Cascade Loop Trail

You have to pass through Moran Sate Park to get to most points East of East Sound, Orcas Island. The park road lines Cascade Lake so you get a  nice tour of the lake that is 200 feet above sea level.
http://www.wta.org/go-hiking/hikes/cascade-lake

But our 2nd day on Orcas we decide on the Cascade Loop to see where it goes.

Back to the woods to escape the smoke, the water seems to help too.

Moran is a very popular spot for campers and Cascade Lake is pretty lively during the summer with small rental craft and even swimmers.

Tried to find out the name of that hill but even the locals I talked to did not know.

This tree we find is a popular spot with both locals and campers who know about the magic gained from jumping from the branches.

The foot bridge between Cascade Lake and Rosario Lagoon appears to be another popular jumping point.

Rosario Lagoon

Even the older kids take the Leap of Faith

There are two trails to rosario, we took the one made for mountain goats and turned around. We will try the other one next time. 

That afternoon I tried to capture what a setting sun looked like through the smoke. This picture for whatever reason does not show the red color that we were seeing. 

So as I zoomed in the color begins to show up in the pic.

Zoom in further and ....It was not this red to us but pretty close.

Cascade Loop Trail

The scene at Cascade Lake is like a scene out of a early 60's movie. Incredible lake at the foot of a mountain, with lots of happy campers, families, lots of kids of all ages.Row boats with people fishing a small pier with some catching trout, a roped off swimming area with lots of young children. rental kayaks, canoes, and paddle boats. The trail can easily be managed by most and we saw lots of kids running along wearing flip flops.

As the smoke does not seem to be diminishing we begin to learn of the severity of the fires in British Columbia. The Canadian Border is just a few miles from Orcas, and often you pick up their cell service so you have to be careful how you use your phone to avoid unexpected charges on your bill. We are learning how the fires started and why they are so severe. The spring was the wettest ever causing lots of undergrowth in the forest. Then all of a sudden it turns to record dry drying out the undergrowth. Then British Columbia experiences a never seen before series of lightening storms setting off all the fires in the dry undergrowth. Over 135 separate fires strain the Canadian fire response and over one million acres of fires threaten an area the size of the entire state of Delaware. The dense and record smoke will contribute in its own way to climate change.  And yet there are those that still believe that Climate Change is not real. 

Whatever, I'm not worried,  Mother Nature will win the battle even if it takes her thousands of years to correct the destruction humans have brought to bear. All the older generation who cant seem to believe that the rivers that is washing them away, the tornadoes that knock down their schools, and the fires that burn their homes down is due to global warming will soon age out and die away. Mother Nature will take care of the believers and the non-believers in the same way. One storm right after another, or just a few feet of sea rise to make them run away or die. Get rid of enough humans and the earth can return to normal.

Turtleback Mountain, Orcas Island

You are mostly going uphill. We did not see or hear any birds in the huge forest on the way up but once we arrived at the higher elevation we so so many different birds and wondered if the Fall migration had already begun in the Pacific Northwest.

As you can see the view into the distance from this ridge is pretty smokey. over 135 fires and one million acres are on fire just to the North in British Columbia. The North winds are blowing the smoke throughout Washington State and all the way to Oregon.

We continue our upward trek.Fewer trees and more views.

The Admiral and I are not "Hikers" This young mom and dad ARE Hikers with their two young kids loaded on there back and complete with hiking poles they blow by us. Real Hiking is like fast walking straight up. We just kind of meander around.

We stop to marvel in the beauty even though much is obscured by forest fire smoke.

We take lots of pictures and talk about what we are looking at. 

Sometimes we just sit and enjoy the quiet.

The Morning ridge Trail was as far UP as we made it this trip.

those are the Wasp Islans looking off towards the West

The Madrone Trees are prevalent in the San Juan's
http://www.nwplants.com/business/catalog/arb_men.html

I'm sporting the 2017 Center For Wooden Boats Wooden Boat Festival shirt for the first time on this day. Im So proud to be bringing the Spirit of Lake Union to Turtleback Mountain through the very creative and spiritually inspired work of  the Livery Manager Shelby Allman who did the artwork for this years t-shirt. She captured the very essence of the Spirit of Lake Union. Have to know it to understand but I'm proud to bring that spirit to all the special places I visit from now on.

See What I Mean? Absolutely awesome Shelby Allman!

Well we chose the starboard trail this time so we missed the peak, but we promise ourselves to return some day and hang a left next time. 

