Sunny in Seattle

Lest we miss out on another beautiful day, Kiwi woke-up the family this morning and told us she wanted to go out. But not to the mountainous forests nearby, no sirree, she barked & growled her mind and said, "Asphalt jungle baby, let's hit the big city!". Whoa, the little girl, err teenager (10.5 months now) is growing up. So who's gonna argue with a strong-minded, red headed, female ACD? Not I. Let me tell you, Kiwi definitely wears the fur coat in this family. :-) So, Seattle, be prepared for Kiwi. LOL

All aboard!! Who wants to ride in a crate, in the back of a vehicle, through crappy traffic? So with the "city" back-pack loaded, we headed off for the furry, I mean ferry terminal. The Washington State ferry system provides water passage to a multitude of locations throughout the Puget Sound. Even up to the beautiful San Juans Islands, which Kiwi enjoyed this past April.
We enjoyed the roughly one hour ride up on the top deck. We saw power boats, sailboats, beautiful shoreline houses, while sea gulls kept us company riding the air currents along with the ferry. It was windy due to the ferry moving, but another gorgeous Northwest day. I could tell Kiwi was acting a little haughty up on the "promenade deck". She didn't interact with many of the passengers from "steerage", ala Titanic LOL

The time flew as fast as the sea gulls and before you knew it, we were arriving at Seattle.Out the terminal exit, north on Alaska Way, our destination was the famous Pike Place Market
Here we enjoyed the hustle and bustle of the big city in a widely known tourist spot. Vendors selling their wares, street musicians providing the ambience, Starbucks in hand, ;-) , and Kiwi taking it all in. Fully alert, ears like radar and nose in overdrive.
A few pics of the market from the outside. We did see "No Dogs" signs for the indoor shops but none for the "open air" vendors. Since food and other consumable were being sold, we elected to stay out. Kinda hard for Kiwi to see it, but we were able to enjoy some of the famous Flying Fish being thrown about at their store.
Kiwi was looked at by many passerby's with the occasional "cute dog". But all biases aside, she behaved well, no barking, no lunging, while staying close by our sides. And no, she made no messes on the pedestrian walkways. Whew, good girl Kiwi. :-)

While other family members explored some stores, Kiwi and I kept watch on all the new people, traffic and buildings. We when got bored, I took Kiwi into a Sharper Image store after looking for the do pets sign. But both entrances had no such prohibition. So we casually went in, sauntered around in the nice air-conditioned store with plush carpeting, smiled at the employees, enjoyed a Shiatsu massage and departed. (Just kidding about the massage, LOL)
Finally it was our turn to enjoy a Starbucks. Kiwi always has me ask for the Blackberry Green Tea Frappuccino, yum. While she let me enjoy her portion in a relaxing area, her attention was occupied with something else. Here was the first time I saw Kiwi really focus on birds. Pigeons in this case. Undoubtedly due to their lack of public fear. After Kiwi made one pigeon take flight upon her bark, she took it upon herself, as a good ACD to keep the roughly sixteen foot perimeter safe from the other feathery crumb eating competitors. (16 ft is her leash length, go figure LOL) My little girl is growing up, sniff. (wipes moisture from eyes)After a few hours into our big city "hike", we made it to our turn-around point, Westlake Center. A little too gauche and commercial for Kiwi and I, so we stayed outside to keep the pigeons in shape, listen to the street philosophyzers, and enjoy the day. :-)Kiwi found her a city waterfall to explore, shown better in the video.Minding her P's & Q's at the crosswalk. She might be more familiar with the wild country, but she wasn't about to get a ticket for jaywalking. LOL Oh, by the way, not once did Kiwi try to herd anything. No cars, people, flying fish, nothing. Good on her. (look at that smile)One final meet and greet with another four-legged friend at Pike's Place as we head back. Completely neutral encounter with no issues. Probably because the Scotty didn't smell like pigeon. :-)Other than the video below, this post of our city-hike was cut off before concluding the trip. With yesterday's hike and today's, my pocket camera bit the dead battery bug. I was going to recharge it via my cellular, but I had used that up while at Starbucks. :-( Thank goodness that big bright light in the beautiful blue sky continued to shine on the gorgeous Pacific Northwest . :-)
Yeah baby!!

