Steve Cole | Steve Cole Photography

Auroras are trademarks of the high latitudes such as Alaska, Norway, and Canada. It is much rarer to see them at the lower latitudes of places like Seattle. After a tremendous solar burst last week, that’s exactly what was forecasted for the weekend. Sometime in the early 2000s, I saw some aurora activity from the front yard of my house in Everett and it was mesmerizing. I desperately wanted to capture the auroras above some of our fine northwest scenery.

There have been some near misses in terms of seeing auroras over the last couple years and that gave me some time to figure out where to go. Over time, I finally found my “spot” in the Baker Lake vicinity of Mount Baker. My location looked to have a great view of both Mount Shuksan and Mount Baker and was fairly accessible. Predictably, the weather slowly degraded as Saturday arrived. Clouds would be bad enough but persistent afternoon thunderstorms in the mountains really threatened to ruin any chance we had.

As the afternoon went on, the storm activity seemed to tail off and so we gave it a go. Surprisingly, the Forest Service roads were bone dry; the thunderstorms never dropped their payload in this area. Despite some concerns about having to hike on snow to our destination, everything ended up being snow free. Even better, the site I had researched turned out to be great. Mount Baker remained cloaked behind thick clouds but Mount Shuksan had a horizontal slit across its mid flanks. I think the struggling optimists inside of us hoped that the pockets of blue sky were the beginnings of a clear night sky.

Below us, the Baker Lake valley was filling with clouds and gradually creeping up the valley sides. Sunset drew closer and closer bringing color to the various clouds across the sky. As daylight continued to fade, so did our hopes for clear skies in this area. After sunset, the clouds finally swallowed us whole. It was still early enough to come up with a Plan B. It was tough but some reports of clear skies back down in Snohomish County lured us back closer to home. The Mount Pilchuck trail head was our Plan B and two hours of driving later, we were there.

Clear skies were directly overhead but clouds filled the northern skies. no auroras were visible to the naked eye. Or were they?…..While taking some night shots, my peripheral vision seemed to catch a shimmer in the sky. Clouds were still thick so I wasn’t sure what I saw. On one of my shots, there was a small green orb. The auroras! Sadly, that would be all that we would see. It was now pushing 2am; we now accepted the bitterness of defeat and drove home. Hopefully soon, the skies will cooperate and we will capture the auroras. One of these days…

Sunday Sunset

Jul 10

I spent Friday and Saturday night’s out with my girlfriend chasing sunset in the Cascades. In both cases, the sunset’s came up short and meekly went away. It should come as NO surprise that Sunday evening, while sitting at the computer working on something, my girlfriend came up to me and asked, “Steve, do you have your camera? Come quick!..”

Sure enough, I get to the back porch to see an enormous radii of god rays and layers upon layers of puffy clouds. Ah yes- the sunset I wanted came a day late. Monroe gets some fantastic sunset light but (honestly) doesn’t have much going for it for foreground compositions. The best thing I could do was walk over to the ball fields behind Frank Wagner Elementary and maximize the sky in my photos. Enjoy!..

East Side 2012

Jul 08

Last weekend I returned to the East Side trail in Mount Rainier National Park. I’ve described the trail in a previous blog post so I’ll just add a few comments about this year’s visit. We had braced for rainy weather but managed to avoid it for most of the day. There might be some sort of rain shadow effect for the Chinook Creek valley (roughly anything south of Chinook Pass and east of the mountain) because we experienced some moments of sun and blue sky while the White River valley to the north of us had constant rain. The rain finally reached us on our hike out when we were only 2 miles from the trail head.

Both of my visits occurred in the month of June but the water levels were higher this time around. I think my future visits will be in September so that we can enjoy lesser flows instead of walls of white water. Despite the low elevation of 2800 feet, the north end of the East Side trail still had a few stubborn patches of isolated snow. Granted, they weren’t anything to be concerned about but it was the last day of June!

