Saturday, July 30, 2005
Grandma says "Thank You"
My grandmother just recorded this message in appreciation of all the well-wishing that's been done on her behalf.
Friday, July 29, 2005
Still in Alaska
I'm still in Alaska, but headed home the day after tomorrow. Hopefully not that Day After Tomorrow, though. I realized I hadn't taken a picture of my parent's house, so I did so today from the road.
My Parents' House
I'd never gone further down Edby Road, the road my parents live on, during the two years I'd lived here or during any of the visits. So, with trusty dog at hand, I did. I was surprised how many other roads and houses were back there. I never knew.
I walked a couple of miles on the back roads tonight. It smells of burning spruce trees everywhere today. There were massive forest fires last year in Alaska that made most of the state covered in smoke for much of the summer. Some of those fires smoldered away all winter in the bogs only to blaze up again this year. The smoke I was smelling tonight is from fires that are burning hundreds of miles away. It's enough that there's a haze over the hills and the sun is dimmed enough to look at directly. It looks like a glowing red ball in the sky. But don't let me just tell you, take a look for yourself. I took a picture of that, too.
Smoke and the Sun
My Parents' House
I'd never gone further down Edby Road, the road my parents live on, during the two years I'd lived here or during any of the visits. So, with trusty dog at hand, I did. I was surprised how many other roads and houses were back there. I never knew.
I walked a couple of miles on the back roads tonight. It smells of burning spruce trees everywhere today. There were massive forest fires last year in Alaska that made most of the state covered in smoke for much of the summer. Some of those fires smoldered away all winter in the bogs only to blaze up again this year. The smoke I was smelling tonight is from fires that are burning hundreds of miles away. It's enough that there's a haze over the hills and the sun is dimmed enough to look at directly. It looks like a glowing red ball in the sky. But don't let me just tell you, take a look for yourself. I took a picture of that, too.
Smoke and the Sun
Wednesday, July 27, 2005
Longhorn Beta on Connect
It's so incidentally to the main point of these news stories, but the newly released beta of Windows Longhorn (as Windows Vista) is directing people to the site my team has built to host beta programs:
http://www.hardwaregeeks.com/comments.php?shownews=3407
http://news.softpedia.com/news/Get-Ready-for-the-Longhorn-Beta-Testing-4592.shtml
http://www.techspot.com/news/18025-Longhorn-Beta-starts-rolling.html
http://www.hardwaregeeks.com/comments.php?shownews=3407
http://news.softpedia.com/news/Get-Ready-for-the-Longhorn-Beta-Testing-4592.shtml
http://www.techspot.com/news/18025-Longhorn-Beta-starts-rolling.html
Monday, July 25, 2005
Grandma-isms II
About how the dog will eat just about anything: "She'd eat your feet if they weren't hooked on."
Anger Management
I took my grandmother back to the clinic again today so they could draw some more blood. I swear they have vampires working in the back and won't be satisfied until she doesn't have any left.
Afterwards, we went for some lunch and I had the opportunity to chat with her for well over an hour. We talked a little about tempers and how people in our family handle getting mad. Apparently my grandfather (now gone some twenty years) and I had the same kinds of terrible, hot tempers. Grandpa, at fourteen, apparently blew up at his mother, though, and said some things to her that he regretted for a long time. At that point, he resolved that he would never again let his temper get the better of him. Grandma tells me that he did a really good job of that and never or rarely did. I went through a similar awakening at about sixteen when I realized that my temper was costing me far more than I ever gained from it. I haven't always been able to keep it under control, but it's rare when it gets the best of me and every time it does it reminds me why I need to be more careful.
My grandfather wasn't the only one with a temper on that side of the family, though. He had a sister, Mamie, that had quite a terrible temper, but unlike my grandfather, she seemed to enjoy it. Grandma described to me today how my aunt Mamie would go over to her grandkids house and get in a fight over something within ten minutes. Even though she might have been asked to stay over, she'd get out of there late at night and stomp home. Along the way, every block or so, was a relative of some sort. The grandkids would call my grandmother and tell her, "Mamie's mad and she's headed home. Watch for her."
So my grandparents would watch for Mamie and once she'd stomp by, they'd call the next relatives up the block and tell them, "Mamie's mad and she's headed home. Watch for her." And so it would go, block after block, until Mamie made it home, safely watched over by all her relatives all the way home, mad as hell, and with no idea that people were looking out for her every step of the way.
There's a lesson in there for all of us.
Afterwards, we went for some lunch and I had the opportunity to chat with her for well over an hour. We talked a little about tempers and how people in our family handle getting mad. Apparently my grandfather (now gone some twenty years) and I had the same kinds of terrible, hot tempers. Grandpa, at fourteen, apparently blew up at his mother, though, and said some things to her that he regretted for a long time. At that point, he resolved that he would never again let his temper get the better of him. Grandma tells me that he did a really good job of that and never or rarely did. I went through a similar awakening at about sixteen when I realized that my temper was costing me far more than I ever gained from it. I haven't always been able to keep it under control, but it's rare when it gets the best of me and every time it does it reminds me why I need to be more careful.
My grandfather wasn't the only one with a temper on that side of the family, though. He had a sister, Mamie, that had quite a terrible temper, but unlike my grandfather, she seemed to enjoy it. Grandma described to me today how my aunt Mamie would go over to her grandkids house and get in a fight over something within ten minutes. Even though she might have been asked to stay over, she'd get out of there late at night and stomp home. Along the way, every block or so, was a relative of some sort. The grandkids would call my grandmother and tell her, "Mamie's mad and she's headed home. Watch for her."
So my grandparents would watch for Mamie and once she'd stomp by, they'd call the next relatives up the block and tell them, "Mamie's mad and she's headed home. Watch for her." And so it would go, block after block, until Mamie made it home, safely watched over by all her relatives all the way home, mad as hell, and with no idea that people were looking out for her every step of the way.
There's a lesson in there for all of us.
Sunday, July 24, 2005
Chena River on a Kayak
This afternoon I got my dad out of the house and onto the Chena River for a couple hours on a kayak.
Afternoon on the Chena River
There's a place about halfway across town that rents kayaks, canoes, and bicycles. It's locate directly on the Chena River, which winds it way around and through town. A few miles downriver is the Pumphouse, a restaurant located directly on the river (and where I had my first job, working as a dishwasher for about a year when I was seventeen.) I got a good picture of my dad on his bright yellow kayak.
Dad in a Kayak
It was really a gorgeous day for it. The summers in Alaska (when it's not down around 45 degrees out) are really beautiful. It was a little overcast here and there and there were some threatening stormclouds in the distance, but the rain held off until we were done with the kayaking and had our early dinner. Just look at this sky.
