Cross country skiing in Winthrop

This weekend Shawn, Megan and I went out to Eastern Washington to ski.  I'm not a big cross country ski buff, in fact this was the first time I'd used skate skis ever (rented them from REI), but it was fun.  We left early Saturday morn, skied in the afternoon, painted Winthrop red Saturday night (which took 30 mins or so), and skied all day Sunday.

Winthrop is a long haul from Seattle (especially if you're only staying one night.)  It's about 4 hours away if the conditions are great, and you have to go through a couple of mountain passes to get there.  Luckily the weather was great, and the roads were for the most part ice free.

Winthrop Sunday morning:

We stayed at the Hotel Rio Vista in town which was great!  $100 for 3 people, right in town, with a great view of the river.

The view from the hotel:

Sunday was our longer cross country jaunt.  We rode for 3 hours, about 14km total.  I was really feeling the 6km climb...  It made that 14km feel like 30km.  Here's a map of the trails.  We started at the Chickadee Trailhead, climbed up the Thompson Road, then headed down Meadowlark, and back down Thompson Road.  It looks pretty short and sweet on the map, but that climb was relatively painful.

Other interesting tidbits of information...  Shawn forgot his ski boots in Seattle, so had to go rent another pair, we also got pulled over for speeding which sucked.  I wasn't driving, but that's never fun.

Anyhow, I put up a few more photos here.

Until next time!

More snow in Seattle (again)

There's still snow on the ground and in the sky in Seattle.  The roads aren't great, schools are closed again, and it's hard to keep meetings scheduled at work because many aren't able to make it in.

The highways are not too bad, but the side roads in many areas are problematic.  At least this morning wasn't as bad in Seattle as it was in Oregon.  Check out this video to get an idea of how icy it was there today.  Of course there are still problems near Seattle, and it doesn't look like we're done with this weather yet.

Here's a shot of the snow in Cap Hill last week. 

Looks the same today:

I decided to do a bike ride in the snow last weekend.  Although it was in the low 20s (F) it was still pretty fun, but unfortunately bike jumps become pretty sketchy in the ice.  No accidents to report though.

On Sunday Cheryl and I went to Alpental to check out the ski conditions.  The weather was beautiful, not too much powder, but it was still fun to get out there and snag some turns.

Anyhow, have fun!

More snow in Seattle

It's been a wild weather year for the Pacific Northwest so far.  Just yesterday another snow storm hit the area snarling traffic and causing all sorts of problems.  I got stuck in some of it.

I was driving between two campus buildings when the problems started.  Given the sheets of ice that quickly formed, multiple cars were not able to make it up a "hill" on my way back to work (even with people trying to help push them).  This subsequently cut the flow of traffic to nothing at all.  Luckily I was near a building parking lot entrance, was able to park my vehicle, and could just walk a quarter mile back to work.

It was certainly an interesting walk.

Nobody was moving, although many were trying, some were abandoning their vehicles while others yelled at them to keep moving.  An ambulance tried to get wherever it wanted to go, but that proved futile.  Even those that were walking had a hard time getting around, and some who were caught off guard by the weather didn't have their jackets, and were stuck waiting for a bus (that probably didn't come) in their t-shirt.

Otherwise the walk was very peaceful and enjoyable.  The snow fell in big flakes softly, slowly.  There was no wind, and the temperature was comfortable given I was dressed for the weather.

I decided to go back to work, have a glass of wine with some co-workers, talk shop, and wait out the weather.  When the highways cleared I threw on my chains, and booted it home.  The west side was in much better condition than the east side of the bridge, so as soon as the roads got better the chains came off and I made it home no problem.

Today most people stayed home from work, so I had to cancel my meetings, and work from home.  Some actually slept at work, which is no fun at all.

Here are a few links related to the weather:

• Komo 4 Article
• Komo 7 Slideshow
• Kiro 7 Article
• Kiro 7 Video

Anyhow, that's enough for now.  Have fun!

Christmas in SSM and New Years in Vancouver

So, a lot has happened since the last post.  Wind storms in Vancouver pummeled Stanley Park, more power outages and flooding are felt back in Seattle...  Meanwhile I flew back to Sault Ste. Marie for Christmas, then went back to Vancouver, and spent New Years day in Whistler (which was amazing).

Christmas back home is always a great time, and as always I ate too much food, and played too much XBox, but it's all good.  This year was a bit weird because there was no snow at all, but all my brothers made it back so it was all good.  I never get to see enough of my family, so I'm really glad we had the chance to play XBox, figure out 'Set', go to the gym, try to find gifts, play poker, and just plain ol' hang out together.

We managed to get a family photo at some point during the holiday:

From left to right that's Mike, Dad, Jamie, Mom, Myself, Adam, Nathan and Steve.  The dog is Missy. 

Then coming back from Sault Ste. Marie to Vancouver I got to spend some time with Cheryl.  We watched The Pursuit of Happiness when we found out we couldn't watch the Wawa-focused Snow Cake because it was already out of the Vancouver theaters...  Anyhow, at some point we opened gifts.  Cheryl made me a really amazing tab compilation filled with all the songs that Shawn and I typically dig for online among other cool gifts.  Cheryl opened her new Phat Luv skis and immediately fell in love.

 

Cheryl loving her new skis already.

Later on in the week we decided to go hang out in Stanley Park to see the devastation brought on by the recent wind storms.  It was incredible.  In some parts of the park there were more trees down than standing, and the size of some of the trees that were down was incredible. 

The picture below is an example of one of the fallen trees we walked by...

There was ample devastation to observe in Stanley Park... 

There's a lot more going on, but it's time to get some sleep.  Check out all the new photos I uploaded from the holiday.