Backpacking Noble Knob and Lost Lake

I think Lost Lake was meant to stay lost. (It will always be lost among all the other thousands of lakes by the same name) Maybe it's not so bad from an easier direction? We stayed there after a rough 8 mile hike that took us past Noble Knob with a detour to George Lake when we ran out of water. The trail goes up and down along a ridge and the lakes are all at the bottom of the valleys. So we had a lot of elevation gain along the way.
We drove to the Corral Pass campsite on Friday afternoon and car camped for the night. In the morning we drove a few yards to the trail head parking lot and took off with our packs. The views of Mt. Rainier were great along the trail. Panoramic views from the Knob are fabulous (Beljica was better though). We saw three lakes from up there. The closest one had people all over and in it. We decided we didn't want to go there for the night. The next closest lake looked more brown than blue but we didn't see any people on it so we aimed for that one. Between the directions we had and the trail signs, or lack thereof, we ended up on the wrong trail which took us where we didn't want to go. Halfway there we could tell we were headed to the overcrowded lake but we couldn't stop because we were out of water. After discussing our options, we dropped the packs halfway to George Lake so we couldn't change our minds and stay there because we were too tired to keep going. We only took our water bottles, platypus and the filter. There were more people at the lake than we saw from the knob so we pumped water, drank it, pumped some more and left.
By then I was cranky and not looking forward to the 3 miles back up to the ridge and down the other side to the lake we hoped would have fewer people. Along the way C was nice enough to completely distract me from my complaining by asking questions about camera gear. She's so smart.
We found a nice large campsite at the north end of Lost Lake, dropped the packs and went swimming! It had been in the 80's or 90's all day so it really didn't matter how cold the water was. We've never gone swimming in an alpine lake before. But this one wasn't fed by glaciers (this time of year anyway) so it was reasonable.
While setting up the kitchen at our campsite that evening a fearless chipmunk appeared and was very interested in our chocolate. I thought it'd make some interesting photos so I put the whole bar on the ground and backed up to shoot him trying to open the wrapper. It was pretty dark by then so only a few worked.
It was still so hot when we went to bed that we had to pull the rain fly off the tent.
We got up and out really early because we were afraid of hiking up to the ridge in 80 degree heat. It was cloudy enough that we weren't too hot, but I was still sweating fat. And I managed to pull a back muscle lifting C's pack that morning.
The wild blueberries along the trail were delicious. And a cloudy Rainier is pretty photogenic.
It was a tough, but really good trip.



CLICK HERE FOR THE REST OF THE NOBLE KNOB PHOTOS

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Mountain Meadows Farm Company Picnic

This was my first time to Mountain Meadows Farm for a company picnic. I hope they do it there every year. I loved it. I was impressed with the food, games, and entertainment. Mt. Si in the background was fabulous too.
The thing I wanted to do the most was to get some fly fishing instructions since I heard there would be some. They had a few rods laying around and a pair of instructors to help whoever wanted to try. The instructors were great but I was really bad. Even C tried helping me after she figured it out. I told her I needed to try it in Alaska. Ha! I got the string tangled on the pole twice. That's pretty bad.
On our way out we stopped by the giant basketball court. That was totally cool. I don't think I ever made a basket but it was too fun to worry about things like that.

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Seattle Mariners Baseball Game

C and I went to our annual (we only go about once a year) M's game with D and Z this year. It was tons 'o fun. I handed my 30D to D and turned it on high speed mode and she seemed to have a great time. I had a great time shooting the game in infrared.
The best part of the game is when we wander around the stadium. The views of, and from, Safeco field are amazing. They lost, but we had a great time.
And I shot this dude with crazy looking radio headphones.

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Seafair 2008

I was only at Seafair this year long enough on Friday and Sunday to see the Blue Angels fly. On Friday I shot from the south end of the Seafair park. It was a pretty good spot, but trees got in the way when they came in from the south. So on Sunday I got on the Seattle side of the I-90 bridge. I'd say it's the best spot from what I've seen so far. It's also the worst place to park and the steep hike is rough. Lots of planes turn around right over that part of the bridge and it's easy to zoom in on the pilots. Just after one close pass an osprey flew over like he was a Blue Angel, so I shot him too.

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click here to see the rest of the pictures

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Lake Dorothy - Backpacking

C and I got away for the weekend to Lake Dorothy. The weather was perfect, the hike was relatively easy, and the food was delicious. We drove down what has to be the best maintained 9 miles of gravel road I've ever seen to the trail head. 15 minutes into the hike we crossed a photogenic bridge where a few rivers seem to meet. Then we climbed stairs for an hour to get to the lake. We went to the far side of the lake, about 2 miles, to set up our tent. Then I walked around in the freezing water while C read a book on the shore. I think we both fell asleep on the rocks and C claims I snored once, but I don't believe it. After we wore ourselves out relaxing we ate dinner and went to bed.
I was shocked how many people bring inflatable rafts and paddle around on the lake. I was only a little jealous because there are many small islands in the middle of the lake that look like fun.
On the way out we stopped at the bridge near the trail head and C read some more while I took hordes of pictures and went swimming. The rocks are mostly flat and slippery but I couldn't seem to slide very well. I definitely want to go back and shoot those low falls with a tripod sometime.







CLICK HERE TO SEE MORE PICTURES FROM OUR LAKE DOROTHY TRIP

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Talking Yoda Portraits

I got a dashboard Yoda for a friends' birthday. But before I wrapped it I got to shoot it with a 60mm Macro lens in one hand and a flash in the other. I tried lighting him from different angles and am impressed with how good he looks for being so small. The phrases he repeats are awesome.

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Aerial Photography

I had the fabulous opportunity to ride in the back of a Citabria for a half hour one afternoon. We circled Seattle and I even pretended to fly a bit. Unfortunately I was busy doing that during the most impressive rainbow fest I've ever seen. But I did get a few interesting photos.

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