Ridge Explorations

After the view of Rainier from Granite Mountain, we decided to get a bit closer. We drove to meet Ciel's friend Don in Greenwater, who directs an outdoor company that specializes in avalanche training, http://www.ridgeexplorations.com/

Don brought ice axes for all of us, as he knew there were some icy stretches on the north facing slopes we wanted to traverse. Most of the others we saw didn't have ice axes or even ski poles, and were taking a bit of a risk of a nasty fall (the sign at the visitor center said 4 people had fallen in the past month). One woman had an old ice axe about 5 feet long - it looked like the axes from Conraid Kain's days!

Ciel got a shot of the herd of killer mountain goats who were practicing trundling rocks down on unsuspecting hikers - but then they almost stampeded over her when the helicopter flying buckets of climber poop down from Schurman Camp got too close.

The tracks up to the summit from Schurman Camp were easily visible, but we couldn't see any climbers up on the hill. Oh well, they should have been down by that time of day anyway.

The best part of the day was eating ice cream cones back in Greenwater at Wapati Woolies. (I got Huckleberry, ciel got Moose Tracks, which apparently is a vanilla/chocolate thing).

-mark.

Ethiopian food

Needless to say we didn't ride our bikes to the horn of Africa

Granite Mtn. lookout hike

On Monday we drove a few minutes up I-90 and parked at the base of Granite Mountain (just outside the fee area, as there weren't any envelopes left to pay the fees with anyway!) and hiked up the trail through the big trees. Ciel forgot her water bottle, so we had to share the water in my hydration pack - it was just barely enough in the heat here. She's always saying how hot it is here, although it's not as hot as Grand Forks was - I guess she just doesn't expect it to be this warm in the Seattle area! Pretty good views from the top - Mt Rainier was the most obvious, but yesterday we hiked up Burroughs Mountain, just north of Rainier, for a much better view!

Photos are at Ciel's picasa pages...

-mark.

Snoqualmie Pass Rail Trail

We rode from Ciel's mom's place to the top of Snoqualmie Pass on the old rail grade, which is now Iron Horse State Park. It was 42km of 1-2% grades on the way up, so we made pretty good time. I felt like crap at first, as I hadn't been on the bike for a week, but the kinks eventually got worked out.

The best part was the tunnel at the top - at 4km long, it's pretty dark in the middle! There were also some people walking through the tunnel, and some of them didn't have lights - a bit nuts if you ask me! We had little MEC LED lights, which worked well enough, but brighter lights would have helped reduce the time needed to acclimatize to the dark. Might have blinded the others in the tunnel if I'd used my big 5W LED lights though!

There were a few old trestles on the trail, as well as a few climbing areas right beside the trail - I don't know that I'd want to climb knowing my belayer was standing on a busy trail and might have to suddenly dodge a bicycle!

Now we get to soak in the hot tub...it's a rough life, but someone's got to live it!

We're in the US!

Well, the border patrol let us in without hauling all the stuff out of the truck. At first we thought we picked the wrong lane, the gal was giving everyone in front of us a hard time it seemed. When she got to us, it was like, "don't you guys have jobs" and when she found out we were cycling in Australia it got much better for us. Turns out she's been there 6 times cause her son lives in Townsville, just south of where we are headed. She gave us advice to wake up in the morning to see the red kangaroos and be careful of crocs and road trains.

In Okanagon, Washington, we thought about hopping into the shipping container to save the cost of airfare... So, instead of going nowhere fast, I got myself a great americano at the Salmon Creek Coffee Company from Melanie who stayed open a little late for me, and we drove to Winthrop/Twisp area to see beautiful sights and a friend from university days.
We passed several more cyclists touring in this area, feeling a little guilty driving the truck loaded with all our stuff.

Twisp, Washington

We made it just in time to help evacuate my mom out of the hospital after a scheduled procedure! Scoring points helping mom! We even loaded her in the truck and Mark stuffed himself in the back of the truck. I insisted it was because he wanted to practice how to smuggle ourselves into Tibet come next spring...