#mountain loop highway

[coiour-my-world]

"Into the Mist" | Lake-22, Mountain Loop HWY, WA || Chris Williams

[gifjakes]

Hiking Season? Ski Season? Hello, GoodBye.

The snow is starting to run out here in the PNW... A couple weekends ago, some buddies and I went to explore a new zone off the Mountain Loop Highway, specifically the northeast side of Sloan Peak.

We were enticed by the promise of novel, rolling terrain with cool features and a glacier!

But before we could get to that, we had to hike a bit in the dirt. I always forget how pretty the forests and natural features of Washington are in the winter, because they become much more barren and stark -- almost brutal for lack of a better word. When it's warm and green, it's a nice feeling to stroll through the trees and take it all in.

Overall, I'd give this trip a 6/10. Bumpy and scary pothole road that we barely made it up thanks to Matthew and his trusty Subaru. Hiking in the dirt, big scary avalanche paths on the way to cool terrain.

[onehikeaweek]

Panorama from Silver Tip Peak.

[morgankussy]

Outdoor Recreation in Snohomish County

Checking in with visitor information receptionist Erika Morris at the Darrington information center, the Mountain Loop Highway is a great highway/byway to begin venturing outdoors. Its history rests in lumber harvesting, old mining camps and railroads in the eerie boonies. Like Monte Cristo and Gothic Basin Trails. 

Also called the Mountain Loop, the Mountain Loop Highway follows the South Fork Stillaguamish and Sauk Rivers. For weekend getaway campgrounds nestled on the rivers, bring innertubes and kayaks for a calming float out west from the Cascade watershed. A substitute from the gym, a trek in the mountain loop is a breath of fresh air. Getting up close to the wilderness sets piece of mind and space to think.

Youth-on-age is a quarter mile paved interpretive trail to introduce the rich history of Snohomish County for young families. The Mountain Loop is the beginning stage to experience the outdoors. Fish Ladder and Old Robe Trail are short, relatively flat trails. A bite of fresh air and stunning evergreen brings about cravings to venture into natural beauty.

Familiar to Snohomish County residents is the 30-mile Centennial Trail. Near flat and paved, the trail is built on the old Burlington-Northern railroad line. Matt Tabor, President/CEO of Greater Lake Stevens Chamber of Commerce, reveals the trail is a popular location for bikes and family walks. Its popular during the warm summer months and autumn as the weather begins to cool.

Officially starting at Nakashima Heritage Barn North Trailhead, the trail winds through downtown Arlington, Industrial Lake Stevens and ends in the city of Snohomish City Center. Matt comments the 6-foot wide natural surface is popular for bike rides available to all with ADA accessibility and picnic areas and rest stops.

Mastering the Centennial and level mountain loop trails can prepare the venturous spirit for more advanced hiking and overnight camping. Ascending in difficulty from Mt. Pilchuck and Mt. Dickerman, Perry Creek is the most difficult terrain in the Mountain Loop. The trail ascends 3950 feet in five and a quarter miles for a 10.5 mile round trip. The trail sits in the eaves of Snohomish County. Unrecognizable from its uninhabited surroundings inspires victory of Snohomish County terrain.

Take a change of pace from city life. Explore the outdoors. Set your own pace and enjoy the journey. A trip outdoors resets stress levels for a fresh start. Don’t forget to stop in a visitor or ranger station. Find out what trails meet your skill level and outdoor experience. Prepare the 10 outdoor essentials. Be sure to stay up-to-date on wilderness alerts for wildlife migration and natural hazards like wildfires and mudslides. 

Time away from work and vacation expenses can add up to rough expenses. Stay close to home without the expense. Visit the Mountain Loop for a carefree weekend.

[friendsnotneeded]

Winter Forest by Rich Trinter Via Flickr: Please visit my website: www.trinterphotos.com and follow me on Instagram: @richtrinter Thanks for visiting!

[carlos-in-glasses]

Thank you for the tag @sznofthesticks @paperstorm @im-overstimulated-and-im-sad @three-drink-amy @fallout-mars @alrightbuckaroo @orchidscript @thisbuildinghasfeelings @whatsintheboxmh @lemonlyman-dotcom @heartstringsduet 🥰

Chapter 13: The Risk of Love of Where All This Love Comes From will be up on Sunday, and it's a crucial moment for a grieving Carlos...

"I told him I couldn’t do it. He said we’d postpone. He wasn’t going anywhere. We had a moment where we just clung to each other. But then, suddenly, like out of nowhere, I got cold – I was freezing. I started shuddering. It’s like my body was dying. It’s like I was the one who had gone into the frozen lake. I was feeling TK’s hypothermia, and all that pain. TK grabbed me and bundled me up and was rubbing me all over to get me warm–”

“Hey!” O’Brien yells from the driver’s seat, “These are details I don’t need, Officer Reyes.”

“Let him talk,” Owen sighs, and turns to look at Caros properly, “Go on, Carlos.”

