Winter Solstice
December 22, 2009
Filed under Uncategorized
Tags: circadian clocks, coffee, darkness, espresso, seattle, solstice
The Solstice was yesterday. This was a traditional Pagan holiday for perhaps thousands of years – from at least the arrival of agriculture in Europe until Christianity took hold. From the pattern of stars described in the Gospel, and from other evidence, Christ seems to have been born in the early to mid spring. The holiday was moved backwards to “cover up” the Solstice celebration.
This isn’t a theology blog, and I’m not really concerned with the history here, other than to say that people have been celebrating this event for a very long time.
Yesterday, in Seattle, the sun set at 4:19 pm. But it gets worse! If you don’t live on the very western edge of Seattle, there’s almost certainly a ridge between you and the horizon. I live on the edge of Lake Union, so that for me, the sun set behind Queen Anne Hill at around 3:50 pm. Darkness followed very quickly. (Read More)
The Base Layer
I like saying that, “The” Base Layer, like there’s only one. Plus it feels like a subtle way to make fun of The North Face.
I learned about wicking many years ago, when I lived in San Francisco, and spent half my life on a bike. Despite my incredulity, I decided to try a short-sleeved wool tee-shirt. It was scratchy, but it pulled the sweat away from my skin like a greedy sponge, so that after I overheated climbing a hill, I wouldn’t freeze in my sweat and the wind. And it was good.
Seattle’s Deep Freeze is Over
It’s odd that we say a heat wave broke when it ends, but it would seem a little unusual to say a cold spell broke. In any case, the ice is melting from Seattle. Not that we were buried under it or even got any snow to speak of, but it’s been so cold for so long that large patches of ice have formed on streets and sidewalks. Last week, I went for a three hour bike ride, and half my water bottle froze.
This cold spell coincided with a week of beautiful sun. I was drawn out into the sub-freezing temps like a moth to a flame, and I was far from the only one. As I stood for an hour at the sea shore at the edge of Golden Gardens waiting for the sun to set, countless other people strolled along the beach.
More than anything else, this experience has reinforced something I knew intellectually, but not experientally. Cloud cover is a giant blanket, trapping in a layer of heat that would otherwise radiate off into space. Of course this is one reason why deserts tend to be so cold at night.
Several years ago, I was camping with a (now ex) girlfriend in western Colorado. We kept getting stuck in the rain. After a few days of wandering aimlessly through a downpour, we put our elementary knowledge of how micro-climates work to work, and spent the next night drying off. Ever since that experience, I’ve been keen for a free lesson in climatology, when one presents itself. But I’m only able to recall these lessons when I pick them up in a salient manner – books just don’t help.
PS – Our recent cold spell was caused by an arctic front, and has killed most of the non-native plant species in peoples’ gardens, if these facts interest anybody. 
Sure beats last year.
How To Learn To Snow Shoe
November 26, 2009
Filed under Rainier
Tags: hiking, learning, national parks, paradise, Rainier, snow, snow shoeing, snow shoes, winter
Winter hath come early this year. I’ve encountered snow on the past several hikes I’ve done, stretching back for a month.
Typical modern snow shoes
Of course all of these have been in the mountains, but the Cascades visible from Seattle melt all of their snow during the summer.
Having resigned myself to the weather, I’m considering buying a pair of snow shoes. I had a set in the past, but these were stolen during my last visit to British Columbia. It’s becoming obvious that I won’t be able to cover as much ground as I’d like to, though, unless I get myself another pair. I’ve tried to convince a few friends to get ( or rent ) a pair and join me on the snowy trail, but nobody wants to start a new hobby that they might not like. So why am I boring you with this?
The national park service has free, guided snow shoe tours of Mount Rainier. If you can get yourself to Paradise – and this is a lengthy ordeal because they stop maintaining the road inside the park – everything else you need is there. (Read More)
Kerry Park is the Switzerland of Seattle
November 24, 2009
Filed under Alternatives to Hiking, Urban Parks
Tags: hills, parks, seattle, walking
That title is for the folks at Language Log, a blog that has nothing to do with hiking, or being outdoors at all. Still, it provides entertaining reading about how language works. Unfortunately comparing Kerry Park to Switzerland is a bit ambitious, especially as it isn’t even the highest point in Seattle – the reservoir in West Seattle is. But it might well have the best view around.
Shockingly, it’s usually very easy to find parking within a short, level walk to Kerry Park. But that would defeat the point, wouldn’t it? (Read More)
Snoqualmie’s Mount Washington
When I was a kid, growing up in southern New England, we would take vacations “up north” and visit New Hampshire. Naturally, this led to ascents of windswept Mount Washington – the most respected peak in the northeast. At 6,288 feet, this is in fact the highest mountain in New England.
