Video for Keystone Dive

Pez put together this interesting (longer) video of the dive out to Keystone State Park -

http://vimeo.com/2675603

Ziplining

This is a pic from ziplining on Roatan Island, Honduras. I'm posting this partly to see what's causing some of my photos to be chopped off on the right side (I have a theory..). If a photo seems chopped off you can always click on it to see the full picture.

Edit: Ok, so my theory (actually, my hypothesis) was wrong and it was actually a template problem. I've changed the template now, though I don't like this one as much, but the pictures shouldn't be chopped off anymore.

Keystone State Park, Dive #90, and Hiking Whidbey Island

Today Greg and I went with Pez to Keystone State Park to do a dive on the pilings and jetty. The dive was pretty good, but the viz wasn't as good as we'd hoped. Still found some pretty sweet creatures:

Clown Dori:


Leopard Dori:


Hangin' out on some kelp:


The dive report (with more pics!) is posted on my dive forum here:
http://www.nwdiveclub.com/viewtopic.php?f=28&t=6511&p=75404#p75404


After that, we decided to do a hike on Whidbey Island (since we were already there) called the Bluff Loop Trail. It was supposed to be a flat 3.2 mile hike. Oddly, it wasn't really that flat, but it wasn't difficult by any means. Because the book we have "Take a Hike, Seattle" is horrible with both directions to trails and maps of the trail itself, it is often easy to go on the wrong trail when there are several of them running over each other (as was the case for Squak Mountain, and now this trail). The book doesn't bother to include parts of the trail(s) it doesn't want you to follow or trails that cross your path that the author just doesn't deem to be important. This resulted in us taking the correct trail the wrong direction for quite awhile at one point, thinking it was only supposed to go one way. I thought something was wrong because my GPS showed us heading out of the state park and finally we realized that the author didn't map the trail going both ways. By this time, we'd eaten quite a bit of time in our already dwindling daylight. We did manage to get back before it was too dark to see though, and the trail along the bluff was quite beautiful.

Bluff looking down... a ways -


Sweet Tree -


Puget Sound -

Altimeter Reading (the altimeter hasn't been calibrated on my GPS so I don't actually know how accurate this is... obviously it's not flat though :P ).


Map Track - you can see the nice long strip we had to back track :P This 3.2 mile hike turned into 5 miles.


Which had led to...

Day Island Wall, 26 December 2008, Dive #89

Day Island Wall is said to be one of the best dive locations in Puget Sound - it certainly wasn't a disappointment today. Day Island Wall isn't an easy dive because it is located in the Tacoma Narrows and is extremely current sensitive and you can easily get blown off the wall and into heavy boat traffic. Only a few times a year are the tides good enough to easily do a dive here. Today was one of them.

Sadly I did not have my camera along, but the wall was teaming with life. Three giant pacific octopuses, orange and purple gunnels, at least five species of starfish, lots of different species of scorpaenids, shrimp, hermit crabs, a dungeness crab, a wolf eel, and one huge sea lion. Since I didn't have my camera, these photos were stolen from one of my dive buddies, Pez. Here is a link to his video of the sea lion as well:
http://s189.photobucket.com/albums/z121/pez7378/?action=view&current=MVI_0033.flv

Mount Pilchuck - 30 November 2008

This hike was a total of a little less than 6 miles with an elevation gain of 2200 feet. Difficulty: moderate. The hike was boasted by one of my friends to be the least amount of effort for the amount of views - and he sure was right! After the initial ascent through the forested area, the hike opened up to some amazing views for the majority of the trail. That made this hike not well-suited for mushroom hunting, but as there was snow on the upper half of the trail it wouldn't have mattered anyways.


In the distance, Mount Glacier can be seen (it's the one covered in a ton of snow, right of the center).

I have bought both cheaper and more expensive hiking boots but have taken back every single pair I've had except the $15 pair I wore on this hike. I have yet to find a boot I find comfortable and worth the price, and the same applies to the $15 pair I was wearing on this hike, they just weren't worth taking back. Generally I find my running shoes to be the most comfortable but they're not waterproof, don't support my ankles, nor will they hold up if I'm carrying a lot of weight. So my quest for a decent pair of boots continues. Meanwhile, my feet didn't get soaked on this hike but they were cold.



It gets cold fast without gloves and a hat if you're not moving. However, while hiking you get warm incredibly fast so the gloves, hat, and additional coat I had were all stuffed inside the pack Greg was carrying.

Reached the summit, where the last bit was scrambling over large boulders and then up a ladder to the small building that was put there by a Mountaineers club. You could scramble out over more boulders and have a wonderful view all around as Greg did -



Lunch inside the cabin -



The descent was certainly more treacherous than the ascent - my boots, not having good tread, kept slipping with just about every step I took. Good thing my years in Wisconsin taught me to 'walk and slide' easily. I think Hannah was bit amused at how well I could do this :)

While this wasn't my first hike in the snow, it was certainly the first *planned* hike in the snow. It was somewhat cold... I certainly enjoy summer hiking more, but it wasn't too bad. I suppose I better get used to it... I'm going home this weekend and I am probably taking a mountaineering class in the spring - and perhaps going up Mount Rainier next summer!



And, as Hannah took all these photos, she wasn't in any except this one taken by Phil -


Cute Puffin!