Eric T. Benefit at Dog

And a Hike near Sunrise, Mt. Rainier National Park,

15-17 Sep 2012

Eric was seriously injured when he crashed his hang glider while launching at Chelan Butte early this summer. He has insurance but the uncovered expenses are very high. Folks in the flying community wanted to do something more than what individuals have been doing (e.g., Brian Scott remodeled Eric's bathroom). Tina Jorgensen and the rest of her family came up with the idea of a Frostbite-style fly-in at Dog.

15 Sep, Sat - C.J. and I got down to Dogpatch early (for us) and found a large crowd already there with tents, trailers and motor homes, a stage for entertainment (and auction), and a rock climbing wall plus an inflatable "bouncy house". The wind looked a bit strong with some whitecaps on the lake but, after setting up the Aliner, we found another passenger and went up to launch. People were setting up and launching but we waited around for an hour or two for better conditions. C.J. launched as the winds moderated and had a good 1-1/2 hr flight. I waited until 4 p.m. or so, even though the other four paragliders (Ross and Kraske among others) were launching. Finally, when Ruaraidh launched a second time I used the launch-from-the-face technique and got off easily (on my second attempt). The wind was strong enough that I popped up over launch and then crept only slowly forward. I made a couple of 360s but basically I flew out over the lake and then came back to land in the LZ a bit short of the spot. The number of people present for the fly-in seemed larger than the number who usually show up for

Sierra, Tina and Jasmine auctioning desserts

Frostbite. The burgers, dogs and potluck selections were just as good, and the dessert auction started up right after folks had eaten dinner. Jazzy did a great job as auctioneer and got some amazing donations (One that sticks in my mind was Steve Kincaid who bid $45 on his own box of HotPot donuts - he said he had already eaten half of one of them.). There were also flying and non-flying items for sale (David Lundquist had a couple of his Grateful Dead t-shirts.)  and people were making donations, as well. The total, including donations on Sunday, came to over $7000. Wow!

Little Tahoma and Mt Rainier from Emmons Moraine

16 Sep, Sun - It looked like another beautiful day although a lot of people had gone home after the entertainment (Val Gallagher was just one of the talented people who played and sang on the stage.) Saturday night. C.J. had had a good flight and was Saturday ready to do something else so we broke camp and drove over Cayuse Pass to the Sunrise entrance to Mt. Rainier. There was a really slow-moving line at the ticket booth and we were glad when another ranger showed up and let those of us with passes through another lane. We were a little concerned about crowding on the trail especially after we saw that the trailhead for the Wonderland Trail at Fryingpan Creek was totally parked up. But when we got to White River Campground there were most of the sites were vacant and we found a pull-thru next to a rushing stream in the first loop we came to. A family in the next campsite had a map of the local trails and we found that the Glacier Basin trail started right in the CG. By then it was close to 1300 so we didn't even open the trailer but started right out to hike the 3.2 mi to Glacier Basin. The trail paralleled the White River mostly in cedar, spruce and fir forest. We passed some old mining gear (and a big pile of bear scat) before the forest opened out in the basin. We continued on another quarter mile or so toward Inter glacier and Sherman Rock before stopping for the day at about 6064 ft (according to the GPS on my new smartphone). We were on our way down by 1600 and it was a gentle enough slope that my knees did not give me any problem. We were beat by the time we got back to camp but C.J. prepared a nice dinner and then we crashed early, but not before finishing up the editing we had also worked on Saturday night.

17 Sep, Mon - C.J. had to get back home so she could finish her article for the magazine and get all the November edits uploaded to the USHPA server. We were on our way out of White River CG around 0900 down the Mather Memorial Parkway and US 410. We hadn't been over this route for a couple of years so we were commenting on the changes (not many actually). We had put $20 of gas in on the way through Packwood Sunday and today we stopped at Costco in Covington to fill up. Home by noon.

New Flooring for the Kitchen, etc.

