Rainy Mountain Loop Sampler

Decided to go play in the slush today, and give a foriegn friend a tour of my favorite hiking area. Conditions weren't even that bad, road-wise, but it was just raining, all day. My main goal was to scout the trailheads on the Sloan Creek Road, two of which I found, but eventually the snow got too deep for my low car, so I didn't find the other one I wanted to. However, my other goal was to find and photograph the North Fork falls, on the Sauk River, which was also accomplished. Decided there was still plenty of daylight, so we hit big 4 ice caves on the way there, and boulder river on the way out.

I think this is the first (of few) times I've been here and there has actually been a decent sized cave.


Yes, this was the weather the entire day, but incessent rain and clouds is the price we pay for such reasonable, non-extreme weather.


Yes, I drove a Swede around in the snow in my Volvo.






Found the North Fork Falls, which I had heard about but never got around to seeing.


One more, a slightly longer exposure.


Then, hit up boulder river on the way back into town.




These are tough to photograph in an interesting way, there aren't many angles you can get, especially when the river below is basically flooding.


But I try regardless.

The Great Greenbelt Adventure

I had three hours to kill on foot in north Lynnwood while my timing belt was being replaced by Volvo. So I arbitrarily chose to walk west from 99 where, as far as I know, I actually haven't been. Ended up at Meadowdale high school.....interesting? Not really, but it surprised me anyway.

As I walked, I stumbled upon a greenbelt, of all things, and it ended up being MUCH bigger than I expected. I was disappointed in that I didn't come across a huge group of airsofters, which would have been a lot more fun than wandering around finding interesting trash and orange leaves, but one musn't dwell on fantasies.....

I found no less than 6 creepy crack-sites like this, all with cheap tents and sleeping bags crumpled in the dirt, soaked and ratty. This one was the most elaborate.




Oil tank?


No, that leaf did not end up there on it's own.






This place even had a stream (drainage/runoff), which had incised a significant chasm, with how wet the ground was, I actually didn't want to go down for fear of not being able to get back up...


The remains of an old apple orchard, I counted at least 8 trees, in rough rows, the ground was littered with old dead apples.


I got short bursts of sunlight breaking through the clouds, usually right on cue when I walked up to a colorful tree.


These were actually right outside the greenbelt, in the field of an elementary school.




A naked jet taking off from Boeing, perhaps to go get some decals? Note: no windows, must be a cargo model for fedex or whatnot.


Meadowdale high school....


I snickered, then walked away, then realized I actually had a camera with me, and walked back to take this.


I really like this, I think I might do it more often. Kinda trippy huh?