Kaleberg Archive for Keyword: winter, Page: 1

Older Entries

02/27/13 - Marymere Falls We've been recovering from a cold, or perhaps a pair of colds, one for each of us. It's probably the same thing everyone else seems to have or has gotten over, but it has slowed us down. Marymere Falls is a great hike for someone getting over a cold, but not quite back to full strength. It's not a very long hike, maybe 45 minutes, and there is some climbing, but not all that much. The hike passes through rain forest and along Barnes Creek, as well as to the eponymous falls, so there is plenty of moisture which is good for the sinuses. We weren't disappointed. The Barnes Creek Valley is pretty dark in the winter, so some years the snow falls and stays. This year, the snows melted quickly, so the hike was easy going. The river was running briskly, and the falls were going full force. We panted and wheezed and coughed our way up to the lower and upper overlooks and spent some time enjoying the falling water. Then we made our way back. As we said earlier, it wasn't much of a hike, but it was more than sitting around the house coughing and wheezing.	Snow above (on Mount Storm King)
Marymere Falls	More snow above
Rain forest down below	Barnes Creek
More rain forest	More rain forest

Keywords: barnes creek, winter

02/25/13 - Port Angeles Farmers' Market Update

The Port Angeles Farmers' Market gets a bit quiet in the winter, but it doesn't quite close down. There are always a few regulars and even a few newcomers to keep things interesting. Nash Huber's stand has been anchoring the market by its lonesome, and even they have run out of carrots, though they still have some nice kale, turnips and potatoes.

The Chimacum chicken (and other stuff) stand is gone for the time being, but Dungeness Seaworks is back selling salmon, halibut and ling cod. It's good to see them. We also tried out Jose's Salsa, but not the salsa. We tried a bunch of tamales and some of the chiles rellenos, and we can honestly report that they are quite good. Our favorite tamale was the vegetarian one with spinach, but the pork and chorizo tamales were pretty good too. The chiles rellenos were plumply stuffed with cheese, coated with batter and deep fried. They reheated nicely in the oven, so we've been living on Jose's for a few days now.

We aren't sure who is going to be at the market next Saturday, though we're hoping to see Johnston Farm again, and possible a few other regulars. It's a long way to spring, let alone the growing season, but the farmers' market is still worth a trip downtown.

Nash Huber's stand - a stalwart anchor

A terrible picture of Dungeness Seaworks - It's that low winter light.

An even worse picture of Jose's Salsa - We'll try for a better one.

Chiles rellenos

Assorted tamales

Keywords: farmers' market, nash huber, port angeles, salmon, winter

01/31/13 - Dungeness Spit - Let The Good Tides Roll We're having some good tides at Dungeness Spit this winter. For example, there was a low tide below three feet around 12:30 today, and there was a lot of sand on the beach which made for easy walking. We saw a few eagles, a number of sea birds and the usual assortment of kelpies, that is, blobs of kelp that look like sea birds. There is another round of good tides coming up in mid-February, around Valentine's Day in fact, so we'll be watching our tide tables and hoping for good weather.

Keywords: birds, dungeness, dungeness spit, tides, winter

01/12/13 - New Farm at the Farmers' Market

This is a sparse time at the Port Angeles Farmers' Market. A few regulars have been stalwart: Johnston Farms, the Korean Garlic Lady, and Nash Huber, offering a nice selection of winter vegetables: brussels sprouts, potatoes, squash, collards, kale and the like. Clark Farm has been there offering beef, pork and lamb - a veritable conglomerate, despite their failure to capture the geese in time for Christmas. (Wait until next year.)

However, there was one newcomer, Spring Rain Farm and Orchard was in from Chimacum offering a variety of winter squashes, preserves, eggs, and chickens. The birds are a French breed, so we bought one. It's a large roaster, so stay tuned to this site. We'll be roasting and taste testing soon.

UPDATE - 1/25/13 - We have tasted the bird, simply roasted, and it was delicious.