Chena Sky
For a river in the middle of Alaska, there was plenty of traffic, though. There were a number of homemade floats that were constructed as part of a Golden Days event and although our launching point was the landing point for most of them, a few kept going and we would pass them by. The friendliest people we met were not on a float at all, though, but rather in a couple of little rubber boats. This woman with her dog and her daughter (who was off to the left) chatted with me and my dad for a bit. Her daughter kept offering us different kinds of food, which we refused until she offered watermelon. They had a third raft with a cooler in it. Then the mom got a cell phone call (how un-Alaskan!) and we went on ahead faster.
Company on the Chena
The largest of the boats that travel up and down the river are the classic riverboats. Some of them are even steam powered, like the Discovery I, II, and III that cart tourists up and down the Chena and the Tanana, the much larger river the Chena joins just a couple miles from my parents' house. The one I show here is the Tanana Chief and I think is owned by someone other than the Discovery people. Mark Twain would be so pleased to see these boats still around.
Tanana Chief Paddleboat
As I mentioned, we put ashore at the Pumphouse, where a shuttle came to get the kayaks. Lunch was merely mediocre and overpriced. I did, however, get some nice photos of the well-kept flower garden out front. I'm glad we got out of doors today. It would have been far too easy to just sit inside and monkey around with the computer.
Garden at the Pumphouse
Afternoon on the Chena River
There's a place about halfway across town that rents kayaks, canoes, and bicycles. It's locate directly on the Chena River, which winds it way around and through town. A few miles downriver is the Pumphouse, a restaurant located directly on the river (and where I had my first job, working as a dishwasher for about a year when I was seventeen.) I got a good picture of my dad on his bright yellow kayak.
Dad in a Kayak
It was really a gorgeous day for it. The summers in Alaska (when it's not down around 45 degrees out) are really beautiful. It was a little overcast here and there and there were some threatening stormclouds in the distance, but the rain held off until we were done with the kayaking and had our early dinner. Just look at this sky.
Chena Sky
For a river in the middle of Alaska, there was plenty of traffic, though. There were a number of homemade floats that were constructed as part of a Golden Days event and although our launching point was the landing point for most of them, a few kept going and we would pass them by. The friendliest people we met were not on a float at all, though, but rather in a couple of little rubber boats. This woman with her dog and her daughter (who was off to the left) chatted with me and my dad for a bit. Her daughter kept offering us different kinds of food, which we refused until she offered watermelon. They had a third raft with a cooler in it. Then the mom got a cell phone call (how un-Alaskan!) and we went on ahead faster.
Company on the Chena
The largest of the boats that travel up and down the river are the classic riverboats. Some of them are even steam powered, like the Discovery I, II, and III that cart tourists up and down the Chena and the Tanana, the much larger river the Chena joins just a couple miles from my parents' house. The one I show here is the Tanana Chief and I think is owned by someone other than the Discovery people. Mark Twain would be so pleased to see these boats still around.
Tanana Chief Paddleboat
As I mentioned, we put ashore at the Pumphouse, where a shuttle came to get the kayaks. Lunch was merely mediocre and overpriced. I did, however, get some nice photos of the well-kept flower garden out front. I'm glad we got out of doors today. It would have been far too easy to just sit inside and monkey around with the computer.
Garden at the Pumphouse
Fairbanks Golden Days
My grandmother is doing a lot better today, although we did need to take her back to the walk-in clinic to deal with some nausea problems. As I write this, she's sleeping just across the room. Stresses are running high here and I think it's a good thing I'm around to try to keep folks a bit calm and allow my parents to still go about their normal lives a bit.
On the way to the clinic, I dropped my dad off at the local convention center where he was committed to playing on the Fairbanks Community Band float in the Golden Days Parade. When he saw there were three other trombone players, he tried to back out of it and go with me to the clinic, but they kind of insisted, as apparently he's the only one of them that knew the second trombone piece. I think it's better he did it, as my mom and I were more than enough at the clinic. He enjoyed it and got to relax, which he needed. While I'm jumping ahead a bit, here's a great shot I took of him on the float (I had to get pretty close!) He's in the floppy hat.
After the clinic, my mom took my grandmother and headed toward home, so I walked up the street to where the parade would go by, which was all of a block from the clinic.
The parade grandstand was much further, probably a half-mile, but it was interesting that taking pictures seems to let you just walk in the street, cross back and forth, and generally get in the way without consequence. I got down to the grandstand and continued taking pictures there. I took about ninety of them, and I'm including some of the best ones that give the feel of the parade here.
The Golden Days event is a big deal for Fairbanks, as it commemorates the discovery of gold in the area by Felix Pedro on July 22, 1901, which was followed by the incorporation of Fairbanks as a town about a year later. This city wouldn't exist without Pedro's find.
For the week of the celebration, many people dress in early 1900s clothing, such as the woman pictured here with the long dress and fishnet stockings. Some of the men wear old-style garb as well, but they are more rare and are usually in journalism or politics. In the parade, though, the notable exceptions come out.
One float was set up to look like an early saloon, complete with gamblers. I got a good picture of them, and they were only too happy to pose and wave for me.
If you look closely, you might even notice the guy had a full house, fours and fives. Not a bad hand. I hope he wasn't cheating, as there were some floats with guns and even cannons on them.
I've actually realized I like the horses that you see in parades, and especially when there are Clydesdales. I think my fascination with adventure means that I really wish I had a horse that I could ride from place to place. Somehow that just seems like it would be much more satisfying. Better gas mileage, too.
Not everyone had the big horses, though. There was a little miniature horse pulling a cart with some kids in it, although I can't remember what that breed is called. There was also this fellow shown below, dressed up as a classic northern prospector and leading a mule. His gold pan is visible strapped onto the mule's back.
Incidentally, this picture reminds me that blue jeans have been around a long time and that they were originally designed for coal miners, who were very tough on their clothes. The sturdy, utilitarian clothing of the most downtrodden blue-collar working class has become the defacto standard for all of America.
With that, I have one last picture to share. Apparently, even in Alaska celebrating the 103rd anniversary of the discovery of gold, there's always some guy dressed up as Elvis. That he's a native Alaskan just makes this picture absolutely priceless.
On the way to the clinic, I dropped my dad off at the local convention center where he was committed to playing on the Fairbanks Community Band float in the Golden Days Parade. When he saw there were three other trombone players, he tried to back out of it and go with me to the clinic, but they kind of insisted, as apparently he's the only one of them that knew the second trombone piece. I think it's better he did it, as my mom and I were more than enough at the clinic. He enjoyed it and got to relax, which he needed. While I'm jumping ahead a bit, here's a great shot I took of him on the float (I had to get pretty close!) He's in the floppy hat.
After the clinic, my mom took my grandmother and headed toward home, so I walked up the street to where the parade would go by, which was all of a block from the clinic.
The parade grandstand was much further, probably a half-mile, but it was interesting that taking pictures seems to let you just walk in the street, cross back and forth, and generally get in the way without consequence. I got down to the grandstand and continued taking pictures there. I took about ninety of them, and I'm including some of the best ones that give the feel of the parade here.
The Golden Days event is a big deal for Fairbanks, as it commemorates the discovery of gold in the area by Felix Pedro on July 22, 1901, which was followed by the incorporation of Fairbanks as a town about a year later. This city wouldn't exist without Pedro's find.For the week of the celebration, many people dress in early 1900s clothing, such as the woman pictured here with the long dress and fishnet stockings. Some of the men wear old-style garb as well, but they are more rare and are usually in journalism or politics. In the parade, though, the notable exceptions come out.
One float was set up to look like an early saloon, complete with gamblers. I got a good picture of them, and they were only too happy to pose and wave for me.
If you look closely, you might even notice the guy had a full house, fours and fives. Not a bad hand. I hope he wasn't cheating, as there were some floats with guns and even cannons on them.
I've actually realized I like the horses that you see in parades, and especially when there are Clydesdales. I think my fascination with adventure means that I really wish I had a horse that I could ride from place to place. Somehow that just seems like it would be much more satisfying. Better gas mileage, too.
Not everyone had the big horses, though. There was a little miniature horse pulling a cart with some kids in it, although I can't remember what that breed is called. There was also this fellow shown below, dressed up as a classic northern prospector and leading a mule. His gold pan is visible strapped onto the mule's back.
Incidentally, this picture reminds me that blue jeans have been around a long time and that they were originally designed for coal miners, who were very tough on their clothes. The sturdy, utilitarian clothing of the most downtrodden blue-collar working class has become the defacto standard for all of America.
With that, I have one last picture to share. Apparently, even in Alaska celebrating the 103rd anniversary of the discovery of gold, there's always some guy dressed up as Elvis. That he's a native Alaskan just makes this picture absolutely priceless.
Friday, July 22, 2005
A Values Based Organization
Our group at work (about 250 employees or so) has just been informed that the leadership team has completed figuring out what the three top values are key to our becoming a values based organization. The team has settled on, "Excellence, Collaboration, and Integrity." After a little wry humor at the expense of this decision, I'll discuss what I think we could have selected that would have been better.
First of all, it's great to see we are in fine company. The Albany Medical Center, California Polytechnic, the Muncie, Indiana Center Township Trustee’s Office, and the Le Bocage International School are just a few examples of other organizations that share this vision. On the other hand, by adopting these values, we may be locked out of other endeavors.
Dennis Nyback tells us that by not striving for mediocrity, rather than excellence, we may not have success in creating Hollywood movies. I've had trouble finding anyone who suggests that a lack of integrity is a good thing. I don't have to look far to find a culture that's generally the opposite of collaboration, as we have that right at home at Microsoft in our ingrained competitive culture. I compete with my peers for review scores, bonuses, and stock grants already, as we are reviewed annually on a curve. No matter how good you are at your job, if your peers are better, you get the low review score.
From that perspective, collaboration as a value for our organization seems relatively reasonable, although it will be a tough sell because when the rubber meets the road, Microsoft's all about competition. It seems like in the process of picking three values for our organization, we totally wasted two of the slots. Who, at least at an organization like Microsoft that at least tries to screen for excellence in the hiring process, isn't going to already have excellence and integrity as goals in their jobs? Don't you think this would come out in plenty of other ways such that those people would be gone from the organization in short order? Of course, many very advanced organizations have picked integrity as a core value they wish to express explicitly. A read through Man on a Mission, a blog of mission statements, reveals many instances of integrity as a stated value. (Incidentally, that's a blog that is well worth reading if you are involved in establish vision or mission statements for an organization.)
It seems to me that if we are going to stick with only three values as our focus, we've wasted two of the slots on things people are going to do anyway. So, if I can get behind collaboration, but not excellence and integrity (remember, just as stated values, not as values in general!) what would I replace them with? If I don't offer up alternatives, I'm just whining, after all.
Ownership: When faced with a problem, whether it's a customer issue, an organizational inefficiency, or some other sort of issue that can be corrected, an employee should exhibit ownership. That is, he should follow the discovered problem through to resolution, even if he is not the one to fix the problem personally. It's easy to refer a customer to a support alias and then forget about the problem. It's hard, but valuable to the organization, to watch that customer issue and make sure the problem is truly resolved, not delivered into the void somewhere leaving the customer dissatisfied. The same goes for other types of problems as well.
"Coventuring": The word "coventure" isn't in the dictionary. Rather, I took that from Why Not?, a book I read on the flight to Alaska on Wednesday. In the final chapter on how to persuade others to pursue the great ideas developed by using the techniques described earlier in the book, the authors describe coventuring as the process of convincing the target audience to become constructive critics interested in overcoming the obstacles with you rather than applying knee-jerk objections to dismiss the ideas. I imagine a culture where employees don't need to go through the persuasion process because the target audience naturally adopts a coventuring approach to new ideas as part of the organizational values, where the automatic answer to an innovative, "I have an idea" is "How can I help?"
Some might argue that these are just two more ways to say collaboration. Perhaps they are, but they are actionable facets of collaboration that really mean something and are a change to the day-to-day behaviors exhibited in our organization (and many others.) At worst, we end up with three overlapping values rather than one indistinct value and two that should be present by default. As I've said before in my post on synergistic goals, some level of overlap between goals is part of a recipe for greater success.
The group that did this work is intelligent, creative, and well-intentioned. That I think they could have done a better job shouldn't be taken that I think less of them - vision and mission development is a very tough task, ripe for Dilbertesque scenarios. At least they didn't settle on, "Quality is Job SP1."
First of all, it's great to see we are in fine company. The Albany Medical Center, California Polytechnic, the Muncie, Indiana Center Township Trustee’s Office, and the Le Bocage International School are just a few examples of other organizations that share this vision. On the other hand, by adopting these values, we may be locked out of other endeavors.
Dennis Nyback tells us that by not striving for mediocrity, rather than excellence, we may not have success in creating Hollywood movies. I've had trouble finding anyone who suggests that a lack of integrity is a good thing. I don't have to look far to find a culture that's generally the opposite of collaboration, as we have that right at home at Microsoft in our ingrained competitive culture. I compete with my peers for review scores, bonuses, and stock grants already, as we are reviewed annually on a curve. No matter how good you are at your job, if your peers are better, you get the low review score.
