Memorial day '10

I finally got away from being trapped in the city with Alison on Memorial day weekend. Weather was supposed to be miserable all over the area so we chose to go close to Yakima just to try to get some vitamin D and whatever exercise we could. The hike didn't matter. We left Sat morning and arrived at Hardy Canyon after a long drive. The hike up was uneventful and unspectacular, but it was only partly cloudy and we were out hiking and that's all that mattered. Since a few friends had fruitful mushrooming trips recently, we decided to entertain ourselves by looking for some of our own. Low and behold, we ended up finding several morels. No huge bounty but hey, I was excited to find anything!

a baby morel that we didn't pick...

The canyon gave way to some rolling hill tops - not my normal type of hiking out here, so it was an entertaining change of pace. We hiked around for a bit on 4 wheel ATV roads before descending a different route.

After emerging from Hardy canyon

Picking our way back down, we ended up amongst several ATVs buzzing around us, which is not how the hike would have ideally ended, but not that bad and we had reasonable weather.

From there, we headed up the Teanaway River road and made camp at a forest service campground just before Dark. Hung out around the fire until it died and turned in. The casual weekend continued with a late start at the esmeralda trailhead. I was pretty surprised to find mostly snow just past the trailhead at ~3800'. It gave me some hope for this climbing season! Instead of taking DeRoux creek to Esmeralda we took the first turnoff and headed towards the pass between Koppen and DeRoux peaks. After a nice little climb we decided to head back to drier grounds, and relax at camp.

From the pass. View of the head of the middle fork teanaway river

Esmeralda. Looks more enticing now than when I climbed it.

The eve was nice and always fun to hear the rain pounding on your tent overnight while you're safely cozy inside. We got up and headed back to seattle to prep for Alison's lab going away bbq. All in all a fun, relaxing trip.

Snoqualmie Apr 2010

It had recently dumped and we wanted to take advantage so we headed to the old fall back of Snoqualmie Mtn. Avy conditions were moderate (high warnings up above 5500) so it seemed like a good place to go. We got a relatively early start - early enough, but also late enough so another group had set down a great skin track up the phantom through the couple feet of new snow. We eventually saw them skiing down and arrived at the end of their track. We decided to continue to see how conditions where higher up and in the slot. A few cracks later and a setting off a small slab (right at 5600 as predicted), our decision was made for us - We'd have a great day doing laps on the Phantom. ... and what a great day it was. Three huge runs in a couple feet of sugary powder going in and out of nicely spaced glades. By far the best conditions that I could remember out here. Even after 5500' we were giddy for more, but time wouldn't allow.

Lucas coming through the glades.

lucas enjoying the sugar

The run out of our small slide...

View of the run from our transition station

Pretty woodpecker made quick work of this tree and entertained us for a while.

Scottish High Camp 3/19/10-3/21/10

Been MIA recently, but back on the wagon again. Last weekend took a trip to the high country with Lucas and Eileen and some "mountain dogs"! ... and we did it in more style than normal. Headed just past Stevens Pass on Friday, transferred our gear to other transportation and got taken up to the high camp at 4500 feet. It was the easiest ~3000 foot ascent ever!

In the afternoon we made our way up to High point under blue bird skies and I, of course, ran out of batteries in the camera. It was the first time out in a long while, but a perfect way to do it - good company and weather and a nice chill 1600 elevation gain/decent. Snow was variably not good, and the pitch pretty minimal so the skiing wasn't great. Headed back to the heated cabin for some wood fired hot tub and sauna time, wine, appetizers, and good food!

Sat we labored in getting out of the comforts of the cabin, but made it off to Lake Julian, Loch Eileen, and then Lucas and I headed up to the peak that the locals call Baldy and another high point in the upper basin. Here, we finally found some decent pitches with good snow intermixed in the hard crust and got some turns in. A good day of 3300 feet total or so. We schemed where we would go in the future farther into the basin. So much terrain to cover! Back well before sundown, we enjoyed a potluck with the other cabin dwellers in the area.

Sunday marked a short day around camp with several very short laps around the cabin before the ski down to the car, which was some of the best corn of the weekend. Awesome weekend... b/c skiing in style.

Home sweet home for the weekend

Lake Julian with Lucas and Eileen heading across

Lucas and Eileen with the "mountain dogs" at lunch

Baldy from just above Loch Eileen

Heading up to Baldy ... clouds rolling in taking out the bluebird skies of the previous two days.

Lucas on top of Baldy - glacier peak (and others) in the background

More terrain in the upper basin! Mt Stuart in the distance.

Lake Julian from our second high point... our decent route.

Our future playground... earlier start needed.

Transportation down from the high camp. Lucas with Smudge, the mountain dog.

Aasgard - 2/12/2010. you win some, you lose some.

Lucas on one of the bridges up to colchuck lake Another bridge, as you start climbing to the lake Skinning out onto Colchuck lake, weather deteriorating Our sorry looking shelter just below dragontail in the morning Camp. Not the most comfy one I've ever experienced Looking back at the pass and Dragontail.