Carlos glumly shakes his head, hurt from the abrupt chastisement. Even though they’re in O’Brien’s car and O’Brien is operating the vehicle, Carlos had kind of forgotten he’s here. “TK is my best friend. He’s so amazing.”

O’Brien brakes gently, drawing up to a red light. “Well. I guess it does sound like you’ve got a good one.”

“The best,” Owen says.

“Best in the world,” Carlos cries, catching a tear on his tissue. “I don’t deserve him.”

Owen turns around, sits back in his seat and watches the road. “Let’s have a drink at mine before I run you home.”

Carlos goes quiet, stares out of the window. A scrubby grass strip divides the highway. Trucks with orange clearance lights pass, thick wheels four-feet tall. Number plates from Mississippi, Oklahoma, New Mexico, Arizona. Tall billboards advertise attorneys in business suits, arms folded, grinning with white teeth – get cash for your car wreck, for your injury. Gabriel had suggested to Carlos a few times that he become a lawyer instead of a cop. He had the brain for it, the grades, the interest. Things would be so different if he’d taken that path. Gabriel still would have died, but he wouldn’t have met TK.

Buttercup meets them at the door when Owen opens up. He whines, ignores Owen and circles Carlos, as if trying to find the place where his love and concern for him begins and ends, but really it’s an eternal loop, because he is a dog. Carlos crouches and fusses Buttercup, who puts his front paws on Carlos’ thighs and tries to get into his lap, pushing him onto his ass on the floor – and Carlos finds himself taking the load of all fifty-two kilos of Bernese Mountain dog. Owen gives Buttercup a stroke behind the ears and then wanders off to the kitchen without saying anything, just lets man and dog have their moment. He selects for himself a glass bottle of sparkling water, and looks at the photos of TK stuck to the side of the fridge. Baby – child – teen – adult. The greatest love of Owen's life, and Carlos’ too.

Open tag and tags below

@liminalmemories21 @cold-blooded-jelly-doughnut @strandnreyes @welcometololaland @rmd-writes @wandering-night19 @reyesstrand @herefortarlos @fitzherbertssmolder @my-little-tilly @ladytessa74 @reasonandfaithinharmony @redshirt2 @carlos-tk @louis-ii-reyes-strand @freneticfloetry @ambiguouspenny @goodways @bonheur-cafe @lightningboltreader @noxsoulmate @inkweedandlizards @jesuisici33 @theghostofashton @chicgeekgirl89 @sanjuwrites @never-blooms

[pinkmoondoll9shihtzu]

dream 1) Slimbo picked me up from the thrift store in winter when we saw a rainbow at sunset on the side of a tall mountain. We drove towards the end of the rainbow and the car got stuck between some huge boulders but we were able to escape. I said OK no more mountain rainbows.

dream 2) Slimbo was driving me along this winding highway of loop-de-loops floating in midair w tons of others cars, around the same time we all started falling off the road into a giant ocean. the cars were retrieved onto a huge rescue ship but the ship was unable to move. in front of the ship were lines of people standing on a narrow stretch of floating metal, waiting. We walked past them all until we reached where the line ended. there was a patch of ocean meeting the land which we decided to risk swimming. The water was very calm & clear & it was so easy. When we reached land we waved down Thaiboy Digital who was on a boat. We paid him money to retrieve the car, which he did, then we all had dinner togehter & laughed & smiled

dream 3) i was with my ex from 10+ years ago watching videos we took during the time i was living in London. id never seen the videos before but they were artistically documenting my old self. i thought i looked beautiful. Then i was sort of living in the videos. We were at some kind of canal partying with a bunch of people i used to know. One of them jumped in the water and handed me a penny. It had a red heart on it & the date 11/11/2011

Oh And All these dreams had some kind of dress-to-impress sequence in them.

[cedarboughs]

Hiking Journal

November 11 — Raven’s End

Yamnuska — Îyâmnathka, “flat-faced mountain” in Nakoda — has got to be one of the most iconic mountains in the Rockies. It’s known as a sacred mountain which watches over a rich medicine foraging plain. Heading into the Bow Valley it’s basically the first rock of the Rockies, watching over the wide valley through which the river, railway, new highway, and old road wind in parallel.

It was grey and overcast in that November way on this Remembrance Day, but pleasantly warm for the season, rising to a high of 11° if I remember. The plan had been at some point to do a hike with work friends but they called it in so I drove out on my own, listening to The Apache Relay and a podcast about Herman Hesse’s Siddhartha as I left the city and rolled over the foothills (I’d just finished reading it, was pretty good.) Speaking of books, that’s why Raven’s End, the eastern buttress of Yamnuska’s great cliff, lives rent-free in my head.

See, Ben Gadd is a legend. Most of the times in the last thirty years that anyone has looked up an animal, plant, mushroom, or geological formation in the Rockies, it’s probably been in Gadd’s practically biblical Handbook of the Canadian Rockies. In his full page entry on corvus corax he makes it pretty clear what his favourite clever local bird species is. If there was any further question, he also wrote Raven’s End, sort of the Albertan answer to Watership Down. I don’t know if the novel is named after the buttress or if the book named the buttress. The book was published in 2001, and I haven’t figured out if the name was used to refer to the spot on the mountain before then or if Gadd named it.

