adventures of a tired coder

Distance: ~8 miles
Elevation gain: 2300 feet
Trailhead directions and more on WTA.

With lots of sun forecast for the weekend, I was tempted to do another Teanaway summit hike (remember Bean Peak from last year?). But because I’m not in great shape right now, I opted for an easier, slightly more shaded option from my list so we could be pan fried instead of deep fried.

It would have been easy to drive right by the “trailhead” for this hike if other cars hadn’t been parked there already. You have to look closely for a small gated road off to the right where the road widens a little. However, if you miss it and drive all the way to the end of the road, there is a shorter, steeper fisherman’s trail that takes you to Thorp Lake. It’s not a bad option, as the first part of the trail isn’t incredibly interesting anyway.

 
left: Thorp Creek
right: Mount Rainier

The first part of the trail is old undriveable forest road, with a crossing of Thorp Creek that is the most significant (but not problematic) crossing of the hike. The real trailhead forks from the road, with signage that could be easy to miss. I would like to point out that despite my track record, we did NOT get lost on this hike. There were many points where I could have made a mistake, but all of the decisions were right this time! For the most part, I followed the advice from another report I read: “When in doubt, go left.” The real trail is pretty flat for about a mile and overgrown in spots. I’m so traumatized by my experience in Northrup Canyon that I now associate “Eastern Washington” and “lots of green stuff” with rattlesnakes, but I don’t think this is one of those places, thank goodness.

Kachess Lake and wildflowers

It would be easy to dismiss the bottom part of the hike as boring. However, there were butterflies and flowers around us and sounds of birds chirping and the creek trickling. The trail was in great condition, not too rocky and not rooty at all, so it was a pleasant, almost magical walk down. All of the flowers in the world couldn’t mask the heat on the way up, and we found ourselves stopping at each shaded area for a drink of water. Also, a horse died by one of the creek crossings in 2011 (and they closed the trail for the rest of the year). One couple we passed had seen the bones, but we missed them.

 
left: upland larkspur
right: trail with lots of wildflowers

After a bit of going upwards, we found ourselves at the junction to Thorp Lake. We decided to save this for the return trip, and I falsely assumed that we were close to the top. In fact, there was still quite a bit of climbing to do. Past the lake, there’s a junction for the Kachess Ridge trail that can be taken for a longer loop hike. We also hit a few minor snowfields. Nothing dangerous, but one guy in front of us got a little too relaxed and slipped and fell into a big puddle. A short distance pass the Kachess junction, there’s a viewpoint with views down to Thorp Lake. At this point, there’s also a small trail on the right that heads upwards, which is what the guidebook says to take. The puddle guy went up for awhile and decided that it was too minor of a trail to be the right one, so he continued on the main trail. We followed, which was the right decision. The side trail is probably shorter, but we saw some people coming up where it met with the main trail again, and they said it was really steep and hard to follow at times. The main trail isn’t easy by any means, but it’s well-maintained and gives gorgeous views of Mount Rainier, Kachess Lake, and tons of wildflowers – we saw lots of paintbrush, lupine, daisies, etc.

Thorp Mountain fire lookout

Of course, the views got better with every switchback we climbed (convenient excuse to stop for a photo break) so we were in decent spirits when we finally saw the lookout. There weren’t many cars at the trailhead when we started and finished, but it seemed like we met everyone at the top. It’s a reasonably large summit area, but good seating is limited. We did get a nice lunch spot when a couple conveniently vacated. The fire lookout wasn’t open, but you can stand on its balcony and take in the views. Mountains all around! One of the distinct ones is Mount Stuart… the naming of the rest is left as an exercise to the reader. You can see in greater detail in a Photosynth I created. Beautiful 360° views!

Thorp Lake

It was hard to pry ourselves from the views, but we eventually made our way down. There was a bit of confusion at the Kachess Ridge trail junction – “Thorp Lake” is the right way to go, but the actual turnoff for the lake comes at a later junction. The lake is a short detour off the trail, so short that it doesn’t make sense to skip it. There are a bunch of campsites near the lake, including a few group sites, one of them massive enough to hold a few boy scout troops. The sites on the other side of the lake looked really nice, and there were people swimming and floating in their own personal sections. For a holiday weekend, it did not seem too busy. It’s also reputed to be a decent fishing lake, and one person mentioned that they’d caught a small trout. The lake itself reminds me of Mason Lake – pretty in the right lighting, average-looking otherwise, warm enough for swimming.

