Adventures of a Discoverer

Raves are something pretty common, that most people have heard about. Basically, it is a whole lot of people in a large venue listening to DJs playing electronic dance music and everybody going crazy. I've been to some myself, a number of years ago. But this week I participated for the first time in a new spin on that: a paddle rave! It's quite an interesting idea. In short, you put the DJs on a boat equipped with some powerful speakers and let everybody know that they should show up at a given date and time... in the middle of a lake. Last Wednesday afternoon, one such paddle rave was organized on Lake Union, right in the middle of Seattle. The preferred way to join was with a standup paddle board (hence why "paddle rave") so that you could dance to the music, but there were a few kayaks as well, including my own, and even some small boats. The location of this paddle rave was the waters close to (but not next to) the Gas Works Park. Apparently these raves are becomi...

A couple of weeks ago I could check out the Cold Creek Loop: it has its name because it is a circular trail. It was a very beautiful hike, even better because of all the flowers blooming at this time of the year, but unfortunately this trail may not exist much longer. Let me tell the whole story. For starters, getting to the trailhead is not easy: after reaching the Snoqualmie Pass you have to go into an unpaved road that is in pretty bad shape. Furthermore, part of it was washed out leaving a trench crossing the road, and as such regular cars cannot get through: you need a truck or SUV with high clearance. On the other hand, that meant that there was no problem finding a place to park by the trailhead. After a short walk you reach a couple of small lakes appropriately named Twin Lakes. By them, there are already some nice views of the water and the mountains. But, as you walk past the lakes you discover that the trail is pretty much gone. The bushes grew over the trail, so I had to pr...