Anyway, I read this book a half-dozen times growing up. In the story, a raven wakes up with from a fall into a bush at the base of Yamnuska’s cliff with no memory aside from his name, Colin. He falls in with Zack and Molly and all the other ravens of the Raven’s End flock. He speaks with the animals of the valley, wonders about the strange two-legged visitors, and hears the voice of the wind, leading to an adventure rooted equally in spirituality and magic and in the ecology of the mountains. I can’t spoil what he does discover about his history. Go pick up a copy and find out.

Most of the trail up to Raven’s End is pretty gradual and easy. Being a public holiday, it was super busy as well. Families with a half-dozen young children, couples with two or three dogs. I had bear spray and layers and food, as if I was ready for a proper backcountry walk, but it was more bustling than most downtown streets. Little grew in the late autumn, but plenty of red wild rose hips stood out at the tips of thorny shrubs. I did chew one. Don’t tell Parks. A couple sat on the bluffs overlooking the wide reserve land in the rolling hills below and eastward, performing a ceremony with a tobacco pipe and shakers. I heard their singing washing over the woods before I actually saw them as I walked past and shared a nod.

Treeless montane aspen gave way to subalpine firs. The ground changed from dissolving brown leaves to red needle duff. A little bit of snow stuck to the ground at the elevation of Raven’s End itself, very thin and packed down, no obstacle of any sort, just a reminder that winter was near. Arguably here, but I don’t feel like arguing. More importantly: I did, in fact, see the ravens!

The start of the cliff is the usual and my planned turnaround point, but as i ate my human sandwich sitting on a rock, a group of church ladies chatting with me said that it was as worth at least going through the first slim crack of the scrambly section for the view beyond. I love climbing through cracks and dramatic rocks like this, so they were totally right.

Beyond the chimney you can look down to CMC Valley (I don’t know what this stands for, but it’s the valley behind Yamnuska; I may do that loop sometime) and, right to left, the twin peaks of Mount Wendell and the more westerly Morrowmount. Yes I switched the usual reading direction to end with MORROWMOUNT, because it sounds like something out of a fantasy novel.

Looking up at the backside of Yamnuska it look easy enough to scramble the route, it’s popular to scramble, and I do really want to do that, but not in the snow, not alone, not with a warm but forceful Chinook wind blasting from the west, and not with the last interpretive sign mentioning risk of death three times on the one sign. I turned around and descended, plunge-running past the kids and dogs back to the car and home.

[katblu42]

Day 16

With huge apologies for getting way behind again! This was another touring day, this time from Banff to Calgary.

First official stop (after a bonus stop at the Cascade Gardens that I visited yesterday) was a ride up the Sulphur Mountain gondola for some beautiful views over Banff.

There is smoke haze on the horizon from forest fires in BC.

A bunch of people on my tour stayed in that huge hotel last night - the Fairmont Banff Springs Hotel, just in front of Bow Falls.

Speaking of the falls, that was our next stop and we arrived just as a rafting group was setting of down the rapids.

(Adore those water colours!)

We took a drive around to Surprise Corner for views across the river (and the falls) back towards the Fairmont Banff Springs Hotel.

Then a lengthy lunch stop in Banff before getting back on the bus for a drive around the Lake Minnewanka Loop road. (Sorry about the UFOs and reflections off the bus windows in some photos.)

And from there it was all highway to Calgary.

I only had the one afternoon to spend in Calgary, so I did the 5 block walk to the Calgary Tower, stopping in front of the Bow Building for this sculpture.

The curvy glass building on the right is the Bow building. The face statue is hidden behind the Hyat's blue roof. The flat brick coloured rectangle building to the right of the Bow is where I stayed.

Lots of smoke haze on the horizon, but you can see the tower for the ski jump events from the 1988 Winter Olympics!

View to the Saddledome and Stampede Park, home of the annual Calgary Stampede (rodeo, exhibition, festival), which had been held a few weeks before.

The Bow River with the Calgary Zoo on the far bank, and Fort Calgary on the near one.

Such a short time to explore here! And if I can, I'd like to come back for the Stampede one day!

[makutaservaela]

Timeline, Part 4

Lariska’s old gang of thieves steal a skiff from the Dark Hunters and find their way to The Other Side. They are captured by Dark Hunters as the Hunters commandeer the skiff and land it on the shore, but are freed by Zaani, Sama, Zaraki, and Baina, who had broken into the skiff out of curiosity. The kids bring the Vortixx to Lariska, who is shocked.

Lariska and Brutaka discuss the idea of her going with her thief friends on their adventure to locate Kimuri.

Fenrakk grows desperate at the lack of other dragons. Vezon and Tagon ride her as she explores the mountain range. As they enter the airspace over Kimuri, Tagon disables and falls, and Vezon doesn’t notice until it’s too late. He attempts to get Fenrakk to turn around, but she throws him off, and he falls in a pond.

