Tajikistan English Practice 211: 2009

Saturday, October 10, 2009

Noble Knob

I went for a hike to Noble Knob. From Hwy. 410 it is a steep 6 miles up a winding rough dirt road but when you get to the parking lot you are already in the alpine area. Due to the fact that the trail head is so high there isn't that much elevation to gain to get to Noble Knob. To be more precise there is only 500 feet of elevation gain in 3.5 miles and most of the elevation gain comes on your final ascent up the Knob.

So I got there (Noble Knob) fast because it was basically flat and a good trail. But the truth of the matter is I didn't get to Noble Knob first I actually went to a peak just East of it and ate my lunch on top. It was a bit of a rock scramble to get to the top and there was more exposure on top but there was no one else there. So I ate my sandwich with a sweeping view of the Cascades and tried to keep my hands warm. It was snowing hard while I was on this little peak which made for only ok views. I couldn't see Rainier.

Then down off this little peak after lunch. When ever I stopped moving I started to get cold so I had to keep moving. Then up Noble Knob. There were two other parties of three on top. Older people seeming not to like the blizzard like conditions.

Then since it was so easy to get to Noble Knob and I wasn't a bit tired I decided to descend to Lost Lake which I could see from Noble Knob. I saw a sign at the parking lot that said from the car Lost Lake was 6 miles and I knew I had already gone 3.5 so I knew it wasn't too far. So I took the trail down from the alpine area through the forest to Lost Lake. It was an ok lake. I'm a very tough critic. It was pretty big and there was a place where a lot of people had camped all summer. There was even a frying pan left sitting upside down on a log. So I sat down and ate my last Cliff bar and enjoyed the lake. But I didn't stay long I knew I had to be getting back. So I retraced my steps going about 2,400 feet back up to Noble Knob. I forgot to mention that while I was descending to the lake it stopped snowing and never started again.

So when I got back up to Noble Knob for the second time it was actually nicer weather than before. It was about 3:30 pm so all the day hikers were gone. This is when I caught some glimpses of mountain goats. I saw two of them along the trail but they are super elusive. I tried to follow one but it just disappeared silently and effortlessly into the woods. So I never got very close to a mountain goat but it was still cool to see them from a distance. By this time the weather had even improved some. I stopped several times along the trail to enjoy fat juicy wild blueberries that were suffering from frost bite.

Then without further ado I hoofed it back to the car. On the way back a man going in the other direction told me it was 27 degrees Fahrenheit. But I felt fine I had my long underwear on and warm clothes and as long as I was moving I wasn't cold.

Can you see the mountain goat?

Small lake under Noble Knob

Wild Blueberries

Near Noble Knob

Norse Peak Wilderness Area

Yankees vs. Mariners (M's win 7-1) at Safeco

Wednesday, August 12, 2009

Hike to Twin Lakes and Margaret Lake

On August 12, 2009 my dad and I hiked up to Twin Lakes and Margaret Lake. These lakes are in the Snoqualmie Pass area. The weather was marginal at best. It was misting at the car but as we gained elevation the rain became more serious. It didn't help matters any that we were walking through a clear cut area where a lot of wet bushes were hanging over the trail. This of course made my pants soaked and my hiking boots wet through too. But it was a great hike and Twin Lakes were really beautiful. It stopped raining just long enough at Twin Lakes for us to have a lunch and take some nice pictures. It didn't really rain after we left Twin Lakes and headed back to the car. Due to the improved weather we decided to hike a short spur trail to Margaret Lake. This was also a very beautiful lake. I love the alpine lakes. But it was cool about 10 deg. C. and about 50 deg. F. so we never got really dried out and had to keep moving to stay warm.
We saw 4 other groups of hikers who were less equipped than us and when it started to rain on the hike back to the car we thought about the poor people hiking up with nothing more than a cotton shirt on. I'm glad I had my rain coat for this hike but I'm also glad I had my camera for the beautiful scenery. Enjoy!

Margaret Lake

Lake Yvanne

Meandering Stream

Clouds moving in and out on the mountains

Bear Grass in bloom

I loved it! But it was rainy...

