West Fork Methow, May 26, 2008

On Memorial Day, Rick and I (and Remington) took a bike ride up the Methow River. It's about an 8 mile out-and-back up to where the trail hooks up with the Pacific Crest Trail. There was lots of snow and avalanche debris on the trail, so we only got about halfway up before we decided to bag it... and as soon as we did, it started to rain... hard. This picture was taken after the ride; we're still smiling... but my brown socks used to be white. (If you zoom in on this one, you can see the extent to which we were completely splattered with mud.)

There are some amazing flowers on this trail; the area burned several years ago. Fun times!

West Fork Methow Bike Ride, May 26, 2008

There was still a lot of snow on the trail, and some pretty gnarly avalanche debris, so, I wasn't always able to stay on my bike. Check out the river -- it's rockin' and rollin'!

Bike Ride on Buck Mountain

On Saturday, we took a bike ride up Buck Mountain. The arrowleaf balsamroot are blooming, which makes for a very sunny ride, even when it's raining... the weather actually cooperated for the most part, though we did get a few sprinkles here and there. Got a little bit lost at the last part of the trail; the guidebook we had was fairly accurate, but there are so many logging roads and game trails, etc... you never quite know if you're heading in the right direction or off into some uninhabited portion of the Okanogan. Anyway -- great ride... took us about three hours. This photo of Rick and me (and Mr. Wiggles, who was lying down in the flowers -- you can just see him by Rick's legs) was taken looking back toward the Cascades. The clouds let up enough to give us a good view -- they waited until we were riding down the hill to open up and rain on us!

The Bluffs at Fort Ebey

This is the view from part of my bike ride yesterday... the wind was blowing like crazy, and it was actually a little bit tricky to stay upright. Luckily, it was an offshore wind, so it was blowing me onto the hill, not off!

Fort Ebey is blooming!

Yesterday I took my new mountain bike on a ride around Fort Ebey State Park near Coupeville. The Rhododendrons in the forest are blooming, and it makes for a beautiful ride! I met a couple of other riders who showed me around, since I had only ridden on the bluff trails in the past. There's so much to see here! I'm glad I had a couple guides to show me around -- you could get lost pretty easily. There are maps posted here and there, but still... you could ride a ways before finding one. Our route had a few steep ascents, and a little bit of technical stuff -- roots, rocks, mud... but overall, a pretty mellow cruise with pretty flowers to boot. This place rocks!

My "Backyard"

Last Wednesday, I had a few extra hours, so I took a walk at Washington Park in Anacortes. These are a few images from my trip.

Welcome to Jane's World!

Hey guys! I'm starting a blog! I am going to post pictures and write things here about all the things I'm doing... maybe you'll find something that looks like fun and you'll want to come visit me in my little corner of the Pacific Northwest.

This last weekend was amazing -- we had 70 degree weather and sunny skies -- so I and everyone else within a 60 mile radius of me went to Deception Pass State Park and took in some photons! We also all went to see the daffodils in the Skagit Valley. Here are a few images from the weekend: