Brian's view

The June 2008 issue of the Seattle Metropolitan magazine on page 70 used a picture that I took last summer while kayaking with my brother-in-law.  They used the photo to talk about kayaking around the San Juan Islands, but this photo is closer to Olympia in South Puget Sound in front of Ketron Island.  Oh well, still kind of cool to see a photo of mine used in a magazine I see in the checkout lines at my grocery store.  They found my photo on my Flickr page.

Here's the link to the original pic and one to a scan of the published photo.

I think the people that predict weather in the NW were in some part of some sort of conspiracy to keep everyone else indoors for the start of Memorial day weekend.  After checking the weather forecast for yesterday on Friday, I cancelled a planned day of sea kayaking with my brother and his girlfriend.  Both are new to the activivity and while a little rain and wind wouldn't bother me terribly, I wanted them to have a good time.  So with no plans for Saturday, I woke up to blue skies.  Another check of the weather report still showed possible thunderstorms for the afternoon.  I did some yard work and kept my daughter at home while my wife and son went out with some friends.  Realizing that the weather report was bogus, I made plans for some afternoon hiking.

After dropping off my daughter with my wife, I headed off to explore Taylor Mountain.  King County is still a relatively new owner and manager of this land.  It is Southeast of Tiger Mountain, on the other side of Hwy 18.  I parked at the south entrance off of 276th (Issaquah Hobart Rd.) and headed up the dirt road.  Not knowing what I'd find and quickly realizing this area has not had any signage put in place, I started marking points on my GPS.  After a couple miles I finally came to some trails off of the dirt road (which was gated so I couldn't drive up here).  King County Search and Rescue folks were out with their dogs for a training exercise.  Apparently I was the only non-S&R person hiking during this time.  After passing a couple searchers, they passed the word about a day hiker out that wasn't part of the exercise.  I guess I was confusing the dogs since they were looking for injured people who couldn't walk.  At least I knew I had help close at hand if I was injured or somehow wound up lost.

Being a new park, the trails are not all complete.  They have been kept up with help of locals and horse riders who have been using this area for years.  Other than having to hike in on a dirt road (I prefer single track trails), once on the trails the fine aroma of horse manure accompanies parts of the trails.  While enjoying wandering through the woods, I wasn't finding it to be a very interesting area.  There were lots of streams crossing through but much of the time I could only hear them and not see them.  I met some people on their horses and chatted about the area.  They told me the clear cut areas at one point were slated for estate home developments.  Some court battles ensued and the county was then able to buy the property.  There is still some privately held land in the middle of this park.  The 'inholders' have access to the roads so they can get to their home on this property.  That's not a bad place to live, surrounded by a park that will never be developed.

They recommended a view trail that I had passed on the way in.  I headed back to this trail and headed up the mountain through the clearcut.  I wish I'd come this way earlier.  Its narrower and appeared to be less used by those on horses.  It went up to a short peak with beautiful views.  I could look NW to Tiger Mountain or SE to Mt. Rainier and the cascades.  The trail appeared that it would head back down to the Road but it dead ended.  It looks like it eventually might, but not right now.  I could have followed the trail to the North, but I was running out of time.  I did find a geocache in the area to add to my list of finds at www.geocaching.com.  I headed back down the trail to the dirt road and home.  All and all, not a bad way to make up for inaccurate weather forecasts.  I uploaded my track from my GPS at home and it registered just shy of 7 miles of hiking.  Go to the link below for pics at Flickr:

Hiking - Taylor Mountian - a set on Flickr

I haven't been using this blog often enough recently, but wanted to mention one of my new (from Christmas) toys that I love.  I have a black Zune 80 and am really enjoying it.  It's great to have access to all my music and to movies and TV shows for the bus.  For the shows I use Beyond TV on my PC (www.snapstream.com) and with the podcast feature, it is a snap to sync my recorded shows to my Zune for my bus commute.  The recent 2.5 software/firmware update was a great release that fixed most of the glaring issues.  MS also announced game development for the Zune and they released a technical preview the same time as the 2.5 update.  Folks are already pounding away and have created a few simple games and a clock application (yes, the Zune doesn't include a clock).  I'm not a developer but I'm techie enough that I was able to get it installed and working on my Zune.  I look forward to the consumer release.  The games are simple but its interesting to see what the Zune can do.  The biggest issue with the apps on this tech preview is when the user exits them, it reboots the Zune.  Not a big deal since a reboot on this device is quick and painless, just something to be aware of.  Here's the link to read up on how to install games on your Zune if you feel like messing around with it:

Zune Boards - How to Install Games on Your Zune

I think we should ask Sims to try commuting from Everett or Kent to Redmond for a few weeks.  Maybe that would change his mind.  He's more worried about this urban trail than the economic benefit of faster/easier commutes for his constituents. 

Local News | Sims to Port: No deal if rails stay | Seattle Times Newspaper

I'm riding on the first sound transit bus on my daily commute with wi-fi.  No big deal since I have wireless internet access via a Verizon data card built into my laptop.  But most days after work, I don't feel like pulling my laptop back out.  I saw the free wi-fi sign though and decided to give it a shot.

I especially wanted to rant about my morning commute.  I get to Kent Station 30 minutes earlier than normal to catch an earlier bus.  Turns out the bus was running 30 minutes behind.  Something was nagging at me to wait for the next bus since the line for the bus seemed to never end.  I should have listened.

The bus was packed.  I managed to grab the last seat before it was standing room only.  I'm not a small guy myself and the guy I was sitting next to was bigger than me.  Then with the aisle way full of standing passengers, I was playing dodge the purse with the lady standing next to me (whom I did offer my seat too, but she declined).  I finished off a couple pages of my Robert Ludlum novel.  One of the problems with a full bus is the heat.  Even in our current fall weather, without the air turned on in the back it gets uncomfortable. 

I eventually told the lady that I needed to stand up since I get a bit claustrophobic and needed to stretch my cramped legs.  The bus continued to pack in more standing only patrons at each stop.  These things are like cattle cars.  I can understand a few standing customers, but where's max occupancy on these things?  It amazes me that every other driver on the road has to be buckled in per this state but they are trying to cram as many people as possible into these buses.  I'd hate to see serious accident in one of these things.

But since MS provides us with free passes, it is about 30 miles each way to work in my not so gas efficient '98 Pathfinder and I like to read, I take the bus.  I just wish they'd turn on the air to cool off the cattle.

Sound Transit

Still mad you paid too much money for an Apple iPhone?  It took 10 weeks too long for Apple to realize it was too expensive.  Here's a little humor for you involving a sale on the Zune:

An Emergency Open Letter To All Woot Customers

Steve Jobs open letter: 

Apple - To all iPhone customers

 Live Maps route of Lake Union to Washington Park Arboretum

On June 16th, I had some family members in town for my brother's highschool graduation.  His graduation wasn't till 5:30pm so in the morning my Dad, Tayler (1/2 brother) and Jeremy (brother in law) headed up to Lake Union.  I brought my kayak along and they rented a double for my Dad and Taylor and a single for Jeremy from NWOC and we headed out.  I've paddled out to the Arboretum once before with my brother but didn't know the area very well so we ended up only seeing a small portion of the park.  This time we wound our way through its waterways, saw a couple of Blue Heron, a turtle and a couple of bald eagles.  The weather was nice except for the stiff wind that made us really work to get back across Lake Union to NWOC.

Click here for some pics of the short day trip.

Kiera was at 12:20am on 3/22.  She is 8 llbs, 3 ounces and 21 inches in length.  She is a very healthy little girl with a healthy set of lungs!  See full size pics at http://www.flickr.com/photos/flyingkayaks/sets/72157594349430699/.

 Jeff Bezo's, CEO of Amazon.com, has joined the Private space race with a short, squat rocket.  Check out the Blue Origin site for pictures info and videos.    Several billionaires have thrown their hat into the ring now.  It should be interesting.