Wenatchee Outdoors.ORG

The main reason I work to hang on to Black Bear Lodge (aka Pine River Cabin) is to be able to access the incredible country in Central Washington. At the headwaters of the Wenatchee River at Lake Wenatchee, and just a short drive from Stevens Pass, the cabin places you in one of the most varied and scenic locales in all of the United States.

That may sound like a bold statement, but consider what you can find there.

A half hour west of the cabin and you are at the Cascade Crest for either skiing at Stevens or striking out on the Cascade Crest Trail. Dozens of other access points along the way provide access to hiking, mountain biking, snowshoeing into some of the most dramatic scenery you can imagine. Head north and you can make your way to trailheads on Phelps Creek and into the Spider Meadows country or to Trinity and the trails along the Chiwawa River that lead directly into the Glacier Peak Wilderness.

Head east and thirty minutes takes you beyond Leavenworth into the drying ponderosa forest that eventually opens into the sunny and lovely Wenatchee Valley with the Columbia River. Rainfall drops from over a hundred inches to about ten and the terrain is suddenly open and expansive. The two rivers - the Wenatchee and the Columbia - offer mulitple opportunities for any kind of water recreation you can imagine.

Here is a link to a fabulous website that offers extensive information on the area.

http://www.justgetout.net/Wenatchee/

For a quick intro check out this video from the website.
http://vimeo.com/7235177

Let me know when you are ready to visit so we can get you hooked up with Black Bear Lodge!!

Mammoth Mountain

On Thursday the 13th, Larry O'keefe, Berl Nussbaum and myself flew to Mammoth Lakes CA via San Jose and enjoyed the free beer passed out on Horizon Airlines. It was Larry's first trip on Horizon and he was like a kid in a candy store once he realized he was traveling with an airline that actually encouraged you to drink beer.

For all of us it was the first trip to this beautiful location and it required spending some time with a map to figure out where it was even located. I've heard of Mammoth for years and knew it was somehow associated with LA so had assumed it to be somewhere nearby, but I was actually surprised at the location on the east slopes of the Sierra Nevada, just southeast of Yosemite.

That close to the rugged peaks near that wonderful park it comes as no surprise that Mammoth is a stunning location. It is a bit of surprise, however, when you ski down mid-mountain and discover a fenced off area with warning signs encouraging you to avoid the toxic fumes spewing from an active volcanic vent. Imagine that! Skiing in Southern California on a volcano! Spectacular.

It's called Mammoth for a good reason, the mountain is enormous with 3500 acres and 28 lifts. Of course, on weekends the crowds are also mammoth since it's only about five hours or so from the nearest LA suberbs. We were told that on Saturday the 14th there were 36,000 skiers on the hill. As you might imagine, the lift lines were huge.

On Friday, however, it was fantastic. No lines, no clouds, no way it could have been better. Snow conditions were absolutely perfect in spite of the 40 degree weather and we were able to sample nearly the entire mountain. It's just too huge to cover all in one day unless the only objective is to traverse the area, so there are still many lifts I have yet to lay eyes on. Another trip is most certainly in the future.

We avoided the crowds on Saturday - remember this was MLK weekend so it was particularly nuts - by going 20 miles north to a small local hill, also owned by Mammoth Ski Corp - called June Mountain. Again, beautiful weather, completely manageable lines, and a fabulous time.

A Springboard Event

In January of 1996 the company I worked for was acquired by one of Ross Perot's gigantic corporations and underwent the typical remake to mirror the image of the new owner. We went from a small, privately held firm of about 120 people to being a part of an international company of many thousands.

The upside to such an acquisition is typically one of financial solvency and the adoption of a series of new tools, systems, processes and a remake of the culture. In this case, I had no interest in joining this particular firm for reasons that really no longer matter. As soon as the change was announced I began laying plans for my departure and next adventure.

When the changeover took place, the new owners, in a moment of generosity granted us all our full year's worth of vacation effective immediately. I think this was meant as an act of thoughtfulness and an opportunity for folks to take a little time off to readust to the new much more rigid culture. I took them up on it. I took my entire four weeks and disappeared for the month of February. I then returned. And quit.

I spent that year, from the first of March through about mid-September working with a partner to create a website devoted to boating in the salt water of the Northwest. We flew all over the place, from Olympia to Point Roberts, taking pictures of all the islands and bays and marinas and then built what would still be considered a first class website today. It subsequently sold to a couple of ambitious guys from Microsoft, but it kept me busy for months before that.

What I learned from that spring and summer, in addition to how to build websites and how to try to sell advertising on them, was that what seems like a lot of time when you are at the beginning of it somehow turns into not very much as you near the end. I promised myself that if I ever again was offered a chance to have time all to me, just to do what I wanted with it, I'd not waste as second of it, but dive right in and get busy.

This past Wednesday I was relieved of command at my job. Here I am, with time handed me, and another opportunity to invest my energy into the things I am deeply interested in. So I'm getting started.

There are a couple of ski trips in the next week. There is a lot of writing to ramp back up and complete. There is the opportunity to learn some new things - like classes in writing and publishing, like piano lessons. A chance to focus on my own health and spend time outdoors and get together with family and friends - this list goes on and on.

Expect a bit more activity here on this blog in the coming weeks. I'll keep you posted on things as we progress, share a few bits of writing with you, take you along on some of these terrific ski trips and generally just do a better job of connecting with the rest of the world.

As I was describing all this to my son Zeke, he said to me, "Wow - this is really a springboard event for you!". I like that phrase. It sort of sums up where I am right now and offers a picture of what this means. I'm on the end of the board, bouncing up and down, trying to decide if it will be a back flip or a full gainer of a one and a half. And even if it ends up in a belly flop, I can't wait to get busy!!!!

Yellowstone - Day 4

The sun was finally out in full force for our trip from our West Yellowstone base to a more central location at Grant Village. Another trip along the Madison River, then the Firehole River and past the Old Faithful Lodge and it's namesake geyser and we left, for a while, the still burn-scarred upper geyser basin for a trip up to a pass over the Continental Divide. Along the way we stopped to see Grand Prismatic Spring - the largest and most impressive of the hot springs in the area. With the cool weather, the amount of steam coming from the hot water made for poor views and wet sunglasses, but we did manage to get a few views in.

We finally got a glimpse of Yellowstone Lake after topping the ridges and then took a short jog to the south to find the never before visited by me Grant Village complex. This was the first time I've stayed in this area, always had just driven through before. The complex was constructed in 1984 amidst enormous controversy as it was placed right in the midst of some the best grizzly habitat in the park. Needless to say, the bears came out on the losing side in favor of more visitor space. There is still a great deal of disagreement among wildlife biologists and park administration about habitat management in general, but this facility caused a firestorm in the late 80's. It's in place now, however, so little can be done to change things, but I must say it's a delightful location and the facilities - the newest in the park by far - are nice. The bears might disagree.


We explored the area around Grant Village for a bit before heading north to the Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone - next to Old Faithful, probably the most well know spot in the park. It is a spectacular place with a deep canyon cutting through layers of multi-colored rock.
At over 900 feet deep and half a mile wide, it certainly gets your attention. Geologically it's an interesting spot because the canyon is erosional rather than glaciated, which is what defines much of the park - and of course volcanism. In this case, it is presumed that the location of the canyon was covered by rhyolite rock - normally very hard -which was chemically altered by the existence of an underlying geyser basin. The heat and water and chemicals contained in that water had an effect on the rhyolite which altered its composition, making it very soft and subject to the incredible erosion we see today. There are still many thermal features in the vicinity today, which were visible on this trip. The cool weather caused large amounts of steam to be emitted from all these locations so I was able, for the first time, to see the locations. A fabulous place!!

On our return toward Grant Village we made a stop at the Yellowstone Lake Hotel. It was here we found all the bison that had been missing in our passage of the Hayden Plateau between the canyon and the hotel. Here is the Hayden Valley - a gorgeous place as well!!

Yellowstone - Day 3

We finally hit the rivers today, starting with a cool and cloudy visit to the Madison. This is a fast and deep river on the west end of the park. We were just inside the boundary when I took this picture. Steve managed to get one small whitefish but the advertised big and burly trout failed to find any attraction to our gear.

After this we moved deeper into the park and stopped off at the Firehole River, just below the upper geyser basin where Old Faithful erupts and pours gallons of hot water into this river. It's odd because you can feel how warm the water is. It's very different than any other trout stream I've ever fished because of that. Apparently, at some times of the year it's almost unfishable as the warm water forces the trout deep, looking for any cool water they can find, where they hide out until fall brings cooler weather.

Lucky for us, the water and weather cooperated and we each managed a half dozen trout out of the Firehole! That's a lifetime achievment for me - fish caught in the Firehole River. Has a nice ring to it, doesn't it? There are two species of cutthroat here that I can't differentiate, but the two that I caught were a beautiful golden color with brililant red spots - very nice fish!

Yellowstone - Day 2

It was cool and foggy when we drove through the Park Entrance this morning. The sky above, when we could see it, was clear and gave every indication of a good day. At the first opportunity to look west, however, we could see a bank of clouds hanging on the horizon looking ready to change things.

By the time we reached the Firehole River, it was so thick we could barely see. We decided we'd put fishing on hold for a bit and travel through the three geyser basins since Steve has not been here before. That would allow a chance for him to see some of these wonders while getting the basic lay of the land along the western side of this magnificent park. We followed many of the boardwalks and visited geysers, fumaroles, mud pots and hot springs galore. By about nine am we were at the upper geyser basin and decided to follow the three mile trail there to see the sights around Old Faithful (or as Jamie likes to call it, "Old Reliable"). There are over six hundred of these things in the park so any of us visiting actually only see a tiny fraction of them.

Following our tour of the basin we wandered through the wonderful Old Faithful Lodge, admiring the unique structure and enjoying a nice lunch out of the rain, which had by then begun to fall in earnest. As the temperature dropped and the rain increased, we headed back west following the Firehole River to the intersection with the Gibbon River and began to follow it upstream. After a few miles we seemed to have out run the rain so we stopped long enough for Steve to wet a hook.

Yellowstone - Day 1

Steve agreed to pick me up at the Bozeman International Overseas Aerodrome today after driving all the way from Seattle while I rode a very bumpy Horizon Q400 the five hundred odd miles from home to here. Weather was not good for most of the trip and very turbulent. In spite of that, or maybe because of that, the views here are quite spectacular.

We've watched a number of thunderstorms roll in from the west and have seen lightning many times. Whether we are seeing fires start or not we'll find out later.

We got to West Yellowstone about five thirty so we had time to wander through a few fly fishing shops. One would think that in a town that's only about five blocks long there would not be more than one of these stores. We visited three and have not seen them all. It would appear that fly fishing is a money generating sport in these parts. We did listen to the guides in one store discussing today's outings with one another and it sounds like twenty inch fish are just itching for Steve and I to show up with our Lamboghini Woolybooger Activator Indicator flies to yank 'em out. We will see how that works out. Remember, for me it's called fishing, not catching.

Into the park tomorrow with a very wet weather forecast. I'll update tomorrow night.