Tagon’s mask is found by Avillus. She, half-disabled and fully unstable, panics, fuses herself to his chestplate, and curses his sonic powers to increase 10x, causing everything within a range of him to shatter when he activates them. He has no clue, and intrigued by the new “vision” his greater range now gives him, goes exploring, unintentionally shattering everything around him.

Servaela notices the shatter path and decides to investigate.

Vezon wipes out a Ga-Hungan village for his own amusement (unaware of what they are), and then notices Servaela in the distance. He breaks into the Hungan Great Temple and is apprehended. While on transport to the Hungan city, he ponders beheading the leader and declaring himself the Warlord. He recalls Servaela, and ponders taking her antidermis to use in enslaving the Hungans.

Avillus’ shatter path breaks Vezon’s transport vehicle, and he hides with a cloak and escapes.

Lewa, Tanma, and Vhisola approach Solek about her obviously growing baby bump. After misunderstanding Lewa’s teasing about what “Kopaka would think” (referring to her finding a new man), Solek presumes he knows it is Kopaka’s kid, and confesses. The three agree to keep it a secret, as Kopaka is obviously not currently in a state to deal with this.

Pohatu is testing out his new powers in the Phantoms’ base. He enters Kopaka’s dreams with Raia and realises that something else is there. Kopaka introduces him to the Spirit of Ice Kanohi, whom he has been naming “Kovohki”. Kovohki panics and forces Kopaka to wake up. Pohatu escapes the Phantoms’ base and sets out to find Kopaka. He is noticed by Lewa, Tanma, and Photok, who capture him and demand he tell them where he’s been. Pohatu explains he is here to help Kopaka, and Lewa identifies the asylum Kopaka is kept in as one in Onu-Mata. They agree that the Toa Nuva should meet up there in secret, and Photok and Tanma should gather the Toa Nuva there and keep everyone else’s suspicions down until the Toa Nuva can figure out how to proceed.

The Toa Nuva and Pohanu gather in Onu-Mata. Pohatu explains the situation with him, the Phantoms, Kopaka, and Kovohki. Pohatu then telepathically connects to Kopaka and realises that Kovohki is in Kopaka because her host mask was broken. He has the Toa Nuva obtain a spare mask for her to possess, and forces her into it. She grants herself a body, and Pohatu explains that she was afraid the Toa would destroy her after she witnessed them fight the Frost Wolves and the Queen of Ice. Onua promises that if she is not a threat to the innocent, they are not a threat to her.

The Toa Nuva agree to help find Kovohki’s home to make it safe so she can return. Pohatu tells the Toa how the Phantoms are hunting him, and that he will go into hiding until they are ready. They should speak to Sahmad when they are ready to go. Kopaka takes Kovohki to the Ice Realm so she can restore her energy among the ice elementals. Gali sets out to gather Takanuva and direct Hahli to speak to Sahmad, per Pohatu’s guidance. Pohanu enforces that Krika is kept out of the loop about this, due to his mistrust of her. 

Hahli has a talk with Baina and Zaraki about supervising the river highway in her absence, to keep them occupied, and assures Jaller that she will be back once she is assured this situation with Pohatu is handled. She stays in Pohatu’s hiding place with him to protect him.

The Toa Nuva set out on their mission, and Hahli returns home. Krika had found out, and berates them for the harm in which Gali could find herself, and Onua rants about “Takamahri”. Pohatu soothes the group by noting that this didn’t have to be a Toa Nuva mission- it could have gone to a younger Toa group, or Pohatu and Kopaka could have done it themselves, but that Pohatu had specifically asked for the Toa Nuva because he misses them.

The Toa Nuva continue their mission and find Bohrok tunnels that lead under the mountain range. They enter and follow the tunnels.

The tunnels lead the Toa Nuva to a set of great rooms, presumably an old Great Being lab. They come across a fast flowing river, and discuss how to travel it. While the others look for things with which to make a boat, Kovohki repeatedly tries to freeze over the river, ignoring Kopaka’s protests. She becomes frustrated that he “doesn’t have faith in her abilities” and creates a massive iceblock, successfully stopping the river. However, the block shoves against the tunnel walls and severely weakens the integrity of the tunnel. Part of the tunnel caves in on Kovohki, Kopaka, and Onua (who had jumped down to save them from the cave-in). Pohatu sets to work strengthening the stone walls, but the ice is pushing back too much. Gali climbs on the fallen rocks and reaches out to the water beyond the ice, summoning it to break through the ice. Takanuva tries to pull her away in time, but the oncoming wave washes both of them out, and Takanuva is hit by a rock and loses conscious.

The Toa panic about how to get to Gali and Takanuva. Eventually they settle on individual powers- Pohatu runs on the riverbed, Lewa flies over it, Onua swims with his Pakari to assist him, Kopaka convinces Kovohki to diffuse her body so he can carry her mask and surf, likening the surfing to snowboarding.