The new farm at the Port Angeles Farmers' Market

Keywords: farmers' market, farms, garlic lady, johnston farm, nash huber, port angeles, winter

01/10/13 - White Snow, Black Water We hiked up the Lake Angeles trail to the little bridge. Most of the path was pretty easy going, but after the Big Rock, about 500 feet above the parking lot, there was snow and ice on the path. We put on our Yak Tracks and continued. Every little streamlet crossing the trail was a torrent, and there was water running down the trail itself which made for sloggy going. We pressed on and were well rewarded.	We didn't cross the bridge.
Snow covered trees	More winter contrast
Water on the trail	The curtain of drips, in full drip
White water, this time	More wild water

Keywords: lake angeles, winter

12/30/12 - Gray Skies at the Ridge We managed to do a little bit of snowshoeing up at Hurricane Ridge. We are seriously out of snowshoe shape. Still, the scenery was wonderful, and we have never seen so much snow on the trees.	Gray skies
A dash of light	Mixed skies
More snow and sky	The trail
First of a six photo panorama	Second
Third	Fourth
Fifth	Sixth and last

Keywords: hurricane ridge, snowshoeing, winter

12/18/12 - Christmas at the Volunteer Park Conservatory One of our favorite places in Seattle is the Conservatory at Volunteer Park. It takes a bit of climbing up Capital HIll to get there, but the display there is always amazing. It's even more amazing around Christmas.	A winter scene in Seattle with the Space Needle in the distance
There are always orchids at the conservatory	But, around Christmas, they do the place up proud.
Christmas trees, poinsettas, and a model train set	More Christmas flora, decora, and wonderful, steamy greenhouse warmth
We dropped by to visit the cactus.	A nautical scene
Another view - so cozy	A plethora of Christmas trees - our kind of place
Winter foliage	There is always something even more amazing at the conservatory, like these flowers growing from the edges of this air plants leaves.

Keywords: christmas, flowers, seattle, winter

12/16/12 - Winter Mountains Here are some pictures from our flight into Seattle on Kenmore AIr. It is definitely winter now.	Winter sky
Mount Rainier	Seattle's "magic mountain" is endlessly fascinating.
The Olympics	Cloudscape meets mountain-scape

Keywords: kenmore, winter

11/12/12 - Hurricane Ridge Saturday was sunny, so we headed up to Hurricane Ridge to check things out. The road to the Hurricane Hill trailhead was closed and covered with a thin layer of snow, so we hiked from the lodge to the trailhead. We saw some wonderful things.	Just a touch of frost
The grasses are golden	That's the Hurricane Hill Trail. It's still walkable, but we were too tired to continue.
A red branched bush	Another view of the Hurricane Hill trail
The mountains and clouds	More mountainas and clouds
There is just enough snow to make things look beautiful.	The road
A view through the trees	Mount Angeles

Keywords: hurricane hill, hurricane ridge, winter

10/23/12 - Winter Is A-Coming In

There had been a few sprinkles of snow on Hurricane Ridge, but they largely melted during the day. Now, however, the winter snow has come in earnest. Hurricane Ridge Road was closed at Heart of the Hills and the webcams showed a blanket of white and, at times, near white out conditions. There's a chance it will melt before the real accumulation begins, but after our cool summer it is more likely it will not. We'll be keeping our eyes open. We may be snowshoeing before we expected to.

Snow on the ridge

Keywords: hurricane ridge, winter

06/20/12 - Dungeness Spit - Good for Walking

There are two challenges involved in walking the Dungeness Spit.

First, you have to get the tides right. At high tide, all you have to walk on is a narrow strip of sand, rocks and driftwood. This gets tiring after two or three miles, and the lighthouse is about four and a half miles away. That's why we use Tidefinder to figure out the promising tides, during the daytime and under three feet.

Second, even when the tides are low, the going can be very rough when the beach is mainly small stones rather than sand. Usually, the sand is washed out in the winter and builds up through the summer. Some years, the beach stays rocky, but this year the sands have returned, and at low tide, there is usually a sweet strip one can walk on. It's hard work, but it's much easier than it could be.

Things look good this year, so tide and sand permitting we'll be making our way out to the lighthouse this summer.