We took a break in the area of the Chinook Cascades and were visited by a Dipper. I expected it to fly away by the time I wrestled my camera and zoom lens out of my backpack but it cooperated and stayed a while. I tried taking some photos of the white water crashing in the background while the bird chirped away. From there, we stopped at Stafford Falls since I wasn’t very happy with the results from my first visit. The water levels were too much so I abandoned my plans to enter the water for some different perspectives (I had brought my chest waders).

The other goal I had on this trip was to photograph Ohanepecosh Falls from below at water level. There isn’t a trail so it would take some investigating to figure out a possible way down. I was happy to discover a fairly easy way down that wasn’t very dangerous. Again, the higher water levels somewhat diminished what was possible since the downspray from the falls were far reaching. We experienced our first drops of rain while at the falls which was a bit odd because there were patches of blue skies and a clear view of Shriner’s Peak across the valley from us.

All in all, it wasn’t the most “productive” outings but it is one of the more solitary hikes you can enjoy in Mount Rainier National Park. We only crossed paths with a couple on our way out and that was it. Big old growth, crystal clear streams, and lush green forest – what more could you ask for?

Snoqualmie, I Hardly Know Thee

Jun 19

I don’t like crowds when I’m outdoors so making the decision to visit someplace notorious for crowds is crazy for me. The I-90 corridor up to Snoqualmie Pass is the place where ALLLLL of Seattle decides to go to when they want to go for a hike. That explains why I’ve only done one hike in the 13 years that I’ve lived in Washington. So what would lure me back? Franklin Falls.

I’ve been searching for locations to match an idea I have and Franklin Falls fit the bill. Franklin Falls is accessed by the ever popular Denny Creek trailhead and it is EXTREMELY popular. It’s only a mile from the trailhead to the falls but it turns out that you can also get there much quicker via a side trail off of a switchback of Forest Service Rd 58. Crazy simple!

Anyways, Saturday was a cloudy day with showers coming so it was a perfect day to make a first visit. Lots of Trillium were in bloom in the area and there were still pockets of snow despite a modest elevation of 2700 feet. Spring melt is underway and the falls were quite full. The spray from the falls filled the amphitheater and quite a ways downstream as well. Much like my experiences at Tamanawas Falls on Mount Hood, I had to constantly dry my lens of water drops before every photo. I was only taking some test photos so we only spent about a half hour at the falls. Almost on cue, the horde of visitors began!

Within 10 minutes, 15 people appeared so it was time to go. We continued up Road 58 towards the pass to visit another unnamed waterfall near Alpental. It’s similar to one located at the Deception Falls picnic area. Here, though, the South Fork Snoqualmie River drops and crashes into a rock wall and then spins 180 degrees before continuing downstream. It’s tough to shoot becase some of the I-90 structural elements can sneak into your frame.

Next up was a 0.25 mile stretch of the river downstream of this waterfall. It’s a little ways down and away from the road but we had some glimpses that piqued our interest. There was a little more snow in the trees here so we had to be careful about collapsing undercut snowbanks. As it turned out, this stretch of river has several really interesting features. Despite being so close to the westbound lanes of I-90 (literally below them), you couldn’t hear the traffic. The looming rain finally made its appearance and that signaled that it was time to move on again.

The last location in this part of the valley I wanted to check out was the Ashael Curtis Nature Trail. It’s your typical short loop trail through a forest with some old growth-esque sized trees (but still held much evidence of prior logging including springboard notches on a stump). I don’t know the history of this particular nature trail but it does appear as though it has been hammered by storms. There’s lots of windfall debris all over the place which made things a little too difficult to come up with good compositions. The large trees are still worth visiting, though!

To finish off the day, we headed west back towards North Bend and took Exit 38 to go check out Weeks Falls in Olallie State Park. The falls are wedged between a dam upstream and a hydroelectric spillway on the downstream end. I imagine that the falls were probably more aesthetic before humans made “improvements.” The advection fog which we observed forming over the South Fork Snoqualmie River in the Denny Creek area was now making its appearance at the top of Weeks Falls.

Compositions are tough here so I focused on more intimate scenes. After a little while, full fledged rain began and it was time to call it a day. It was only a recon outing but I’m definitely excited about what I found. I’ll have more to share from this area in the future.