5-24 September, 2012

The vinyl flooring in our kitchen was replaced when we had the house remodeled in 1985. It's old enough now that when either of us drops something (especially a knife!) a piece chips off. A month or three ago we bought a bunch of laminate flooring when it went on sale at Costco. It took the purchase and imminent delivery of a new refrigerator to provide the impetus to begin the reflooring project.

Flange at the base of the brass pole

5 Sep, Wed - I ran into Issaquah to buy a transition kit at Home Depot. Even though they didn't have the right pattern, I bought one anyway just to see how it worked. I spent the rest of the day building a box to enclose the flange at the base of the brass pole that supports one of the ceiling beams. Meanwhile, I had moved the old fridge into the living room using a hand truck and some plywood sheets, moved everything out of the pantry to the front room, and took the counter and the sliding table out of the kitchen. I also removed all the baseboard/quarter-round trim and cut the bottom half-inch off the door trim.

6 Sep, Thu - After carefully cleaning the old floor, I started laying the new laminate planks in front of the cabinets. I had to make a block to tap the pieces together since the kit I ordered online did not have one. The process went reasonably quickly until I began running into places where the planks needed to be cut to fit. The Shopsmith table saw was a big help and having moved it into the garage I had more room to work.

7 Sep, Fri - The range had to be disconnected and moved into the living room, but making the cutout to fit around the gas pipe and electric box was not as difficult as expected. By the end of the day I had completed the laying of the laminate from wall to wall and around the fireplace hearth. Next would be filling the gaps around the periphery with caulk. But first we had a weekend ahead of us at the Baldy Butte Fly-in. Oh, and the new refrigerator was delivered around 2 p.m. and that took some time since the 29-in. wide fridge would not go through our 30-in. doorway even with the door taken off the hinges. So it had to come in the front door then get past the cabinets and the stove (good thing I hadn't fixed it in place yet). All the time the two delivery guys were moving the refrigerator around the kitchen floor I was waiting for a scratch or crack or something but the laminate held up just fine.

8 Sep, Sat - We did not take our trailer to Baldy since the camping was in a new place at the north end of the field this year. We were there early enough to wander around and talk to people; conditions did not look so good that we felt we had to rush to the top. When Chris and Patricia arrived, we threw in with them and went to the top. Very few people soared and only Pam Nichols went XC as far as The Bowl. I never got my wing out of the car and C.J. never took hers out of the pack. We drove back down with Patricia. The potluck dinner was good and the campfire was comfortable but as things wound down we decided to head home since the next day was looking like rain. Peter and Naomi invited us to spend the night with them and that worked out well. During the evening there was a lot of lightning and we were not surprised the next day to see smoke rising from several fires [which later became the large Table Mountain Complex fire].

9 Sep, Sun - After an omelet made with fresh eggs from Peter and Naomi's "lap chickens", I picked a nearby hike from the guidebook Desert Hikes. Westberg Memorial on Manastash Ridge was only a couple of miles and a couple of thousand feet up but it gave a great view over the Kittitas Valley. Besides the memorial to wrestling coach Westberg there were several other memorials. C.J. and I took a different trail down which had actual switchbacks. We were surprised that Peter and Naomi weren't back at the cars since they were moving much faster down than we were. Apparently they took the old trail down and waited for us until they figured out that we weren't coming down that trail. Finally together back at the trailhead, we took our leave and returned home over Snoqualmie Pass.


10 Sep, Mon - I started caulking around the floor.

11 Sep, Tues - Caulking turned out to be a bigger job than I expected and I went back to Ace Hardware for another three tubes of clear siliconized acrylic caulk. I knocked off early enough so we could go to the first KT Squares plus-dance of the season.

