Deception Pass, 9 January 2010

Jenny and I joined The Mountaineers and this was our first outing with the group. We picked up our assigned carpool rider and met the group at the Sharpe Park trailhead at 9am. After a brief introduction, we set off towards the bluffs. It looked like it would be another soggy day but before long we were seeing rays of sunlight peeking through the heavy forest canopy. We transited to the second half of our trip, Deception Pass State Park, and by now the sun was fully out. As you can see from the photos, this is an extremely beautiful place, with stunning views of Whidbey Island, The San Juan Islands, Olympic Mountains, and Deception Pass itself. A kayak would be fun here, as there were countless coves to explore.

Photos can be seen HERE.

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Shimano American Corporation "STEC Workshop"

Hey just wanted to share some takeaways from the Shimano-TEC Workshop I attended at the end of March as part of my STEC Forum Moderator participation. This was the 2-day class and took place in Irvine CA at Shimano's North America headquarters. I have added links to images where appropriate. The pics linked directly below are only the technical details. The gallery these pics live in also has a bunch of "look inside Shimano" (warehouse, shipping, etc) and "experience at STEC Workshop" (hospitality, tour, instruction facility) stuff in there that you're welcome to browse by clicking HERE . I don't have the email addresses for the newer guys at ECBS Roanoke but feel free to share with them. Again, LOTS OF IMAGES WITH NOTES HERE . Tool Tips: JIS Screwdrivers . Far superior to Phillips in terms of not slipping/stripping. I know there are a couple in use at the shop but the amount they reduce stripping of screws means we should be ONLY replaci...

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Mount Pilchuck (5,324ft)

After a snowy Saturday spent with The Mountaineers' Alpine Scrambling Field Trip at Stevens Pass, I was looking forward to the true freedom of the hills with none other than Jenny. We pored through the various guidebooks and wta.org listings and narrowed it down to a few options. I wanted something snowy and high and I had been wanting to visit Mount Pilchuck for awhile. The weather forecast was for Partly Cloudy and warm which, in the Pacific Northwest, is as good as it gets in the spring. So Pilchuck it was! Sunday morning got off to a lazy start, which is usually counter to our weekend warrior goals, but with the days being so much longer, I didn't feel the need to hurry so we enjoyed a good balanced breakfast and got everything packed and ready for the day. We planned for wet but warm air and soft-snow conditions at the trailhead transitioning to windy, cold, and potentially icy conditions at the summit. In other words, we w...

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