Visiting Joseph in Palo Alto

In late March, John, Mary Jo, and Henry flew down to San Francisco to visit Joseph at Stanford. We stayed at the Sheraton next to the Stanford campus, and remotely worked/went to school on Friday, before going to dinner Friday night and then spent Saturday in the city, walking along the waterfront and going out to Alcatraz for a self-guided audio tour. It was great weather, with clear blue skies and 70-degree temperatures. We wrapped up the day with a nice dinner in Little Italy, and flew home early on Sunday.

Skiing & Snowshoeing at Summit East

John continued to ski at Snoqualmie East, with another drive up in late March with the snowpack still deep. After skiing a few runs, he snowshoed out on the main nordic trail from East, to a spot over Keechelus Lake. Nice trail, though largely for nordic skiing so not as wide for snowshoes. 

A Hike To Make Your Day

On Saturday, March 13, Dad and Henry did the "Dirty Harry Balcony" hike, to a ledge midway up Dirty Harry Peak in the Cascades close to North Bend. 

The first 2.2 miles up were fairly steep, and led to the aforementioned ledge. It was fairly crowded - both the hike and the ledge. We stayed for a bit, and then went off on a spur trail that led to a second ledge, another 0.75 miles along. 

While there was some snow at this point of the season on the initial portion of the trail, the trail between the first and second ledges was entirely snow-covered. Henry used the microspikes that he got for Christmas, Dad used his Yax Trax (because he couldn't find his microspikes) and we both used our hiking poles. We followed footprints in the snow, crossed a few streams, and a snowfield where a few times we sunk in nearly knee-deep into snow. We were the only ones on this part of the trail, and had the second ledge entirely to ourselves. From there we hiked back down (and Henry found a geocache on the way down). Great first hike of the year as we enjoy the shoulder season between Winter and Summer with a mix of activities for both seasons!

Sunny Day at Snoqualmie

On a gray, snowy Sunday, John went up to Summit East and skied for a few hours in the morning. Before leaving, the sun started shining, showing all the snow on the nearby mountains as well as a big rainbow!