Land of Mixed Use

The Lorax Trees and Canadian Suburbia

In a social media world in which everything is framed and filtered to display an irreality, it's important to see the world for what it is. That for everything we do there is an impact. That for each of us born more resources are extracted, that our capacity to destroy is as great as our ability to create. That our world isn't an amusement park. That it's a land of mixed use.

The smell of creosote and freshly cut wood.

Like machinery from a Star Wars film, we've made a science of destroying things. 

Winter is coming...to Soggy Saddle

 Winter is coming...to Soggy Saddle. Whatcom Foothills. Here's the other side of the Saddle seen through a snowy day.

Mar and me walking through the snow

A Perfect Day with the Buddies, Canyon Ridge, October 24th, 2015

October 24th was my birthday and I did what I most like to do: an Autumn hike in the Mount Baker wilderness with my buddies. We took the Canyon Ridge trail through high mountain old growth forest with ancient hemlocks, silver fir, Doug fir. Dry mushrooms--boletes, russula--marked our path. An owl hooted in the distance. The mountain was grand, the trail especially quiet, with the exception of a stellar's jay that followed us along the way, making its squawking noises. Here we  Buddies are together looking out at Mount Baker in its glory.

 Clouds forming over Mount Baker on the lonely trail out to Canyon Ridge.

 Happy Mar enjoying his forest walk.

 What has been hitting me lately in our walks is the intricate textures of each overlook. A variety of trees at different ages, avalanche chutes, complex valleys--could you imagine an overland walk to the point on the upper right portion of the picture?

As a gift to ourselves, a birthday gift for me and a 6 and 1/2-year anniversary gift to ourselves, we got these shiny objects to display our buddy power. Made by Jerrod Galanin, a Tlingit Unangan multi-media artist from Sitka, Alaska. Kirsten's ring has a raven on it and my bracelet has a bear eating a salmon. With both of our spirit animals represented, we have Buddy Power!

We came down the mountain and had a delightful pizza and some lovely porter at The North Fork Brewery and Beer Shrine​. 

Bell Pass

Easton Glacier on the South Side of Mount Baker from the lonely Bell Pass trail.

Pensive Mar

Fleeting Lu

ELECTRO-STAY

 An ecotone is a region of transition between two biological communities. In this case, the wild backside of a wilderness full of cougars and bears meets the front porch of a seaside community and its electrical supply. We sat under this electrical substation, the wires buzzing. It would have been a perfect place to see a cougar or an alien.

The electrical field must have been so powerful that it completely fouled my navigational device, which put us somewhere off the coast of West Africa. It was a strange portal we walked into. 

Rainbow Ridge...the backside of Mount Baker

Eyeing adventure

Adventure Buddies

Mar and a deep basin of glaciers, scree, and bears popping out from dark hollows.

A resting point.

The reflection of Mount Bacon on Watson Lake # 1.

Glassing goats