12 Sep, Wed - C.J. and I took the day off to go to the Pacific Science Center for the King Tut exhibit. We also took in an IMAX movie, "Mysteries of Egypt", which was pretty good introduction to ancient Egypt. We had Greek food for lunch at Athena at the base of Queen Anne hill. We returned home in time to rest and prepare dinner before going to the opening night of the Village Theater's production of "Big River", a musical version of Huckleberry Finn.

13 Sep, Thu - C.J. painted the toekick under the cabinets. I started reinstalling the extra countertop and slide-out table after cutting off the thickness of the flooring from the legs of each. I put some of the baseboard/quarter-round back in place. The stove was finally fixed in place and the trim replaced around the rear of it.

14 Sep, Fri - I made a couple of new baseboard pieces to fit the corner north of the refrigerator, stained and varathaned. The transition pieces had arrived from the laminate supplier so I put in a threshold between the kitchen and living room. It really made the installation look much more finished.

15 Sep, Sat - Eric Thorstensen's Benefit Fly-in at Dog

 16 Sep, Sun - Camp at White River CG near Sunrise, Mt. Rainier NP. Hike to a bit beyond Glacier Basin Camp along the White river, about 3.5 mi one-way.

Looking up Emmons Glacier toward Little Tahoma; smoky sky from the fires in E. WA

17 Sep, Mon - We got back from Dog and Mt Rainier early enough that I could refasten the quarter-round in the pantry and in front of the cabinets using the air compressor and brad nailer. I moved all the cabinets and the bookcase back into the pantry and began measuring and cutting quarter-round for the places where there had been no trim before (behind the stove, around the hearth).

Wooden box covering flange at the base of the pole

18 Sep, Tue - Slower pace today as quarter round needs to be stained and varathaned after being cut to size. I did put some moulding around the "brass pole box". It was cut from pieces left over from the transition kit and held in place with Liquid Nails.

19 Sep, Wed - Most of the day was taken up with a dental exam followed by lunch at Costco,  swapping a new but non-operating drill press for a new one at Harbor Freight, and returning some transition floor trim at Home Depot. Later I cut some finicky pieces of quarter-round for short runs.

20 Sep, Thu - C.J. and I drove in to Issaquah to pick up some stuff at Costco and Freddies. I replaced my black ink cartridge and C.J. convinced REI that her 3-yr-old boots were wearing out too fast. REI continues to honor their money-back guarantee and let C.J. pick out a new pair of boots. Back at home I tackled the bathroom threshold by cutting down the door by 1/4 of an inch (in two tries) and installed the transition kit for another really nice-looking doorway. I have one more doorway to do and then some more tiny pieces of quarter-round to fit around door trim. Getting close!

Threshold to front room - after

Threshold to front room - before

 21 Sep, Fri - Today I'm declaring the floor officially finished.Nothing is ever really "done" but I got the last big gap filled in, the threshold to the front room. Later I brought the varnished quarter-round in and used finishing nails to attach it to the "brick" hearth. [The hearth is really a layer of 1/2-inch brick and "mortar" over a 2x4 frame.] I was going to glue (Liquid Nails) the quarter-round to the brick, but the imitation mortar did not crack when I drilled a test hole through it so nailing was a better alternative.

Gap around hearth

Trim applied to hearth

22 Sep, Sat - There are still a few really small and oddly-shaped pieces to construct, stain and place but otherwise I'm finished. I used a piece of the threshold to fill a 4-inch gap next to the hearth today.

Hearth gap filled w/threshold

Gap near hearth - before

The Methow for Labor Day Weekend

1-4 Sep. 2012


A recent dinner with the Stromings led to a plan to meet at Dave Verbois's cabin near Winthrop for the upcoming Labor Day weekend. Dave and Leslie were good with that. We were hoping for some flying at Goat Peak near Mazama but we'd settle for some river floating and visiting.

