Whiskey Bend

The SUPERBOWL is today!! What a wonderful match up too, eh? My head says Colts, my heart says Saints. Either way I think it'll be a dandy.

And sorry about last week, I just didn't have much to show you... and since I've been told by multiple people that I "write too much", I didn't think a story from a day in the life would be very appealing. Luckily, I've got a new batch of photos ready for this week from a little trip I took in to the park. The weather is starting to turn 'round these parts, sometimes even hitting 50 degrees. If that holds up (I'm not sure what the groundhog said this year), I'll be exploring around the park more and more.

Now, before you dive in to the photos I must admit that two weeks ago I flat out lied to you. I told everybody that the bumps on the trees at Kalaloch came from the infection of an insect. Not true. I'm not sure where I got that, but I vetted my information and discovered that the giant tumors are actually the result of uncontrolled cell division following some type of injury to the tree (usually caused by the wind, especially near the coast). Its an evolutionary reaction that puts the trees in a better position to survive after frequent storms, outlasting the weaker versions of themselves. There, my conscience is clean.

Yesterday I went to the Elwha region of the park (basically all the trails within the drainage basin of the Elwha River) to hike down Whiskey Bend to a set of rapids that fly through a rock formation called Goblin's Gate. Here's me just hangin' out havin' a great time by the overlook. Mom, you'll be happy to know that to get this shot I used my one of a kind portable tripod, which is awesome by the way.

What a wonderful way to show the basic geographical principle that it gets colder as you rise in elevation. The bottom portion where the snow starts is known as the "snow line", and is invariably 32º F.

We've started to do some trail work around the park, and the next two shots are perfect examples of what exactly we do. This first one shows a tree trunk that was originally stretched out across the trail, and now is chainsawed and rolled off. And the second shows a water drainage trail feature that we typically put in places that pool up rain.

It just drips with earthy tones.

A situation that would take some serious thinking about. This is a fork in the road with a giant tree stuck across both directions. Obviously we, nor Olympic's trail crew has been through yet...

Goblin's Gate... you can get a better idea for how it all flows and how powerful the Elwha can be through the video two slots down.

Turn you volume down...



How in the world...?

National Geographic, right? Nope... Mom, its the tripod.

I dare you to walk across...

How many trees can be in one place, seriously.

And how the heck did this rock get embedded in this tree? I mean, what is going on around here?

So, I was walking back to my truck when all of a sudden this little rodent starts to harass me. I'm not kidding, watch the video below, he kept chirping at me until I left. What's with that? I feel like Alice in Wonderland.

Picnic Tables vs. Chainsaws

Chainsaws. Beaches. Chaps. These are what dreams are made of. Could I have a cooler job? I don't think so, not really. On the very same day that I stood revving the engine of my chainsaw before taking it right to a doomed wooden picnic table, I also bumped up and down as I rolled by the piles of debris in my John Deere tractor.

On another day, weeks before, I toyed with the hydraulics of a standard issue bucket truck, scissoring seamlessly and effortlessly at the headquarters parking lot.

Can you believe that the government actually trusts me with these pieces of machinery?

Now tell me, would you hire me to chainsaw something of yours? See the firm grip? The steady eye? The natural control? Neither do I, but I'm still learning. As a matter of fact, we all had to take a half a day training course before we could use these puppies out in the field.

Just another day at work...

So we were at the Kalaloch region of the park... pronounced Clay-lock. Weird, I know. Anyway, here you can camp right next to the water watching a beautiful sunset if you're lucky enough for a break in the clouds.

Here is John and Rebecca, doing their duties. We basically were cutting these old tables up in to firewood and replacing them with new concrete ones.

I took a quick video... not the best quality, but you really get a feel for what we were doing. Everybody on this occasion was in their rain gear because it was pretty much storming that day. Doesn't matter, we're like the Postal Service.

Break time along the beach.

A sign at the park describes a particular insect that causes theses crazy looking bulges on some of the trees. Kind of looks like a snow man to me.

These trees were just blown away by the spectacular view.

An example of one of the campsites. I said it before and I'll say it again, Olympic has some really solid, well maintained campsites.

BLUE SKY!!!

In a curious fashion statement, Bailey has started to strut around like a common trollop in just a blue bandanna.

