Lake 22

Sunday 8/21/05.
Hiking to lake 22. Its a moderately difficult 5 mile round trip. Its somewhat steep in most parts. There is a 1/2 mile rocky patch which is most tiring. But rest of it is ok. We managed the one way hike in about 1 & 1/2 hr with little stops in between. The trail is full of water falls. We saw atleast 3. One of the waterfalls is really hidden, you have to go some 100m off the trail. Unless you are looking for it, you are sure to miss it. But we discovered this, thanks to Shayon. It was almost the highlight of the trek. You can get up to the flowing water. Atleast in August the water was not cold and it was a good break. Rahul and I as usual dipped our feet in water while others went up exploring other parts of the fall.
The lake itself is not very big, and being late summer we did not see much water either. The bare huge mountain wall on one side makes a great view.
The walk back is much faster as its all downhill. Only you have to be careful at the rocky patch as there are small loose pebbles and chances of slipping.

Here is a good link about the trail and directions to the trail from Seattle.
http://www.vtrail.com/byalphabet/ltrails/laketwentytwo.html
Only catch is that there is no sign to Mountain Loop Highway. Once you get to the end of 92, there is a dead end and a bunch of signs posted on a single pole. Turn left from there towards Verlot. That road is called Mountain Loop Highway.

Neah Bay at Olympic

On day 3, we drove to the Native Indian Makah reserve at the north western tip of the park. There is a nice Native Indian history museum, with great artifacts and stuff from digging at a nearby lake. They have a whole Makah house that you can walk into and see how they lived. Its nice and informative, reading everything in the museum takes a long time. The drive to the reserve is somewhat worth, it has a totally different feeling, especially if you wander around the streets, look at houses and stuff, its very different locality from anything you would see in urban US. It was also sad in a way, you can see how they destroyed the native Americans, their way of living and snatched all of their land, leaving then to survive on worst parts of the forests.

We ate at a nearby restaurant, surprisingly it has good vegetarian options, like omelet for breakfast and some sandwich, pasta for the lunch. After that we planned to drive to the westernmost tip of the US mainland. Most of the drive was through dirt road and it was scary, bumpy and quite uncomfortable. There is a small hike in the end to get to the point. We did not go there, no one really had any enthu, but other who went said the view was worth the hike. We drove in further till the car would take us to another point from where you can see some island with a light house, that was nice too. On the way back we made a small ice-cream stop at a cafe place close to the restaurant. Nice ice-cream. After that we just rushed back home, I so much wanted to get back fast, took the 8:15pm. ferry and were home by 9:30.

Olympic National Park 2005

Another trip to Olympic National Park, this time on May long weekend and no camping, so no bears, and no hiking too, so in all not that exciting. I was kind of bored by the end and just wanted to get back home.
Most exciting part: I got to drive a lot and that too at 70+ and there did not seem to be much consideration of speed limit anyway. I also did my first 2 overtakes on a single lane road, that was indeed exciting.
More exciting part: Did some boating in Lake Cresent.
It was a family trip with large group and plan was basically to hang out at the beach, see some places and take a relaxed driving trip.

a rainy day at San Juan Islands

This sunday inspite of the rains, we decided to go to San Juan Islands. It was drizzly when we started, but we were hit by heavy rains on the way on I-5. Ferry ride was ok, no rain there. It was a 1hr ride through the Islands, beautiful site with few small, tree covered islands. Since there was almost always land in sight, I could enjoy the ride without fear of the ferry drowning, or some whale or an unknown sea monstor catapulting the ferry, SciFi style. (yes, the ferry that was big enough to carry 100 cars.)
The orcas island was a pretty site. Its not very commercialized and felt like a small hill-station, though they do have a Safeway style Island-Market and some cute little shops. We were not expecting any veggie food around, so we had home made rotis, bread sandwich etc. Our first stop was East Sound village, a small and cute town at the edge of East Sound. Everything was cute there.
Then we started towards Mt. Constitution, the highest peak on the Island, 2000+ ft high. That is when the rain started again. By the time we reached the park extrance, it was proper raining, still we did not seem to have much choice other than driving up to the mountain and hoping agaist all logic to see something from the top. On a clear day you can see the whole set of Islands, coast of Canada and a lot more. Heavy rain followed us as we climbed the mountain through the windy roads. At one point it looked almost unsafe to drive in that rain. Anyway, we reached the peak safely. But the view was 0 from the top, just a white blanket of clouds. There is a high tower on top from which you can lookout to a amazing view (on a clear day). Rahul and I still did climb that tower, just because we were there. Then we headed back. Took a much earlier ferry than we planned. Ironically as we were heading back, all the rain stopped and by the time we were in the ferry away from the Island, we could see some sun-rays also. But ofcourse that has got nothing to do with the weather up at Mt. Constitution, it was still heavily raining there.