Gali pulls Takanuva from the water, but her heart is overwhelmed and he’s swallowed too much water. Rather than letting her heart rest, she uses her powers to draw the water from his lungs, and then she collapses. He panics, not knowing how to help her. The other Toa arrive, and Onua administers his own heart medication to her, before finding that she has her medicine with her. Takanuva breaks down about how she had almost died because he didn’t know how to help her, and Onua shows him how to use an inhaler for Onua and Lewa. Lewa is shocked that Onua knows his dosage, and Onua responds, “Our strength rests in knowing our brothers’ weaknesses.” He offers for Kopaka to share his own physical maladies, and Kopaka remains silent.

Kopaka notices a dock down the tunnel, and Onua and Pohatu decide to carve a pathway from their current rock standing point to the land of the dock.

Radiak points out how it’s not fair that Gorast outranks him, as he earned his position through loyalty to Antroz, and Gorast has only been loyal since he gained kingship. Mutran suggests a summit should be gathered to decide on Makuta leadership. All Makuta save for Miserix (who doesn’t care), and Servaela (who cannot be found) are gathered, including Zaktan. Zaktan notes he has been studying the Mayeka, as its death power is by the entity, not by the life force, so it struggles to kill him and his protodites quickly.

[gravelish]

Snoqualmie Pass

2 July 2023

Today’s ride might have just been a simple 40-mile out and back, but I decided to throw in an additional loop that added 20 miles, including the only really hard climb of the day. I parked at Rattlesnake Lake/Cedar Falls and began pedaling around 8:00. I was back to the car by 2:30 and back to Seattle by 4:00, with a stop for a burger and a shake in North Bend.

It’s 20 miles of easy railroad grade to the summit at Hyak, including the 2-mile tunnel at the top. I considered turning around and heading back, but opted instead to check out a new route (for me) around Lake Kacheelus to the east. I crossed I-90 to Gold Creek and then followed Forest Road 8432, which parallels (sort of) the interstate on the hillside north of the lake. It climbs steeply almost 1000’ toward the trailhead for Margaret and Lillian Lakes before eventually descending back down to the paved Kachess Lake Road. Then it’s back across the Interstate and a mile or so on the Stampede Pass Road before returning to the rail trail (10 miles east of Hyak).

Hyak was busy with families out walking or biking, many to the tunnel. The final 20-mile ride down from the pass was fast — 15-20 mph all the way on a gentle downhill grade on good dirt and gravel. There were plenty of other cyclists and hikers, but they were spread out and most of the time it was very quiet. There were the usual clusters of climbers on the cliffs at the trestles above Exit 38. The parking lot at the bottom had been pretty quiet in the morning, but cars were parked on the road for half a mile when I headed out (mainly for the lake and the hike to Rattlesnake Ledge, not for the rail trail).

This ride is a great reminder of now nice it is that the I-90 corridor has been kept fairly free from large scale development (Mountain to Sounds Greenway). The highway is never out of earshot, but it’s usually out of sight. It’s not wilderness, but it’s not bad, especially for being an hour from downtown.

I talked to a young guy at the bottom with a loaded bike. Turns out he was five days from La Push and eight weeks from his home in New York State. I always find it inspirational to chat with folks doing these long rides! It’s also a reminder that today’s ride was on the Great American Rail Trail, a somewhat aspirational concept since large segments remain incomplete or at least hard to ride, but the basic idea is that if you want to ride from coast to coast, this isn’t a bad route to take.

[gordonhasthoughts]

Like the other two loops, the Roslyn Loop (RosLoop) was built during the scientific boom of the 1970s. It brought a huge influx of workers to the previous mining town to build, then staff the particle collider for specific research. Roslyn was chosen for a few reasons. Washington was no stranger to cutting edge nuclear research, and many of the scientists that had been working at the Hanford Site moved to this installation as a career opportunity. 

Furthermore, the already hollow ground of the Coal mines provided an easy opportunity for a number of booster rings to be constructed for the high energy research needed. 

The influx of the scientists brought a want to make families. Some families had already lived in Roslyn before the loop, now they are about equal in number. 

Roslyn is also interesting given its distance from both a major Magnetrine Highway, as well as the cascade mountains and greater forest area. 

The city is just over a mile in diameter, with the loop sitting just northwest of the town’s edge, making it great to access many of the amenities by bike, or even by foot. 

The summers are warm, but not hot, and many Kids on break will bike to the local town of Cle Elum, just a 15 minute ride down the coal mine trail, right on the yakima river to swim and play on the rocky shores. 

Adults will most likely be found at 'The Brick' or 'Mako’s Place' for drinks on off hours, or bumming around the Northwest Improvement Co. general goods store.

Also in town is a newly opened video and home computing equipment retailer named CompuTech in response to the growing demand from the tech-savvy scientists. This also was coupled with the opening of Silver Rocket Electronics consignment for various second hand oscilloscopes and other test equipment, but sometimes through the rubble extraordinary things could be found. Also downtown is Basecamp Books, a bookstore. There is a small medical clinic downtown, but more serious injuries may need to be treated at the Cle Elum Hospital 20 minutes bike, 5 mins car ride away.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------

mystery ideas:

A kid wakes up, he was in a coma for 8 years but hasnt aged a day

Rogue robot is destroying crops between cle elum and roslyn 

In the back of the Silver Rocket, you find

A watch that counts backwards

2. A strange blinking device that freezes time while you are touching it 

3. A tv screen that displays impossible footage from the past 

For some reason, all the fridges in town stop working 

You find a rock on the beach. When you take it home, the radio, microwave, and tv all start malfunctioning. Your parents blame you for it.

