Today's Hike

Harvey wrote

Estimate on age?  Wow.

150, maybe 200?

Here's another similar size oak.  Even though it appears completely dead from this side, the other side was healthy and there were plenty of limbs with leaves.  You can see the healthy part of the tree wrapping around the right edge of the trunk in the photo.  Maybe it'll stand for a few more decades:

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Great TR and Photos Jeff.

Adk Jeff wrote

I was in my glory, loving the elements.  Beth's attitude was decidedly more F-this-you-A-hole

This one made me chuckle.  I often experience this same late day loss of enthusiasm while hiking with my wife.  

Thanks Nepa, fortunately my wife was a climber before we met so she knows that there's no real adventure without at least a little suffering.

Nice TR Jeff, your wife is a trooper. Meanwhile, we have some nice accesible waerfals in my neck of the woods. Ragged Falls is a two-minute drive from my workplace, so the dog and I went for a walk this afternoon, and got lucky with light:



These marching dudes won't survive the next spring flood:

Thanks SBR.  Yeah, she's a trooper alright.  
Here's a photo I took a couple years ago (Memorial Day weekend 2013 when up to 3 feet of snow fell in the upper elevations) from Pitchoff showing the full run of the slide all the way down to Upper Cascade Lake.  The waterfall is visible near the bottom.

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Hey Jeff.. Was chatting with Fahz too. It might be the end. We skied yesterday.. It was great skiing at Killington. Pretty much everything open was great. Today - we decided, to just hang out and take in a relaxing day. Irony is that we went to Brattleboro for lunch  - and we remembered last year eating at Whetstone (a great place) on the CT river,  and the river was still filled with ice flows.  Now, there were boats. Warmer now than last August when we were last there.

Going to head to hike with you for sure!

A run through the sage brush at Ancient Lakes early in the AM... this is a desert area about 30 minutes southwest of me...it was in the high 80's over in this zone this afternoon.  At this pace, it will be fire season by late next week... way too early.




Earning turns a few hours later to escape the heat down low... looking west at Microwave, and Windy Ridge.

Great view of Rainier today... you could actually see a hazy outline of Mt Hood.

Did you hike up to ski or are the lifts still spinning?

Skiray wrote

Did you hike up to ski or are the lifts still spinning?

Earned turns yesterday... we are now on weekends only at Mission.  Still plenty of snow, but this weekend will close it out for lift service.

Vanderwhacker Mountain:

Love Vanderwhacker.

It's kind  of a running joke in our family. When Neve was younger we hiked it. She wanted to go up into the tower (view is pretty good from the bottom too), and she kind of freaked when she started to come back down and noticed a big hole in the screening.  The word Vanderwhacker has kind of become a synonym for freak out.  "Don't go all Vanderwhacker on me."

Earning turns this morning.... summer like weather over the past couple of weeks has destroyed the lower elevation snow... continuous snow will soon be a thing of the past


Stewart & Dragon Tail

Obligitory shot of Rainier... 70 miles as the crow flies from here

Chair 2 terminal, Wenatchee Valley in the background


Mudslide down low...

More turn earning yesterday... 500 vf of pleasant walking on the Pipeline trail up to Midway (5150 ft)... continuous snow up to the ridge.  Snow on the East side is melting fast... but I would say it will hold out til the end of the month or so...  considerably longer on the west side.  Crystal is reopening Green Valley on Memorial Day, and will go as long as snow permits.  The first year I was out here, my wife and I skied Crystal on July 4th.... If you're interested, Batchy and Timberline also have lift serviced summer options down in OR.

Approaching Windy Ridge... it's getting a bit cuppy

Looking across to Bowl 5

I took my daughter back packing right in Flagstaff's back yard for Memorial Day.

Nice RA! Making the memories that will last a lifetime.

Now if you tell me those photos are off your iPhone.... Very nice.

Thanks you guys!

They were taken with my I-phone but then Instagram edited, it's like magic. I guess it's also like cheating but meh....it's fun and they sure look cool.

RA - if you ever want to fly the family to NYC let us know. you are more than welcome to come stay here.  It will be tight but, that's NYC for ya.

Keep shooting.