From that perspective, collaboration as a value for our organization seems relatively reasonable, although it will be a tough sell because when the rubber meets the road, Microsoft's all about competition. It seems like in the process of picking three values for our organization, we totally wasted two of the slots. Who, at least at an organization like Microsoft that at least tries to screen for excellence in the hiring process, isn't going to already have excellence and integrity as goals in their jobs? Don't you think this would come out in plenty of other ways such that those people would be gone from the organization in short order? Of course, many very advanced organizations have picked integrity as a core value they wish to express explicitly. A read through Man on a Mission, a blog of mission statements, reveals many instances of integrity as a stated value. (Incidentally, that's a blog that is well worth reading if you are involved in establish vision or mission statements for an organization.)
It seems to me that if we are going to stick with only three values as our focus, we've wasted two of the slots on things people are going to do anyway. So, if I can get behind collaboration, but not excellence and integrity (remember, just as stated values, not as values in general!) what would I replace them with? If I don't offer up alternatives, I'm just whining, after all.
Ownership: When faced with a problem, whether it's a customer issue, an organizational inefficiency, or some other sort of issue that can be corrected, an employee should exhibit ownership. That is, he should follow the discovered problem through to resolution, even if he is not the one to fix the problem personally. It's easy to refer a customer to a support alias and then forget about the problem. It's hard, but valuable to the organization, to watch that customer issue and make sure the problem is truly resolved, not delivered into the void somewhere leaving the customer dissatisfied. The same goes for other types of problems as well.
"Coventuring": The word "coventure" isn't in the dictionary. Rather, I took that from Why Not?, a book I read on the flight to Alaska on Wednesday. In the final chapter on how to persuade others to pursue the great ideas developed by using the techniques described earlier in the book, the authors describe coventuring as the process of convincing the target audience to become constructive critics interested in overcoming the obstacles with you rather than applying knee-jerk objections to dismiss the ideas. I imagine a culture where employees don't need to go through the persuasion process because the target audience naturally adopts a coventuring approach to new ideas as part of the organizational values, where the automatic answer to an innovative, "I have an idea" is "How can I help?"
Some might argue that these are just two more ways to say collaboration. Perhaps they are, but they are actionable facets of collaboration that really mean something and are a change to the day-to-day behaviors exhibited in our organization (and many others.) At worst, we end up with three overlapping values rather than one indistinct value and two that should be present by default. As I've said before in my post on synergistic goals, some level of overlap between goals is part of a recipe for greater success.
The group that did this work is intelligent, creative, and well-intentioned. That I think they could have done a better job shouldn't be taken that I think less of them - vision and mission development is a very tough task, ripe for Dilbertesque scenarios. At least they didn't settle on, "Quality is Job SP1."
Grandma-isms
My grandmother says some of the funniest things. I don't know where they come from, if it's stuff that used to get said all the time, whether it's from her eighty-something years in Texas, or what, but they are always just funny as anything and incredibly difficult to remember later.
I'm posting this immediately so I don't forget: "They don't keep enough bread around here to put in your eye."
If I catch any more of them, I'll post 'em.
I'm posting this immediately so I don't forget: "They don't keep enough bread around here to put in your eye."
If I catch any more of them, I'll post 'em.
Today in Alaska
It's a weird thing to wake up in the morning and head off to work not knowing that you'd go to sleep that night in your childhood bedroom thousands of miles away. Just to give you an idea of just how far, take a look at this map from Yahoo! when I punched up the driving directions:
Bellevue to Fairbanks
Yeah, I flew, so it took only about five hours plus transit time getting to and from airports, but still. I bought my ticket and was on the plane about nine hours later. (Incidentally, the Alaska Airlines MVP program is awesome - I was upgraded to first class for free on both legs of the trip.) I arrived in Fairbanks a little after 1am, then went and found my mom's car in the parking lot where my parents had left it for me. While a few highway connections had changed, I didn't really have any problem finding my way to their house. Nobody woke up when I let myself in except for Lily, their dog, whose kennel is now in my old room.
Lily
I spent most of the daytime with my grandmother, whose current illness is what brought me up here. Her spirits seem much raised over yesterday, so perhaps my visit is a boon to her. After getting really upset yesterday, I think she is likely to get through this and be just fine, but she needs some closer attention the next week and it's a lot for my parents to do because of their other commitments.
My dad seems really happy to see me, and I know I'm really happy to see him, even if it is under less than desireable circumstances. His stress levels had pretty well hit the roof and my arrival has helped ease that substantially. I'm thinking that coming up here this time is already proving to be as much for him as for my grandmother.
Fortunately, my manager at work is being very understanding. I will likely change my ticket to stay through next weekend and work out some things I can do remotely this week, effectively telecommuting.
The mix of emotions coming back to Alaska, where I spent most of my teenage years and where I graduated high school, is always hard to describe. I was very happy to leave here, as it was time to get some more exposure to the wider world. I'm happy to come back to visit, though, especially in the summer when it's beautiful weather. (I say beautiful, which in this case is low 40s at night, low 70s during the day - I can hear Olympia shivering from her perch some 5000 miles from here.) With my more recent return to more outdoors activities, I have a new appreciation for the location of my parents house. Just look at this picture, taken near there just today. (Although I have to say, even the large size of this picture you'll see by clicking on it just doesn't do it justice.)
Denali in the Distance
When my mom got home from work today, I had dinner with my dad. That's always entertaining, because it's much more fun to talk to him face-to-face than over the phone, especially when you get a couple drinks in him. After that, I went and walked with Lily for almost seven miles, starting and ending at my parents' house. Since it's July, it's basically light all night. Even as I write this at 1am local time, it's still light out. I took a picture of the road I was walking down at 10pm, and I didn't edit it to add any light to it.
Melanie Road, Fairbanks, Alaska, 10pm, July 21
Another interesting thing about being here is the way that as I walked down various roads and cars would pass, roughly half the time, the driver would wave at me as he went by. I'd make sure Lily was properly reined in and wave back. I didn't know any of these people, they were just being neighborly. A guy walking a dog down the road in their area is pretty much assumed to be a neighbor and someone you should wave at.
Finally, I'll leave you with one more photo. By no means do all the houses in Alaska look like the one pictured here, but this one was just so prototypical Alaskan, I just had to snap a picture of it and share it. A log cabin with snowshoes, a canoe, an Weber kettle grill - it's just classic.