[abirbbrain]

-Fish ladder

Mountain loop highway

[umichenginabroad]

Madrid Week 11: Basque-ing in Nature

Hola a todxs! Niko here, back again with week 11 (writing this during week 12 oops [I had a huge databases project that I grinded on all of last week, expect a double blog week soon]) of studying abroad in Madrid!! I’ve got a little over a month and a half left in Madrid. Near the beginning of the semester, I mentioned a VSauce video about time that I enjoyed a lot. Recently in my culture class, we discussed the same concepts. Upon reflection, I think that I’m experiencing time in an incredibly ideal way.

What do I mean? Time flies by fast. It feels like weeks go by in the blink of an eye. Last week, what seems like yesterday, it was March, and now we’re already halfway through April. Time flies when you’re having fun, and I think that much is true. I’m having a blast, experiencing a new world every week, and as a consequence, I’m not thinking about time as it passes. It doesn’t drag; It goes by quickly. 

But I’m still in lecture every week. And two of my classes (the engineering ones) are oftentimes unbearably boring. I feel time pass when I’m sitting in those chairs waiting for the time to go home. My life during the week is simple: go to class, cook meals, go to cafes to study. But on the weekends, I’m traveling across Spain and Europe, meeting new people, partying, the list goes on. So it’s kind of like a long-short time sandwich. I get to experience time dragging on in the moment, and I also get to experience it flying by. And, because the exciting experiences happen regularly and frequently, weekends fill up huge blocks in my memories that make it feel like I’ve been here for years. I would say that “it feels like just yesterday that I stepped foot off the plane” but no, it really doesn’t. It feels like an eternity ago, truly. 

So, I’m kind of milking time for nearly all that it’s worth, which I think is a W. We’ve only got so much of it in this life. Anyways, there goes my bi-monthly rant on time. Hopefully it didn’t drag on too much. Or hopefully it did. Or both. 🙂

Anyways, last weekend, I learned a very important lesson. Two of my roommates (Eli, Max) and a close friend (Jack) rented a car (#JeepTrailhawk) and took a trip up to Northern Spain (Please don't mind the terribly cheesy title), splitting our time between Basque cities and Spain’s best national park. The lesson? As much as I love cities — incredible amalgamations of culture, humanity and energy — I’ll never experience the same type of awe and amazement looking out over a skyline as I do gazing upon a range of staggeringly huge snow capped mountains. Let’s talk about the trip:

Gatzetelugatxwho?

We set out from Madrid late Thursday evening. After a short-lived yet intense fiasco with google maps sending us in a couple of loops around Madrid after someone (the driver) (Max) missed a couple of turns, we were on the highway headed North. We had about 4 hours of driving until we reached Bilbao, where we had rented an Airbnb for the night. It was a pretty drive — Madrid is surrounded by a beautiful Sierra not even 30 minutes outside of the center. We arrived at our Airbnb (which was situated in a weird liminal space-ish neighborhood) and crashed, ready to tackle the morning task: Gatztelugatxe.

Huh? Yes, I was as confused as you probably are the first time I read that word. Especially the tx, which is pronounced as ch in Euskera, the mysterious language of the Basque people that has no known origin or connection to any modern tongue. It looks and sounds weird, and in the Basque country you’ll see it everywhere. It almost feels like it could have been spoken in some far off kingdom in Game of Thrones. 

Speaking of, we went to Dragonstone, AKA Gatztelugatxe. Shout out whoever the location scout was for those scenes, because they absolutely killed it. The site was beautiful, and I think the pictures will speak for themselves.

After that, we drove a few more hours to San Sebastian and explored. The energy was incredible. Sunny weather, beautiful city side beach, Burnt Basque cheesecake, calming sunset and delicious food (pintxos = tapas in Euskera!). There’s not much more that I can say other than the fact that simply walking around and taking it all in was an absolute joy. 

We proceeded to drive 4 hours west that evening to our second stop of the weekend: Picos de Europa national park (driving quickly through Bilbao, which has a really cool modern architectural style). We arrived at our Airbnb in the pitch black around 12 am, stumbled our way inside, cooked a comically oversized dinner (1.5 kg of pasta is too much for 4 people btw) and prepared for our big hike the next day.

The Hike

We woke up bright and early (it was like 10am) Saturday morning, ready for the 7.5 mile, 3000 foot climb ahead of us. I’d done a 13 miler with a similar increase in elevation once before in the Texan desert (Marufo Vega trail in Big Bend, highly recommend), so I wasn’t too concerned with the difficulty — only with whether we picked a worthwhile trail. I was silly for underestimating “Lon - Río Burón - Peña de Mañimoco”.

