Late Fall Cabin Fever

It has been a chilly and dry late Fall.  Last weekend there were single digit temperatures, severe windchill, and no decent snow in the vicinity.  Despite some grand designs earlier in the week, we decided to stay home.  However, by Sunday afternoon, knowing I'd be working the next weekend, I had developed a severe case of cabin fever.  So I decided to take a walk across the hill above our house.

 

A week earlier I had forced the kids to come on a walk with me along nearly the same route.  I was careful not to call it a hike or even a walk so that it didn't seem like a punishment.  Instead I called it an adventure, an "explore."  When they asked how long we would be walking I told them we would keep walking until they saw 10 deer or 10 interesting things.  They didn't much care for this requirement so they immediately began trying to negotiate a deal.  Was a coyote worth two deer?  How much were birds or chipmunks or the moose worth?  Is a rock considered interesting?

Most of their proposals were shot down though I did agree that a coyote would be worth about 3 deer.  Deer have been far fewer this fall, I'm not sure why, and we didn't see any.  So we kept walking.

Over the course of our exploration the kids did discover part of a deer antler, a dead baby deer skeleton, a piece of a coyote's jaw with several sharp molars still intact, and several striped feathers that I'm not sure what kind of bird they are from.  We also found an old metal washtub and a rusted 5 gallon paint can.  They almost fulfilled the "10 interesting things" requirement, but not quite.  As the sun started to sink in the sky, I figured this was a pretty good haul and we headed back.

Near the top of the hill there is a barbed wire fence surrounding several large fields, along the edge of the palouse.  I spotted two hunters mounting a tree stand on the far side of the fence, looking into the forest where we were.  I waved and one waved back.  We were probably ruining their chances of getting a kill, but I'm not sure why they were hunting so close to town.  They even had a four wheeler in case they got something.  I'm not against hunting, but I don't like lazy hunters near my house.

On my walk I was hoping I'd have more success since I could move quicker and scramble across steeper sections of the hill that I hadn't wanted to drag the kids across.  Fresh, untapped territory.  Perhaps I moved too quickly because I didn't find as many small artifacts as the kids.  Instead I found big things, like this felled tree with its bark "skeleton" left behind.

 

Or this lonely basalt outcropping in the middle of a nice stand of trees.  I had my GPS with me and took a waypoint.  I was tempted to make a little geocache, but since it is on private land it didn't make much sense.

 

I also found a little tributary stream off Hangman Creek.  It was frozen (the white stuff is ice).

 

I also came across a short trail that connects a small private road off of Hangman Valley road and S Southfork Ln. 

Before long the sun hung low in the sky and, despite my short list of "finds" for the day, I figured it was time to head home.  I laughed to myself that I wasn't able to fill the required list of 10 things myself, though actually completing the list wasn't the point. 

Ironically, however, on my way back, near the top of the hill where I had seen the hunters several days earlier, I startled a group of about 10 deer and slowly herded them north.  I smiled and laughed to myself again--good thing they weren't here the other day, otherwise the walk with my kids would have been too short and at least one of the deer could have ended up in pieces in someone's freezer.

I sure hope it snows soon.

 

Christmas Shopping with Ansel

Last Saturday I took Ansel Christmas shopping.  We went to the Children's Corner Bookshop which is a locally owned kid's bookstore in the mall that we go to quite often when we're out downtown.  He likes to play with this little mix and match bear that they have open for kids to play with.  Every time he picks it up he has to piece together the following combination:

 

And then he says:  "the bear is dressed for church but he doesn't want to go."
 

Birthday Hike

 

On the first in-town-day-off in three weeks, we finally had a birthday celebration of sorts.  Since it was "my day" I chose to force the kids on yet another family hike.

I read somewhere recently that there are something like 75 lakes within three hours of Spokane.  I haven't done any formal fact checking about that claim, but I imagine it is plausible.  Saturday we took in yet another of said lakes--Lower Lake Stevens which is situated in the Idaho Panhandle National forest (southern edge of Coer d'Alene NF and northern edge of St. Joe NF) at the Idaho-Montana border.

Circumstance smiled and after a rainy Friday, Saturday promised blue sky with a few scattered clouds.  Temperatures were in the upper 40s in the morning, mid 50s by the afternoon.  Fortunately or unfortunately, we were headed up in altitude where the high was expected to reach a balmy 34.

  

  

  

The kids did a good job of not complaining during the hike--even Savanna.  Emmy, however, couldn't help but complain about cold feet, cold hands, and a cold face.  She is forever underdressing and we've stopped forcing her to bundle up.  We paid for it this time with her fragile tears and uncharacteristic frown.  They don't know it, but they're being groomed for summer backpacking (if we're lucky possibly even to the Enchantments in the North Cascades).

  

Vanessa was satisfied with the scenery which offered ample photo opportunities, but lamented the mid day light which is always a challenge when taking photos. 

 

I, in the meantime, have been spending all my free time growing ever more facial hair.  I may start scaring small children soon.  

  

Here is a tree on  the edge of a clearing, steaming in the morning sun--taking in the last warmth of the season.

  

Ansel was very excited when we hit a dusting of snow at around 5000 feet and started eating all he could get his hands on.  In the photo above he is licking stray crystals from his hand after removing his glove.  To my satisfaction he kept exclaiming "I love snow"--though I think he may mean the taste rather than the winter fun it affords.

  

Key to any family hike is good food.  We were prepared for  the cold with our little stove and had hot chocolate and soup when we reached the lake.  Vanessa did a good job of documenting everything, even the food.

  

The kids shared the hot chocolate and the heat of the cup.

  

Lower Stevens Lake.  There is an upper Stevens Lake that we didn't have the heart to force the kids to go to (it's just past the trees in the left of the photo).  Amazing fall colors with contrasting snow--there's such a narrow window for this, I'm glad we didn't miss it this year.

 

Lower down the Western Larch (Tamarack) were in full color.

Later we dropped by our favorite North Idaho mining town, and discovered the center of the universe on a sewer drain cover in the middle of an intersection.

 

 

I suppose I agree, or at least I won't argue the point.
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
  

 

"They Speak Italian in Idaho" or "They Speak Idaho in Italy"

Being novice travellers, this was probably the greatest cultural exchange on our recent trip to Italy:

Italian Stop Sign from Corey Judd on Vimeo.

Apparently "stop" doesn't translate well, maybe it would say something like "fermo" or "arrestarsi" if you are actually required to come to a complete stop.  Of course treating a stop sign as a yield sign when no one else is around sounds awfully reasonable.  Seems as though I've seen that idea somewhere before:

Bicycles, Rolling Stops, and the Idaho Stop from Spencer Boomhower on Vimeo.

Ah yes, who would have guessed that Idaho is as progressive as Western Europe (and more progressive than *gasp* Oregon).

What is the Pot of Gold at the End of the Rainbow?

It looks like it's the Zip Trip at Spokane-Cheney and 195.  Who would have guessed.

A great rain ride this morning, mostly because my late night efforts to mount my fenders were vindicated, but also because I saw the boldest rainbow I've seen in quite some time.

Weekend Adventure and Spokefest 2009

Sal decided he wasn't riding on the back of my bike for 21 miles, so I rode alone while Veep watched the kids ride the short loop in the park and took photos.  Always taking photos.  I didn't think her camera would make our son a celebrity for a day, but it did.  At least at school.  Check out photo 5 on the link.  Sal's teacher called him a movie star, and his buddy at school wished he had his photo in the paper too.  And Veep even got recognized at Les Schwab, where she was getting new tires for my car.  

We got a flat on Saturday driving on dirt roads in Idaho that we probably shouldn't have been driving on in a small passenger car.  But I decided it was time to see something new and go somewhere we haven't been before so we headed south on a gravel road by the Cataldo mission.  The idea was to scout out some good terrain for skiing this winter and take a hike.  The St. Joe National Forest is beautiful.  We made our way to Crystal Lake which ended up being a great family hike--short enough for the kids but challenging and scenic enough for the grown ups.  I whole heartedly recommended it.  Afterward we kept heading south and dropped down onto the St. Joe river road--only after negotiating some steep rocky road.  When we hit asphalt it was clear that we had a flat.  I just wonder how long we had it before we noticed.