An Alaskan Home
Bellevue to Fairbanks
Yeah, I flew, so it took only about five hours plus transit time getting to and from airports, but still. I bought my ticket and was on the plane about nine hours later. (Incidentally, the Alaska Airlines MVP program is awesome - I was upgraded to first class for free on both legs of the trip.) I arrived in Fairbanks a little after 1am, then went and found my mom's car in the parking lot where my parents had left it for me. While a few highway connections had changed, I didn't really have any problem finding my way to their house. Nobody woke up when I let myself in except for Lily, their dog, whose kennel is now in my old room.
Lily
I spent most of the daytime with my grandmother, whose current illness is what brought me up here. Her spirits seem much raised over yesterday, so perhaps my visit is a boon to her. After getting really upset yesterday, I think she is likely to get through this and be just fine, but she needs some closer attention the next week and it's a lot for my parents to do because of their other commitments.
My dad seems really happy to see me, and I know I'm really happy to see him, even if it is under less than desireable circumstances. His stress levels had pretty well hit the roof and my arrival has helped ease that substantially. I'm thinking that coming up here this time is already proving to be as much for him as for my grandmother.
Fortunately, my manager at work is being very understanding. I will likely change my ticket to stay through next weekend and work out some things I can do remotely this week, effectively telecommuting.
The mix of emotions coming back to Alaska, where I spent most of my teenage years and where I graduated high school, is always hard to describe. I was very happy to leave here, as it was time to get some more exposure to the wider world. I'm happy to come back to visit, though, especially in the summer when it's beautiful weather. (I say beautiful, which in this case is low 40s at night, low 70s during the day - I can hear Olympia shivering from her perch some 5000 miles from here.) With my more recent return to more outdoors activities, I have a new appreciation for the location of my parents house. Just look at this picture, taken near there just today. (Although I have to say, even the large size of this picture you'll see by clicking on it just doesn't do it justice.)
Denali in the Distance
When my mom got home from work today, I had dinner with my dad. That's always entertaining, because it's much more fun to talk to him face-to-face than over the phone, especially when you get a couple drinks in him. After that, I went and walked with Lily for almost seven miles, starting and ending at my parents' house. Since it's July, it's basically light all night. Even as I write this at 1am local time, it's still light out. I took a picture of the road I was walking down at 10pm, and I didn't edit it to add any light to it.
Melanie Road, Fairbanks, Alaska, 10pm, July 21
Another interesting thing about being here is the way that as I walked down various roads and cars would pass, roughly half the time, the driver would wave at me as he went by. I'd make sure Lily was properly reined in and wave back. I didn't know any of these people, they were just being neighborly. A guy walking a dog down the road in their area is pretty much assumed to be a neighbor and someone you should wave at.
Finally, I'll leave you with one more photo. By no means do all the houses in Alaska look like the one pictured here, but this one was just so prototypical Alaskan, I just had to snap a picture of it and share it. A log cabin with snowshoes, a canoe, an Weber kettle grill - it's just classic.
An Alaskan Home
Wednesday, July 20, 2005
Heading North
Yeah, I'm in Seattle, which is already pretty northern, but there's always Alaska. I'm heading out tonight for Fairbanks. My grandmother is very sick with an uncertain near-term future and my father's under a lot of stress. He even said he needs my help, which is a big step for, well, anyone from our stubborn, independent, never-ask-for-anything family.
I'm hoping Grandma will pull through, but illness is always touch-and-go with people in their late nineties, like she is. I'm taking my laptop, so I'll post more along the way.
I'm hoping Grandma will pull through, but illness is always touch-and-go with people in their late nineties, like she is. I'm taking my laptop, so I'll post more along the way.
Synergistic Goals
"Synergy" is an incredibly overused word in the business world, but sometimes it makes sense to use it. I have a case where that's the case.
I'm developing a new theory that the reason that some people are incredibly successful is not so much about having goals that are individually more difficult to achieve, but rather that they find ways to have their goals around otherwise disparate activities play off one another. In other words, they develop a synergy between those goals.
This blog and my hiking activities are an example. I started blogging to get better at writing, both in terms of the quality of my writing and the ability to overcome the inertia that blocks me from writing in the first place. In the last year, I've made great strides in both areas, although the quality goal is not as directly measurable by me.
My hiking and the new Seattle City Walk project are designed to establish a regular exercise program. Goals such as hiking every hike in a particular guidebook or walking every street in Seattle are great SMART goals.
What I've noticed, though, is that I've been enthusiastic about blogging because I enjoy describing my hiking and sharing the pictures. At the same time, there have been several times already where I considered turning back on a hike because I was tired, but kept at it and completed the entire hike because I thought about how much better a blog entry about a completed hike is compared to an incomplete hike. Despite the lack of a direct connection between the two activities and their goals, I've effectively created one and each is more satisfying than what they would be individually.
Imagine how powerful an effect this synergistic increase in value would be if I had, say, six goal-oriented activities, all of which built upon each other. Perhaps this is how deeply successful people become that way.
I'm developing a new theory that the reason that some people are incredibly successful is not so much about having goals that are individually more difficult to achieve, but rather that they find ways to have their goals around otherwise disparate activities play off one another. In other words, they develop a synergy between those goals.
This blog and my hiking activities are an example. I started blogging to get better at writing, both in terms of the quality of my writing and the ability to overcome the inertia that blocks me from writing in the first place. In the last year, I've made great strides in both areas, although the quality goal is not as directly measurable by me.
My hiking and the new Seattle City Walk project are designed to establish a regular exercise program. Goals such as hiking every hike in a particular guidebook or walking every street in Seattle are great SMART goals.
What I've noticed, though, is that I've been enthusiastic about blogging because I enjoy describing my hiking and sharing the pictures. At the same time, there have been several times already where I considered turning back on a hike because I was tired, but kept at it and completed the entire hike because I thought about how much better a blog entry about a completed hike is compared to an incomplete hike. Despite the lack of a direct connection between the two activities and their goals, I've effectively created one and each is more satisfying than what they would be individually.
Imagine how powerful an effect this synergistic increase in value would be if I had, say, six goal-oriented activities, all of which built upon each other. Perhaps this is how deeply successful people become that way.
Tuesday, July 19, 2005
Don't Let it Bring You Down
When I'm working on my laptop late at night, as I have been tonight, I sometimes put in a movie as background noise, which seems to help me focus somehow. I threw in "American Beauty" last night and noticed that the song "Don't Let it Bring You Down" caught my attention. In the movie, it's performed by Annie Lennox, although I didn't recognize her right off.
A search on MSN Music got me the song's various covers and informed me it was originally written and performed by Neil Young. If you want to hear a real contrast in two different performs, listen to the clips of Annie Lennox and Neil Young performing this same song. I think mayhaps Neil should stick to writing for others, although I know plenty of people seem happy to hear him sing.