We started by driving into a tiny town in the national park, parking on the side of the road and setting off into a dirt trail that winded shallowly up the mountain. At this point, I was unimpressed. Most of our view of the mountain ahead of us was blocked by trees, and the path felt too well kept to be the basis of the true rugged backcountry experience I desired. Jokingly, we pointed to the top of the mountain we were hiking towards when we got to a clearing, asking damn, wouldn’t it be crazy if we went up there.

Yeah, it would have been crazy, but I guess 3000 feet is not to be underestimated, especially if you start at 1000. The paved trail split off into a smaller one once we broke through the treeline, which split off into a gravel shoot winding up the ridge of the mountain we had joked about a mile or two earlier. The wind started picking up, threatening to throw us off the mountain at any second as we climbed higher and higher (it was seriously intense wind. Jumping up, we actually caught a little extra airtime).

Each switchback revealed a view of the mountain and the valley below that was more stunning than the last. We passed through a huge diversity of different terrains, each so distinct they felt like Minecraft biomes stitched together. We even happened upon a herd of domesticated cows (which we were terrified of passing out of fear that they would attempt to butt us off the face of the mountain... we thought they were wild at first). At one point, we came across a meadow that looked like it came straight out of a studio Ghibli movie. We quite literally frolicked in the grass as another hiker (the only other person we saw on the trail) watched us from behind a tree, hiding from the wind. We talked to that guy later, we called him the Wind Wizard.

On this hike, I felt something reminiscent of the feeling I got as a 6 year old playing imagination games in the basement of my childhood home — unashamedly wide-eyed excitement. Looking out over the Picos de Europa (literally, the peaks of Europe) I couldn’t help but smile. This is the feeling I mentioned at the beginning of this blog that I think I can only experience whilst totally immersed in nature. At its core, it’s rooted in mindfulness and gratitude for the present moment -- something that I try to practice as much as possible in my everyday life. 

However, the reason this trip ended up being one of my favorites I’ve taken so far wasn’t just for the things that I saw — it was for the people that I spent it with. As much as I enjoy the independence and exploration of solo-traveling, I think that experiencing new things with trusted friends will almost always be more enjoyable. Being rooted in that feeling of wonder with others makes it feel more exciting, more significant, more real — both while it’s happening, and in the memories that stay with us forever. 

We finished the hike with a steep decline down the mountain and ended up back at the car, where we drove into the larger town and got some drinks at a local cafe (where they had original craft beers on tap, and where I tasted the best Vermouth I've ever had). We left our airbnb early the next morning, but not before buying a block of cheese from the local Queseria (which was also absolutely fire). En fin, this was one of the most beautiful and rewarding hikes I've ever done, rivaled only by the aforementioned Marufo Vega. I think we chose well!

So, my key takeaways from this trip? Nature is awesome, and so is experiencing it (and life in general) with other people. At the end of the day, we’re just really smart animals who evolved (in nature) to be biased towards social behavior, so I guess that makes sense (#evolutionarypsychology?). I’ll be in the Bay Area this summer for an internship, and I’m really excited to go backpacking over the weekends in all of the epic nature that surrounds the area, meeting new people along the way.

Here's the itinerary list for this week's trip:

Basque Country Google Maps List

That’s all for this week’s blog! As always, check out the picture descriptions for a little more info. Thank you all very much for reading, and I’ll see y’all next week 🙂

Adios,

Niko Economos

Aerospace Engineering

Universidad Carlos III de Madrid

Madrid, Spain

economos@umich.edu 

[rabbitcruiser]

Klondike Highway, BC (No. 3)

The original 53 km (33 mi) section known locally as the Carcross Road was actually made into a part of the Alaska Highway in 1942, until the Marsh Lake route was opened the next year. As Yukon Highway 5, it formed a loop road with Highway 6, the Tagish Road (now numbered as 8). It was renumbered as Highway 2 in 1978, being incorporated into the Klondike Highway designation. The road underwent alignment improvements during the 1980s. Residents living as far south as 25 km (16 miles) from the Alaska Highway still give their residential addresses as historic mile measurements that start at zero at the Alaska Highway, even though the distances are no longer accurate, and kilometre posts count distance from Skagway's ferry terminal.

Construction of the "Carcross-Skagway Road" began in the 1950s, was abandoned partway up a mountain from Skagway, and resumed in 1976-1977 when the Captain William Moore Bridge was constructed. The entire road was completed between Skagway and Carcross in August 1978. It was only open for a few weeks before seasonal closure. The first full summer season of use was in 1979.

The highway originally was built for tourist traffic, but in 1986 became important as a commercial transportation route, coincident with what seemed to be inevitable abandonment of the White Pass and Yukon Route railway (WP&YR). The new owners of the Faro mine secured government agreement to open the highway for trucking. The last winter closure ended in the spring of 1986.

