Lesson learned/Empire Builder

The weather turned really nice my last couple days in Seattle, so I took the opportunity to go for a walk in the Cascades. I rented a car, and drove an hour east of town to do a little hike up Granite Mountain. It was only 8 miles round trip, but included a pretty decent elevation gain - almost 4000 feet. So when I got near my exit off I-90 (I remembered it was exit 45 or 47 or something), I reached in the back seat for the map. At exactly that moment I realized I was incredibly stupid. I had left my backpack with the map and my long sleeve shirt and my sunscreen and all my food and water at the car rental shop an hour away. So I called them and said "hey don't let anybody steal my stuff please" and decided to just go on the walk. I mean, its only 4 miles uphill, and the rest is downhill. Should be no big deal. I knew from El Cap that I could function pretty decently when super-thirsty, so I gave it a shot. I tried to go fast because I didn't want to get a sunburn either. I didn't even get that thirsty, mostly because there was some snow at the top that I chomped on, and because some guy named Steve carried food and water to the top for me. I mean, he didn't know it was for me when he carried it, but in the end that's what it amounted to. I might not ever bring my own food and water on a hike again. Lesson learned. Anyway, I ran back on down the trail and moseyed back to Seattle.

1. Most of the way up Granite Mountain, looking south at the flanks of Rainier.

2. The lookout at the top of Granite Mountain, with Rainier partially masked in the distance.

3. Me happy that I found a patch of snow, staving off dehydration for a few more minutes.

I caught the train yesterday afternoon - the Empire Builder - for my 48 hour run to Chicago. I think thats a pretty good name for a train, sounds tough as hell. The train goes right past Puget Sound, with beautiful views of Mt. Baker and the coast there. Now we're just rolling into Glacier National Park, and the scenery is satisfying in an idyllic rural-America kind of way. I met some nice folks on the train, although their political affiliations seem to be about as far away from mine as you can get. It's interesting to hear what they are thinking about, but sometimes hard to keep a straight face. I just try to be friendly and non-confrontational and mostly keep my mouth shut. My neighbor just pegged me as someone that would appreciate "The Great Global Warming Swindle." I'm from Berkeley for pete's sake. Leave me be.

1. Puget Sound just north of Seattle, with Mt. Baker off in the distance. The top of Mt. Baker is 30 miles from Canadia.

2. Looking east toward Glacier National Park. This part of the trip was gorgeous, big rivers and forests and mountains.

If you want to check out a great folkish album with a little country bent to it, go get Lyle Lovett's "Pontiac". I've been listening to the album non-stop the last couple days, and highly recommend it for audio consumption.

Guess thats about it for now. I enjoyed Seattle, especially getting back in touch with my old friends, and am excited about getting to Chicago (only 32 hours left!). Alright I'm gonna pretend to watch this movie so the guy doesn't shoot me, and maybe he will stop offering me Slim Jim's if I have headphones on...