2Heeldrive - Walk it off Wimp!

SR 14 at Dog Mountain Closure Schedule will affect trail access. The Dog Mountain Trailhead is at Milepost 53. The highway will be closed just east of the parking lot to White Salmon (Milepost 53.8 to 63.6). Expect eastbound traffic backups to stretch west, past the parking lot.
March 1 – June 14, 2010
SR 14 will be closed from 4 p.m. to 6 p.m., five days a week.
June 15 – September 2
Between 7 a.m. and 6 p.m., seven days a week, SR 14 will be closed for two hour durations and reopened for an hour in-between.
• Before 7 a.m. – Open to traffic
• 7 a.m. to 9 a.m. – CLOSED
• 9 a.m. to 10 a.m. – Open to traffic
• 10 a.m. to 12 p.m. – CLOSED
• 12 p.m. to 1 p.m. – Open to traffic
• 1 p.m. to 3 p.m. – CLOSED
• 3 p.m to 4 p.m. – Open to traffic
• 4 p.m. to 6 p.m. – CLOSED
• After 6 p.m. – Open to single lane traffic
Drivers can also expect daytime single lane closures with up to 20 minute delays throughout the spring and summer.

WSDOT Link for more information

Just a teaser,

here are some of the photos my brother took on a recent trip to Yosemite. For more, visit http://www.eyehike.com and look in the Gallery.

Enjoy!

Half Dome Sunset Silouette

Fern Spring Falls

Valley View Sunset

By Sandi Doughton
Seattle Times science reporter

Several climbers, including John Race and Olivia Cussen, have reported seeing a U.S. Geological Survey marker atop Mount Rainier in recent weeks.

The U.S. Geological Survey marker now on the summit originally was installed in 1956 on Rainier’s crater rim.

Climber's find a new suprise atop Mt. Rainier

Wow, where did you come from?

Is global warming shrinking Mount Rainier?

A survey marker atop the Northwest’s tallest peak sure makes it look that way.

Protruding from the summit with nearly 2 feet of pipe high and dry, the marker appears to have melted out of the ice cap that covers the mountain’s highest point.

But records from the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) tell a different story.

The marker was never buried beneath the ice — and wasn’t installed on the summit in the first place, said surveyor Larry Signani, who led teams that remeasured the mountain’s height in 1988 and 1999.

“It looks like the original,” he said after examining photos of the marker. “But it didn’t melt out of the ice.”

The marker was installed by the USGS in 1956 on bare ground on Rainier’s crater rim, more than 200 feet from the actual summit. The rocky rim is almost always snow-free, swept bare by wind and warmed by steam that rises from the volcano’s depths.

“We’re not going to put a survey marker in snow or ice,” said cartographer Dale Benson, of the USGS Denver office.

Original story can be found here

Chinook and Cayuse passes have closed for the season after the state Department of Transportation reviewed a snowy forecast and assessed the avalanche risk.

Due to heavy snow accumulation on the roadway, DOT crews temporarily closed Chinook Pass just after 7:30 a.m. on Saturday. Crews assessed the stability of the hillside on Sunday morning, and determined the avalanche risk is too great to allow traffic to safely cross Chinook Pass and Cayuse Pass.

Since Friday, Chinook Pass has received more than three feet of snow. More snow is forecast.

The Highway 410 Chinook Pass closure points are at Morse Creek (five miles east of the summit) and at Crystal Mountain Boulevard (eight miles northwest of the summit). Access to the Crystal Mountain Ski Resort from Highway 410 remains open.

DOT and the Mount Rainier National Park staff agreed to close Highway 123 (Cayuse Pass) for the season. The highway is closed within Mount Rainier National Park from the 4,675-foot Cayuse Pass summit at the junction of Highways 410 and 123 to Steven Canyon Road. DOT closes each pass for the winter due to high avalanche risk and hazardous driving conditions.

PRESBYTERIAN:
When you rearrange the letters:
BEST IN PRAYER

ASTRONOMER:
When you rearrange the letters:
MOON STARER

DESPERATION:
When you rearrange the letters:
A ROPE ENDS IT

THE EYES:
When you rearrange the letters:
THEY SEE

GEORGE BUSH:
When you rearrange the letters:
HE BUGS GORE

THE MORSE CODE:
When you rearrange the letters:
HERE COME DOTS

DORMITORY:
When you rearrange the letters:
DIRTY ROOM

SLOT MACHINES:
When you rearrange the letters:
CASH LOST IN ME

ANIMOSITY:
When you rearrange the letters:
IS NO AMITY

ELECTION RESULTS:
When you rearrange the letters:
LIES – LET’S RECOUNT

SNOOZE ALARMS:
When you rearrange the letters:
ALAS! NO MORE Z ‘S

A DECIMAL POINT:
When you rearrange the letters:
I’M A DOT IN PLACE

THE EARTHQUAKES:
When you rearrange the letters:
THAT QUEER SHAKE

ELEVEN PLUS TWO:
When you rearrange the letters:
TWELVE PLUS ONE

AND FOR THE GRAND FINALE:

MOTHER-IN-LAW:
When you rearrange the letters:
WOMAN HITLER