CABLE LINE

Last night's sunset from the summit of Tiger

Jodi and I have often hiked West Tiger 3 trail.  3 miles, 2,000 feet of elevation gain, a good workout.  You push, it pushes back.  We’ve huffed and puffed it many times.

About 6 weeks ago Justin introduced me to the Cable line trail. It’s sort of like West Tiger 3.  Starts a little further away, but ends in the same place.  The only difference?  It’s half as long.  1.5 miles.  Straight up, not a single switch back.  2,000 feet in 1.5 miles.  It’s brutal.  Every step is up.  up. up.  And it’s rocky and slippery. An absolutely miserable trail.

But every Wednesday for the last 6 weeks we’ve been hiking it after work.  Each time it hurts a little less.  The goal is to do it in one hour, and we’ve been pretty much hitting that each time.  Last night was 54 minutes, a record for me.

As we neared the top, just as I was feeling good about the pace, a fellow came up and passed me quite handily and seemingly effortlessly.

Going down cable line is good to do on occasion, but it isn’t without risk as it’s fairly steep.  Not steep enough to get seriously injured in a fall, but steep enough where a slip could lead to a minor fall (done that) or a twisted ankle.  Last night we went down the West Tiger 3 trail — with all the switch backs. A groomed trail, it’s better in the dark.

A great couple of hours of exercise topped off by a steak sandwich at the Roanoke for the final two innings of the world series.

Coming home, walking down the dock, I saw ‘Norm’, our resident great blue heron.  He politely moved aside down a finger pier and we passed about 5 feet from each other.   His beak comes up to about my chest.  For the millionth time I had that thankful feeling of living in the northwest.  The opportunity to work a full day, get out for a strenuous hike, then come home to the salt water and having to side step around a great blue heron.

Great day.

 

WATER, MOUNTAINS, FALL COLORS AND THE 2 B's

I’m behind again in blogging.  What else is new?

A couple of weekends ago we had an epic weekend.  On Saturday morning we headed across the sound for a morning cruise over to Poulsbo.  Coffee and breakfast underway, can’t beat it.

Poulsbo is one of those destinations that never gets old.  It’s got the “2 basic B’s” well covered.  A good bakery and brewery.  Or, in the afternoon, a good brewery and bakery.  Sluy’s bakery has a heavenly apple fritter and Volholl brewery churns out a decent IPA.  Add to that a fun German restaurant and it’s kinda fun.

On this trip however we were debuting a new model.  We rented a car.  A nice little black SUV type thing.  After securing the car upon arrival, we then toured the town, relaxed, and before long it was dinner time at the German restaurant.

One small highlight of the day was observing the ‘Moon Jellyfish’ swarm.  Thousands, if not millions of Jellyfish.  More than one person asked ‘what is their purpose’?  Why so many?  Don’t know.  Other than to make me glad I’m not a Jellyfish.  They are one of the few animals with only one bodily  orifice. Which means whatever they eat is excreted (ok., pooped) through the same hole.  EWWWWW!  Again, glad to not be a jellyfish.  

Moon Jellyfish swarm

Sunday morning we made the obligatory stop at Sluy’s then headed up the peninsula, across hood canal, then over to the eastern slopes of the Olympics.  Our destination was Marmot ridge, using the ‘Big Quilcene’ trail.  Getting there involved taking ever smaller roads and the last 9 miles were on a one lane dirt road.  The SUV came in handy.

I hadn’t been feeling top notch all morning, but we started on a trail that was agreeably, but relentlessly, up.  We started just above 2500 feet and we’d top out at around 6000 feet just over 5 miles later.  The hike was truly beautiful and Jodi enjoyed herself immensely.  I, on the other hand, began to feel lousy.  With each passing step my head cold took root and my energy level began to
flag.

Up top I rested a bit and we had a good lunch.  The views were terrific, I just wish I could have enjoyed them more.

The way down was good, but I couldn’t wait to sit down and rest.  It was nice to descend from an alpine environment down to more of a rain forest.

The mushrooms were out and they put on a nice show.

Once back at the car we headed back to the boat.  We had gotten off to a bit of a late start and my slow hiking had put us further behind.  It was Sunday afternoon, getting late, and we had to drop the car off.

By the time we untied Cambria and headed home, it was well after  sunset.  Fortunately it was a dead calm evening with a near full moon.

We retraced our path from Saturday morning.  Out of Liberty bay, up through Agate Pass, around the north end of Bainbridge and Pt Monroe, then across the sound to Shilshole.

I recall doing this in high school and college - that was before electronic navigation.  We didn’t have Loran, no Radar, well prior to GPS and the AIS system.  We had a compass, a depth finder and binoculars.  It is SO MUCH easier nowadays!!!

The crossing was dark, but beautiful.  With no freighters on the AIS system and no targets on the radar, save for a distant tug, it was an uneventful crossing.

Docking was easy and by 9:30 we were tied up in our home slip.  Not a bad way to go.

I just wish I would have felt better!!