New Beer Nerd Post: Wine Snobbery

I went off on a minor rant about the ignorance of wine snobs on the hoplog blog, if you're interested in that kind of subject matter:

http://hoplogblog.blogspot.ca/2012/09/seriously-dude.html

Cheers!

Summer Statistics

We did a lot of camping and driving this summer.  Some quick facts:


Kilometres driven (from Salmon Arm in early July to present):  12,330

Gas station stops:  29

Longest single driving day:  1442 km (Queen Charlotte City, BC to Kamloops, BC)

Number of nights spent in a tent:  21

Most consecutive nights in a tent:  6 (Jasper National Park and Mount Robson Provincial Park)

Number of nights spent in a yurt:  1

Number of beer competitions judged:  3 (including the BC Beer Awards being judged tomorrow)

Gigabytes of photos taken (since leaving for Oregon in July):  7.8


Aside from some recurring central locking issues, our trusty steed (2007 VW Rabbit) held up very well under the unusual demands we made of it.  We even managed to survive the inconvenience of accessing our supplies through only two passenger doors and a hatchback.  Drives wonderfully and is very reliable.  Thank you, German auto maker!

Our trusty VW turns 88,888 on the Olympic Peninsula

As much as Sarah used to dislike car camping in our smallish tent, it has become home to her and she finds it cozy and comforting.  Heh heh, my evil plan to condition her to camping/tenting in bite-sized chunks has succeeded!  Or maybe, being homeless, it's just the closest thing we have to a house; we've spent more nights in the tent than we have anywhere else since the end of March.

Our trusty if somewhat long-in-the-tooth 4-season tent

New Beer Nerd Posts!

After a long delay, I've finally caught up on my hoplog blog posts.  You can check them out here:

Playing Catchup - National Homebrewers Conference
http://hoplogblog.blogspot.ca/2012/09/playing-catchup-nhc.html

Playing Catchup - Summary Summery Brewery Encounters
http://hoplogblog.blogspot.ca/2012/09/playing-catchup-summary-summery-brewery.html

Playing Catchup - Summary Summery Brewery Encounters Part II
http://hoplogblog.blogspot.ca/2012/09/playing-catchup-summary-summery-brewery_26.html

Detailed educational post - Some Thoughts On Tasting Room Beer Service
http://hoplogblog.blogspot.ca/2012/09/some-thoughts-on-tasting-room-beer.html


Enjoy!

Chad.

Tomyhoi Mountain

Upon returning to Vancouver from the Olympic Peninsula, we had the incredible good fortune of finding a place to stay through Jason, our friend who had put us up and toured us around Germany earlier in the year. He moved back to Vancouver over the summer, and arranged for us to use his parents' vacant second house for many days.  He has practically been our personal travel concierge, finding us perfect (and free) accommodations on multiple continents.  A million thank-yous to Jason and his wonderful parents!

Sarah's brother Shaun invited us to do a day hike with some of his friends to northern Washington State.  Sarah couldn't go but I was game, if a bit resigned to trailing far behind Shaun and his hard-core, incredibly fit mountaineering buddies.

Good thing I went - Tomyhoi Mountain was probably the best all-around day hike I've been on.

Shaun, Misha, Tina, Mike and I left from Vancouver at about 6 am in Misha's truck, crossing the border at Sumas shortly after passing some police investigators marking what appeared to be the scene of a drive-by shooting.  Ah, Sumas.  

Tomyhoi Mountain is a bit north of Mt. Baker, close to the Canadian border.  I'm not sure how long the hike is, but it was a very full day - about 1200m elevation gain (not counting the big roller-coaster ups and downs) with some serious scrambling at the top.  Misha brought climbing rope, and most of the others brought ice axes and climbing harnesses and helmets just in case.  Me - well, my equipment consisted largely of a floppy hat... thankfully my lack of gear didn't turn out to be a big issue.