1 Sep, Sat - We thought we might get going Friday but I noticed a Labor Day sale at Lowes on a CU- recommended refrigerator and C.J. and I decided that we were tired of our still-running-but-rusty 1978 fridge so we bought a new, plain-vanilla, white top-freezer 20.6 cu ft refrigerator. No more repairing broken door handles! In addition to the sale price, I was eligible for the veteran's discount, so we did even better than we had hoped. [Later we got an additional 10% off when we noticed a dent in the top when the delivery guys were trying to get it in our too-narrow garage door.] Anyway, Saturday we hooked up the trailer and drove over to Twisp where I turned off the route we usually take and followed the directions of our GPS on what appeared to be a more direct route. It wasn't. There is no direct route from Twisp - we ended up driving near Pipestone Canyon and coming down the back side of Bowen Mountain, adding several more miles (and several pounds of dust) to our trip. Dave, Steve, and local pilot Seth along with Steve's son, Jeremy, were eager to get a flight in on Saturday so we headed back to Bowen and bushwhacked up to the launch
 Unfortunately, the wind was too strong to fly and the direction was slightly off; fortunately, C.J. and I did not carry our wings up. Dinner was mostly provided by the Stromings who had asked the local butcher to cut some huge steaks from a hand-raised young cow. Delicious! C.J. had brought her berry-filled Queen Cake with whipped cream for dessert.

2 Sep, Sun - The pilots in the group were hoping for up-valley winds so we could fly Goat but it was not to be. Making the best of the beautiful, summer-like weather, we inflated a bunch of tubes and our Sevylor Tahiti and drove a couple of miles north of Twisp to a roadside pullout. It was pretty easy to get into the shallow, but cold Methow River there and paddle downstream. There were some really shallow places but the Tahiti floated through almost all of them getting hung up only in the very last rapid just before takeout near the Twisp public swimming pool and park. Some of the folks in the tubes got pretty chilled during the 2-mile float but when we stopped the sun warmed everyone up quickly. We all were ready for another hearty dinner and this time it was spaghetti with a big salad. Steve hiked up to the ridge above Dave's cabin and got a short flight, the only flight of the weekend.

Dave's front yard: Susan, Signe, G, C.J., Jeremy, Leslie, Dave, Steve

3 Sep, Mon - Since it didn't look like it was going to be flyable, the party broke up and we decided to continue the loop by going over the North Cascades on US 20. We made a stop at the summit and walked the loop trail to great views of Liberty Bell and the Early Winter Spires. We got to Colonial Creek campground (USFS) early enough to get a site right on Thunder Arm of Diablo Lake and still have time to hike up Thunder Dome, a really nice four mile hike to a good view down the lake toward the dam.

C.J. at top of Thunder Knob, Diablo Lake

4 Sep, Tue - Not being in any particular rush to get home, we packed up and then walked the mile or so up Thunder Creek trail to where the it crosses a bridge to the east bank of the creek. Back at camp we finished hitching up and then drove west stopping only for gas at Burlington Costco.

Oregon Coast - Bay Area - Crater Lake

15-21 August 2012

(photos to follow)

The trip to visit Paula and Stephen on the Oregon Coast near Waldport had been on our agenda for months but a call from Ginny on the way through Oregon inviting us to visit San Anselmo while sister Mary and brother Rob were there was a surprise. It was farther than we had planned to go but it was a great opportunity to get almost a majority of the Farnsworth siblings together. Crater Lake happened because we needed a place to camp at the halfway point on the way home and it just seemed like a good idea.

15 Aug, Wed - We got going at a reasonable time,stopped for gas at Costco Tumwater, picked up a new radio antenna at HRO Portland (actually in Tigard) and then continued down to hit the coast at Lincoln City. Somewhere south of Depoe Bay C.J. caught sight of a whale not far off shore and we pulled off to watch it spout and breach. We made one more stop to pick up some fresh tuna at Newport before arriving at the Goldman's vacation rental just south of Waldport. Stephen and I made a great charcoal fire for grilling the tuna but then we made the mistake of covering the grill with aluminum foil so it wouldn't stick; that smothered the charcoal and we had to resort to broiling the fish in the oven. It was still very good!