But this blog post is about a different Mount Washington, one that’s a bit smaller, but more of a foothill than a singular peak. Along the western front of the Cascade Range in Washington state is another Mount Washington. Ours is a bit more difficult to find information on. (Read More)
When All Else Fails
November 18, 2009
Filed under Alternatives to Hiking
Tags: hills, outdoor exercise, rain, seattle, storm, urban, walking, walking laps
Sometimes you just can’t go hiking. There are a lot of reasons this might be the case. You could have a full-time job, for example. These tend to keep people busy during the day, and create rush hour madness making it very difficult to get out to the mountains when we all get off at the same time – “Rush Hour.” This is even more true now that the sun has set by the time most people leave work.
Worse, there could be a storm. Last night’s wasn’t as severe as the previous night’s storm, with wind speeds reaching an astonishing 80 mph in Seattle. ( That’s according to the radio weather report I heard, anyway. ) Normally a bike ride is a very tempting form of exercise within the confines of a city, but less appealing in the rain, and even less so in the wind. Biking against the wind is as strenuous as going up hill, but less rewarding – though I guess you don’t sweat as much. On the other hand, nobody wants to go for a long walk, in their neighborhood or in one of our countless parks, when it’s miserable out. A lot of people can be bothered to get out for some exercise, but want to stay close to home.
So what’s the answer? A gym membership? Hardly. I have one of these, and use it occasionally ( so as to feel like I haven’t wasted my fees ), but gyms are indoors. I love exercising, and do it for its own sake, but I’m a hiker and not a weight lifter because I have a strong need to be outside.
Fortunately, Seattle is a hilly city. I happen to live at the bottom of one. Last night, I identified a three-block hill in my neighborhood, with nothing but minor streets to cross. I walked to the top, and down to the bottom, 16 times. This added up to a very small 4 miles, and 1,200 feet of ascent ( give or take – this is from memory ). Walking laps up a hill isn’t entertaining in the least, and the scenery doesn’t change, but if you like hiking in the alpine country, this is good practice.
That’s my meager suggestion for the day.
Winter is Here
November 16, 2009
Filed under I90
Tags: alpine lakes, hiking, snoqualmie pass, snow, snow lake, snow shoes, winter
And I’ve been in denial. I don’t know why. The past few weekends I’ve gone hiking, and watched the snow move down the mountainsides, and pile up on the trails. A month ago, it was surprising after most of a year to see a bit of white adorning the highest peaks in the Olympic and Cascade ranges, on those rare, clear days when said mountains were visible. Now the snow line is less than 2,000 feet above sea level.
I was forced to abort my Snow Lake hike this weekend. Just reaching the trailhead was quite difficult, and the beginning of the trail was buried under what must have been a foot of snow. This was fine, I thought. But plodding through snow is exhausting business, especially when more of it is falling – the one and only time snow in this region is light and puffy, like in Colorado. It generally holds your weight without any problems, but, when it’s new and not packed yet, you’ll break through every few steps, and have to pull yourself out before continuing on.
Worse, there’s a danger here, because you can’t see what’s beneath your feet. There are rocks along the trail, and it would be easy to sprain an ankle – making for a hellacious hike back to the car – by falling through the snow in just the wrong place. This idea sent me back to whence I came.
I have an old pair of snow shoes, thought about them briefly, and decided they wouldn’t be needed. Especially given that I was trying to reach a place called Snow Lake, I feel a bit like an idiot.
Volunteering at Lake Union Parks
November 13, 2009
Filed under Urban Parks
Tags: kayaking, lake union, parks, public service, seattle, volunteering
I kayak an awful lot, and almost always set out on (Seattle’s) Lake Union. Pretty often I’ll paddle up the shipping channel, and through the Ballard Locks to the sea – technically Puget Sound. Other days I’ll head out to Lake Washington, for a quick but often choppy crossing – if you’ve driven over the 520 Bridge, you know what I mean about chop. Still other days, I stay on Lake Union and practice my technical skills. There will be future posts on kayaking, but the point is that Lake Union is dear to my heart.
So I was fascinated to find the Eastlake neighborhood listing of parks and points of interest (POIs) on the web. Besides, I’ve loved geography and mapping since I was a kid, and the hand-drawn map (which I’m stealing, below) is great!
Lake Union and Portage Bay
The Dungeness Spit
November 12, 2009
Filed under Olympic Peninsula
Tags: dungeness, hiking, kayaking, ocean, Olympic Peninsula, salt water, sand spit, whale watching
Yesterday, Dave Pidgeon asked where a visitor with only enough time for a day hike should set out to, from Seattle. This is of course a very difficult question, and depends on the visitor’s taste, the time of year, and so on. For anybody who loves the ocean, however, it’s hard to pick a better hike than The Dungeness Spit.
A spit ( or sand spit ) is a long, narrow sand bar stretching out into the water. Essentially it’s caused by the waves pushing sand and other sediment around, but that won’t be on the test. What matters is that The Dungeness Spit is North America’s longest, amounting to about 1.3 million square yards. ( So says Wikipedia. )
From the Air
The spit is about a 5 mile hike in each direction, so a 10 mile round trip. Along the mainland shore are cliffs so that the grandparents can have a short walk, without reaching the point of exhaustion, and in the water are many, many kayakers at every time of year.
