Can't help laughing

Can you?

Pleasing music

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Gananayakam

I have always found Mandolin Srinivas's rendition of Muthuswamy dikshitar's compositions (Mahaganapathim, Kamalambal Bhajare, etc) particularly delightful. U srinivas is ofcourse an accomplished player of the modified mandolin, but a lot is left to be said about the creative genius, the composer.

Hiking up Squak mountain, Issaquah alps

I was looking for some elevation and narrowed down on Cougar, Squak and Tiger mountains, the three mountains which are very close to the city of Issaquah on the outskirts of seattle.
I finally picked Squak mountain, since it is supposed to(although I didn't find the viewpoint!!) give a good view of Mount Rainier from the top and has an elevation of 2000ft plus it's also easily accessible by bike. So here's how I went about the trip:
1) Take a bus (M 271) from university district to Issaquah (This takes around an hour).
2) Bike 5 kms to the Squak Mountain Trail head on the mountain driveway, 700ft above sea level(This took me around 30 mins)

3) Start hike at the Mountain driveway trail head. Hike 3 miles to the top of Squak mountain (2050ft)

The hike took around 1.5 hrs. But since I had some more time to kill, I went around other exploring other nearby trails.
I started at 1:30 pm and was back by 8:30 pm (thanks to missing a bus and waiting for another 45 mins).
The trip was really enjoyable in that I was right in the middle of an evergreen/deciduous forest with ferns and firs. There wasn't any view from the summit, since it is surrounded by tall trees. After coming back, I checked a map, and the view point is further down and not marked, that explains why people don't get to the view point.


Pics/Slide show


Sample video (How this works)


P.S.
This hike has definitely been an eye opener into hiking in the middle of the forest. At first, I was a little scared of venturing into the trail, but then mustering some courage I went back. Meeting a few people along the way helped, and after a while I was comfortable being alone in the middle of a dense forest!

For my future trips, I have many options. Tiger mountain is next door to Squak mountain, and from what I have read, it has three peaks!! Then there is Mount Si, North-east of Tiger mountain. Mount Si,which gives good views of Mount rainier and other nearby mountains, is supposed to be the most climbed mountain in Washington and some claim in US too. Looking to the North, there is Mt. Pilchuck. This month is going to be fun if I can get a few more hikes.

To get to know the sheer number of mountains in Washington, look at this page. Seattle in summer with cool temperatures (June, July) is indeed a heaven for hiking.


Links
1) Squak mountain good info
2) Squak trail description
3) Squak on Seattlepi
4) Photos

Tiger mountain resource

I have pooled up some links from the web on hikes to Tiger mountain from different trailheads including the poo-poo-point trail. I will update this page when I find a new link.

Poo poo point hike:
http://www.niffgurd.com/mark/hikes/2004/june/12th/content.html
http://washingtonhikes.com/2004/poopoopoint/index2.html
http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/getaways/122399/hike23.html
http://www.kuresman.com/2004/Trip_Reports/PooPoo_321_Loop/Report_PooPoo_321_Loop.html

http://www.washingtonhikes.com/2004/poopoopoint/

West tiger hike:
http://www.eskimo.com/~pinyon/bushike/Hike32-1.html
http://www.eskimo.com/~pinyon/bushike/Hike33-1.htm
http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/getaways/021397/hike13.html


East tiger hike:
http://www.geocities.com/Yosemite/Gorge/4424/Winter00/LunarEclipseEastTiger.htm

South tiger hike:
http://www.wnps.org/cps/walks/nov_walk3.html

2 hr ride

I usually get the emails from the UW cricket group as a digest. So, when I got an email about cricket practice at 6:30 pm today, I got ready to go. When I reached the place, I saw that no one was there. After waiting for 10 minutes, I realised the reason for their absence: the digest email was from the previous day!! So much for cricket.

Now I didn't want to go back home, so I decided to do a 2 hr ride to nowhere. 1hr up and 1hr down. The route was simple, go up along 15th avenue for an hour and come back the same way. I took a liter of water (I only consumed half-litre) and a few bananas. The road progressively became worse and to add to that there were these hills.. I would rather call them monsters.
Coming back I stopped at an Indian store and got a few things. Just when everything seemed fine, a climb with a steep grade (200ft climb in 300 metres) almost knocked me out (I started cramping on my heels). Anyway, this hill training is good for me since, if I plan on going anywhere near mount rainier, I better ride on some tough hills.

Stats:
Going - 15kms - 1hr
Coming - 15kms - 1hr 2 mins.
Total time on bike - 1hr 45 mins
Average speed - 15kmph
Net average speed - 17kmph

Biking to Marymoor Park, Redmond

So I was getting all worked up that I haven't ridden in a while. Hence I took off at 5 pm yesterday on a 72 km (45 miles) roundtrip to Marymoor Park located at Redmond, and close to I believe Microsoft. This trip had the combined charm of Burke-Gilman trail(lots of trees and greenery) and the Sammamish river valley trail (lots of open spaces and fields).


Food and fluids
I carried along with me two litres of water, two biscuit packets, a few bananas and one snickers pack. As I found out, the water was just sufficient and the food was more than sufficient. I consumed water every 15 minutes and that kept me well hydrated.



















A few canadian geese grazing near the sammamish lake





































The Sammamish trail has quite a few trail facilities which include restrooms and drinking water



















The trail sticks close to the river and makes the ride delectable
















































































Para sailing from the ground??

















The guy finally managed a small lift but not quite

















On the way back the roosters were going great guns



Stats:

Going:
1) 0 - 20 kms - 0:00:00 - 0:50:00
2) 20 - 36 kms - 0:55:00 - 1:50:00

Coming back:
1) 0 - 16 kms - 2:20:00 - 3:05:00
2) 16 - 36 kms - 3:10:00 - 4:10:00

Total trip time: 4:15:00
Time on bike: 3:30:00
Average speed: 17kmph
Net Average speed: 20 kmph
Max speed: 35 kmph