Thursday, July 28, 2011

Support Washington Trails or a trail in YOUR neighborhood!!

Now in 2011, I want you to support Ryan and me with our hike-a-thon for Washington Trails Association.
Our Team Page
Amanda's Page
Ryan's Page
But I have a challenge to put out to all of you for next year and beyond! Seeing that list of California State Parks that are closed this summer should be a wake up call to everyone, that it could happen in your state, to the trails that you love to hike.

For all my friends in Oregon who have been lamenting that they don't have anything like the Washington Trails Association
Trail Keepers of Oregon is here!!
They don't have a Hike-a-thon YET, but you can definitely sign up and get out there and work to help maintain trails in Oregon!!

Anywhere along the Appalachian Trail you can get involved through the Appalachian Trail Conservancy.
In California, Oregon and Washington, there is the Pacific Crest Trail Association.

Mount Washington in New Hampshire has a great hike-a-thon over a weekend every year called Seek the Peek . It is already over for this year, but perhaps next year some of you guys could get involved!

In Colorado, there is the Colorado Trail Foundation.

In Tennessee there is The Tennessee Trails Associaion

Ohio has the Buckeye Trail.

In Florida, there is the Florida Trail Association and goodness knows the Florida Trail could use some work!!

Texas has the Texas Trails Network.

New York has the Finger Lakes Trail Conference.

Another great way to get involved in your neck of the woods is to see if the Sierra Club has an active chapter in your state.

We like to get out and use the trails, and there are a million ways for us to support the trails with our time and money. I am sure that you have seen a bridge over a stream that was an Eagle Scout project! But we can't always rely on the Eagle Scouts to maintain our trails!!

2011 HaT horizontal

So be sure to check out our WTA fundraising pages
Our Team Page
Amanda's Page
Ryan's Page
and make a donation. We need your help to keep Washington's Trails open and hikeable!! And shoot me an email if you'd like to get together to do a hike. I will try to work you into my schedule. Ryan and I would love to see more of our friends and family out on the trails.
Checks should be made out to WTA and can be sent to PO Box 16131, Seattle, WA 98116

Wednesday, July 27, 2011

The best laid plans for Hike-a-thon 2011...



Every year before Hike-a-thon, I pour over my hiking guides, I make lists and check out all my maps. I print out letterboxing clues and I try to decide where I am going to hike this summer.

On my short list this year are:

Nisqually National Wildlife Refuge
Cougar Mountain
Tiger Mountain
Redmond Watershed Preserve
Sammamish River Trail
Squires Lake

and I am considering Mount St. Helens for a camping trip or maybe Steamboat Rock or geez, it is so hard to decide!!

We are so lucky in Washington!! In California, they are closing 70 state parks this summer!! SEVENTY, that leaves over 200 parks open, but still a huge cut and there are some parks that I was hoping to utilize during my San Francisco layovers, like Olompali SHP, China Camp SP and Henry W. Coe SP. And there are many parks on this list that Ryan and I have enjoyed in the past, like Castle Crags SP and William B. Ide Adobe SHP.

Anderson Marsh SHP
Annadel SP
Antelope Valley Indian Museum
Austin Creek SRA
Bale Grist Mill SHP
Benbow Lake SRA
Benicia Capitol SHP
Benicia SRA
Bidwell Mansion SHP
Bothe-Napa Valley SP
Brannan Island SRA
California Mining & Mineral Museum
Candlestick Point SRA
Castle Crags SP
Castle Rock SP
China Camp SP
Colusa-Sacramento River SRA
Del Norte Coast Redwoods SP
Fort Humboldt SHP
Fort Tejon SHP
Garrapata SP
George J. Hatfield SRA
Governor's Mansion SHP
Gray Whale Cove SB
Greenwood SB
Grizzly Creek Redwoods SP
Hendy Woods SP
Henry W. Coe SP
Jack London SHP
Jug Handle SNR
Leland Stanford Mansion SHP
Limekiln SP
Los Encinos SHP
Malakoff Diggins SHP
Manchester SP
McConnell SRA
McGrath SB
Mono Lake Tufa SNR
Morro Strand SB
Moss Landing SB
Olompali SHP
Palomar Mountain SP
Petaluma Adobe SHP
Picacho SRA
Pio Pico SHP
Plumas-Eureka SP
Point Cabrillo Light Station
Portola Redwoods SP
Providence Mountains SRA
Railtown 1897 SHP
Russian Gulch SP
Saddleback Butte SP
Salton Sea SRA
Samuel P. Taylor SP
San Pasqual Battlefield SHP
Santa Cruz Mission SHP
Santa Susana Pass SHP
Shasta SHP
South Yuba River SP
Standish-Hickey SRA
Sugarloaf Ridge SP
Tomales Bay SP
Tule Elk SNR
Turlock Lake SRA
Twin Lakes SB
Weaverville Joss House SHP
Westport-Union Landing SB
William B. Ide Adobe SHP
Woodson Bridge SRA
Zmudowski SB

Sobering, isn't it?


2011 HaT horizontal

So be sure to check out our WTA fundraising pages, so far we have raised over $600 for Washington State Trails!!
Our Team Page
Amanda's Page
Ryan's Page
and make a donation. We need your help to keep Washington's Trails open and hikeable!! And shoot me an email if you'd like to get together to do a hike. I will try to work you into my schedule. Ryan and I would love to see more of our friends and family out on the trails.
Checks should be made out to WTA and can be sent to PO Box 16131, Seattle, WA 98116

Monday, July 25, 2011

Monday's Postcard: Carmel Mission


I've said before, I love these Now and Then postcards. This is the Carmel Mission and I visited here during a Nancy Drew convention in Monterey, CA.


August is just around the corner and that is WTA Hike-a-thon month. I will have some layovers in the SFO area and plan to do some hiking there, let me know if you are interested in meeting me on the trail for a letterboxing exchange!! Also be sure to check out our WTA fundraising pages
Our Team Page
Amanda's Page
Ryan's Page
and make a donation. We need your help to keep Washington's Trails open and hikeable!!

Tuesday, July 19, 2011

Hike-a-thon 2011: Every Little Bit Helps


Wow, the fundraising for WTA Hike-a-thon 2011 is going great guns! We have already raised over 300 dollars, but I don't want you guys to be intimidated by big numbers. If everyone who reads this gives just one dollar, I'd have over $2,000 dollars raised for Washington Trails!! So fold up a George Washington and slap a stamp on the envelope for me. Ryan and I will make sure the WTA gets it and once those dollars add up, all sorts of great things can happen.

$250-749 Is enough for the WTA to purchase three crosscut saws to help keep wilderness trails open.
$750-1499 The WTA crew leaders need wilderness first aid training to help ensure the safety of volunteers, this is enough to train two crew leaders!
$1500-2249 This much helps complete the annual maintenance on a popular trail.
$2250-2999 Enough to send two back country response teams to improve wilderness trails
$3000+ Helps to create the next generation of trail stewards by providing for 6 or more high school volunteers with an unforgettable week maintaining trails.

2011 HaT horizontal

So be sure to check out our WTA fundraising pages
Our Team Page
Amanda's Page
Ryan's Page
and make a donation. We need your help to keep Washington's Trails open and hikeable!! And shoot me an email if you'd like to get together to do a hike. I will try to work you into my schedule. Ryan and I would love to see more of our friends and family out on the trails.
Checks should be made out to WTA and can be sent to PO Box 16131, Seattle, WA 98116

Monday, July 18, 2011

Monday's Postcard: Budapest


Thanks again to friends traveling the world, I get postcards from places that I haven't been yet that I would like to visit! This is the Parliament Building in Budapest. Definitely on my bucket list.


Don't forget August is coming up and that is WTA Hike-a-thon month. If you would like to schedule a hike with me, be sure to shoot me an email. Also be sure to check out our WTA fundraising pages
Our Team Page
Amanda's Page
Ryan's Page
and make a donation. We need your help to keep Washington's Trails open and hikeable!!