Turtleback Mountain, Orcas Island

It was going to be the hottest week of the summer so we were glad to be accompanying our Seattle family back to Orcas Island where the daily temps were going to be about 10 degrees cooler. Less than 20% of the homes, including condo buildings have air conditioning in Seattle. Some smoke was just beginning to drift into Seattle from some Forest Fires in British Columbia but at the time we were unaware of the extent of the fires. By the time we got to Orcas the smoke was more prevalent. My first stop was at the local grocery store to get a 6 pack of my new found favorite IPA, the cashier assured me that the smoke would be diminishing over the next two days and we would have great weekend skies. The Admiral and I planned on continuing what we started the last time we were on Orcas and continue to explore unseen areas on the Island. we started with Turtleback Mountain, Why, because it is there, and we read it is a very popular hike for the locals.  We continue to amaze ourselves as we go on these extended steep walks. We are not hikers.  You need equipment to hike. We just go in our tennis shoes and carry a small bottle of water. Even if it takes us three hours or so we surely wont die since we have plenty of water waiting for us in the car.Hikers go for all day and sometimes for days on end. They carry all sorts of survival gear and instead of going up several hundred feet they go up several thousand feet. They also make good time. A hiker could do what we did in a little over two hours in 30 minutes.

When you are in the forest the smoke visible from the higher elevations is not even a concern, heck you are in a Oxygen producing factory. Even though is has not rained in an unusually long time this season in the Pacific Northwest there are still mountain streams flowing and you kind of wonder where is that water coming from? If there was any snow on Turtleback it melted way before now.

July 2017 Back to Texas

We spent 4th of July at our 3rd Naturalization Ceremony. It is a great way to celebrate the USA as we welcomed over 500 new citizens to our country from over 60 different countries. No other 4th of July event can compare with attending this event.

Proud to welcome a lot of new Americans to the United States.

That is the scrap metal bin at the Admirals fathers hobby shop.

We filled it with over 250 carbuators and other scrap metal from his shop.

Big Dave drove the fork lift as we loaded up the remaining stuff from the second story storage areas in his shop. Then we went down and helped to sort the stuff of just  toss it out.

Just a few remaining items, almost done, One more fork lift load finished getting all the carburetors, hydraulic hoses and connections, Propane hoses and connections plus a lot of miscellaneous stuff down.

Done, all the shelves are empty.

Big Dave called two friends up and they each took a truck load of stuff they wanted.

We started each morning about 8am and finished by just after 10 am due to the increasing temps in the shop.

No big deal for a Texan who works in this every day, but we have acclimated to the Pacific Northwest where it has been in the 70's during the day and 58-62 degrees at night in July You have to really work to get a sweat going but here the sweat starts at 8am. 

lots of Cushman carburetors.

A new project has appears in the back lot of the shop.

I lived in Ft. worth for a little over 7 years, mainly during my high school years. I took some time to drive by the homes we lived in. five different homes in those memorable years, this Third one on Cork Place. 

This second on Olive Place, Two of the homes, one on Curzon, and on on Byers had been removed and replaced by more modern construction. Did not make it over to Bluebonnet circle to see if that one was still there. 

When we made it back to Settle I was intent on getting our engine work complete on Snowball. I hired a Mechanic who is a long time resident of Poulsbo and he has a large clientele that keeps him busy. I started doing some of the easy things like replacing engine hoses, thermostat, and starting the project to replace the transmission cable. 

I explained to the mechanic that if he could just come and finish the heat exchanger, exhaust riser, and the anti-siphon that I would get all the rest done. This seemed to spur him into action and the job is now complete as of Aug.7.

I'm going over this weekend to change all the filters, the antifreeze and oil. Then Snowball will be sailing the waters of Puget Sound safely very soon!

July 2017 Back to Texas 

We looked forward to our trip to Texas since it seemed a very long time since we had been back. I was missing our Texas Family and so we made sure to have some quality Austin time for sure. The main goal to help the Admirals dad get all the rest of the stuff down from the second story of his 3,000 sq ft hobby shop. It was obvious he had been doing a good job of downsizing since we were here last. Not always easy for some to get rid of stuff they have been collecting for a lifetime, but Big Dave is gettin'er done!

the temps were in the 90's when we arrived and we paced ourselves, but the day we flew out of Austin back to Seattle the high was 114 that day. After almost four years here in Seattle our bodies have fully acclimated and so returning to what used to be just a hot day was a lot more to us. Our July in Seattle has had no rain, every day sunny and in the 70's with a couple of 80-81 temps, and cool nights around 60.