Lucas and I decided to try to take advantage of an apparent decent weather system and get some good weekend skiing in. We decided to try to make it into the enchantments and spend a couple days up there upwards of 7500'. Friday we left Seattle did the obligatory runs around Seattle and hwy 2 and ended up parking on icicle creek rd, right at the turnout of 8 mile creek road. adding significant distance and elevation to the normal trek into the enchantments. 4 miles and 2000 feet of gain extra to be exact, but c'est la vie. We skinned ... ended up at the trailhead ... skinned some more and ended up at Colchuck lake for lunch. When in the forest the sun could be seen trying to peer through the clouds, but by the time we arrived at the lake it was completely overcast and our "good weather window" wasn't coming into full effect. Having gone through some beautiful powder, we were nonetheless excited about the skiing prospects even higher, so we decided to carry on up to infamous aasgard pass to make base camp. Going got very slow and tired, the snow got wind loaded and scoured, and the hour got late. 500 feet or so from the pass we bonked and light was nearly gone, but we didn't want to lose the 1500 feet of gain from the lake and decided to get to the pass with the aid of our headlamps - slowly and arduously. About 50 vertical feet from the top we started hearing some serious "whooomping" making us nearly soil our pants. Trying to stay on the safest aspects possible (if it were possible), we sprinted to the pass where wind, cold, and darkness met us. We hurried to set up the shelter in the dark misery and dived for cover after our 6000' climb. The evening was not much fun sleeping on snow, have the wind blow snow through the shelter all night and more or less soaking everything in the site. Of course it was a horrible location for us to camp, but at least it was in a safe location - which is all that mattered at the time. We "slept" in, and by the time we got out of the shelter visibility was minimal, the wind howling and conditions deteriorating. We toured around the ridge very briefly and decided to make our way out - conditions were just not with us. Slowly and deliberately, we picked our way down to Colchuck lake, where we met nicer snow. We continued down through the trees where at one point Lucas punched through some snow and almost fell into a water fall which would have been treacherous. Luckily a tree had fallen tree across the stream and stopped his fall. Upon darkness, again, we arrived at the car. In the end, I guess it's apparent that you win some, you lose some. In this case we lost. But, whenever you get out, see the mountains, get some exercise and get back at the car safely, it should be considered a victory.

Lichtenberg Mountain

Lucas, Ryan, and I headed up to Lichtenburg mountain for my first ski of the year and my first excursion from my S.America trip - the cause for little activity around Seattle this winter. We skinned up to the summit soon enough and encountered some awesome fluff off the Southwest of the mountain for about a 1500 foot run. After heading up to the summit again we skied towards Lichtenwasser for some equally scrumptious snow. One more run in and we called it a day. We were in about 18 inches of nice, slightly wet powder on the top of the mountain the whole time. Some of the better conditions I've been in out here. A hell of a day - about 5500' total.

Ryan and Lucas skinning close to the summit Ryan getting his turns on Lucas on the first pitch

Kevin's entire (Brown Porter)

I wanted to do a double IPA. But my yeast was too old and dead-ish... and an unhealthy yeast crop is a recipe for disaster. So I decided to go the other extreme and attempt a brown porter. I've never made a porter, I much prefer bolder stouts. But this was supposed to be a brown like porter... sort of a session beer for the fall/winter.

For beer geeks: (10 gallon batch) 13# marris otter, 0.4# aromatic, 0.4# biscuit, 1# brown, 1.3# crystal 120, 0.5# flaked barley. Simple mash at 154 (oops, hit high at 158!!!). mash out at 170. boil 60 min. 60 min 1 oz wilamette (6.4%), 1 oz UK kent goldings (5.2%) for 20 IBU. 15 min 0.9 oz UK kent goldings. Chill to ~80, aerate and pitch Wyeast 1098, I believe. Whatever yeast Alison used for her BBB. Lots of activity by the evening!

Well, the OG was 1.048, a little higher than I was targeting for .... maybe not a real session beer. Also, not enouh Brown/Chocolate malt for a porter like color. :-( Oh well, hopefully it will turn out to be a light beer, with a little body left over (should have it!) and some good malt flavors. We'll just re-classify the final product! :-)

Classic rauchbier

With Labor day weekend still looking gloomy I decided to get my smoker up and going on Sunday and smoke 7.5 pound of vienna malt with some hickory smoke. So hickory might not be the best wood to use, but I thought it would be better than mesquite. I didn't have access to beechwood and I was to lazy to get to the store and find apple/cherry. Plus, this is an experimental beer!

Labor day was brew day, and I supplemented the smoked malt with 3 pounds of munich malt. For beer geeks: mashed at 122 30 minutes, raised to 152 for 60 minutes. mash out at 170. Boiled: 0.5 oz spalt (4.1 %) and 0.5 oz halertau (6.2%) 60 min, and 0.75 oz Halertau 15 min. Pitched Wyeast 2206 (bavarian lager) and fermented at 50 degrees.

The OG was 1.054 - right on target. I didn't think there was a significant sense of smokiness, but Alison assured me there was, and it would really stand out once the sugars go away. I hope she's right ... time will tell. It will take a little while to ferment...