Himanshu's trip

I decided to go to Seattle after having lots of discussions to meet my old BITS friends Rahul, Tulika and Srijan. I was going to meet them almost after 3-4 years. Tulika and Srijan had come to pick me up at the airport. We then headed for Rahul's home where he was busy in preparing paav bhajees for me. After a 'must stop' at Starbucks on the way, it was apparent that Srijan had become a hardcore StarBucks coffee fan. When I finally met Rahul, I felt as though he had grown thinner though there was no scope for him to become thinner any further. We had a nice dinner with the paav bhajees that Rahul had cooked. Then, Rahul, Srijan and Tulika had a long discussion that where should they take me for trekking. Lots of confusions, opinions and fightings and then finally we decided to go Mount Rainer next day. By the way, I was quite afraid at that time when they were planning trekking for me as almost all the treks covered a distance of 7-8 miles. Still, I decided to take the risk and anyway Rahul was always there to lift me up if something happened to me :-)

Day 1:
We started for Mount Rainier early morning though the weather looked very lousy and rainy. Forcasts of showers were already in the limelight. So, we had equipped ourselves with all the necessary stuff and we headed for Mount Rainer. We joined with two more people Swati and Arindam. I was with Rahul and Tulika in one car and Srijan was with Swati and Arindam in the other car. We started together but then we lost each other after sometime. However, thanks to mobile services because of which we could keep track of each other. It was quite cloudy and foggy and therefore I did not get a chance to see the Rainier from the I-95 bridge. After a long 2-3 hour drive, we reached the place where we had to start our journey. It had started to drizzle by this time as the forecasts went true and the chill winds were making life further difficult for me. It was the first trek of my life and I was quite excited to be near Mount Rainer , one of the icons of Seattle. We all started our journey along the forest. The land was sometimes rocky, sometimes muddy and sometimes covered with deep snow and in between I could hear the sounds of water splashing across the rocks. It was quite exciting to experience the different forms of nature so closely. We went on walking with little breaks in between to reagain our energy and filling our stomachs. We then finally reached the carbon glacier, the place that we were looking for which made me walk for 3.5 miles. I was quite surprised that I did not make any complaint having walked for so much distance. We took some photographs and then we headed back to our cars. Though we were very near to Mount Rainier but still I did not manage to get a view of the mountain as the waether was quite bad. It was a nice trek and by now my legs had already started paining like anything as I had almost walked 7 miles which was a big achievement in itself for me.

By the time, we completed our trek, the day was coming to an end and we all wanted to have real good food. We all headed for Seattle and then again after a lot of confusions in choosing a proper place to eat, we landed in a Malay restaurant. The food was good.. especially the one that looked like Indian paratha and aloo ki sabzi. By this time, we all were quite tired and then we went to Srijan's house. We then watched Monsters Inc, the movie that everyone had seen many times except me...The movie was quite good though Tulika had been sleeping most of the time during the movie. Day 1 was exciting and tiring but it was good fun.

Day 2:
This morning, Rahul had prepared sabudana ki khichdi and it was again very good. It looked to me that Rahul had already become an expert in cooking. We started in the morning for Seattle Centre and went to the Space needle , the other icon of Seattle. On reaching the top of the space needle, the sight was quite impressive with almost the entire Seattle was in front of me. However, I could not have a look at the Mount Rainier once again , credit goes to the cloudy weather. Then we went to Thai Tom for lunch. It was a very small place with big crowd and too noisy but very tasty thai food. The place where we had food was right in front where they were cooking so many dishes in parallel. It was quite amazing to see the hands cooking so fast and so accurate. It was a new experience in itself.
We then headed for the public market place. It is a very big market with lots of things that you can buy. Srijan proving himself to be a true starbucks cofee fan bought a startbucks coffee T-shirt. It had started raining by this time and then we decided to go I-max for watching the St.Helens volcano eruption movie. The theatre was dome shaped and by the time movie ended, I and Rahul started to feel very dizzy and finally ended up vomiting in the restaurant. However, I started feeling better and then we headed for our homes. The weekend was over and it was time for me to leave Seattle next morning.

These two days in Seattle were really very exciting. Had the weather been sunny, it would have been equal to reaching heaven. Meeting so many old friends was in itself a very nice feeling and adding to the beauty of Seattle, it was a trip that I would probably never forget. However, the only thing that I still regret and feel strongly about is that I could not get a real glimpse of the Mount Rainier.