16 Aug, Thu - We spent the day visiting, eating and walking on the beach. Heather made homemade pizza for dinner then we had s'mores cooked over a campfire in the chilly mist.

17 Aug, Fri - Since it was a Friday we assumed there would be no campgrounds available along the coast or in the Redwoods so we just bit the bullet and drove straight on down Rte 101 to San Rafael and on to Ginny and Wally's place. Rob, Mary, and Mary's friend Andy were there as well and shared some of the delicious dinner they had prepared using some of Ginny's line-caught salmon (even though we had stopped for a Quiznos flatbread sandwich in ___ not to mention an ice cream bar at Costco Eureka where we had also tanked up).

18 Aug, Sat - Around mid-day Ginny led the whole group (except for Wally who was working at Ed Levin) on a hike through part of the Marin watershed above her house. It was a  hot day but there was a pretty good breeze up on the ridge where there was a view of the Bay, especially of the Richmond Bridge. Later, after cleaning up we all met at Alma Via for dinner with Mom F. who seems to be holding her own although looking frailer than she was when we last saw her in June. Dessert turned out to be a surprise birthday cake (cakes! one strawberry, the other dark chocolate) for me - well, it was close to my birthday, anyway.

19 Aug, Sun - Mary and Andy dropped by before heading to their respective flights. [Andy, who is a graduate of the Ranger School at Cranberry Lake, NY, is the head arborist for the city of Orlando.]  Since Mary wanted to buy some gifts for her sons, we all went down to San Anselmo to a nifty-gifty shop. Afterward Ginny led C.J. and me on a road/trail route back to the house. Ginny went to Alma Via and we hung out until Wally got back and then C.J. prepared a dinner of steak and more of Ginny's salmon. Rob came over late and got the leftovers.

20 Aug, Mon - C.J. and I left San Anselmo around 1000, stopped for gas at Costco Vacaville and then pushed on up the increasingly-smoky Sacramento Valley. There were fires burning east of Redding so roads to Hat Creek Rim through Burney were closed to traffic. The temperature got up to 100 deg and the Outback's temperature gauge showed that we were close to overheating. We stopped for a break in Mt. Shasta then pushed on to Klamath Falls where I thought we would find gas at a Costco. No Costco! We had to settle for a relatively low price (3.799) at a Pilot station just north of town. We pulled into Mazama Campground at Crater Lake around 1800 just as the Xanterra agent was putting out the "Campground Full" sign. I guess he didn't really mean it because there were still a number of the more expensive RV pull-through sites available. It was pleasant to eat dinner outside in the evening light. Later we took a walk around the campground and discovered a trail along the bluff above Annie Creek which we determined to explore the next day. We got back to our site in time to grab a flashlight and a fleece vest for the campfire program - Statesmen and Photographers (and how they helped lead to the creation of the National Park system in the US).

21 Aug,  Tues -Up early (before dawn, for us very early), we followed the Annie Creek trail along the lip and then down into the canyon eroded in the welded ash of one eruption or another. We didn't spot any early-morning critters but the sun rose as a glowing red ball, the result of forest fire smoke in the air. Back at camp we ate, took down the tent and headed up to the Rim Drive. A few miles along the rim we stopped for a walk up The Watchman (named for the watchers who directed the first scientific expedition as they attempted to measure the depth of the lake). The fire tower on the summit was unmanned this morning but the view of the lake and Wizard Island from the rocks was pretty incredible. Heading north out of the park we turned NW to pass by Diamond Lake and Mt Thielsen. We ran into some construction which delayed us but the North Umpqua Hwy (OR 138) was still scenic enough to make up for the loss of time. In Glide, at Colliding Rivers rest area, we crossed to the north side of the Umpqua and joined I-5 north of Roseburg. From there it was just another long slog on the freeway to home with a stop at Woodburn Costco for gas.