Thursday, July 14, 2011

Wild Card: Sequoia National Park


Today is Bastille Day, so you might expect a postcard from France, but it is also the birthday of someone special in my life!! And he helped to rebuild the fence around the General Sherman tree in the early 90's during a volunteer vacation. We visited Sequoia so he could show me his handy work :-) and you can also see it on this "wild card"

Don't forget August is coming up and that is WTA Hike-a-thon month. Ryan will be doing more trail work here in Washington State. We might not have a General Sherman, but we've got some awesome trails!! Be sure to check out our WTA fundraising pages
Our Team Page
Amanda's Page
Ryan's Page
and make a donation. We need your help to keep Washington's Trails open and hikeable!!

Tuesday, July 12, 2011

Hike-a-thon 2011 is just around the corner!


Wow! Time flies, it seems like just the other day I was meeting Ryan on the PCT and getting in a couple of miles for the hike-a-thon. We always have a great time hiking for Washington Trails and this year looks like it won't be an exception! Ryan has already signed up for a Backcountry Response Team trip. This is basically a backpacking trip with trail work. And my schedule has me keeping close to home with a bunch of trips to San Francisco to make things interesting. So be sure to check out our WTA fundraising pages
Our Team Page
Amanda's Page
Ryan's Page
and make a donation. We need your help to keep Washington's Trails open and hikeable!! And shoot me an email if you'd like to get together to do a hike. I will try to work you into my schedule. Ryan and I would love to see more of our friends and family out on the trails.

Monday, July 11, 2011

Monday's Postcard: Belden Town, CA


This is from Ryan's PCT hike last year. I actually bought this postcard and then he sent it to me later. The PCT travels right through the rest area where this old Mill is located. This photo was taken from on the Pacific Crest Trail! :-)

Monday, July 04, 2011

Monday's Postcard: NYC


For the 4th of July, I thought this image of the twin towers in New York City was pretty poignant. This postcard is from 1987 when my Granny visited the city with her church group.

Saturday, July 02, 2011

New Years Resolution 2011: June Update



This photo is from the 1980's, reading and breakfast aboard my Dad's boat...

Reading is a great way to improve your vocabulary, here are some words that I found in books this past month that I did not recognize, or that I want to add to my daily lexicon:

raillery - Good-humored teasing
tulgey - Thick, dense, dark (originally in reference to a wood) credited to Lewis Carroll
inimical- Tending to obstruct or harm, unfriendly or hostile
tumbril - A two-wheeled cart, especially a farmer's cart
oligarchy - a small group of people having control of a country, organization or institution
hegemonic- ruling or dominant in a political or social context
comity -Courtesy and considerate behavior toward others, mutual courtesy; civility.
codified - Arrange according to a plan or system, To reduce to a code
lapidary - One who cuts, polishes, or engraves gems
aspidistra - A bulbous plant of the lily family, with broad tapering leaves, native to Asia and often grown as a houseplant
meretricious - Attractive but having in reality no value or integrity, attracting attention in a vulgar manner
koan- A paradoxical anecdote or riddle, used in Zen Buddhism to demonstrate the inadequacy of logical reasoning
micturition- urination


And here are the books I read in June:

Serenity Found: More unauthorized essays on Joss Whedon's Firefly Universe ed. Jane Espenson
Emily Alone by Stewart O'Nan (library)
One Day by David Nicholls (library)
All Together Dead by Charlaine Harris (library)
The Winter Sea by Susanna Kearsley (library)
Cleopatra by Stacy Schiff (library)
In Dublin's Fair City by Rhys Bowen (library)
Sing You Home by Jodi Picoult (library)
The Terror of Living by Urban Waite (library)
Tell Me Pretty Maiden by Rhys Bowen (library)
The Early Work of Philip K. Dick Volume II (library)
Dirty Secret: A daughter comes clean about her mother's compulsive hoarding by Jessie Sholl (library)
The Dry Grass of August by Anna Jean Mayhew (library)
From Dead to Worse by Charlaine Harris (library)
In a Gilded Cage by Rhys Bowen (library)
So Much Pretty by Cara Hoffman (library)
Something Borrowed by Emily Giffin
Miss Zukas Shelves the Evidence by Jo Dereske
Ups and Downs: The misadventures of a crusty old fart and his bouncing son as they trek through the Alps by Don and David Kassin Fried
The Body Finder by Kimberly Derting
Hell at the Breech by Tom Franklin (library)


Stewart O'Nan, I'm a big fan and I tend to read everything he writes, so this one is his latest. Basically the story of a woman whose husband has died and most of her friends are dying and she is being left alone and how she deals with growing older and alone.

