Sleeveless In Seattle

Without a doubt, the best time to visit Seattle is summertime -- when temperatures can actually climb into the 80s, allowing for a nice walk along Alki Beach in West Seattle (above) in short sleeves. So for the third year in a row, Rebecca and I hit the road on July 17 so that she could compete in the Seattle Masters Track Meet.

Our annual sojourn to the Emerald City provides us with the opportunity to see family and friends; on this trip, we spent time with Rebecca’s brother Doug, who lives in White Center, and our friend Kelly Tjaden, who pursues the idyllic lifestyle of a Nor’Wester version of Jimmy Buffett aboard his sailboat moored at the Edmonds Marina.

Normally on these trips, we lunch at The Athenian in the Pike Place Market, where a scene from Sleepless In Seattle featuring Tom Hanks and Rob Reiner was shot. But this time, we had our golden retriever, Moxie, so we missed our usual appointment for a seafood lunch. Fortunately, Sleepless In Seattle was playing on cable in our room.

Instead, we spent time with Doug in White Center, and polished off a bottle of port with Kelly at his base on board his sailboat Noshiban (below). Rebecca competed well in the 200-meter (above) and 400-meter races at the meet. Afterward, we celebrated with dinner at Stanford’s near our hotel adjacent to Northgate Mall.

Tidbits Mountain

Inspired by a recent article by local author William Sullivan in the outdoors section of The (Eugene) Register-Guard, longtime trail partner and former EWEB colleague Steve Still and I decided to hike the route to this little-known mountain near the hamlet of Blue River in the upper McKenzie River Valley on Wednesday, July 9.

The trail traverses through an old growth Douglas fir forest with giant trees -- some of which are six feet in diameter -- which provided a shady canopy on what would be another scorcher of a day. Wild rhododendrons, gentians and trilliums led to patches of beargrass with spectacular flowers resembling a Fourth of July mortar burst (below).

The trail features cliffs with interesting pinnacles -- the digit-like “tidbits” that give the mountain its name -- and a rockslide near the summit with cheeping pikas known as “rock rabbits.” At the top, the forest transforms from large firs to diminutive, wind-swept Alaska yellow cedars, with a groundcover of colorful pink penstemon.

The summit, an old lookout site, includes sweeping views of the Cascades from Mt. Hood on the north to Diamond Peak on the south. Despite the 1,300-foot elevation gain from trailhead to the top of Tidbits, the grade is oh-so-gradual, making the hike relatively easy enough that you can bring the kids if you like.

Treehaus Meisters

In retrospect, the process has resembled a science project, and yet it has also been wholly organic. Building a tree house on the eastern slope of the North Cascades has required both left-brain characteristics such as logic, critical thinking and numbers, and right-brain traits such as intuition, creativity and visual imaging.

Good thing we have two heads working on this project: longtime buddy and fellow former wilderness ranger Helmut Vallindaklopf, known in polite society as Kelly Tjaden, and myself. This would mean that -- together -- we can lay claim to having a whole right brain and a whole left brain, or at least portions thereof.

The process began nearly five years ago as we kicked around the notion of building a tree house at the Owl Farm. Following these discussions, we began planning a tree house worthy of the “Tree Whisperer” himself, Pete Nelson of Treehouse Masters, the popular reality television program on Animal Planet on cable.

Kelly enrolled in a workshop at Nelson’s headquarters in Fall City, Washington near Seattle. The workshop included a five-day, interactive course for people interested in learning how to build a tree house from scratch. Participants learn basic concepts leading to the construction of a platform that will support a tree house.

We previously had identified three, 100-foot tall Douglas firs -- all with a 30-inch diameter-at-breast-height, or DBH in Forest Service parlance -- capable of holding a tree house. Following a planning process, construction began on the platform in 2010, followed by refinements to the superstructure in 2011 and 2012.

Then in 2012, Kelly discovered Eagle Log Cabins, a company that manufactures custom built recreational homes. The company uses Siberian pine milled in Lithuania and prefabricated prior to shipment overseas. The boards contain less than nine percent water, making them very light yet sturdy and extremely durable.

After ordering a cabin that would fit nicely on the superstructure, work began in earnest on adding the cabin to the platform this spring, thanks to the hard work and efforts of Kelly and his friend Paul Sharaba. Now, the structure is substantially complete and ready for the pursuit of fun and adventure in the wilderness.

In other words, the Owl’s Nest is officially open for business. Next up: construction of another 8-foot by 20-foot Eagle Log Cabin structure that will serve as cantina, bunkhouse, writing studio and a place to escape the mosquitoes, complimenting the existing well house that features a shower and Swedish sauna. What a hoot!