to see the people inside it. I wish I had thought to whip out my camera and get a shot of it.

This is a shot from the window of our suite at the resort. The second (and a bit distant) nub from the right on the horizon is the hilltop that Ken and I had hiked to earlier in the day. On the far left of the horizon is (I think) Castle Rock. I read that it takes professional rock-climbing skills to mount Castle Rock, so I'm not disappointed that we climbed the other mountain instead. Ours was higher anyway :-)

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Perry Creek/Mt. Forgotten Meadows

I took a solo hike on the Perry Creek/Mt. Forgotten trail in the Mt. Baker-Snoqualmie National Forest on Friday. I had hiked this trail before, a few years ago in late summer. I remembered it as being a pretty strenuous hike to absolutely heavenly alpine meadows (although on that day there was too much fog to get the full effect of the views of the surrounding peaks).

Since then, the trailhead had been relocatted from a dead-end forest service road to a proper parking lot. I woke early and hit the road at 6am and pulled into the parking lot at 8. There were already a few cars in the lot and three were pulling in at the same time I was. I couldn't recall seeing other people at trailheads before (except at crowded Tiger Mountain) and wondered if I'd have company out on the trail. But the parking lot is a shared one, being also the starting point of the Mt. Dickerman trail. As it turned out, of all the folks in the lot, I was the only one who was taking the Perry Creek trail. I talked a little with a solo hiker who was heading up Dickerman as a training hike for a climb of Mt. Adams, and I was off.

The relocating of the trailhead adds 1.2 miles to the hike I did a few years back, and I was to really rue this fact on my way back to the car 6 hours later. The trail has two distinct halves. The first is the 3.2 mile hike to Perry Creek falls. This portion is rather tame with not much elevation gain and great views of thin waterfalls on the oposite mountainsides and insubstantial trickling streams to rock-hop across. It's mostly open-air with lots of greenery, rocks and boulders, and the soft hissing of the distant waterfalls. As you near Perry Creek falls, a louder rush of water emerges. The falls are by no means large, but the loud rushing of water down the steep canyon is rather thrilling. Just above the falls is a shallow area which must be crossed to pick up the trail. I recall being able to cross this without issue before, but now, in early summer with the volume a bit higher, crossing was going to be a challenge. I wasn't sure if my boots were waterproof and so I took off my shoes and socks to walk across. (Waterproof shoes wouldn't have mattered anyway, since the water came up to my knees at one point) Now, this water was snow just minutes before reaching this point so the water was cold. Painfully, debilitatingly cold. I had to stop on a piece of rocky grouind halfway across to let the feeling come back into my feet before continuing. Then, I sat on a wide log on the opposite side and dried my feet in the sun before replacing shoes and socks and going on.

The second half of the trail is the steep haul to the meadows and the top of Mt. Forgotten. This begins immediately after crossing the creek as you plunge into deep forest, picking up a couple thousand feet of elevation in switchbacks and steep rocky climbs. I started taking frequent breaks, which is not a good sign for me, and tried to rationalize quitting before reaching the meadows. But when I came across the first tiny snowpatch my spirits were somewhat rejuvinated because I knew I must be close. Soon I came to a true snowline, above which was only snow. The snow was crusty and not too thick, which I found out when my foot slipped through the surface a few times). To reach the meadows, I had about 50 yards uphill on crusty, icy snow without crampons. I managed to fall only twice (swearing loudly both times), but it was quite a workout to get to the plateau. I should mention that I had been REALLY looking forward to finding a nice patch of shaded grass with a rock or log on which to rest for a half-hour or so while enjoying a well-deserved lunch, but all I found on the plateau was snow - and only one small patch of shade where I stood and unceremoniously wolfed down my sandwich before resolutely heading back through the snowfield.

On the positive side, this time the views were mighty impressive, and it is undoubtedly cool to be standing high up on a mountain in a snowfield wearing sunglasses, a t-shirt and shorts, and being surrounded by snowy peaks. It really was worth the climb, although I wasn't feeling it completely at the time. I had planned on continuing to the top of Mt. Forgotten, which is another steep scramble through snow, but as I was crossing the snowfield I realized that this was not happening. I plan on coming back in late summer to do the whole thing when the snow will be completely gone and in its place will be rolling meadows of such prettiness, carpeted in colorful wildflowers and dotted here and there with pristine little ponds.

But for now, my goal was the car....

The walk down the snowy hillside was easier than the ascent, although somewhat harder to keep my direction (I had to keep a certain portion of the view on my right to make sure I was going the right way). After the snow I stopped to shake the ice out of my shoes, change my soaked socks, and headed down. The rest of the trip down was not too eventful, although I did pass 10 people in several hiking parties, and stopped to chat with a father and daughter on the lower side of the falls. He wanted to know about the rest of the trail and was surprised to hear that the trail got steeper after the creek (he didn't even know that he had to cross the creek and his daughter was wearing only flip-flops on her feet - way to research your hike, dad). Oh, on my own re-crossing of the creek, I simply left my shoes and socks on and trudged through the water. I squished a bit after that but I really didn't care - I was on my way to level ground, a seated position in the car and, eventually, home. I found myself a little short on water and was a bit dehydrated to go along with my various aches and pains as I stumbled along that last 1.2 miles of trail to the car. I had a bottle of water waiting at the car but it was hot. It felt like guzzling tea but I was so damned thirsty that it didn't matter.

Here are some pics:

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Skagit Valley Tulip Festival

Sil and I took a drive to Skagit Valley for the Tulip Festival. It was a grand day, with nice weather and small crowds (we went on a Friday and later chuckled to hear on Saturday how crowded the highway exits were up there). This was my first trip to see the tulips and I was mightily impressed. We walked around a few gorgeous fields of tulips in various colors, then stopped at the nicely laid-out Roozengaarde which has a charming windmill to complete the Dutch theme. Later we drove to La Conner to look in the antique shops, had a nice Thai dinner, and Sil bought me a 750 ml bottle of Duvel. What a perfect day!

Visit to Jimi Hendrix Memorial

Silvie and I finally made the short trip to the Jimi Hendrix gravesite and memorial in Renton highlands. We've been a few blocks away from Greenwood Memorial Park many times, but never visited before today. We were lucky that on a Saturday with better-than-awful weather we had the memorial all to ourselves for as long as we were there. The memorial is quite nice: a granite dome supported by three pilars with 60's-rock poster-like etchings on each pillar with images of Jimi as well as panels with lyrics from a few of his songs. Jimi's original headstone is at the center of the accessible monument, and small headstones for the Hendrix family ring the monument in a grass circle which includes flowers and a sundial.