 
left: catpacking
right: Western blue flax

We were standing around and getting ready to leave when my brothers both said, “Cat.” “What?” I said, confused. They repeated, “Cat!” and pointed behind me. There was a backpacker… with a cat in his pack. Most awesome thing EVER. Of course, I had to get a picture and ask a few questions. The cat is leashed, but he doesn’t run off without it (which is amazing!). He was asking other campers about fish, so maybe the cat gets fresh fish for dinner. Not sure about the pooping situation, though! At that point, we knew we weren’t going to see anything more awesome that day, so it was time to head down and get to dinner. Great day, and this hike is highly recommended as a good early season option!

View from the top of Thorp Mountain (more detail)

The Language of Baklava by Diana Abu-Jaber

Genre: Memoir, Non-Fiction
Rating: **** (out of 5)
Recommended for: foodies

Book 15 of 52 in the “Around the World” Challenge

Back-cover summary:
Diana Abu-Jaber weaves the story of her life in upstate New York and in Jordan around vividly remembered meals: everything from Lake Ontario shish kabob cookouts with her Arab-American cousins to goat stew feasts under a Bedouin tent in the desert. These sensuously evoked meals in turn illuminate the two cultures of Diana’s childhood–American and Jordanian–and the richness and difficulty of straddling both. They also bring her wonderfully eccentric family to life, most memorably her imperious American grandmother and her impractical, hotheaded, displaced immigrant father, who, like many an immigrant before him, cooked to remember the place he came from and to pass that connection on to his children.

My review:
It took me a really long time to finish reading this… so long (almost 6 months) that I thought I might never finish. Even though I really liked what I was reading, I ended up getting hit by the same force that often makes me not finish other non-fiction books – without the hook of a continuous narrative, I drift away and it takes awhile to come back. There is exactly one e-book copy of this book available in the entire Puget Sound area and a few people on the waiting list each time, so I’d read for three weeks, wait a month and a half, then get back to it again.

But it’s worth it. Maybe another reason I couldn’t read continuously was that the writing made me so hungry that I’d put the book down and get something to eat! Not only are the chapters full of mouthwatering descriptions of food, there are also actual recipes of food that are related to the stories, for example: Bud’s Special Rice for Special Company, Barbaric Lamb Kofta, and Garlic-Stuffed Roasted Luxurious Leg of Lamb. This book is a food lover’s dream.

While food is surely the star here, the characters fight for attention, too. The reader really gets the feel of how it is to be a part of the author’s family. Bud (the father) is unforgettable with his boisterous manner. As a child of immigrant parents myself, I could relate to many of the experiences that the author described (though I think she got to eat yummier food!).

The Dervish by Frances Kazan

Genre: Historical Fiction
Rating: *** (out of 5)
Recommended for: people interested in learning more about Turkey and historical events
Received ARC copy through NetGalley.

Book 14 of 52 in the “Around the World” Challenge

Back-cover summary:
The first Arab Spring: revolution and passion seethe and erupt in this action-packed romance during the dying days of the Ottoman Empire. Kazan's novel takes us intimately behind the veil, to see and experience the Ottoman world, to let us view, from the "other" side, how the cultural and political antagonisms between the Occident and the Orient of the past century look. There are no easy villains or heroes in this story. Only ardent, unforgettable characters. An American war widow seeks emotional asylum with her sister at the American Consulate in Constantinople during the Allied occupation in 1919. Through a cross-stitched pattern of synchronicity Kazan's heroine becomes a vital thread in the fate of Mustafa Kemal (later Ataturk) and his battle for his country's freedom. Based on firsthand accounts of the Turkish nationalist resistance, The Dervish details the extraordinary events that culminated in 1923 with the creation of the Republic of Turkey.

My review:
The Dervish tells of events leading up to the creation of the Republic of Turkey through the eyes of a Western artist named Mary Di Benedetti. There are a lot of historical details mentioned in the book. Having recently taken an online course on world history, it was interesting to me to see names I recognized from my class appear as characters in this novel. The descriptions of various places in the Ottoman Empire made the setting come alive for me.