Snowshoeing to Hurricane Hill

Last weekend, for the first time ever, I went snowshoeing. I had to borrow all of my gear, but luckily everything had a one-size-fits-all kind of thing goin' on. Equipped with a set of shoes, poles, gloves, a cozy hat, and four friends, the day went really really well. The weather was relatively nice, hovering around 35-40 degrees with little to no wind, and the trail itself was an easy one.

Tell me I don't look like a natural.

So we were hoping to go to the end of Hurricane Hill, but it turned out that some of the snow had melted away, and I guess its bad to walk with snowshoes on solid ground. A couple people were telemark skiing, too, so taking off our stuff and hauling it didn't seem like a great option. Anyway, we saw what we were coming to see.

This is the visitor's center, which, when the road that leads up to it isn't too crappy, is open year round. On this particular day there were probly 20-30 people milling around, looking for this view and that view.

I love bird's eye view maps. Something like this, or this, or this. They're just so incredible to me, I duno, they just have that special something that makes you go, "wow, that's pretty cool". Anyway, as you can imagine, I really like this topographic 3D representation of the Olympic mountain range inside the visitor's center.

Looking ahead at the group.

You can see the snow is starting to melt. Doesn't bother me one bit, good riddance, I say.

Some explorer in some century or another passed by the mountains on a boat to the west of the peninsula and proclaimed them the Olympic Mountains because he was sure that the Greek gods of old lived atop them... this was all based on the clouds, which as you can see from the picture are something spectacular.

I should have rotated... don't they look awed?

See the land off yonder? That looks like Canada, ey?

In the very middle of the picture you can just barely make out a snowy formation called a cornice: kind of a hardened piece of snow hanging over an edge... usually created by heavy winds. Wouldn't want to step on that thing, it'd be a nasty fall. The top of that ridge is Hurricane Hill by the way, our final destination. Afterwards we turned around and headed back.

That's all for now.

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year

2010? Really? What do you call it? oh-10? Two-thousand and ten? 2K10? However you say it, it's going to be a great year... more wag and less bark, I say.

Have you made your resolutions yet? I was at work last week on a ladder cleaning gook out of gutters in the rain and I made mine. At first I was miserable, but then I thought of something: there's going to be a day when I'll be begging to be 22 and cleaning gutters in the rain. Maybe not today, maybe not tomorrow, but sure enough, some day. So that's it, I'm going to appreciate the little things, no matter how bad they seem now.

Anywho, I spent the holidays at home in Stow and had a grand ole time with my Dad, Barb, Robert, Taylor, Grandma, and a little bit of Victoria. I came a little late, though, and missed these two...

...aren't they precious? Now if you didn't know me or them, and I showed you this picture, and then I told you that the one on the right is in law school, and that somebody actually likes the one on the left enough to marry him, you'd call me crazy, right?

Here they are with padre, checking out the new office.

Sooooo angry that I missed this. Its like watching the first humans use tools. Andy looks like a big help...

But they did it! And it looks fabulous.

Meet Bailey... the newest Stief. 50% yellow lab, 50% German Shepard, 100% heart.

She really is pretty...

...But she is absolutely no help whatsoever when it comes to shoveling the driveway. Look at her? I'm toiling away and she is sticking her head in the snow.

Luckily I had some help.

Maybe my favorite part of the entire trip... nobody ever plays Monopoly with me! I can always count on Grams, though.

It was nice to see some wildlife in suburban Stow... apparently these deer are frequent visitors of the back yard. I tried to get a better picture, but as soon as I walked up next to them, they told me that they didn't want their pictures taken that close.

And before I left, I had to have a power meeting with Robert and Taylor... we're thinking about making some moves in the Southwest region, but we decided to wait until all the numbers come in. Flagstaff is on the rocks, let me tell you.

Speaking of Flagstaff, I went snow shoeing this weekend for the first time and it was a whole lot of fun... I'll put some pictures up next week.

Oh and just for kicks, here are some shots of the food I've been preparing myself lately.

This is the meat of a single Dungeness crab that I used to make this...

...a crab pot pie.

Then this is a steak dinner.

And finally some baked falafel.

I'm trying to cook lots of new stuff, so if anybody has any recipes they think I might like, please send 'em over.

Happy new year everybody!