Celebrating Spring

Seems like this time of year, nearly every year, I hear complaints of Spring's late arrival. Of course, despite the abundance of rain and snow, Spring, like every other year, is, in fact, right on time. People just have short memories and start to confuse Spring with Summer.

Personally, I like how distinct Spring is at our northern latitude. It's unpredictable and exciting and builds anticipation for the easy warmth of Summer.

In celebration of Spring's arrival, and to reconnect with one another, we kidnapped our grumbling children, dragged them from their Winter hovels, and went for a walk. First we headed to my favorite place to walk in Riverside State Park, Deep Creek. The geology is fascinating, picturesque, and uniquely "Spokane" (and I'm not talking about the random pockets of garbage, which may not be unique to Spokane alone). Then we stopped downtown to admire the full force of Spokane Falls. I never tire of staring at the Spring runoff, hurtling down the falls, imagining what it must have looked like 100 years ago (and eons before that) as a wild river with salmon and nothing around but trees and grass.

I took some time to take photos and video, and even tried to do a little whizbang editing.

Ansel with indisputable evidence:





V taking a picture of me taking a picture of her. Photo-recluse Savanna is behind her.





Lazy afternoon, my favorite kind.





Emmy afloat in the waves of basalt near Deep Creek.





Looking up the Deep Creek Canyon. Good practice for Southern Utah this Summer.





The purple gondola.





A great and familiar landmark.





The base of the Monroe Street Bridge.





Mist and sunlight go well together.





Ansel climbing the "tooth" in Riverfront park. What a great kid.





City hall ivy.





Upriver with rainbow.





Back home on our hillside the glacier lilies are in full force.





Trying the calamari at the new Ciao Mambo.





Finally, a quick video. My attempt to capsulize the power of the river in the Spring so I can enjoy it the other 11 months.



Regrettably, many times the seasons pass without taking time to savor and appreciate them. This year at least, I can say I enjoyed Spring.

More Winter Adventure

I finally got out into the backcountry with some friends last week.  The weather was great and the snow was nearly perfect.  A couple of us spent the night at a little cabin and skied the next day as well.  

Zealots.

Looking west.

Lunch and map break.

The crew refueling.

Navigating.

The shelter.

Snow Peak from the shelter.

The south end of the ridge.

Getting beta on the east side.

Southeast view.

Drying hut.

Roasting.

Sundown.

Front door.

Sunrise.

On the trail to the peak.

Wind load on the eastern slope.

Looking north from the top.

Another look to the west.

Monday I skied at Lookout Pass in nearly 3 feet of new snow.  First time I've skied in snow that deep--above my knees.  The terrain at Lookout isn't too steep, which made getting down a bit more of a challenge.  The trails on chair 3 were loads of fun, with heavy snow filling tracks before you could get around for another lap.  I think I've officially caught the bug with the late season rally of snow we've been having.

3 Days of Snow

I worked the night shift over the week between Christmas and New Years, finally finishing the morning of January 2nd.  It was a hard week.  I did not sleep well knowing there were piles of light new snow and sunshine outside that everyone else was enjoying while I was banished to the darkness of the long December night.

But Sunday afternoon, after finishing a deserved post work nap, there was still some blue sky left.

We took the kids to explore Hog Canyon which contains a lake and a nice step waterfall at its north end.  The lake and waterfall are frozen right now making it an even more interesting trip.

We had never been there before, so it was a nice mini adventure reading about it and searching it out.  The lake is south west of town about 30 miles, about the perfect distance for a bike camping destination in the warmer months.

Monday school began for the kids.  V and I dropped them off and headed up to Mt. Spokane where we hit the cross country trails.  It lightly snowed as we made our way around Quartz mountain.  After stretching our legs and working up an appetite, we got reacquainted over Thai food downtown.

Then today we mixed things up a bit and, after dropping the kids at school, headed to the east end of Lake Couer d'Alene.  Mineral Ridge is well known as a Winter nesting area for bald eagles, and it didn't disappoint as we took in a hike around the hill side.

We spotted at least 20 bald eagles, some perched in trees, some swooping graciously over the lake, and a few with catches of fish.  V did a better job of documenting them with photos than I did. 

Then we enjoyed another lunch at a bistro in Couer d'Alene I can't remember the name of as it seemed I was dreaming as I ate...

I'm sure we'll have another thawing rain soon, clearing the highway shoulders so tentative winter cyclists like myself can ride again.

Bringing in Winter on Mica Peak

Harwood and I decided to finally make it to the top of Mica Peak, regardless of weather.  I'm not sure if it was a bike ride or a hike.  Either way, I'm calling it epic.

Harwood has lived off the western ridge of Mica for a year and attempted to find his way to the top once last summer but the maze of fire roads, deer trails, and no trespassing signs stopped him.  We started up the road with the idea of finding a trail that would take us to the top.  We made progress up the mountain through some brutal-at-times bushwhacking, but finally relented and found a spur road that led us back to the main summit road.

The route as tracked by the GPS that got us there and back:



We both embraced the cold and wet, deciding that the adventure was much better than being warm, dry, and bored at home.

Going up was the easy part.

Obligatory summit photos so that we can prove we made it:

 We lamented that with all the clouds and snow we couldn't enjoy the view and headed down quickly.  By the time we were below snow level we were shivering under a crust of ice with useless, block-like hands and feet.  We stopped to try to warm up but only succeeded in getting soaked to the bone and tasted the grit in our teeth from the fenderless slog back to Harwood's house.  All in all a morning well spent.

Warming up in the car, documenting the dirt on my face:

Looking all of my 38 years in this one.

The consensus is that next Spring/Summer we ride the road to the top and do recon on the way down to find an all dirt route back to Harwood's. 

A parting shot of how my large mountain bike barely squeezes onto the rack:

Now onto my next "great idea".