Sat Aug 31 2013 a tropical forest.

Sat Aug 31 2013
Spend the day in a tropical forest.

But how to take a good picture of a dark
covered forest, with only a few rays of sunshine.

In the afternoon, joined the fantastic ranger walk,
an old wood logger for 30 years, who starts his
retirement today after 17 years in in ranger service.
And  now, I knows everything about .... 

Sitka Spruce
 Light and very strong wood
 Used for airplanes in WW I
 Silver colored, fish net pattern bark
 This one 270 ft heigh, 550 years old

Douglas Fir
 Very strong wood
 Very tick bast, tick enough for a hiding place for bats

Western Hemlock
 The trash of the forest

Nurselogs
 Fallen big trees. offers minerals, moisture
 and warmth for new seedlings.

 But only a few survive when the roots reach soil.
 New trees seems to stand on stilts as the nurselogs
 moulders away.

Mosses or epiphytes, feeding only air and light.
living on bigleaf maples trees

Fri Aug 30 2013 West of Seattle

Fri Aug 30 2013

West of Seattle


A day of extremes.
Last night, rain and fog. The brewpub, so famous
for the view on the harbor, missed it. Could not see
even the other side of the street.
And then this, morning a blue sky.
So, could see the top of the mountains.
And, an hour later I was from sea level, above
5000 ft. And a small hike to the local peak of
5699 ft. on Hurricane ridge. Above the snow.
With nice views on Strait of Juan de Fuca,
even Canada is visible.
And yes, this is snow, on the left.

 Good view on mount Olympia (about 8000 ft).

And then an hour later, I was standing in a
tropical forest.

Looking at a waterfall.

Ended up in vampire land.
For the people who know 'twilight'
Story was set in 'Forks'. The city in the US with
the most rainfall and damp climat.
Who would not believe that vampires are around here.....

P1120952

Thu Aug 29 2013 Seattle

Thu Aug 29 2013


The  farmers market in Seattle

 Or need a fresh fish

The Ferry from Seattle to the Olympic Peninsula.

And yes, it was raining....

Another passenger

Wed Aug 28 2013 Seattle

Wed Aug 28 2013
Seattle

Also here, the gold rush, made the city, nearly
overnight. And after a fire destroyed to complete
business center at the waterfront, they rebuild
it, with the strange plan to bring the hole city
one floor higher. So after the fire, the businesses
got an entry at the 1st floor. But a second entry
was designed at the 2nd floor, which is nowadays in
use. The underground, is mainly used for the tours
and the ghost tours.

Up to the "Pyramid Ale House", next to the Safeco Field.
But with a Baseball game just starting, it was too
crowded to even think about tasting.
And yes, plenty of other brew stops.

The Needle.
Chihuly the artist and creator of gardens of glass.
If you have a chance to see this, go for it. Magnificent.
You can (or could) see them in "de Young" Museum
in San Francisco.

The garden is just under the Seattle space Needle.

The Bill & Melinda Gates foundation, has an interesting
visitor center, just around the corner.

Later in the day.
Went to the post office to pick up a letter
from general delivery. Found out that this
service is only from 10 AM to 3 PM. 10 past 3
does not work. So the next morning, 5 to 10,
does not work. Then, they could not find the
letter. Express over night is not general
delivery. Took minutes to find this out.

And another 'service' story. Where do you try
to change Canadian dollars to US dollars, in Seattle.
First try in a bank. No they could not do it. Try
another bank. Next bank. There is only one qualified
person for that, and see is sick today. Next bank,
the qualified person was available, but they charge
5 dollars, and you have to show 2 ID's to change cache...
At least they where that friendly to tell that next door
there was an exchange office, for free (?) and no
ID's needed.

But Pike's brewery downtown, nearly next to the
hotel (coincidence ?), solved all problems.
The triple monk's uncle is really, really good.

Tue Aug 27 2013 The iron goat

Tue Aug 27 2013
The iron goat

The most bizare hike. In the middle of the forest,
big concrete walls.

The North Santa Fe railroad build in this area
a 9 mile zig zag to climb the mountain.
But several landslides and snow avalanches
needed extra protections. The concrete walls
protected for avalanches, and extra wooden
roofs supported by the walls protected for winter snow.

In 1910, snowslides delayed two trains at the town of
Wellington. A vast section of snow on Windy Mountain
broke loose and crashed down, sweeping both trains of
the tracks into the Tye River below. Nearly one hundred
lives were lost. This was one of the worst railroad
disasters in the nations history and prompted more
improvements to avoid such tragedy striking again.

The origin

I will make my mark on the
face of this earth
and no man will ever
wipe it out !
James J. Hill, founder and
president of Great Northern Railway
the "Empire Builder".

Sorry, nature has taken over most of
the trails, and the several feet tick
concrete walls will be gone 'relatively' soon.

And this is the official "toilet".
Just the seat, no walls, no roof.
The impressive view let you watch
the trains passing by in  the valley.

PS: I know, all you readers are smart enough
to just blend out the ads. But if you click on
an interesting AD, this could give me an extra
beer at the end the of the year.
Just trying out if this system even works.
And forward the interesting posts to friends.

Mon Aug 26 2012 North Cascade scenic loop.

Mon Aug 26 2012

Continues the North Cascade scenic loop.

A region with plenty of apple orchards, and wineries.

And there are so many dams and lakes on the
powerful Columbia river.

Sun Aug 25 2013 North Cacades

Sun Aug 25 2013

The North Cascade national park is mainly
an area of 3 dams and reservoirs, close to each other.

Gorge dam and powerhouse 1961, 300 ft, 175 MW.
As pictured yesterday.


Diablo dam 1929, 389 ft, 159 MW.
You can drive over the dam, and this is the reservoir
with Bakers peak in the distance.
(Another park I missed, need to come back....)

Ross dam 1969, 540 ft, 450 MW

Washington pass and mountains
Above the 5400 ft.

Finally, made another good hike.
Up to Pyramid lake and mountain, about 11 km,
from 307 meter to 1,131 meter. Was planning to
go to the peak, but see now that I would have
needed several more hours....
Good that a turned around after 2 hours, especially
when the terrain become to steep to be save.

Ended in Wintrop.
And the local "old schoolhouse brewery". Wooh.
Amazing what they have, the smooth weath,
the 'Ruud Awakening' and 'Imperial IPA'  are a must.
This is the culprit of no blog update, last night.

Sat Aug 24 2013 North Cascade

Sat Aug 24 2013

Crossed the border to the US.
3 minutes to enter Canada (so long, mainly due to a
bad internet connection), and 1 hour and 25 minutes
waiting time and 2 minutes inspection to enter
the US again.

After the city, back to the mountains.
To the North Cascade National park.

The first dam of a series, is Gorge dam and powerhouse

Stayed for camping, as long as the weather was good and dry.

Fri Aug 23 2013 Vancouver

Fri Aug 23 2013


Vancouver

Just wandering around.
Enjoyed much the chinese garden. The ying and yang,
very interesting guide, the explain the details
of the garden. (Just went a little but bit overboard
the say that all Japanse gardens and culture was just
a blind copy of the Chinese culture).

The Chinese garden has a special nomination by
national geograhic, and a can not compete with there
pictures.

The rest of the day, wandering around in Chinatown

wandering around the harbor, Stanley park, 
the iron gate bridge, took the ferry ....

And just stopped all my tracks when a saw the LaChouffe glass.
Needed to try a fresh tapped one, and a duvel, and a
Karmeliet.

Back to the hotel showed the problems of the big city.
Hard drugs, heroine, plain visible and close to the main street,
small trading of (stolen) goods and woman offering services...

Thu Aug 22 2013 Vancouver

Thu Aug 22 2013

Vancouver

Downtown, a good simple dinner, with a live
jazz music band performing.

Close to Chinatown, Gastown, the steamclock,
and Cauldron, the olympic flame.
Too many pictures to show

The busy float plane terminal, In the middle of 'downtown'.

Whale watching tour, aka Orca hunt
Where lucky to see a group of about 12
killer whales, playing in the water

Or waving his tail

Wed Aug 21 2013 Wistler Vancouver

Wed Aug 21 2013

Wistler
Vancouver

Wistler, the 2010 winter Olympic park,
was extremely busy. All ski lifts where
open, with large waiting lines.
Each other chair lift was replaced by a
mountain bike rack. And down hill mountain
biking was the big think.

Also the city is preparing for the Iron-man
this Sunday.

Continues on the Sky to the Sea road.
Lakes, waterfalls, mountains,...

Passed so many hiking trails (such as Garibalbi,
thanks for the tip).
Have a lot of reasons to pass by again.

Tue Aug 20 2013 The Sky to the Sea Hwy.

Tue Aug 20 2013
The Sky to the Sea Hwy.

Passing several lakes, and driving surrounded
by big mountains.

Any suggestions for Vancouver ?

Mon Aug 19 2013 Clearwater.

Mon Aug 19 2013
Clearwater.

Started with a road block. A few miles on the off
road way to Trophy mountain, the road was blocked
by a large fallen tree. Good that I'm prepared,
and with a good ax, and some help from the next
car, 20 minutes later the road was cleared.

Up to the meadows and Sheila lake.

Passing the small hut where John Ronacker lived for 20 years.
Looks poetic on a nice summer day

And of coarse the waterfalls in clearwater are the
main attractions.
One of son many pictures of the Dawson falls

Or you prefer the Helmcken falls
Remark the rainbow effect just left of the big fall.

And yes, the Chinook Slamon still try to jump the Bailey's chute.
No need to upload new jumps, I suppose.

Sun 18 Aug 2013 I day of waterfalls in Wells Gray Park.

Sun 18 Aug 2013

I day of waterfalls in Wells Gray Park.

Started my day after a good Belgian sugar
waffle (Liege) at one of the waterfall's.

And then a small hike to the Moul falls.

If there is a way down, I go.
But this is the first: if there is a
way behind (the waterfall) I go.
You really get wet, not from the fall,
but just the moisture.
Check the guy (me ?) behind the fall.

Next, I nice hike along Clearwater lake to the easter bluffs.
Nice green colors in the meadows.


Next

Bailey Chute where the chinook salmon end there
600 km journey up the Fraser, Thompson and
Clearwater Rivers. With their life-cycle drawing
to a close, the chinook attempt one last feat of
strength, hurling themselves fruitlessly up the chute.
This final leap is just too much and they have to
fall back down river to spawn and dies.

The first picture above was one of the attempts of the
a chinook salmon to jump. Got dozens of pictures and
video's ....

The chute is named after the engineer who worked on the
problem of bridging the violent river. Bailey drowned
in a boating accident, a tragic reminder of the river's
power and unpredictability.

Sat 17 Aug 2013

Sat 17 Aug 2013

Followed the 150 miles route, that most
gold rushers used to (mainly walk) the way
from the last steamboat stop after Vancouver
to Richfield (1 mile from Barkersville).

Then followed the 100 lakes route to Clearwater.

A landscape formed by volcanoes, glaciers, earthquakes
and the endless power of water.
The Spahats falls

Got only a sneak-peak today. More tomorrow.

One of the so many lakes along the way.

Fri 16 Aug 2013 Barkerville

Fri 16 Aug 2013

Wondered the whole day around in Barkerville
and Richfield, 1 mile further up the road.

The 'hanging Judge' Bergie and his deputy of Britsh Columbia
in front of the courthouse in Richfield.

And Barkerville is really active. In how many towns
can you still find a historically saloon, fully active.
And you see the 'Begbie Ale' ?

And what is a gold town without a fully operational
water wheel.  The demonstration showed the power
of the waterm to pump the mines empty, and lower
loads into or out of the mine.

End of a work day for the horses

And so many more pictures with the actors,
painless tooth extraction for 5 $,
gambling in Chinatown, the horses and carriages,
the historical shops, etc.
Only the internet is somewhat slow....