One Day by David Nicholls is a "When Harry Met Sally" type of story. We follow a couple from the day they meet and then revisit that one day in their lives every year for 20 years or so. They are together, they are apart, you get that little snippet of one day of the year to figure out their lives. Very gimmicky, but very enjoyable!

The Winter Sea is pretty much a historical/time travel/romance, but very well done. Scotland setting and Jacobite history.

Cleopatra, I was not familiar with her history...I had never studied it in school and reading this book felt a bit like being back in school. I found it a little dry at times, but Ms. Schiff takes the stereotypes and things you have heard about Cleopatra and looks at the historical record of what really could have happened. So I feel like I learned something.

Jodi Picoult, Sing You Home, again, I am a big fan and read everything that she writes. I have been on the waiting list at the library for this one for a while, but it was worth the wait. Gay Rights and Frozen Eggs/Embryos

The Terror of Living is a great thriller about drug runners along the PNW border with Canada. I read it in a mere four hours!!

Dirty Secret, I read a book about hoarders and hoarding in January, " Stuff: Compulsive hoarding and the meaning of things" by Randy O Frost and Gail Steketee and this book was also mentioned, there are more books in the bibliography of this book that have me fascinated about hoarding also, so I will be reading more of this type of stuff this summer.

The Dry Grass of August, If you liked "The Help", you need to try this book as well. A wonderful story of a family taking a vacation with their maid in the 1950's while Brown vs. Board of Education was being enforced in the South. Also reminded me a bit of "Summer of My German Soldier"...because the young female protagonist has more in common with her Black Nanny than her own family.

Philip Dick, I am continuing to read his short stories in this collection

More Harris and Bowen again this month, almost finished with these series! Also Serenity, another collection of essays about the Firefly TV series.

So Much Pretty got great reviews as a look at a murder in a small town. I found it hard to read. Each chapter is from a different character's point of view or a different piece of evidence. I had trouble figuring out the different voices and I would have to look again at the title of the chapter to see who was supposed to be speaking. Also there is much flashback information from the past and again, I would have to refer to the titles of the different chapters to make sure I could figure out what the heck was going on, is this the past, the near past, the current day? It was confusing. All in all, it was hard to enjoy the book because it was such a difficult read. I read about 2/3 of it before I could enjoy it. Loved the ending. But it was a lot of work for just a thriller type book.

Something Borrowed is Chick Lit and was made into a movie, haven't seen the movie yet and I will be interested to see what parts of the book made it onto film.


Miss Zukas is written by a local PNW author and one of my favorite "cozy" mystery series. She's a librarian in a small Washington town that seems to resemble Bellingham, WA. She is very stoic and terse, but through the course of the series, she has been opening up and it is hard not to like her.

The Body Finder is a YA book. The plot (sub-plot?) of the boy who was my best friend, but now I want him to kiss me...and will he ask me to the prom? (or homecoming dance in this case) is very familiar to this genre. But the twist here is the heroine of our story has a sixth sense where she can find dead things. Animals and People. A serial killer is abducting young girls in her neighborhood and she is key to finding the bodies and eventually the killer.

Ups and Downs is a fun travel memoir of a father and son who trek through the Alps. If you like Bryson's A Walk in the Woods or if you like reading Ryan's accounts of his AT and PCT treks, this would be a book that you would enjoy! I found it at a used bookstore on my Denver layover this month and read it in mere hours on the way home.

Hell at the Breech is based on a true story from 1890's Alabama. Mr. Franklin writes very descriptively, not beautiful, but gritty and violent. An accidental shooting sets off a feud between the poor white share-croppers and the rich landowners, with the sheriff stuck in the middle, trying to keep the peace. It sucked me in and I couldn't look away, like a car wreck!

Another plus for reading so much! My local library is having a summer reading event and for every 3 books you read, you can enter to win a Nook! How cool is that?

21 books in June