Seattle Video

The Tubal Cain Mine and more

This week's hike was to the Tubal Cain mine with a short side hike to an old plane crash site. After last weekend being denied some trails due to closed roads and my lack of verifying access, Kiwi ensured I contacted the National Forest Service to make sure we had "go flight" for this trip. Thank goodness there are females around to make sure us guys stop making the same mistakes over and over. ;-)

It was another great day in the Pacific Northwest. Bright and sunny with clear, blue sky all around. Which was pleasantly surprising after the past week's icky weather. Seemed Mother Nature went to her closet to clean out the Summer clothes and bring in the Fall apparel. Gray, rainy and decidely cooler. Although somewhat cool in the morning, it was really perfect hiking weather, again. :-)Kiwi makes sure we observe National Forest policy and sign in at the registration point. She normaly gives me the three minute lecture on not disturbing nature, packing what you take in , back out with you, bear and cougar safety lessons and to make sure to always carry the safety essentials for hiking. Yes Ma'am, private Mike and Jordy (my son) ready to go ma'am. LOL
This little guy was the first thing to capture my eye. Definitely alluding to the fall change in the air.
What you won't see much in these pictures is that about eighty percent of the hike was rather dark. Even though the day was super, we were still in the mountain's shadow for the majority of our trail time. Here is somewhat of an opening to capture Kiwi. She went the whole hike with her RuffWear Palisade's II Backpack (empty).An early peak-a-boo view of the Buckhorn wilderness. Told ya it was an awesome day. :-)The wilderness we were hiking in was part of an area that supported hopeful mining efforts in the early 1900's. Iron Mountain was supposed to be full of copper and manganese. The mine lasted on a few years, but what was left is an extensive network of wet shafts in the generally stable bedrock.

Below we encountered a water run-off pipe that was at least thirty minutes from the mine. Yes, very dark.Here is some of the old abandoned equipment that has been "recycled" by hikers and campers to support the good-tasting smores habit. :-)One of the shaft entrances that went nowhere. Fun to explore and tell spooky tales to my teenager. ROFLHe was game though. Went in by himself to spelunker. Worth a few good stories at school, no?
Then it was time to take the side trip to the crash site. A short, approximately half mile, but steep, hike to the site. No trouble for the four-legged hikers. Kiwi kept looking back at us, wondering why we kept stopping. I pretended to be adjusting my pack and Jordy would whistle and take pictures. Or was that his asthma. :-) But she had us march to the site in short order with her barking double-time at us. LOL
The plane crash: In January of 1952, a rescue mission was dispatched to search for a ship in distress off the coast off Washington. Unable to locate the ship, the aircraft, a converted B-17, was attempting to return to Seattle. For one reason or another, the altimeter in the plane was off by more than 1500 feet. In a driving snow storm, unable to make out any land marks, and vectored too far south by the tower, the airplane flew right into the canyon slope, and ended up in a marsh at the canyon mouth. Over the years, the wreckage has been picked pretty clean by souvenir hunters, but major pieces still set where they have for over 50 years.

Last flight of 746

The following is the Accident Report Narrative from the official accident report. It was written by Captain Hybki for the board of inquiry.

The accident occurred at 1832 hours, PST, 19 Jan 1952. When the aircraft hit the top of the hill, I was thrown out on top. I could hear the aircraft still falling (going down the hill). I walked to the edge of the hill and waited there. At this time, I could hear nothing. I started down the hill towards what I thought was civilization. When I was 1/3 of the way down the hill, I stopped to rest and heard noises. I blew the whistle on my Mae West, I could now hear the others at the aircraft, and joined the rest of the party. The others searched for clothes, got a jacket and boots for me, put me in an exposure suit, and sleeping bag. I was shivering, but not from cold. I believe this was due to shock. Two hours later I fell asleep.