We hit the trail at 9:10am, climbing up through forest for over an hour before hitting subalpine elevations.

While the sky was clear, it was quite hazy from forest fire smoke.  So while it looked cloudy, it was really hot the whole day, and there was almost zero shade.

Mt. Baker through the smoke

Low-level mist

Now that's hiking.  A great dane with two saddle bags and a back pack.  After all, it is almost as big as a mule.

View from not quite halfway.  We were headed for the pointy, isolated peak on top and in the middle of the photo.  And yes, in front of us was the first of several unfortunate downhill slopes we encountered on the way up.

Quick break for a view

Shaun on steep switchbacks down to the plateau

Looking NW - impressive rise from the valley to the peaks 

Tomyhoi pokes it head out from behind the next hill

Surveying another very steep downhill, followed by more uphill

About to plunge into the gulley

Looking back at the knife-edge ridge we just made our way along

Almost 3/4 of the way up. You'd be able to see even further without the smoke haze.

Shaun with Tomyhoi in the background, which is the lower peak on the left (though it's the highest - it's just far behind the right-hand peak)

Tomyhoi.  See the little white dots on the right side of it?  People.  That's the route up. Gulp.

At this point I looked at the peak and thought "yikes - it looks totally impassable without full rock-climbing gear."  It's definitely steep and exposed, but looks better up close.

Walking around a couple of small glaciers - it was nice to borrow an ice axe, since if you got sliding you'd end up either in a crevasse or going over the lip of the glacier and down a large cliff.  But the path along the edges was stable.

Not the peak, just a quick scramble we needed to make

The "crux" - the final steep climb to the peak.  Zoiks.

When we hit the crux, well, it still looked pretty formidable.  No one was going to go up unless they felt comfortable, and we did have some harnesses and rope.  After some analysis, it looked like there was only about a 15-foot stretch that was exceptionally challenging and exposed, so we all thought we'd give it a shot without aids and see how it went.

Shaun just after the crux, getting up on the shoulder

And we all made it!  Once past the crux there's a bit more scrambling, and you definitely don't want to lose your footing as there are serious drop-offs on all sides - but the work is pretty much done at this point.

The crew, just past the crux.  The guy at the top was fixing ropes so his girlfriend and 12-year-old son could climb up the crux, which is on the other side of this rock

At the peak of Tomyhoi, striking an appropriate pose.

The rest of the group, as seen from the summit looking east.  What an amazing view.

Chad and Shaun

Apparently you can see this glacier from the highway near Chilliwack. 

Crevasses near the cliff edge

Explorer poses

Tina and Mike on the peak

The valley floor is a looooong way down from here

Starting my descent down the final peak scramble.  Knife-edge ridge is noticeable in the distance. 

Misha on top

The 12-year-old coming up the crux with rope and harness

Looking back at the knife-edge ridge we walked earlier, and that we would traverse again on the way down.

Mike and Tina coming down the crux.  A bit steep, no?

The team coming down the crux - as seen from the bottom of it

Closeup of the crux

It started to clear up a bit on the way down

Lots of red fungus/lichen on the snow

Hardy mountaineers, with conquered Tomyhoi peak to the right

Shaun and a sweet view down

Oh God, seriously, we have to go back up these unnecessary gulleys?

Yep, there's our path up one of the climbs on the return trip.  Ugh.

Mt. Baker became a bit more visible toward sunset

The hike out was pretty long after such a big day, and I was happy to have Shaun's hiking poles for the last 1/2 hour as my legs/knees were starting to cramp up.  We had each taken close to three litres of water, and had all run out more than an hour from the end - it was much hotter and more exposed than we had bargained for.  Idyllic weather.

Mt Shuksan, just east of Mt. Baker, is very impressive in the evening light

A final look at Baker just as we descend to the parking area

We made it down just before 6:30pm - about 9:15 hiking time all-in, including breaks and waiting for people to clear the crux (at least 30 minutes, probably more).  We stopped at a gas station for much-needed rehydration, and then drove to Bellingham for a well-deserved bite and pint at Boundary Bay Brewing Company.