Despite this (or perhaps in a way because of it), I didn’t fully connect to the characters and plot. There’s a lot of action and suspense, as Mary is intimately involved in pivotal events and constantly in danger. Some of it had me eager to find out what happened next, but sometimes the pace lagged and I got lost in the details. Mary has love and grief to deal with. I felt like the grief was handled well, but the love could have been left out and the story might have been stronger.

Distance: 8.4 miles
Elevation gain: 2200 feet
Trailhead directions and more on WTA.

Welcome to 2013 hiking! This is a few weeks earlier than I normally start hiking, but the weather was right and my mom wanted my brothers to spend a day away from their computers. I never fully caught up with my Canadian Rockies trip reports from last year! At this point, I’m not sure I remember enough to do full reports, which is too bad. I’ll have to do better this year.

I’ve started paying more attention to what hikes are good to do in this early season before the prime stuff melts out. This one melts really early – this year, people were reporting a snow free lake by the beginning of June! It’s a bit of a drive from the Seattle area, but it’s worth it. Note that no dogs are allowed in this area to protect the fragile environment. You can’t miss the multiple signs at the trailhead, but we encountered one guy who decided to take his dog anyway. Off leash, of course. The last time I did this hike was in October 2009... huge temperature difference! I’m also happy to report that I was in much better shape at the beginning of this season than I was at the end of the 2009 hiking season, which means that all of this work has some sort of lasting effect. There is still hope for me!

 
left: Mountaineer Creek
right: mountain views

Colchuck Lake and Stuart Lake share the same trailhead and trail for the first few miles. The trail stays close to Mountaineer Creek (with a few crossings and two nice bridges so you don’t have to worry about getting wet) for about two miles, and this part of the hike isn’t very steep, and some sections are even flat. One of my brothers had done Poo Poo Point earlier this month, and after a mile of this hike, he was practically complaining that it was too easy. The trail spent more time in the woods than I remembered, and right now, there still aren’t many flowers. However, the creek has quite a bit of water going through it at this time of year, and it’s impressive to see and hear. I also noticed some sections with burned trees where last year’s wildfires made their mark.

Things get more challenging after the Stuart Lake trail splits, but there are also great views of surrounding peaks (that I am of course unable to name). It seemed like we kept going up and up, and all of a sudden I started seeing the blue of the lake peeking through the trees. A lot of lake hikes plop you right down at a nice lunch and viewing spot, but Colchuck teases you with partial views for awhile before you get to a place where you want to settle down. The lake is really large, with many places around the lake to sit down. Even though the parking lot was pretty full when we left and we encountered a number of people along the way, we still had our own space for lunch. We could see another group nearby, and they provided our lunchtime entertainment as one of the adults jumped in the lake to get a reluctant kid to do the same. By the way, apparently Colchuck means "cold water" in Chinook.

 
left: hungry chipmunk
right: mountain goat!

We passed a group of people at the lake who apparently didn’t realize that they weren’t supposed to feed the wildlife. They were giving their kids food to hold in their hands and standing around with their phones and DSLRs, trying to catch a super-awesome shot of a bird eating out of a kid’s hand! Then they got an even better idea… why not put food on a kid’s head? The bait worked, and the kid said, “Ow!” as the bird pecked his head. But they didn’t get the shot, so they put food on his head again. Meanwhile, some hungry chipmunks went over to their backpacks and stole their nuts.

On our way out, someone told us that there were mountain goats in the area, and sure enough, I saw tufts of white fur caught on rocks and branches. I found two goats eating in a cluster of trees near the lake, but they were mostly hidden from view. A third goat ran briefly in sight, so I got my goat picture! I typically don’t see mountain goats on my hikes, so this was a real treat. I’m glad the “feed the wildlife” family wasn’t around.

I had it in my head that I wanted a view down towards the lake, and I’d planned on perhaps going up part of Aasgard Pass if I had energy and it wasn’t snowy. The weather was more cloudy than I’d hoped (so no brilliant turquoise water), but I still dragged my brothers to the south end of the lake. I followed the cairns in the direction of Aasgard and then went up a little bit of the boulder field, just enough to find a big boulder to sit on and take in the views. We saw a few people going up Aasgard that day, but Colchuck Glacier was more popular. The climbers were like little ants in groups of four or five, slowly making their way up the snow. Lots of people (who were fortunate enough to get lottery permits) were camping that night. The view of the lake in the morning before the afternoon mountain shadow would be pretty spectacular.

random video clips and pictures from my camera

Good start to the season! Hopefully lots more to come.