A search on MSN Music got me the song's various covers and informed me it was originally written and performed by Neil Young. If you want to hear a real contrast in two different performs, listen to the clips of Annie Lennox and Neil Young performing this same song. I think mayhaps Neil should stick to writing for others, although I know plenty of people seem happy to hear him sing.
Seattle City Walk Begins
I started my Seattle city walks today with a 5.4 mile walk near the south side of Lake Union. I've started a separate blog site called Seattle City Walk to record my efforts.
Combined with my hikes from the weekend, that's 23 miles of walking in three days.
Combined with my hikes from the weekend, that's 23 miles of walking in three days.
Monday, July 18, 2005
A New Exercise Project?
One of the problems I've always had with maintaining a regular exercise routine is that exercise purely for the purpose of exercise (and its attendent benefits, like weight loss, general conditioning, and the like) leaves it difficult for me to see the goal. The absence of immediate feedback headed toward a meaningful goal, where you can see the progress every single time would be incredibly helpful.
I've thought about different kinds of targeted goals that might allow for that feedback. My goal to hike every one of the hikes in a particular guide book is one. That has my weekends well-occupied, but so far, that's the only exercise I get with any regularity. I've thought about goals like bench-pressing ten or a hundred tons, a hundred pounds at a time, or doing ten thousand sit-ups, but those things still bore me and I don't have any real mental investment in achieving the goal.
However, this weekend I read in Backpacker magazine about Caleb Smith, who completed the New York City Walk. You can read details at his website, but the short version is that he walked down every single street in all of Manhattan, over 700 miles and over roughly 2.5 years. This struck me as exactly the sort of goal I need, except I live in the Seattle area instead of New York City. Hiking various trails usually has to wait for the weekend, but as Smith points out, after work there are often hours of daylight. Since it's the city, rather than woods or mountains, even after dark you can still make progress. You can also make progress even if you only have an hour available.
As far as I can tell, no one is doing a Seattle city walk, although there are a few other comprehensive walks going on in various parts of the country right now. So, starting as early as tomorrow, I will begin one. I've sent email to Barbara Gray of the Seattle Department of Transportation to see if the maps I found online are the right ones to work from and just how many miles of streets Seattle has. Hopefully she'll get back to me promptly, but I'm not going to wait to be absolutely sure. I can keep track of what I've done until I have the right map.
I'm also going to take a lot of photos, since I'll then have a comprehensive look at the entire city. I'm excited to start, but it's exercise. How cool is that?
I've thought about different kinds of targeted goals that might allow for that feedback. My goal to hike every one of the hikes in a particular guide book is one. That has my weekends well-occupied, but so far, that's the only exercise I get with any regularity. I've thought about goals like bench-pressing ten or a hundred tons, a hundred pounds at a time, or doing ten thousand sit-ups, but those things still bore me and I don't have any real mental investment in achieving the goal.
However, this weekend I read in Backpacker magazine about Caleb Smith, who completed the New York City Walk. You can read details at his website, but the short version is that he walked down every single street in all of Manhattan, over 700 miles and over roughly 2.5 years. This struck me as exactly the sort of goal I need, except I live in the Seattle area instead of New York City. Hiking various trails usually has to wait for the weekend, but as Smith points out, after work there are often hours of daylight. Since it's the city, rather than woods or mountains, even after dark you can still make progress. You can also make progress even if you only have an hour available.
As far as I can tell, no one is doing a Seattle city walk, although there are a few other comprehensive walks going on in various parts of the country right now. So, starting as early as tomorrow, I will begin one. I've sent email to Barbara Gray of the Seattle Department of Transportation to see if the maps I found online are the right ones to work from and just how many miles of streets Seattle has. Hopefully she'll get back to me promptly, but I'm not going to wait to be absolutely sure. I can keep track of what I've done until I have the right map.
I'm also going to take a lot of photos, since I'll then have a comprehensive look at the entire city. I'm excited to start, but it's exercise. How cool is that?
Wilderness Peak
Crossing Shy Bear Marsh
This is the first time I've done two hikes in the same weekend, and it was seriously challenging. Originally, I was thinking about going after Mount Dickerman again, but two "Most Difficult" hikes within two days seemed like asking for trouble. Wilderness Peak was listed as a merely "Difficult" trail, 6.2 miles long and about 1300 feet in elevation gain.
It was a truly gorgeous day, if perhaps a little hot, in the mid-eighties. The hike was a reasonable one for exercise, although there was little unique to photograph and virtually no views. There's a little side spur to a place called "Long View Peak" although considering the absence of any actual view aside from peeking through some trees nearby, it seems misnamed.
I had high hopes that Wilderness Peak, perched as it is on the south side of Cougar Mountain, would have a view of Mount Rainier, but like it's nearby cousin, it's pretty much surrounded by trees. The peak itself is pretty much a small cleared spot with a bench. I sat there for a bit resting before the final two miles down the side of the mountain, very steep with a lot of switchback.
It was still a good time, though. My next hike will probably be in two weeks, since I'm in a training session all next weekend. I think I'll be planning for something a little more spectacular, although they don't have to be that way.
Sunday, July 17, 2005
Myrtle Lake
Myrtle Lake
Saturday (that is, yesterday) was a pretty darn good day. I hadn't set my alarm clock in the morning, so I didn't wake up until about 10:45am. I guess I needed my sleep. After some slow puttering around the apartment, I got myself together enough to have breakfast while looking through one of my hiking guide books, in this case, Beyond Mount Si, as it targets hikes with shorter drives and I knew I'd be starting out later in the day. I settled on Myrtle Lake, which is out I-90 in the area of North Bend, Washington.
This particular hike is a little longer than what I would call my "comfort zone," which seems to be about eight miles with up to 2000 feet of elevation gain. Instead, the round trip to Myrtle Lake is about 11 miles with about 2800 feet of elevation gain. The first mile or so is the steepest, but thereafter it's still a challenge, as the trail is muddy or wet in a lot of places. I saw very few people on this trip, although one group of four really gave me a scare. I was crossing a streambed, watching my step pretty closely when I heard a low growling from right in front of me. It was four people and two dogs, and the dog leading the way was apparently none-too-pleased to be coming face-to-face with me.
Myrtle Lake Lunchroom View
The remainder of the hike up to the lake was otherwise uneventful and largely without spectacular views, as the trail is nestled deep in the forest and generally seems to follow a creek bed. Once at the lake, I picked my first possible spot to eat lunch and quickly found I was going to be lunch instead. Mosquitos and some kind of small flies absolutely swarmed all over me and within five minutes I'd pretty much decided to simply head back down without a break. Fortunately, there was a young couple camped up at the lake and when I asked if I could bum some bug spray from them, they were happy to help me out. After a brief chat with them, I found a good place to eat lunch, not at the lake itself but over the creek just below it. Two fallen trees made a natural bench with a downstream view I captured with my camera. I spent something like a half-hour there, munching on some peanuts and reading Backpacker magazine.
