Dinner Out Treat
We watched the last of the sunset from Anthony’s…
…where the boys cleared up the clams.
A Kirkland Evening
A sunny January evening in Kirkland town with downtown Seattle *just* visible across the lake.
Work View
Foggy morning in the valley but nice and clear up on the ridge. Could do with some more snow on the hills…
Tolt MacDonald
An amazingly clear day after the snow and low cloud so we headed up the Snoqualmie valley to old Tolt MacDonald park where recent flooding had done a good job of piles of leaving drift wood several feet above the ground.
Across the river are some new camping Yurts — we’ll try and try them out later in the year.
Finn’s really getting into this hiking lark, and set a blazing pace on the climb up from the valley once we’d crossed over the Snoqualmie.
We got back to the trail head as the sun was setting and the mist rising, and some of the best views of the day. Luvly.
Foggy Morning
After what felt like weeks of low gray cloud and lots of rain, not to mention melting snow from the big freeze and flooding to boot, we’ve had some cold crisp days with fantastic views once the morning fog has cleared.
This is the in progress building 83 to be, which may or may not continue being “in progress” depending on the current economic climate.
A New Year Hike
To celebrate the new year, Chris, Martin, Jeff and I did a little snowshoe hike up the Surprise Creek valley, along trail 1060, to not quite Surprise Lake, just inside the Alpine Lakes Wilderness .
Deep snow, and no one else on the trail, meant we were more snow-wading than snow-shoeing. A party of four that overtook us when we stopped for lunch gave up soon afterwards. A shame, since it was nice to follow someone else’s tracks for a while.
Obstacles slowed progress considerably, but added to the fun, although not shown is the 5 minutes I spent digging my left foot out from a hole.
(Of course, I blame the heavy pack & weak snowpack structure and claim that excess Christmas eating had nothing to do with it.)
Jeff excelled by finding a fallen tree route across the creek. Nice one!
Crazy Jeff and crazy Chris blasted through their turnaround times and headed back down the trail for some headlamp fun with darkness approaching.
With the forecast for snow and temperature down to –11 Celsius, crazy Martin and crazy Aiddy dug in and camped overnight in a beautiful spot above the creek.
With a view from the tent upwards through snow capped trees to the sky (and amazing stars after dark)…
and across the creek to the snow fields on the opposite side of the valley.
A totally amazing and awe inspiring trip.
Thanks guys!
Two sides
Two sides of Finn. Side 1, the distinguished and erudite reader.
Side 2: the dessert monster.
Quote: “I don’t feel too good after my pudding, can I have some chocolate?”
Legos
A large quantity of Lego was received as gifts this year, with a substantially smaller than large quantity still waiting to be built. Ideal for passing the hours without power over the snowy, freezing, festive season.
Thank you!
Above is 7038 Troll Assault Wagon which was a joint building project by the three boys.
Note: This post was updated on 2020-11-22 to remove broken links