Lewis River Drainage 2012

Jun 13

To put the cap on my trip to Oregon, I once again made the side trip to the Lewis River drainage on my way back home. If you recall my post from a year ago, my first visit to this area came with sunny skies. Forecasts for my return visit this year was showers so I was sure to have better conditions for waterfall and stream photography. My first stop was Curly Creek. I’ve been unsatisfied with my standard photo of the falls from its public viewpoint and I know there’s a way down to the base of the falls. My goal was to try and reach it.

My first thought was to hike alongside the margin of the Lewis River from a spot about 0.5 miles upstream. After some consideration on site, I decided to double back to a campground located along Curly Creek and attempt to parallel the hike to its base. Some waypaths existed around the campground and provided a start. There was a nice waterfall located next to the campground that I decided to photograph. The sun appeared just as I set up my gear; so much for those showers!

There was one bonus that came with the sun- a low mist has hanging over the creek, upstream of the waterfall and it was now backlit thanks to the sunlight. After taking my share of photos, I packed up since I still had a ways to travel to reach the falls. The waypath I used would appear and disappear but the travel wasn’t as ornery as it could be (no devil’s club!). That’s not to say it was easy- I sweated a ton but did make it to the rim of the Lewis River. The final distance was the toughest and the sketchiest. I was so close- but I didn’t feel confident that I could descend safely. The only course of action was to turn back. After all, the waterfall will still be there!

Regrouped and refreshed back at my truck, I headed further up valley to the Lewis River waterfalls (which I never visited last year). On the way to the Lower Lewis Falls trailhead, I spied a few roadside attractions which I made mental notes of; I would try and visit them on my way back to I-5. Lower Lewis Falls is the largest of the three waterfalls on the Lewis River and the easiest to view. After parking, the viewpoint for the falls are a mere 100 yards away atop the high cliff. I didn’t stay long since the views are limited..

My last stop up valley was the Middle Lewis Falls trailhead. The waterfall isn’t very far (only a 0.5 mile hike upstream), and unlike Lower Lewis Falls, you can get fairly up close to Middle Lewis Falls. The river drops 33 feet and crashes into a broad piece of bedrock literally right next to the trail. It’s quite a powerful scene, especially in springtime when the river level is high. Those high river levels made the waterfall a solid wall of whitewater. Before calling it a day, I made a few stops at some locations that caught my eye while driving in. It was a nice end to a trip that had a rocky start!

Winds of Change at Mount Hood

Jun 11

It was three hours until sunset and this is how things were shaping up. What to do? After finishing up my hike to Ramona Falls, this was my dilemma. Although the mountain was fairly socked in, you can see that there is a tall lenticular cloud structure building up behind it. I decided that, when sunset did come, the lenticular cloud was probably going to be highlight. Clearly from this vantage point, I wasn’t going to see much; i needed to move but where? On the first day of my trip, I drove the entire length of Lolo Pass Road to the actual pass and this gave me the knowledge of where I could photograph the mountain, and what to expect. From this simple action, I now knew that I should head to the last viewpoint nearest the pass. It situated me in a more northerly position instead of the northwesterly position that the photo above was taken at. As I drove to my destination, I passed another photographer who had staked his claim not far from where I was previously. I had to smile because I knew that my destination was going to be better suited for what was to come. Boy was I right! The next hour until sunrise was a photographing frenzy. I kept alternating shots between my Sigma 17-70mm lens and my Pentax DA 55-300. The colors from sunset definitely not the best I’ve ever seen but the cloud movement and dynamics certainly were. The wind currents kept changing the view in front of me, almost like shaking an Etch-A-Sketch. True to my hunch, the tall lenticular cloud behind Mount Hood acted like a magnet for any of the colors of sunset. Minute by minute, there was always something to photograph. Like many sunsets, this one just faded away without fanfare. I honestly didn’t expect much of a sunset but I was dead wrong. I’m just glad that I had done a little bit of homework to put me in the best possible position to take advantage of it!

Up, Down, and Around Mount Hood

Jun 10

During my recent trip down to Mount Hood and the Columbia River Gorge, I actually spent more time around Mount Hood than down along the Gorge. Here’s a compilation of photos from several of my Mount Hood related outings-

Tom Dick Harry Mountain Sunset
I climbed to the top of the mountain in hopes of a sunset at the end of the first day of my trip. I got a late start from the Mirror Lake trailhead but made good time up to the lake. Beyond the lake, I tried keeping the brisk pace but it was wearing me down. The trail was patchy snow for the first half but that snow was sitting on the trail like a huge humps. Just below the 6′ tall rock cairn, the trail was completely snow covered and the slog was on. More than once I thought about abandoning my effort but I kept at it. I ended up topping out about 20-25 minutes before sunset. There was no sunset to be had on Mount Hood but Mount Jefferson to the south was receiving some nice light and had a nice lenticular cloud on its lee side. I stayed until sunset was officially over and then headed down as quickly and safely as I could.

Ramona Falls
My first visit to this waterfall. This area of Mount Hood fascinates me because it seems like it is located in a rain shadow. The trees are a little more spaced with more pine. I arrived at the falls in the afternoon so I had a mix of sun and shade across the falls. To counter this (and to get the silky water effect), I used my 0.6 Graduated Neutral Density Filter. It still requires some extra Photoshop processing to come up with something presentable but it is possible. Abstracts like the ones shown here are probably the primary compositions but I did like my composition with the stump in the foreground and the falls in the background. Again, tricky lighting but still doable!

Highway 26 Corridor
This year’s trip was a little later than my previous trips and one of the benefits of this was seeing some Pacific Rhododendron in bloom. These photos are from a stretch of Highway 26 just east of the town of Rhododendron. It was late in the afternoon so I even had a little bit of dappled sunlight through the forest.

Old Salmon River Trail
This trail is described as having the most accessible old growth forest in Oregon. Located just a few quick minutes off of Highway 26 near Welches, the trail runs along the Salmon River for several miles and frankly surpassed any expectations I had. My visit was about 90 minutes before sunset and it was a huge mistake! Next year, I’ll devote an entire day to exploring the Salmon River. The forest is so lush and diverse that there’s a lot to take in and observe. Until then, enjoy these photos..

Columbia Gorge 2012

Jun 08

Mid to late May is the time for my annual trip south to the Columbia River Gorge and Mount Hood area. It’s usually a jam packed few days so this year I’m going to group some like minded outings together. This year my Gorge visits were limited to Oneonta Gorge and Elowah / Upper McChord Falls, both of which were first visits for me. I was very fortunate to have both locations all to myself!

…and on a much rainier day, here are some photos from the Elowah Falls area-

Delorme inReach Review

Jun 03

I think photographers are a solitary breed; perhaps it’s a conscious decision. There have been a few times when I’ve been out with someone taking photos and then wondered if my friend was getting bored while I did my thing. I don’t venture out solo as much as I have in the past but it’s not THAT uncommon for me to still do it. Solitude is a great experience but what if…..what if I fall and can’t continue? What if I’m just running later than I had intended? Will my girlfriend get so concerned that she contacts the authorities and initiates a search & rescue operation?..

These are questions that have been more and more on my mind. Granted, I haven’t really had any close calls but that’s no reason to be unprepared. Cell phones are very spotty in the mountains and just can’t be relied upon. In the last few years, a company named Spot LLC developed the Spot Satellite GPS Messenger, which is a satellite messaging and emergency communicator. Utilizing the Globalstar satellite network, it allows you to send predefined or custom messages (depending on the model) from just about anywhere in the world. If you find yourself in a situation that requires emergency assistance, the unit sends a message to the GEOS International Emergency Response Center and they will notify the appropriate emergency responders.

The SPOT device has been a huge success and their latest advancement was the SPOT Connect, a Bluetooth enabled device that, when paired with your smartphone, allows you to send custom messages to your predefined contacts. I was really thinking hard about this unit but I have read stories of users having problems pairing the device with iPhones (with I own) as well as the lack of any clear indicator that messages were sent successfully.

About six weeks ago, I stumbled across a new device called the Delorme inReach. Functionally, it works exactly like the SPOT Connect but on the Iridium Satellite network (a different network). It also has one major difference- the inReach device has the ability to send *AND* receive messages. If that wasn’t good enough, the physical unit still has the ability to function even if your smartphone dies. I knew that this was the unit I was looking for. There was just one problem- it only worked with Android smartphones or Delorme’s PN-60w GPS unit!

Three weeks after discovering the inReach, I read a rumor that the device had received FCC clearance for use with iOS devices and about 10 days after that, Delorme released a version that was compatible with iOS devices. I immediately ordered one when I heard this and had it in my hand a few days later. After a few outings with it (including a 4-day trip), I thought I’d pass along my initial impressions about the unit and its use.

You can learn more about its capabilities on Delorme’s website but, in a nutshell, here’s what you can do with the inReach device-

Send 3 (user) predefined messages via the physical unit or custom messages (up to 160 characters) using the iOS app connected via Bluetooth to designated contacts.
Post a status update to Facebook and/or Twitter
Send a distress call to the GEOS International Emergency Response Center
Share your location and progress to others via a web map called a Map Share

The inReach device for use with Smartphones retails for $250 but the app for the Smartphone (named Earthmate) is free. In addition to the initial cost of the device, a monthly subscription is required to use the device. Delorme offers several different tiered plans depending primarily on the number of monthly messages included. The full details are on their website but I decided on the middle tier plan which runs $25/month and includes 40 messages/month.

The first step towards activation is creating a new account online and this was pretty straightforward. After selecting a data plan, designating an emergency contact, and providing the serial number of your inReach device, you’re basically up and running. Through your online account, you also add “contacts” that are available for use when you’re out and about. I initially found this confusing since your phone’s address book is available when crafting a custom message in the Earthmate app. Here’s the difference- the three predefined messages (these are messages that are sent by pressing a specific physical button on the device) can ONLY be sent to contacts you have added to your account’s address book.

After setting up my account, I sent my girlfriend one of the predefined messages and within 2 minutes, her cell phone received the message. Successful on the first try- not bad! Bluetooth pairing with my iPhone 4S was a breeze (and continued to be with all future use as well). The next thing I wanted to test was the tracking (or breadcrumb) feature. I pressed the tracking button on the device (this can be turned on via the app as well) and then took a drive. I placed the inReach device on the dash of my car pressed up against the windshield and that seemed sufficient to log and report back my position at the interval I had selected (10 minutes).

Although the unit has been designed to operate without a smartphone, you’re going to want to use the smartphone app. Prior to developing the inReach product, Delorme was well known for its map atlas products. Thankfully, Delorme has decided to include 125k scale topographic maps available for download within the Earthmate App. The map tiles available for download include hydrography, contours, roads, cities, and hiking trails. I found this to be a great, unpublicized value.

I spent one more morning doing a test run with the device in my vehicle before putting it through its paces on my four-day trip down to Oregon’s Mount Hood and Columbia River Gorge area. During my trip, I used the device with tracking enabled for roughly 15 hours each day while I either hiked trails or drove from trailhead to trailhead. Most of my hikes were located under a forest canopy and the inReach device worked extremely well. The unit has an indicator light that indicates when it is busy sending/receiving messages. Oneonta Gorge (photo at the top of this post) along the Columbia River Gorge was the only location I visited where the inReach unit failed to transmit a location due to the terrain. Oneonta Gorge is a very narrow, slot canyon with a limited field of view so this isn’t that much of a surprise to me.

The device is primarily a communications tool but I really found the basemaps helpful enough to monitor my progress along the trail. In a perfect world, the basemaps would be of a better resolution (1:24k ideally) but there was enough information to locate myself, even without a paper map backup. Seeing as how Delorme is a U.S. company, I don’t know how well this would translate outside of the U.S. and Canada. The inReach device uses its own internal GPS for positional fixes (as of this writing the Android version uses the smart phone’s GPS unit. It will fall inline with iOS use after the June 2012 firmware update). Thankfully, the engineers at Delorme designed things so that other apps on your iOS device can utilize the GPS information from the inReach unit. So- although you can’t set a track and navigate to waypoints directly using Delorme’s setup, you CAN do this in a third party app like Gaia GPS. On my hike out from Ramona Falls, I set a new track using that app to record the last part of my hike. Once it’s recorded, you can export your track out as a GPX file or KML file like I’ve shown below.

LIKES-

Fairly reliable signal across varied terrain (forest, open areas, etc)
Easy to use
Good, free basemaps are included with the purchase (download via internet connection)
Visual indicators of what the unit is doing (current modes, messaging status, etc)
Can be used independently of your smart phone should it become inoperable
Long battery life (longer life coming in June 2012 via firmware update)
Map Share can be password protected
Can post to Twitter and Facebook, if desired
Predefined messages (messages sent using the unit’s physical buttons) do not count against your monthly message quota
Notifications of low battery strength on device and through the Earthmate app

DISLIKES-

Subscription Plans are a bit pricey ($9/25/50 a month)
No direct way to know how many of your monthly messages have been used
Difficult (perhaps not possible at all) to cancel sending a predefined message
Map downloads through Earthmate app is S-L-O-W
No way to delete old tracking information in your account; you can only “hide” it using a date range option
Map Share page doesn’t display well on mobile devices
Icons on the Map Share aren’t customizable and are a little confusing since they are too similar; I’d prefer the ability to use different colors to indicate different types of events/messages
Map Share URL isn’t very user friendly to share (alpha-numeric combination path)
No Ability to customize what information does or doesn’t appear in a tracking point callout

Battery life is estimated at 60 hours using the 10 minute interval of tracking using Lithium Ion batteries. I don’t know exactly how many hours of use I had with my first pair of batteries but I believe it was in the neighborhood of 40+ hours. The upcoming firmware update in June 2012 will increase the estimated battery life up to 120 hours.

So there ya have it- the inReach device is a pretty solid device, worthy of the praise it has received from sources such as Backpacker Magazine. The positives are really positive and I believe the negatives can (and will) be worked out in the future. DeLorme has set up a discussion forum for the inReach and it even includes a suggestion forum where users can suggest new features or changes. My limited time spent there and on their blog has shown me that they do care and are receptive to feedback that their users provide. Case in point- the original inReach was only compatible with Android devices due to differences in Bluetooth protocols. Some folks who bought the unit just before the iOS compatibility announcement were dismayed that they couldn’t also use it with iOS devices. Delorme has agreed to upgrade their devices for a $50 fee. Sounds reasonable to me and a good move on their part! If there’s something I haven’t addressed here, leave a comment and I’ll try to answer!

[DISCLAIMER: I was not compensated in any way by Delorme or any other company/organization to write this review. The unit I tested was the unit I purchased for my own use]

Leavenworth Wildflowers

May 22

May is a month for wildflowers over on the east side of the mountains. In the foothills beyond to the town of Leavenworth, the canyons can come alive with large blooms of balsamroot and lupine. Conditions aren’t as forgiving over there since the weather warms up and stays warm longer so timing can be crucial. Mid-May seems to be about the time of “peak” blooms; I wanted to make a visit around that time but had to delay it until this past weekend. This lowered my expectations but there were still other areas I haven’t yet checked out. What I ended up finding were good patches of flowers in the area around the Leavenworth Ski Hill. There still was enough evidence to indicate that peak bloom was probably a week ago (around the middle point of May). Beyond the town of Leavenworth, wildflower conditions fall off more quickly. I visited the Eagle Creek valley northeast of town and found some nice pockets of lupine and balsamroot near the end of the paved portion of the road. Further east towards Dryden, I traveled up Ollala Canyon and found conditions to be pretty burnt out (if there was a wildflower season at all). South off of Highway 97, Camas Creek Meadow was devoid of any flowers. The only area outside of Leavenworth that was pretty nice was along Mountain Home Road (which connects Leavenworth to Highway 97 in a roundabout manner).

On my way back home, I re-entered the grey and rainy environment of the west side of the Cascades. Just west of Skykomish, the South Fork Skykomish River had a slight fog bank lingering above the surface and it was too good to pass up. I stopped in the vicinity of the Money Creek Campground to take a few more shots..