The sandy beach

Driftwood and stones

Footprints in the soft sand

Keywords: dungeness, dungeness spit, software, summer, tides, winter

04/20/12 - Hurricane Ridge Report We recently were up at Hurricane Ridge to see if we could do some snowshoeing. There was lots of snow up there, but it had been melted and refrozen and compacted so many times that it was rough going. We had traction, but it was hard to take more than a few steps before breaking through the crust or having to climb up or down one of the folds in surface. We didn't get very far, but we enjoyed some great scenery.	Amazing views
There was a sign warning about snow sliding from the roof - and snow sliding from the roof.	More amazing views
There is still a lot of snow.	The hours for the lodge store - open May weekends, then every day starting Memorial Day weekend

Keywords: hurricane ridge, snowshoeing, winter

02/18/12 - The Ballard Locks in Winter

We recently took a lightning trip into Seattle, and made our way to the Ballard Locks in hopes of seeing our favorite winter garden. We were a bit early for the richly scented winter daphne, but there were some magnificent witch hazel trees and a fair bit of industrial action. It was like something out of a children's book with the locks cycling, the diggers on the dredging barge hauling up rocks and the railroad bridge opening between mile long trains.

Nature may have been a bit disappointing. The daphnes weren't in bloom. The fish ladder was fishless, and the garden winter bare, but sheer industry made up for it nicely.

The dredger removing this year's crop of fresh rocks

A witch hazel tree in bloom

A lone barge and tug passing through the locks

The dredger and the railroad bridge in action

A kingfisher cooperatively sitting on a cable

Keywords: seattle, winter

01/31/12 - Very High Tides at Dungeness Spit The winter storms a few weeks back led to very high tides at the Dungeness Spit. We looked at our tide table and saw a seven foot tide, falling, so we imagined a narrow beach, but a passable one. When we got down to the beach we saw something else, no beach at all. The stormy weather had brought in an extra foot or two of water. So, instead of a hike along the spit, we walked along the bluffs, and things were different here as well. We had noticed some serious erosion on our last visit, but it appears that an entire chunk of the old trail has collapsed into the strait, and a new trail has been routed inland. So, on one nature walk, we were reminded of both the beauty and the power of nature.	The view back south
The view out on the spit - You can see how little beach there was.	Another view out
Another view of the spit, or what's left of it	The eagles don't seem to be bothered.
Some frost on the ground.	The new trail a safe distance back from the crumbling bluffs
A view of the mountains from the bluffs	They have a fence closing off the old trail, and it's just as well.

Keywords: dungeness spit, tides, weather, winter

01/23/12 - Right In Our Own Backyard We tend to think of Olympic National Park as being in our own backyard, but when the storms struck and the roads got messy, our backyard got a bit smaller. We decided to strap on our snowshoes and explore anyway. We headed up to Peninsula College and first took the trail down to Ennis Creek. They've fixed it up nicely, and even with all the snow it was passable, especially with the proper foot gear. Then we wandered the campus a bit. Some of our old trails are gone, but there are all those neat new buildings, and, of course, lots of snow.	The gateway to the trail
Snow covered forest	More snow and trees
Some evergreens	Ennis Creek, cold and black
One of the new buildings, with snow	Peninsula College, closed on account of snow

Keywords: port angeles, winter

11/25/11 - Winter Wonderland Winter has been playing with us this year. We had a cool summer, then a warm spell, and then our first frosts and first snows. The Lake Angeles Trail was a winter wonderland covered with snow that has most likely already melted. Still, it's a wonderful foretaste of the winter season.	Welcome to winter
The bridge over the stream	Christmas trees
Snow on branches	More snow on branches
More Christmas trees	Icicles
The trail was still easy going.	Some last leaves preserved in ice.
The trail again	Some ferns

Keywords: lake angeles, winter

11/07/11 - Frost On Hurricane Hill This was a hard post to compose. There were so many amazing photographs of the gray skies, majestic mountains and frost covered trees and grasses that we just gave up and chose eleven pictures when we could have chosen dozens. Judging from the webcams and weather reports, the ice seems to have melted on Hurricane Hill, so we are glad we managed to capture our amazing walk in the sky.	The summit
A view down	Frost on the grass
Mountain sky and frosty trees	A field of ice
More mountain sky	Windblown
Grasses and sky	Another view down
Did we mention the sky?	It's almost Christmas.

Keywords: christmas, hurricane hill, weather, winter

Older Entries