The Carcross-Skagway Road portion of the highway underwent substantial rerouting, widening and (cold mix) paving in the late 1980s and early 1990s. Mining ore trucks and fuel tankers are the primary current (2013) commercial users of the highway, which also remains a popular tourist route (cars, RVs, buses), and provides a means for the WP&YR to offer economically-priced train excursions connecting at Fraser to buses based at Skagway for the cruise ship industry, or to/from Carcross and Whitehorse to the north.

Source: Wikipedia

[vanderwoodlings]

If I’m being honest: an Eric van der Woodsen playlist (x)

Tracklist (and commentary!) under the cut

1. “Free To Decide,” The Cranberries. I'm free to decide, I'm free to decide/And I'm not so suicidal after all

1. “Free To Decide,” The Cranberries. I'm free to decide, I'm free to decide/And I'm not so suicidal after all

2. “12345,” Em Beihold. "You need a hug, are you alright?"/“Nobody's loved you much tonight"/Only the mirror tells me I'm fine

3. “Family Line,” Conan Gray. It was really this bit from the chorus that had me going for this one: I'm so good at telling lies/That came from my mother's side/Told a million to survive—but I think there’s really something to the way that Eric just has William written off when he shows up, and that takes a lot of emotional work to do that happens off-screen but I still think about very much

4. “Unsteady,” X Ambassadors. This playlist does kind of just embrace the cringe a little bit and I’m okay with that. Hold, hold on, hold on to me/‘Cause I'm a little unsteady, a little unsteady

5. “Dance Music,” The Mountain Goats. In which I will never be over the stuff that comes up in 2.07 about lily’s various exes

6. “I’m Not a Cynic,” Alec Benjamin. I swear that I'm not a cynic, my glass just has no water in it today

7. “Breaking Free,” Night Riots. I feel violent/Like I'm dying/I feel broken, maybe I'm just breaking free. [sticks a toothpick in the boy’s brain] uh yeah he’s not done yet

8. “Pressure,” Paramore. Seriously tho Eric during the year Serena was gone is so fucked up I wish the show had let us talk about him more. Some things I'll never know/And I had to let them go/I'm sitting all alone/Feeling empty

9. “Wouldn’t It Be Nice,” The Beach Boys. He is gay <3

10. “Creep,” Radiohead. He is gay and depressed

11. “Jason,” BONNIE PARKER. So yeah uh. Asher thing

12. “Shut Up!” Simple Plan.

13. “Inhaler,” Foals. I'm make believe/And I'm up for rent/My head is spent/I guarantee

14. “Hold Me While You Wait,” Lewis Capaldi. So tell me, can you turn around?/I need someone to tear me down.

15. “Blackbird,” The Beatles. Told you I was just going for it.

16. “Cursive,” Billie Marten. And we'll be fine, there is an end/It hurts to fall back again. There’s an ericfic on ao3 that I haven’t actually read, but it’s got a tag about fluctuating mental health and that definitely has the energy I was feeling here—he’s chronically depressed, and that is what it is

17. “Honesty,” Billy Joel. Okay but like. Fuck the UES. Honesty is such a lonely word/Everyone is so untrue

18. “Babel,” Mumford & Sons. Then the walls of my town, they come crumbling down/You ask where will we stand in the winds that will howl. When he says he’ll basically be ten feet away and then literally never appears again

19. “Heart Open,” Kodaline. Always on the outside, too afraid to open up, and talk/…/And you're not broken/So keep your heart open now

20. “Like a River Runs,” Bleachers. I’ve looped back around to thinking about that pre-series year again, a little bit. Tonight, I sit over the parkway/The summer's gone and I'm alone/And I get the feeling that you're somewhere close/And I wanna get up/To the rhythm of your wild, to the rhythm of your wild heart/It beats, been beating since you've gone

21. “Trenches,” Set Your Goals. You're falling in love with the skyline/Nothing comes for free:/Can you put a price on feeling satisfied?

22. “Lost Highway,” Bon Jovi. Yeah, I'm busting loose, I'm letting go/Out on this open road/It's independence day on this lost highway

23. “You Cannot,” Erin McKeown. You cannot cage me, I revolt/You cannot contain me, I bolt/I am not caught because/What I got, got you can't hold, hold

24. “Born to Run,” Bruce Springsteen. Seriously I just find it so interesting when characters actually leave on this show, and it’s even more so for Eric because of all the characters he actually grew up in the UES, and there’s this way that its played as something that traps you, and yet he just basically goes ‘no <3’

25. “Heart lines,” Florence + The Machine. Just keep following the heart lines on your hand/Keep it up, I know you can

26. “We Are Golden,” MIKA. Running around like a clown on purpose/Who gives a damn about the family you come from

27. “everything sucks,” vaultboy, Eric Nam. I really like this one in the way of just… it feels kind of comfortable. It isn’t being all the way up in the way that some of these songs are

28. “Evergreen,” Bears in Trees. But I must possess the thought, that progress is a process/And it ain't one step backward if you rotate your axis/Realize that a slip up is just part of the practice

29. “Hand in My Pocket,” Alanis Morissette. And what it all comes down to/Is that everything's gonna be fine, fine, fine

30. “Lights,” Journey. California!Eric my beloved