When you want to see the stars, find someplace dark
It is always a sick feeling in the gut when a drone goes down.
This time it was an unseen branch, a thin and leafless thing that reached well out from the tree, unseen until it was too late. Unseen by the drone’s obstacle avoidance system as well.
I crashed the drone at Panther Falls while enjoying a waterfall day in Southern Washington. A place deep in the trees where a drone pilot is advised to exercise caution. I did, and crashed it anyway.
Continue reading “Crashed and Repaired”
For the most part I was just spending time with the folks, a week hanging out and even doing some chores around the house.
I did have one day planned in an otherwise unplanned week… A hike somewhere, a chance to enjoy a bit of summer in a classic Pacific Northwest sort of way. This year it would be waterfalls.
I had two waterfalls picked out… Falls Creek Falls and Panther Falls, both located in the hills above Carson, on the Washington side of the Columbia River Gorge.
Along with the waterfalls I had one other stop planned, a quick excursion to the new Mitchell Point Tunnel. Add a lunch somewhere along the way and I had a full day.
An important part of the plan was an early start. I left the house at 4am for a dark drive up the gorge for a planned dawn arrival at the trailhead.
The morning dawned clear and beautiful… It should be a great day.
Continue reading “Waterfall Day”Driving through the quiet rural town of Pe Ell, Washington on the way to Tokeland I was a bit surprised to see a small tank along the highway. A little M3 that is currently serving as a veteran’s memorial.
Having played a few tank-based wargames, I immediately recognized the tank, and we took a few minutes to check it out.
I did need to check a few references to identify which variation this example was, the vertical glacis and lack of a raised engine deck identify this as the M3A1 version.
Continue reading “An M3A1 Stuart”Southeast Alaska has so many glaciers, but very few of them are easily accessible. Most require long hikes into wild coutry, floatplanes to remote lakes, or boating through iceberg choked waters to reach. Sheridan Glacier you can drive to.
The glacier is only a few miles from the airport reached by a short gravel road, and an even shorter trail through the woods. Not the glacier itself, as that is about a mile away on the other side of a lake. Rather you reach the shore of a lake covered with icebergs, creating a spectacular scene with the glacier in the background.
At the end of the road the glacier is just visible through the trees as glimpses of ice. A well maintained US Forest Service trial leads to a point from which some of the lake and glacier can be seen.
This first viewpoint has a clever feature. Here you find a simple post with a small recess milled into the top. You can place a cellphone on the post and take a photo. Sending the photo to an email address allows the Forest Service to monitor changes in Sheridan Glacier over time. Not by installing their own expensive remote camera, but rather by simply having visiting tourists contribute their photos.
Going a bit further, my brother and I hiked the short trail around and down to the shoreline looking for a better view of the iceberg covered lake. Where the trail emerged again onto the shore a small moriane offered the view we were looking for, a place to sit and enjoy spectacular scenery. From this little moraine also flew the drone to gain a better vantage for some photos.
The lovely weather would not last long, it was a good decision to use this first afternoon in Cordova to get out and see the glacier and explore further to the end of the road.
It is big. Really, truly big.
The glacier looked to be miles wide and flowed from deep in the mountians to where it nearly reached the sea. My view from the aircraft window allowed a perfect view on a beautiful sunny day. Unlike previous times I had passed this way no clouds obscured the scene.
It took a quick look at the map after the flight to identify the glacier I had seen and photographed… Bearing Glacier, the largest glacier in North America.
The glacier starts at an icefield in the St Elias Range, a stunningly rugged mountain range that abruptly rises from sea level to heights near 20,000ft in places. From there a five mile wide river of ice decends over 50 miles to the coastal plain, ending in Vitus Lake dotted with icebergs broken from the glacier’s terminal face. Seal River, a short, two mile long river then drains glacial meltwater into the Gulf of Alaska.
The numbers fail to capture the sheer grandeur of the that river of ice. While the view from 30,000ft was impressive, I wonder what it would be like to stand in the middle of that expanse on such a beautiful day.
Summer 2025 featured another family fishing trip.
This time the destination was Cordova, Alaska. Why Cordova? Why not? New water, new adventures, new things to see.
We had never been to Cordova, bouncing through the airport on the milk run from Juneau and Yakutat does not count. The area feaures some interesting history, very scenic country, more than a few glaciers, and access to Prince William Sound for fishing.
Continue reading “Fishing Cordova”A relic of a simpler time.
I stand looking at a store my grandfather, or even my great-grandfather, may once have visited while traveling this same way. Given Doty’s location on the main road from Chehalis to Raymond many of my ancestors would have passed through here often enough, perhaps stepping through these same doors.
The building is a typical example of an early 20th century general store, probably originally called a dry-goods store. When the store was constructed, Doty was a lumber mill and railroad town, a bustling place far different than the quiet, rural farming community that exists today. For over a century the store has served this community, offering basic groceries, fuel, and, under the current owners, fresh baked goods.
The railroad is gone, now the Willipa Hills Trail. The main highway now bypasses the tiny town of Doty, you have to drive half a mile across the farm fields to visit this little store, an ambassador from the past that is still a working part of the community.
The groceries on the shelves may be modern products in bright plastic packaging, the cash register now a computer, but the store still feels old… The clapboard construction, the creaky floor, and the smell. The building just smells old, the scent of old wood and old paint. It becomes easy to envision a logger in hob-nailed boots passing through, or a Model-T Ford parked out front.
To my delight, along the back wall there is a little chest freezer where an old childhood memory can be found… Drumstick ice-cream cones. A favorite treat that was once reserved for family road trips and special events. I have always enjoyed these but rarely indulge. This day, traveling with my father to attend a tribal meeting, it seems quite appropriate. Not to mention quite welcome on a warm summer day.
A perfect summer day in the Willapa Hills, and a bit of a drive remaining before our destination. I finish my ice cream before we head out again, down the road to see around the next bend and over the next hill.
Starting out on an adventure, a couple weeks on the mainland. A bit of visiting family, the annual tribal meeting, then off to Alaska for a little fishing with family. A lot of camera gear loaded, will be making time for some exploring along the way.
One county service I make good use of is the local greenwaste facility. A well practiced routine… load it up, tarp it down, and off.