Peaceful Setting

A Beautiful Twin Lake

At a wet Twin Lake

Twin Lakes

Thursday, July 30, 2009

Georgia Trip

I decided to go back to the Republic of Georgia for one week because I hadn't been back since I left in 2004. I wanted to see all my old friends and see how the country had changed in the last 5 years. The first thing I noticed right away was the new airport. It was a real modern nice airport. A far cry from the one I remember from 2002 when we arrived in the middle of the night and they turned the electricity off at the airport before we left. This airport has ATM machines, cafes, baggage carousels etc. It is great. Americans don't even need a visa. The police just stamp your passport and let you go. No paper work, no money, no questions, nothing. The war undeniably hurt little Georgia there is no question. But still Tibilisi is looking up. There are new stores and cafes spread out along Rustaveli Ave. There are still some empty shops too and a lot still seems to be under construction such as the old department store. But things generally seem to be headed in the right way. People all over the country now have better roads to drive on and 24/7 electricity. These are two huge things I didn't have from 2002-2004. Everywhere you look in Tbilisi something seems to be under construction or soon to be. Nestan is working for a Turkish construction company in Tbilisi. Right now her company is working on remodeling the old intourist hotel. It will be a 5 star hotel called the Radison. A lot of foreign investors pulled out after the war but Georgia is still moving ahead and hopefully in a few years the foreign investors will come back. I didn't see a lot of tourists in Tbilisi and in Ambrolauri they told me tourism was way down from this time last year. But my friend Nino told me that Kazbegi was full of tourists when she recently went there. So there are still a few adventuresome tourists who want to come to Georgia. Tbilisi does a much better job of catering to tourists than Dushanbe, Tajikistan. There are few to no souvenir shops in Dushanbe but I saw a lot to buy in Tbilisi. My little town in the mountains Ambrolauri also is looking up. It seemed like the whole town was under construction. All the main roads were fixed this year and the side roads are due to be fixed next year. The road from Ambrolauri to Oni is now paved all the way with a white line down the middle. Tkibuli also has new roads in town. All the roads in Racha seem better except the road from Oni to Shovi is still the same. There is a new bridge though in Shovi because the other one was bombed. I don't know about the road up to Uravi but I suspect that it hasn't been done yet. There are also all new road signs for people pointing out hiking trails and points of interest. There is a new camp at Shauri Lake. Some of the cabins up at Shovi have been remodeled too. The Stalin statue hasn't been fixed (yeah). Considering Oni was bombed less than a year ago it looked pretty good. I didn't have an opportunity to look around too much but it looked like the hotel in the town center was being rebuilt and the main street was nice and new.
Valeri my host brother said the war set them back about 5 years. I don't know maybe it did. But Racha is starting to look-up a bit and its potential is huge. There is a lot to see and do there for outdoor lovers. There is still of course a lot of work to be done and some people in Racha are still just sitting on their hands and not helping. But it looked like a lot of people were helping and trying to make things better. Change takes time and 5 years really isn't that long but if the people in Tbilisi and Racha continue at the pace they are on their country and city will be a lot better in the not too distant future. I took a lot of pictures some of which are on this blog. There are even more new blds. in Ambrolauri that don't appear on this blog. There is even a Chinese family living in Ambrolauri now and they have a shop selling Chinese stuff right next to the Magti shop as you come into town. The Khavanchara wine still tastes as great as it ever did.
When you take the marshrutka from Didube you see a lot of refugee houses in rows along side the main road through the country. There are even refugee house in Oni. Most of the refugee houses are near Gori though.

My old friend Ramaz and me in the new CARE offices in Ambrolauri

Freshly painted bld. in Ambrolauri

Another freshly painted apartment building

Newly painted apt. bld. in Ambrolauri

New police station in Ambrolauri

New sidewalks being built in Ambrolauri

backside of new hotel in Ambrolauri

Tearing up the old to lay a new town square

New street and a glimpse of a freshly painted bld. in Ambrolauri

This new church is being built in Ambrolauri in the yard of where the old prayer house was. The original church in Ambrolauri was destroyed by the communists.