Creek Crossing near Myrtle Lake
About 6:30pm, it seemed I'd have just about time to be back to my car by the time it got dark. Sunset was officially at 8:59pm, but it tends to get dark earlier in forested valleys like this one. I had a completely different kind of scare on the way back down when I went to check my GPS receiver, which I keep clipped up near my left shoulder to maximize reception, and it was gone. That's nothing like sudden growling, but suddenly missing a several hundred dollar device deep in the woods is still pretty upsetting. Since I check it pretty frequently, I figured it couldn't be more than two-tenths of a mile back, so I turned around and headed uphill again, slowly and looking carefully. Happily, I found it, nestled in the rocks at the creek crossing pictured here. On further reflection, I remembered hearing an odd click as I was tottering across the rough terrain. I've already added an extra lanyard to my gear that provides a failsafe to the GPS' regular clip.
The last mile or so, the really steep part close to the trailhead, was really tough as I was pretty well wiped out and steep downhill can be as stressful, although in a different way, as steep uphill. I was really at the limits of my endurance by the time I made it back to the car and very happy for leather bucket seats and an air-conditioner set to a very low temperature.
The drive home had one other little event. As I was coming down the forest road, there was a pair of headlights (it got dark right about when I got to the car) canted over at forty-five degrees on the opposite side of the road. This guy had gone too close to the edge of the road and planted the right side of his truck into the ditch and was unable to get out. With a little manouvering on the road and chaining him up to the tow hitch on my Jeep, though, we got him out of the ditch and on his way. I was home about 10:30pm, took another shower, had a little to eat, and soon thereafter headed to bed. As I said when I started this narrative, a pretty darn good day.
Friday, July 15, 2005
Worst Office Location Ever
Maybe you can't really see it well from this photo, but at a nearby mall, this is how you get to the restaurant director's office. To the right is his office door. To the left is the entrance to the women's restroom. Further to the left, off camera, is the entrance to the men's restroom. All three open into a single room with a bare concrete floor and a couple items (like the chairs and plant) that try to make it more pleasant.
What an awful place to put an office. Now I like mine better.
Thursday, July 14, 2005
Alone in the Office
There was a division-wide "all-hands" meeting today. When our whole division gets together like that, it's a big deal. I'm not sure how many people that is, but it involves long lines of huge buses taking people from the main campus to Qwest Stadium, home of the Seahawks, in downtown Seattle.
I didn't go. We've had two other big meetings, one for Server Feedback Systems (about 250 people) and one for Windows Server (about 2200 people), each of which is a subset of the division. Instead, I was in the office getting an incredible amount of work done with few distractions. Only the vendor developers, who don't go to employee events like that, and our internal customers from other divisions were around, the latter only on the phone or email. OK, there were a couple of other full-time employees who skipped out on it, but they seemed to be also enjoying the lack of distractions.
The all-hands was also all-day. It's interesting how the team can set a tight schedule, not knowing that an all-day event will be set by a vice president, but when that schedule is missed, few remember the days lost to that kind of stuff. No matter. I've been to others like this and I think I ended up more satisfied not going this time. Alone in the office is sometimes just what the doctor ordered.
I didn't go. We've had two other big meetings, one for Server Feedback Systems (about 250 people) and one for Windows Server (about 2200 people), each of which is a subset of the division. Instead, I was in the office getting an incredible amount of work done with few distractions. Only the vendor developers, who don't go to employee events like that, and our internal customers from other divisions were around, the latter only on the phone or email. OK, there were a couple of other full-time employees who skipped out on it, but they seemed to be also enjoying the lack of distractions.
The all-hands was also all-day. It's interesting how the team can set a tight schedule, not knowing that an all-day event will be set by a vice president, but when that schedule is missed, few remember the days lost to that kind of stuff. No matter. I've been to others like this and I think I ended up more satisfied not going this time. Alone in the office is sometimes just what the doctor ordered.
Wednesday, July 13, 2005
Skyline Loop Route
My Skyline Route
I pulled this off my GPS receiver. The receiver is a Garmin GPSmap 60CS. The underlying map is from Garmin's MapSource.
JAlbum & Skyline Loop
Roberto had suggested the Java-based JAlbum to me for creating photo albums. It's pretty sharp! I'm still using Picasa to do the basic photo edits, then sending just the photos I want to have appear in the album to a separate folder, but that's not so bad. It's a good thing that disk space is pretty cheap.
The first album I've created with JAlbum is the Skyline Loop album I mentioned I'd be building in an earlier post. How do you like?
The first album I've created with JAlbum is the Skyline Loop album I mentioned I'd be building in an earlier post. How do you like?
Tuesday, July 12, 2005
My Office at Starbucks
My Office at Starbucks
One thing I like about the work I do is that it's largely mobile. When I'm doing work in the evening (or sometimes even during the day, depending on what I'm doing) I do so on my laptop at the Starbucks in Bellevue. I think it's a pretty nice office. There are usually a lot of people around, so my habit of observing others gets a good workout. I've also noticed that I actually focus more on my immediate task when there are some distractions around. It's almost like part of my mind needs to be engaged with general "stuff" so that the currently working part can be more directed on the work part.
Where do you work best?
Monday, July 11, 2005
Skyline Loop, Mount Rainier National Park
Skyline Loop, Mount Rainier National Park
I guess I've lost my marbles over this hiking thing. I got up at 7am, earlier than I normally do to go to work. I was out the door by 8:30am, which is about when I'd leave for work, but I did a couple things to prepare for the day that I wouldn't normally do. Then I drove 100 miles (each way) to hike in Mount Rainier National Park for six miles in inclement weather, unable to get the usual stunning vistas that can be seen on a clear day. All that, and I had a perfectly good time. Crazy, really.
I haven't had a chance to get to the photo album creation yet, but I'll post again in the next day or two when I do. In the meantime, the photo above really captures the feel of the hike today. It was wet and rocky on a trail winding up to well above the treeline, twisting its way to and into a cloudy sky. My GPS tells me my I climbed about 1845 feet to a maximum elevation of 7065 feet, roughly half the height of Mount Rainier's summit, which is a bit over 14,000 feet. I travelled about 6.7 miles in horizontal distance.
