Northern Lights

The Northern Lights came to Mount Vernon and Washington State on the night of May 10th, 2024. I was in Seattle that evening and returned late. At first, I didn't notice so much, but I went outside around 1 AM to make sure I wasn't missing a show, and I'm glad I did. The lights were visible to the naked eye, and with short time pictures from the phone, easy to capture. It was indeed a spectacular show, and all the papers and on-line feeds reported on it. These photos are taken from 15th and Fir Street in Mount Vernon, and are just a sampling of the photo-ops. Fir Street is a somewhat busy arterial in the MV, but the cars were few at this hour.

 

Little Mountain 10k

I ran the Little Mountain 10k trail run yesterday, in Mount Vernon. This was one tough little race-- just perfect for me right now!

The race is 95% trail, starting at the Carpenter Creek Winery on the south side of Little Mountain. The Mount Vernon Trail Builders, charity beneficiary of the event, have put in 14,000 volunteer hours on Little Mountain over the past 7 years, and it really shows.

The first three miles are plenty of up, with a few really steep pitches. Already gassed, I just groaned when we came upon Fred's Trail, which is basically a miner's trail to the top.  I've seen my share of trails like this in longer trail races, but it was kind of cool to get a challenge in the middle of the 10k distance. There's really a need for more shorter distance trail runs like this. They're just perfect for a Saturday morning.

At or around 3 miles, you hit the top, and get views of the beautiful Skagit Valley, Olympics, and San Juan Islands, if you care to stop and look.  The rest of the course is mostly downhill or flat, with a few steep pitches thrown in for good measure. Love the downhill, switchback glide to the finish.

I ran slow, as usual, 1:40 or so. Plenty of walking, and a five minute break up top.  I see some improvements with my recent efforts. Carry on, carry on. The temperature was in the high 80s, low 90s, so caution was merited. Most of the course was under tree cover.

The event was put on by RunFare, operated by friends Joe and Shawna. Good to see them out there, as well Rob, Darlys, and many others from Skagit Runners. Mount Vernon Trail Builders were also out there. Carpenter Creek was a great place for race HQ--pretty cool to check them out. Thank you all for your good works!

This is one of my favorite shorter trail races I've ever done. Really excellent, especially for me, since it's a 5 to 10 minute drive to the start. Skagit Flats Half is next on the list. Happy to note that I'm on pace for my annual goal of at least one event per month on average per year.

Little Mountain

I went up into Little Mountain Park in Mount Vernon today. This park has all sorts of new trails, due in large part to the work of Mount Vernon Parks and Recreation and the Mount Vernon Trail Builders.  The view this month includes Skagit Valley's tulip fields, which don't look as big from on top of the mountain. The fields can be made out in the picture above, if you squint.

Railroad Grade-Park Butte Trail in February (or The Year It Forgot to Snow)

Dean, Dude and I hiked up to Railroad Grade on Saturday. This would usually be a long snowshoe hike this time of year, but this is the year it forgot to snow. The trail was bare or lightly snow-covered on the way up, until we reached the snow bowl area between Park Butte and Railroad Grade. We did fine in trail running shoes.

We hiked up on to the Railroad Grade, which is a long ridge that climbers take to begin the southern ascent of Mount Baker. The views were world class, with the volcano lightly steaming, and 360 degree views of Glacier Peak, Park Butte lookout, and numerous other lesser known peaks (though Dean knows their names). Truly a great day for hiking.

We were able to leave at 10:30 AM from Mount Vernon, and were home before dark. Love that. The Sno-Park is closed, and it doesn't appear that a sno-park pass ($20+) is needed. The area is closed to snowmobiles. Some folks were camping in the bowl, and we saw about 10 people coming off the summit, some 5000 feet above.

Down low, the daffodils are blooming in the Skagit, and I hear rumors that some tulips are already up too. I know ours in the yard are pushing up. Spring is coming early, it seems. Meanwhile, the east coast is snowed in. Weird weather this year.

Broken Bridge Run

The big news in the Skagit Valley this month is the I-5 bridge over the Skagit River fell in the river one Thursday evening.  It's been a mess ever since, with traffic re-routed through the towns. At least 75 accidents based on the reroute. This is all well reported elsewhere. Fortunately, the powers that be have worked really hard to get a temporary bridge in place, as well as a plan for a permanent fix. The temporary bridge should be operational next week.

On Sunday, I decided to go for a run along the Skagit River, to see if I could get a look at the progress on the replacement "Bailey bridge," as it is called. Here are some pictures I took from that run. 

Mount Vernon Harvest Festival

I decided to stay home this weekend, having ran long in the North Cascades last weekend, and knowing I’ll be running Baker Lake next weekend. Home is Mount Vernon, Washington.

It seems like I’ve gotten so busy over the last year or two---I feel out of breath sometimes. There’s my running, but then there’s also my work, my volunteer stuff, the people I know, my house. Plus there's so many channels on television anymore, and I have a lot of spices and cookbooks in my kitchen, and I have so many books, and too many magazine subscriptions and Iphone apps, and I know I should just ebay half of the stuff around my house, if I knew how. I'm being facetious in writing this--I don't have kids, and so I can't be that busy, or so some friends tell me, and I suppose they're right, in a sense, but I do fill up my time, and an unplanned weekend at home feels so good sometimes. It seems like all my weekends in my 20s were unplanned.

So, on to the next paragraph.

I managed to get a bit of trail time on Chuckanut this morning, after sleeping in late. The wind was cutting over Chinscraper, lots of leaves dropping. It wasn’t much of a run for me, just a hike/climb to the top, and a jog down. Mainly, I conducted caveman skills tests, like throwing rocks and sticks at trees (which I imagined to be rabbits), and identifying edible mushrooms. If I had a coach, they wouldn’t be happy with my efforts this morning, but I did show real hunter and gatherer potential.

After Chuckanut, I headed back to Mount Vernon, my home's town, to check out the Farmer’s Market, and ended up enjoying the Fall Harvest Street Festival, the Friends of the Library booksale, and the John Deere tractor rally. I bought eight books for $4. I have a real book problem. Or maybe it's a book challenge. The tractors were cool. Nothing runs like a Deere, or so my friend Aaron tells me.

For the record, the Skagit Valley is going harvest crazy this weekend, with competing harvest festivals in Mount Vernon and Burlington, as well as the Oyster Run out in Anacortes on Sunday. On the way back from C-nut Mountain, I saw two or three roadside organic produce stands, and truck full of corn with a sign, 6 ears for $1. It’s a wonderful time of year here, at least when the sun is out. And it is.

Now I’m off to feed the birds, prune some trees, and maybe cut some wood. Just a really nice, forgettable fall day. (: