Grisdale Hill from the 23 line overlook

Crabapples rotting on the long abandoned tree




Click to see the car on the High Steel Bridge




Salal left behind by brushpickers. I hope it does not go to waste.




Rainbow from the Summit of Grisdale Hill




Dog in Lake West near camp 3




Moonscapes




Little White Mushrooms, not to be confused with little brown mushrooms.



Lake West with South Mountain reflections


My first hike with my new dog, she is a Springer Spaniel and that is a breed that is bred to do a lot of walking and running. I started my hike in the rain and cussing out my husband because I could not hike in the sun yesterday. But after I reached the summit the rain stopped and a nice rainbow or two came out. The on top must be seen to be believed.  Every time I make this hike, I am once again surprised at the view.

I found out that some of the fruit trees on the banks of Lake West are crabapples. Logging camp #3 was on the banks of lake west for 50 or so years.

The nice woods around Lake West are now tagged for “selective harvest”. That sounds better then a clear cut but it is still disappointing.

We are out of groceries but the local discount store is selling stale power bars five for a dollar so I packed 5 power bars for lunch. I forgot to pack dogfood so the dog got a third of my lunch.

Doggie enjoyed her hike and of course had no trouble keeping up. She walked about 200 feet ahead of me for the entire trek. She made several wrong turns but she checked to see where I was often enough to realize when she made a wrong turn without me needing to call her. She did not hesitate at all to go for a quick swim in Lake West.

I had company on the summit for the first time ever but they did not stay long, so the company was pleasant enough. Some people where doing target practice before Lake West but they were very polite and stopped shooting as I passed by. They were shooting pumpkins. One of them looked like it would have made a very nice pie, it had beautiful thick flesh.

 A lot of people were out enjoying the national forest today, some of them were getting Christmas trees on Simpson property, they were probably thinking they were in the national forest. Gun fire could be heard echoing in every valley and I saw a frowning bow hunter on the forest service 23 road.

I saw a few soggy chanterelles and some puffballs but no other edible mushrooms. The woods on top of Grisdale Hill look like an ideal place to find chantereles. Around here it is best to hunt for them in second growth douglas-fir forests with mostly moss for groundcover.

I am home now and I am very tired, I have the chills and I have a sore throat. But I can not seem to sleep. I have my usual December fever or cold or sinus infection or what ever.

My house was in pretty good shape when I got home, it only needed to be picked up a bit so I guess the kids behaved. My husband went grocery shopping and is now cooking dinner. I think this is the first time he has done a real shopping trip since before I broke my wrist. He must have finally gotten hungry. After I had been home for ½ hour he asked how the dog worked out on the hike but has not asked how my hike went. I guess he is distracted by something on Usenet. He is a Usenet addict.


10.7 miles with 900 feet elevation gain
140 miles on my hiking shoes

GPS also says
Total Ascent 1289
Total Descent 1552
Weather changes make these numbers different.

Starting Coordinates
N 47*20.430
W 123*17.488

Other times I have blogged Grisdale Hill

Friday, April 25, 2008

Sunday, January 20, 2008






False Morels





Close Up




View from the site of the old Grisdale Lookout




Track Log, I did some wandering around on the top




Elevation Profile Log




Rainbow Dog View




Fog rising




Dyers Polypore, it is everywhere and is used as an excuse to cut down trees. It is not a good excuse. You can make a yellow dye with it.





Camp #3 area



Dog swimming fetching dropping stick and unable to find it. Camera noises due to using zoom lens.




Made it out just before dark

Shelton Christmas Parade

I can still do regression with Excel

If I were trying to prove a genetic basis for a mental illness I would be ecstatic about this r squared value. But this is the real world so I have to fail to reject the Null Hypothesis. What was the null hypothesis? I'm not telling. Too bad I could not get by with an answer like that when I took that hideous class last fall.

So far this year I have day hiked 130 miles and gained 28,144 feet in elevation that is not total elevation just elevation change from trail head to turn around point.

I also did one 25 mile backpack. I did not do much hiking compared to last year and the snow lowered my miles on two hikes while sickness lowered the mileage on one of my hikes. My average hike length was 6.9 miles and I've only done 19 day hikes.

My sweet catfish

Horabagrus brachysoma 'Indian Sun Catfish'










She died last night after my toddler dumped all kinds of crap into the fishtank. My 12 year old was supposed to be watching her while I went for a quick walk with the dog. I did two emergency 30% water changes in the span of 4 hours and hoped for the best. I suspect that her gills got clogged up with all the fishfood my toddler dumped into the tank.

I had this fish for almost 4 years. This fish was protection against the Mormons who won't stop knocking on my door. I don't know how we will defend ourselves from the evil fish killing Mormons now. (yes I know how silly that sounds)

I'm going to release her in the Skokomish river so she can float down to the hood canal and probably be eaten by crabs. A burial at sea only seems right for a fish. When my other fish died I would feed them to the chickens but this fish is too big for the chickens to eat in one bite and I don't have chickens anymore. Now my fish tank is empty except for one lonely pl*co.

This morning the water is very cloudy and I suspect the ammonia is off the scale so I did another 30% water change. The Pl*co seems ok, plecos are very tough fish but catfish are pretty tough too.

It is common knowledge among aquarists that when you talk about your pl*co online you always replace the "e" with a * to prevent it from dying. Click here to learn more.

Close up pictures of my Mongoose XR front brakes

The results





My new wrist








All the bike riding callus is gone now.