The rest of the party was removing equipment from the wreck and building a windbreak with the cutes. A life raft was used to make a floor in the shelter. The engineer (who was also injured) and I were bedded down. When I woke after dawn, I awakened the rest of the party. The engineer and I were removed from the sleeping bags and fitted with warm clothes, which were obtained from the crew's bags. Our wounds were now dressed. We could find no first aid kits from the airplane and had to use the ones from the rescue kits. The only dressings available were compresses, which were very bulky hard to put on and harder to use when applied. Some Band-Aids would have been very useful.

The three who were not seriously injured began gathering dry wood, pine needles and inflammable parts from the wreck to use in the fires. Dry wood and pine needles are fine for building fires and the rubberized materials from the plane are excellent for making smoke. Fire was provided by matches that the crew had and from matches that were found in the emergency kits. We now started a fire. Every kit was broken open and flares and smoke bombs were removed. The abundance of kits was a big morale booster. The boat, with supplies, was never found. Red and orange chutes, all our yellow equipment, sea marker die, and a streamer were put out.

Aircraft were heard overhead but they passed over. I suppose that they were going to previously assigned search areas. When aircraft were heard, we sent SGT Farmer to the top of the hill to shoot flares. About 80% of the flares functioned properly. Only 1 out of 3 of the smoke flares worked. It was very difficult to get the tops off the smoke flares. It is almost impossible to do with gloves or mittens on and with cold bare hands it is very difficult. Some method should be devised so that one's teeth could be used.

Finally about 1000 hours a C-46 spotted the party and a few moments later, many aircraft came over the area. I believe a URC4 transmitter was dropped. Food was now broken out using first the tins with candy. We only ate one candy bar apiece, however, because we thought that the candy might make us sick. This food was edible and in good condition. The IF4s were opened and the food was frozen in them. Sterno was used to heat the food but was very ineffective because the flame would go out in the slightest breeze. We all think that cook cans would be much more satisfactory. This is the kind that heats the food by letting air into an outer casing. SGT Scargall tried to make some coffee but due to using snow and having difficulty with the sterno pots, the coffee was no good. The water jugs on the plane could never be found. No attempt was made to look for the three others because no one was in good enough shape to conduct the search. At this time the helicopter came and took us away.

The following pictures were taken today, 23 Sept 2006.
Wow, some history on this hike, huh?

Here is a shot up the canyon, looking above the crash site, again high-lighting the beautiful autumn day.
On our way back, Kiwi stops for a photo-op at a small waterfall. :-) Not the greatest hike for majestic scenery, but still relatively easy and fun none the less. (thumbs up)Another view of the magnificent Buckhorn Wilderness on our drive out.
The day's video

Going with the flow

Kiwi has been itching something fierce to get back on some trails. It has been almost a month since her last foray of fun into the forest wilderness. To get back into the groove, Kiwi selected a short hike of under eight miles. Relatively short, but very steep. Mount Rose was the destination. Pretty close to Mount Ellinor where Kiwi encountered the Mountain Goats, up close.

So the Mercedes was gassed up and even sporting a new set of tires. Away we go, back on the trail again. Wait a tic. Whoa, what's that? Why is the road closed? Turns out there was some recent fire activity in the area we wanted to hike, so the folks at the ONF wisely stopped traffic into the affected area. Dang, have to turn around.

So we head out of the wilderness and stopped by the Hoodsport Ranger station to speak with our friend Penny for the latest news. Kiwi dropped off some paw-graphed photos of her many hikes for Penny. Penny has started a photo album, from Kiwi's first pictures, for all people stopping at the ranger station. And the album continues to grow as other folk enjoying the Northwest share their adventures and photos.

So we jumped back in and hit the road, daylights a wastin. Drive, great scenery, more driving.Drive, bark, bark, bark! Whoa, good eyes Kiwi. Yep, them are cows, mooooooo. :-)We're getting close to our turn off to go hike Calypso Falls and Mike needs a drink. I go to confirm directions and am told that the road has been washed out! Walking to the trailhead would add an extra five miles, one way. :-( Dang, dang. What do we do, where to we go? AH! Who needs a map, barks Kiwi. Thats the spirit girl! We'll just drive and find spots for ourselves to explore and have fun. We can do it.

Hey that looks nice. First place we come to is the Dosewallips State Park. Enough driving and talking dad, hurry up and lemme out, girls gotta go.

The Dosewallip River finishes its journey to the Puget Sound in a slow gentle manner. The shallow, clear water allowed us to see migrating salmon as they swam their way upstream to spawn. Kiwi got her sniffs in, but was not allowed to do more.So with no hesitation, Kiwi goes exploring. Nose to ground, over hill and log. Oh this place is great dad. Splish splash, what was that? Several times when Kiwi came close to the salmon, they would swim violently away, stirring up the water and startling her. But no issues, she never tried to "herd" them. Hmmm, that would be interesting to try, herding fish. We'll just wait till the AKC developes some rules first. LOL

Hey dad, look at meee, burbl, glurglel, glurg. Yes sweetheart, you have to swim when the water is deeper than you are tall. :-)So Kiwi and I explored the park, going up and down the bank, getting plenty wet and having lots of fun. On our way back to the Mercedes, we ran into a fellow outdoorsman with his ACD :-) Kaylee is a thirteen year lady who sight has left her. You can notice in the video when the stick is thrown, she doen't react till it hits ground, making a sound for her to focus on. She was a sweet girl and the two redheads had no issues with each other as they enjoyed the slow afternoon.

Video part one

Ok pop, lets see some more. How about some forest like we usually do? Sure Kiwi, we'll see what we can find. Uh, dad, can you stop with the 70's on the iPod? Us young girls are more hip and sophisticated than you. ;-P

Hey good choice old man, look at all the green. This seems more like normal. We stopped at another Park, this one being Falls View. However, the "Falls" looked like they were being supplied by a kitchen faucet. Hardly anything was trickling down. Oh well, we're here to go explore, lets hit the trail. :-)


Hey this place is nice dad, snap some pics.



And one of me over here. Didja get my good side? :-)

This was a short hike, had to be under two miles roundtrip. Nice green canopy, lush verdant ferns along the trail, and the pristine, sparkling water of the Little Quilcene River next to us providing the sensous sounds of running water.

B E A UTIFUL
Video part two

So when life hands you lemons, make lemonade. Or as Kiwi summed up, we don't have to have a destination dad, as long as we enjoy going with the flow.

No cropping there....

Actually ACDL, it was my son. He's not the most photogenic fellow around. His mother and I do love him and we try to do what we can for his condition, but after hearing the neighbors over the years asking us to keep him covered up, we have just learned to naturally not take pictures of his face. Here is a picture of him early on when he was wild.






Soon after his true nature had been revealed, we took measures to tie-up, or restrict, no, rather we did what we could to modify his behavior. Talk about the terrible two's. I'm sure he was the reincarnation of Warner Bro's Tasmanian Devil. Here is another shot of him after a heavy does of medicine. We normally sedated him for public outings with elephant tranquilizers. He looks deceptively calm in this one, almost cuddly. He was so snaggle-toothed he could eat watermelon through a freshly painted picket fence without getting his lips wet.







When he was able to walk, around 4-5 years or so I reckon, we tricked him to sit for a family photo, shown below. The photographer took about 3 roles of film but we did get one decent shot. You should have seen the studio after he understood that he wasn't gonna get a rhinoceros for sitting for the picture. Ooooeeeee! He was an angry little varmint.





Anywho, long story short, we had to get a cattle dog. It was the only breed that would tolerate him. The two will get to scrapping pretty good with each other at times, but we got a handle on that now. A firehose and separate crates.

A trip to the dog park

Kiwi hasn't been to the dog park in a while, so she asked to be taken again. She enjoyed it so much that she went the following day. I'm sure she is making up for not being on any hikes for the past three weeks. :-(

She used to be rather timid and aloof when first visiting the park. If several of the dogs were chasing after a thrown ball or frisbee, Kiwi would trot behind the group, not mixing it up so to speak. Now I think she is tending to intiate "rough" behavior with other dogs that are interested in socializing (sorry for the cheap pun). When a ball is thrown now, she might run with the others and even pick up the ball if left by the original fetcher.

Some of the furry park denizens like to play chase. Kiwi, the ACD, will occasionally triangulate the chasee, give a burst of speed right past the chasers and clip the chasee, causing him/her to be tripped up (Mike secretly congratulates her on that). A couple times with the open mouth though. She gets told/corrected that the behavior is unacceptable, and this week has known no incidents. Whew.

Kiwi turns ten months tomorrow and we all know what that means. She has entered her teenage period. And anyone that is knowledgeable about ACD'sknows that.......well, just please remember us in your prayers. LOL Personally I think it's time for private training and another outlet besides hiking. I've been thinking ping-pong or raquetball as they are not costly sports to learn, but I have never been too good at raquet sports and the shame of Kiwi winning in public would be hard for me to take. :-) I've heard of this crazy, fast-paced, follow a path thru obstacles type of event. Maybe we'll try that. At least I can jump over higher things than her. (last sentence typed with some smugness)

So without incurring further agony, for you the reader, here is Kiwi's trip to the dog park. Feel free to throw those comments out on the table.

Park Video

P.S. If someone can explain to me how to embed the videos in the blog, I'd be grateful. The FAQ file hasn't lead me to the answer yet. Peace

Finally

With a great amount of work by my friend Steph, the office furniture is complete. He took my conceptual ideas and made them a reality.
Because of the outstanding hikes Kiwi and I are able to experience, I selected a wall covering or wall mural that transports us to our favorite outdoors. Three tranquil forest scenes with a twelve foot peaceful waterfall mural as the centerpiece. The murals frame the massive desk, setup for two PC's, with an adjoining printer stand that blends very well. Also no support pieces for the knees to hit. Another trick that Steph pulled from his bag of experience.
The piece de resistance, is a horizontal file cabinet that doubles as a sitting bench (settee?) Stained for color and material enhancement, it is also verathaned for a deep, long lasting shine. It's an odd, five walled room, that I envisioned as a relaxing retreat. This is the room that we escape to when I want to unwind or work on Kiwi's blog.Keeping with the outdoor theme, I stow all our backpacks and camping gear in the opposite corner. Kiwi's blanket or "sofa" is right behind my chair. Where she'll stretch out for her naps as I type like a turtle, working on the blog. :-)Roughly 2-3 things are still hanging out there on my finalization list. One, is a small desktop waterfall type piece. I want to find one that provides the right sound of a soft, gurgling Buckhorn wilderness stream. This would add to the ambience. Another item remaining, is the flooring. Although there is a light wheat colored carpet, it sort of pulls the eyes away from the whole. I've joked that I should lay down a yard of beauty bark. That would make it just like one of our hikes. LOL But Kiwi would have it eaten within a month if I let her. ROFL She does like her sticks. The final item that has me really puzzled is lighting. Currently the room is lit by one normal ceiling lamp. I'd like to have some indirect lighting that can be adjusted for brightness. Think it would lend another layer of softness. Add in some filters, and the "sunsets" could be simulated. :-) But the lighting challenge is beyond me at the moment.

Lots of time went into the construction of the pieces. Here are some shots as we work our weary way to completion. Really enjoyable working on a project with a friend that takes time to explain all the nuances. He did such a good job of mentoring that no blood was shed during all the time we spent in the shop. :-)
A closeup shot of the lap joints. Some detailed work here and much stronger than nailing the ends together.Average Joe worker in action.I think Steph took a vacation after seeing the last piece leave his shop. :-)Video

I know that there has been a shortage of Kiwi on the blog the past couple of weeks. Not intentional, just working on other things. I am anxious to get back into showcasing her, but I don't want to just throw up snapshots with "here we are at Home Depot", or other lackluster stuff. On the other hand, it does take a lot of work to imagine, create, shoot, edit video and audio, trim, synch, etc... a decent movie. IF you know what you're doing to begin with. LOL

So, thank you all for your comments, both online and off. Take care and Peace.

R/ Mike