Hiking days don't get any better than this!  Many thanks to Shaun, Misha, Mike and Tina for a great time all around.

Seattle and Olympia

We headed from Kalaloch back to civilization (i.e. Seattle).  On the way we had to pass through Aberdeen, an industrial mill/port town, which is also the hometown of Kurt Cobain (for you young or old ones, he's the lead singer of Nirvana who committed suicide in 1994).  Kurt always hated his hometown & said so - driving through, it's hard to disagree with him.  Ugh.

We thought hey, we've never stopped in Olympia.  Let's check it the capitol (as they spell it in America).  30 minutes of free parking gave us just enough time to check it out. Though the legislature wasn't in session, it was still a lot more open and featured less overt security than BC's legislature.

The great seal

Entrance hall

The House.  The Senate is a mirror image on the other side, but nicer and without plasma screens.

I came all the way to Olympia, and no reporters show up for my legislature-steps press conference...

We got a very good deal on a cheap/old/seen-better-days motel in Fremont (north Seattle), and spent about 1.5 days relaxing and washing the "camp" out of us.  I took Sarah to Brouwer's in Fremont, an excellent craft beer pub with fantastic food.

Chad with a Cascade Barrel Room "Summer Gose" at Brouwer's.  Yum.

The next day we took a drive just a few kilometres west of our motel, stopping at the locks between Puget Sound and Lake Union, and got to watch the ships going through and the fish climbing the fish ladders.  You can walk right through the lock area, and there's a nice botanical garden right beside the canal.

Big Tugboats

Medium-sized yachts

Even wee kayaks.  Hang on, brother!

There were a ton of big salmon waiting at the entrance to the fish ladder, right beside the locks.  Unfortunately, this ladder entrance is at the corner of two sea walls - seals would rush up and bust through the waiting, cornered salmon.  We then noticed at least three seals further out in the canal, going to town on the returning salmon.

The foamy water is from seals catching a tasty salmon meal

We stopped in the heart of Ballard, a former blue collar community that now has a quiet main street (Ballard Avenue) full of cool up-and-coming restaurants, pubs and shops.  We stopped at a hipsterish sandwich shop - The Outer Coast Cafe - for a great lunch.

This sandwich is named "The Stud"

I definitely want to check out Ballard Ave. in the evening sometime - that one short street has enough great eating and drinking spots that I could stay for days.  First stop would probably be The Noble Fir, an excellent-looking newer craft beer bar.

Always a good sign when Pliny The Elder is on tap

In fact, when I return to Ballard Ave, here are the eating and drinking places I will want to visit (all within about 4 blocks):

• Outer Coast Cafe (sandwiches)
• Anchored Ship coffee bar (had a great coffee here)
• The Noble Fir (trendy craft beer)
• Old Town Ale House (comfortable-looking pub)
• McLeod's Scottish Pub (huge wall of scotches behind the historic-looking bar)
• The Bastille (lovely-looking French bistro)
• Bitterroot (trendy but tasty-looking food)
• and it would be a treat to stay at the quite upscale-looking boutique hotel, the Ballard Inn

That evening, we walked over the Hale's Ales, one of the older brewpubs in town.  Service was a little slow, but they had some nice beers which we sampled.

Entrance to Hale's, with brewing equipment behind a low fence to the right

Hale's gravity-fed brewing system

Tasters

On the way back to our hotel, we discovered an interesting 7-Eleven marketing scheme.

Your can get a Democrat or Republican cup for your coffee - each cup sold is one "vote," and they award a winner of the "7-Eleven vote" at election time.  I know where my lobbying money is going!

And so came to a close our Olympic odyssey.  Much more to do an see than we expected, and all aided by continuous warm, clear weather.