The flat tire delay kept us from getting back home in time for dinner.  The kids were complaining they were starving so, in a stroke of genius, Veep and I decided to keep the adventure going and stop at the Couer d'Alene Casino buffet--and see some thing else we'd never seen.  Needless to say, a casino buffet isn't really our style and, while it was sort of fun to do something different, we will probably never see the place again (especially now since it doesn't look like the new highway is going to go right by it).

As for Spokefest, it is always fun to see a lot of other bicycle enthusiasts crammed into one place.  I tried to ride the route kind of quick so that Veep could have a turn too.  I drafted off the Badlands Bicycle Club most of the way, then slowed a bit and started getting passed.  Not that I was racing, but I did catch a few people on the way up doomsday hill.  I don't think of myself as a climber in any respect given I weigh over 200 lbs., but I suppose all the commuting I do riding up and over the South Hill every day has actually helped.

All in all a good weekend--especially since I've worked the past two weekends and am working next weekend.  Sheesh, enough already.

BTW, Veep got a new lens which I think has inspired her to learn more technical photography skills.  I think it is paying off.  Thanks for letting me use some of the photos you so painstakingly take.

License to Ride

I had to renew my car's registration this past month.  And after a little deliberation I decided to drop some money on a "Share the Road" license plate.  I mainly did so because the extra cost would be a contribution to the Bicycle Alliance of Washington.  I struggled a little with the irony of using a license plate to promote bicycling.  However, when I'm on my bike and I see cars with such license plates two things come to mind:

1.  I figure the driver is somewhat of a cyclist themselves and, as such, will be courteous and drive safely near me.

2.  I also wonder if they are wishing, like I do when I'm driving and pass someone cycling, they were riding their bike at that moment rather than sitting behind the wheel of a car.

Neither one of these assumptions are probably true all the time but it's nice to believe that they are.

In other bike related matters, the other day I came across this article via the blogosphere.  While somewhat inflammatory and confrontational, he makes some good observations about how the tendency to create artificial rules and standards can actually make cycling less accessible to the general public.  Of course I wear a helmet (and insist my kids do too) and recently spent a bit of money on a new bike so I'm a lousy bicycle advocate.  In some respects I think the article feels like the ultimate chatroom/forum "shut up and ride" comment.

In other bike related matters, I'm excited about the upcoming, second annual Spokefest.  This is one of my favorite new Spokane events as it follows the tradition of cramming lots of people into downtown and Riverfront Park, as mentioned in Out There Monthly.  I am considering riding The Big Dummy with my five year old on the back.  I need to do some fine tuning of the shifting cable for the Rohloff and make sure the little guy is up for the 21 mile ride first.  I'd love to get my girls to pedal the long route as well but am not sure that is in the cards this year.  Maybe next year.

Finally, I wanted to share a couple videos.

This first video is from a blog I've started following recently.  It's maintained by a photographer who is on an extended bike tour of the U.S. with his girlfriend.  He is very talented and does a great job documenting their adventures by both stills and video.  This video caught my imagination last week, both because of the great scenery of the San Juan Islands (Orcaas Island here) and its nicely chosen soundtrack by Modest Mouse from nearby Issaquah.

PathLessPedaled.com - Riding on Orcas Island from Russ Roca on Vimeo.

The only thing I would change would be to make it longer so I don't have to keep pressing play.

This second video was forwarded to me by my Dad who just got back from a year in China.  I know China is crowded, but 16 people on one bicycle?  This kind of steals the show from all the other artistic cycling videos that have been bouncing around the blogosphere.

But I'd have to say, the time and dedication artistic cycling requires really limits its accessibility for the general population.  They're skilled gymnasts, but terrible bicycle advocates:)