It's interesting that when I first started doing this hiking thing, five or six miles was a pretty long hike and challenging. Now, today's hike seemed almost short. Nine or ten seems to be about right for me, and even that's growing as last week's trip to Goat Lake was longer than that and I recovered from that pretty quickly.
The new hiking boots also worked out really well. I think I bought those just in time, as today's trail was pretty rocky. There were a few points where I aimed for a bunch of specifically pointier rocks just to test out the soles of the boots. What an amazing difference! My now discarded Thom McAn's would have left me feeling every spike - I swear I could read Braille through those things. The new Timberland's, though, are tough stuff and dealing with rocks was only about balance, not pain. OK, I guess there was still a little pain, as they aren't fully broken in yet, although I wore them to work a couple times this week and that seems to have helped.
Another big difference between a Mount Rainier hike and a hike like Goat Lake was the number of people present. There were huge buses unloading people at the bottom. For the first mile or so after leaving the parking lot, the trails are actually paved. It feels a little silly walking along behind some guy carrying nothing and wearing sandals on his feet when you have on hiking boots and are carrying a pack that weighs about 12 pounds (like mine) containing enough gear you could spend an uncomfortable but safe night out in the wilderness if you had to. This particular trail goes up pretty high, though, so after a bit the only people left around were a Boy Scout troop, some people practicing mountaineering by climbing through snowpack instead of on the trail, and a few other folks in groups of one to three. The last bit is again on pavement (since it's a loop) and then there were points I had to say, "Excuse me" a few times to get through a big knot of young Japanese tourists clustered on the trail with umbrellas.
Anyone actually reading this far will have noticed I wrote, "snowpack" in that last paragraph. Yes, it's July and I walked through some snow at one point. According to the park rangers, the snow level is currently at about 8000 feet, but there are still pockets of snow down as far as about 6000 feet, including on the Skyline.
All-in-all, this was a good hike, but not a great one. I'll need to try it again on a clear day and add in the side hikes that are available, like Pebble Creek, to put some extra distance on it. Then, I expect it will be great.
Nude Clowns on Stilts
No, I'm not going to share a picture, but in recent email discussion list message, this guy named Russell used this phrase:
"...and nude clowns on stilts coming out of the woodwork in a loathsome 'show of solidarity'…"
The subject matter of the email hardly matters. All I could do was laugh!
"...and nude clowns on stilts coming out of the woodwork in a loathsome 'show of solidarity'…"
The subject matter of the email hardly matters. All I could do was laugh!
Friday, July 08, 2005
Dinner with Kyle
Tonight I went the The Cheesecake Factory for dinner. (Owned by Overtons and now with a 6-carb cheesecake on the menu!) I went there alone and it was pretty crowded, so I headed for the bar, which has open seating. Well, should have open seating anyway. The closest thing to an open seat was that there was a guy sitting at one of the table alone with three other chairs there.
Being as shy as I am, I would never presume to ask someone if I could join them at a table that would make it look like we were there together.
Moments later, sitting at the same table as this fellow, I read my magazine until he was done with his menu and was just kind of looking around waiting for the waitress to come back. I started with something clever, like, "You know, if conversation with a total stranger that just sat at your table is better than eating alone in silence, I'd be up for such a thing." So, we had dinner and a conversation.
His name is Kyle, he works for Progressive Insurance as a claims adjuster, and he was in the area working for a week or so. He returns home Friday to Anchorage, Alaska. We chatted about the merits and demerits of buying houses, outdoor activities, and living in Alaska. (I lived in Alaska through most of my teens for those that don't know.) All-in-all, pretty pleasant and much better than eating alone.
Too bad I'm so shy.
Being as shy as I am, I would never presume to ask someone if I could join them at a table that would make it look like we were there together.
Moments later, sitting at the same table as this fellow, I read my magazine until he was done with his menu and was just kind of looking around waiting for the waitress to come back. I started with something clever, like, "You know, if conversation with a total stranger that just sat at your table is better than eating alone in silence, I'd be up for such a thing." So, we had dinner and a conversation.
His name is Kyle, he works for Progressive Insurance as a claims adjuster, and he was in the area working for a week or so. He returns home Friday to Anchorage, Alaska. We chatted about the merits and demerits of buying houses, outdoor activities, and living in Alaska. (I lived in Alaska through most of my teens for those that don't know.) All-in-all, pretty pleasant and much better than eating alone.
Too bad I'm so shy.
Ian's Recent Predictions
Ian has recently predicted a couple of things that I find wholly unlikely. I'm going to relate them here and keep an eye on whether they come true or not.
- We're going to see a global chain reaction collapse of the financial-economic system in either July or August, probably July.
- Lyndon LaRouche will win the presidency in 2008. (Not sure how if the first one comes true.)
Sunday, July 03, 2005
Goat Lake
Goat Lake, July 2, 2005
Yesterday saw my longest day hike, at least since I was in Boy Scouts as a teenager. I've put up an album of the pictures. The day promised to be overcast, so the original plan, to tackle Mount Dickerman again and achieve the summit this time was set aside for a hike that would be interesting without require long distance visibility at the end. Thus, Goat Lake.
I had company this time. Gaurav, who had joined me for last week's trip to Bearhead Mountain, came along and brought three of his friends, Sachin, Harish, and Krishna. (I'm hoping I'm spelling of their names correctly. Guys, when you read this, please feel free to correct any errors.)
The raw data of the trip is that we had about 1400 feet of elevation gain with a round trip of 12.3 miles. The guidebook gave the distance as 9.5 miles, but that was from the trailhead and assumed we would take the Lower Eliot trail the entire distance. Unfortunately, the Mountain Loop Parkway is completely washed out about a quarter mile from the turn-off for the fire road that leads to the trailhead. The fire road itself is another mile or so long. Finally, on our return trip, we took the Upper Eliot trail, which is a bit longer than the Lower Eliot, although it's in way better condition.
The Lower Eliot trail itself was washed out just a quarter mile in, but we were able to pick our way along the creek bed and recover the trail only a few hundred feet later. The remainder of the Lower Eliot saw numerous obstacles with fallen trees and extensive overgrowth. Despite these problems, we were in general agreement that we picked the best choice - Lower Eliot out and Upper Eliot back. My posted photo album captures a general sense of the problems with the trail.
In addition to being the first hike I've taken over ten miles since taking up hiking regularly again, this one also convinced me that I'm serious enough about hiking that some better hiking boots are in order. As such, I've now retired my Thom McAn boots that I picked up for $30 in a Walmart in Hawaii. They are being replaced by a pair of Timberlands with a much stiffer sole. I've had enough of feeling every pointy rock I step on right through the soft soles of the Thom McAn's. I'm looking forward to breaking them in, perhaps as early as tomorrow.
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