Month: July 2014

Day 3 began with the usual 0630-ish arrival at Timberline, found a parking spot near where I had parked the last 2 days.  I've found the rhythm of this place and was no longer astounded at the crowds.  I recognized a kid that I rode the lift with yesterday.  The same kid who kept asking if Olympic skier Ted Liggety was still at Timberline.  No, Ted left several days ago.

What was different about this morning was the weather.

At 0637 this morning the temperature was 71F — approximately 16 degrees warmer than the previous two mornings.

Here at the top of the chair around 0730 there was virga (make sure that is spelled correctly because one spelling, the one I mean here, refers to a weather phenomenon; the other way is a dirogatory term in Spanish), which indicates downdrafts from building cumulus clouds.

Precip appears to be reaching the ground in the distance.

Shortly after we began our warm up drills the lightning storm began in earnest.  The lifts closed and the skiers were herded down to the safety of the lodge, where we admired the storm and attempted to photograph lightning strikes.

It became clear that the storm would be around for a while so heroic staff took down the race course markers and brought down all the backpacks.  We were dismissed.  So it goes with me and lightning.

The good news is that the drive home went quite smoothly.  And the cat was very glad to see me after being by herself for a few days.

Yesterday was a sunny, hot day and today was even hotter.  However, when our coaches set up a course they spread salt to help set up the snow so we aren't skiing in slush all day.  It's pretty cool.  I wish I would've taken a picture of our course but when we were near it, I was skiing it.  Instead, I got pictures of the impressive crowds.

It's close to 60F at 6:40 a.m.   Little racers wearing speed suits, puffy jackets, and carrying giant packs was kind of comical.  I'm glad I missed that kind of torture when I was a kid.

Unfortunately I arrived at the lift line before the lifties started loading people.

On the lift at last!

Well here we are at the lower mountain lift (Palmer Chair) with possibly the Canadian Team and a bunch of snowboarders were putting on some kind of charity event, maybe a benefit race.

Things started happening after this long line.  Training today started slowly but we built on concepts we learned yesterday and all the ladies in my group showed more confidence and improvement.  Our team leader, Linda, took two videos of us skiing the gates, which we watched at the end of the day (for us, that was around 1:30).  I'm pleased to report that my video showed a "disciplined" upper body (Linda's words) and I could see both bottoms of my skis at the same time as I ran the gates the 2nd time.  During the second run, a delay was added, which was a bit confusing but I got back on track.  If I do this camp next year, which I hope to, I may not even remember the term "delay", except I'll know it when I see it.

Parking lot at Timberline before 7:00 a.m.

The lift line just after 7:00 a.m.  Apparently this density is a bit unusual, at least according to people who have been here before.

The ski run down to the lodge.

Lanes 1 & 2 — the PSIA lanes for the day.  Ted Liggety skied these lanes for the last 4 weeks, according to those in the know.  Mt. Jefferson, Three Sisters, and Mt. Bachelor in the distance.

PSIA clinicians and the top of Mt. Hood.

The ladies in my group, including clinician in green, Linda.

An accidental photo of my shadow on snow.  Turned out kinda cool I think.

After I did PSIA's Spring Symposium at Mission Ridge (Wenatchee) I decided to do the Summer Camp at Mt. Hood.  A lot goes on at Mt. Hood in the summer so it was a bit confusing to sign up but some kind, experienced PSIA veterans showed me which website and which clinic to sign up for.

Yesterday I took a half day off from work to drive down.  It felt like I was in the car for a very long time because I left the office a little after 9:00 a.m. so that I could work on my list of food inspections in south Mt. Vernon and Conway.  Between 9:00 a.m. and noon, I got at least 6 food inspections done but had only traveled about 5 miles.  Then there was the grocery store stop, traffic in north Seattle until the Convention Center, a slow down because the State Patrol was doing their job, another slow down near Tacoma to avoid blown tire debris, another slow down way down by Woodland due to road construction and finally rush hour traffic in Portland.  Once I threaded my way through Gresham and got through the parade route in Sandy, the highway was wide open.  I arrived at Government Camp at 5:00 p.m., which was pretty much 8 hours after I left the office!

It was a beautiful warm day and the Best Western is on the entrance road to Government Camp.  I decided to walk up the road to town and take pictures.  Here's what I saw:

One of the interesting ways to dry and air out ski boot liners.  This told me that the ski slopes were very warm and my ski boot liners may have to air outdoors as well.

It was such a warm gorgeous day that I briefly felt sorry that I wasn't in a motel that had a pool.  However, those pools are full of teenage kids.  I made the right choice after all.

I thought this was a cool building.

How Government Camp got its name.

Glimpse of Mt. Hood from the east end of Government Camp.

It's a good thing I didn't have my wallet during my walkabout.  I may have to see about this later.

Oh looky, Mt. Hood Brewing is right next door to my motel!

On June 22, the day after my birthday, we took our road bikes on the ferry from Anacortes to Sidney, B.C.

I thought this was a cool picture of Raven on the ferry.

The ferry in Sidney, B.C.

At our favorite pub on Beacon Street pier.  We ate there twice.

View from our table.

We walked to the beach from our B&B, Glenelg B&B.

We rode our bikes from the B&B 8 km back to Sidney and had dinner here.  It was really good — we can recommend this place!  Hopefully your waitress will be the granddaughter of the former owner.

We rode on bike paths and wide shoulders to Victoria, mostly because we managed to miss the turn off to Butchart Gardens.  This bike store will store your bike for free while you walk around town for the day.

Randy eating chicken gravy poutine at a pub in Victoria.

The Empress Hotel.

Legislative building in Victoria.  It started to drizzle a bit so we went to the museum next door and saw a cool exhibit on Vikings.  This museum also has a very good permanent Native Peoples exhibit.

We rode back to Sidney and found many restaurants closed on Monday so we ended up at the Beacon Street pier pub for the 2nd time.

The next day we rode from our B&B back to the ferry.  We saw a pod of orcas on the way back, which was the first time I'd seen orcas in spite of living in WA for most of my life.