Rainy Weekend - 20/03/05

Sunday, another day of my first rainy weekend in Seattle. Today was
the seattle exploration day. There was no getting up early, everyone
woke up comfortably around 9:00. We had a wonderful breakfast of
sabudana khichdi, of course made by Rahul. We started for seattle
around 11. First stop the Space Needle.
pic1
It was cold and windy, but
your seattle visit cannot really complete without going on top the the
Space Needle. Srijan and Himanshu took that trip while Rahul, I and
Swati hung around at the store. After that was the lunch stop at Thai
Tom. Food was as good as always, with the added advantage of less
rush. We finished lunch with some ice-cream. Then it was over to the
Pike Place Market. After roaming around there for some time in rain,
we went back to Seattle Center and took a trip in the Sci-Fi Museum.
It really turned out to be a Museum, with lot of old static things
hanging around, lot of knowledge enclosed in the show cases, weaponry
from old and new Sci-Fi movies, almost anything that was ever made.
And guess what most of it was from "Paul Allen Family Collection",
talk about collecting things. The museum could have been a real
delight had we gone in with the expectation of learning Sci-Fi history
and stuff. But we all wanted rides, adventure and things to do. So for
that day it was a definate flop, especially as our chief guest
(Himanshu in case u r wondering) was totally unimpressed. To make
things up, we went to the I-Max Dome theatre at the aquarium to watch
our famous St. Helens eruption movie. The movie was great as ever,
and I just loved it once again. I was also contemplating about buying
the DVD. But the movie did not suit some people. So that was also not
a big hit. Now comes the food time, and this time Ethiopian food won.
After few phone calls to 411, and then some local 411s, we got to the
restaurant 'Queen of Sheba' (I hope I remember the name right) in hunt
for some authentic Ethiopian food. I liked the food, the eating style
was good, all in a single plate, shared, there were lot of veggie
options. But I am not sure what was the Ethiopian specific component
there was. Everything was so close to the Indian food, yellow daal,
black daal, aalu sabji, bhindi sabji and dosa. But anyway, that kind
of saved the day and then we came back home all very exhausted and
sleepy. The day ended with a episode from Dilbert :)

Rainy weekend - 19/03/05

This was our first real trek in a long time, not anyone's fault given
that we are just out of winter, and lot of credit goes to Himanshu for
coming here and providing motivation for the trip. (Not sure how
motivated he was, or if he had ever imagined going on 7 mile trek in
rain and snow!!). But we were in full enthu. Surprisingly we set out
on time, to mount rainier in 2 cars with no yahoo maps!! But then
reaching rainier is no brainier. Just follow the highest peak in
south, if you can see it that is. Rain started when we were just out
of seattle. We reached our base camp by 11:00 , with almost no goofing
up on the route and a few coffee breaks. The trail is called Carbon
River Glacier trail, parts of which some of us renamed to Tulika
Trail, I am still confused about the reason. It started out well, rain
had almost stopped and it was not very steep. Then we hit the almost
dried carbon river. The soil was black, maybe that's where it got its
name from.
Carbon River
Further down the trail, most parts of the trail were washed
away by some recent floods. There was of course some confusion if this
was the right trail, but as it appeared we were the first few trekkers
on that trail after the floods. So we had to start a new route (that
was the part which was renamed). We carried on, trampling the
vegetation and making a new trail. This was the first time I had seen
real flood damage. At some point in between, the rain started and rain
jackets were out. Then we hit some traces of snow. Nothing dangerous,
but enough to start some snow ball throwing. We reached a wood log
bridge over a waterfall. Rahul as usual wanted to touch some water at
some specific place far away, I was not with him in this adventure,
not really loving the rain and the cold. After the bridge, the main
highlight of the trail was a swinging bridge over a really deep
gorge/river/rivulet. One person at a time on the bridge and the bridge
would swing up and down trying to scare you. But the view of the
glacier from the middle of this bridge was awesome. An unobstricted
view of the mighty glacier (and Mt Rainier beyond on a clear day).
Another .3 miles and we were close to the glacier, spotting soem cave,
few crows and water trikkling down the glacier. It was all wet and
cold now and there were 3.5miles of trek back to the cars. As most
treks, the back trek was uneventful. By the end everyone just wanted
to get back in the warm and cozy cars and head home.

Thai Tom

Finally I do have a thai place where the food is good, different and where I feel like going. Its Thai Tom in Seattle. Its a very very small, noisy and crowded place. The kitchen is right in front of you where you sit so you can see the food being cooked. The food is tasty, different from any other thai food I have had, not very oily, spicy to the extent you want with their 5 level of spices. I could see a lot of veggie options, and they all taste different, and not just noodles in tofu or fried rice. If you are in this area, definately try this place.
Thai Tom
4543 University Way NE
Seattle, WA 98105
206-548-9548

Death Valley and Las Vegas trip

This new year we spent in Death Valley and Las Vegas. It was the usual group of friends from Seattle, but there was no camping this time, it was just too cold. The trip was fun and great siteseeing in Death Valley and then Vegas is fun any day. I'll have a detailed account of the trip little later with some pics.