Harvest Century (100 miles)

Yesterday, I rode 100 miles on my bike in the Harvest Century Ride with my son-in-law and a few of his friends.  OK, his friends were ahead and at 81 miles, I suggested he go ahead with them and I’d finish by myself.  It is good for me to have to do things on my own.  One of them actually had a flat and they were still eating at the finish when I arrived.

Taking off out of Hillsboro.

Several of the stops have potatoes as well as other snacks and drinks.

The Canby Ferry.

Ta Da!!!   My second Century!!!

Yosemite Backpack

Kevin and I flew to Fresno and spent time with his family before and after a four night, 67.7 miles, 12,097′ elevation gain backpack from Glacier Point.  We did the Red Pass Peak Loop with a side trip to Emeric Lake on this year’s long backpack adventure.

Lots of rocks on the trail.

Coming off Red Peak Pass at 11,000+ feet is when the thunder/snow began.  We got low and set up the tent to escape it.  This was such a beautiful area of the trail with all the red rock.

This was the coldest night.  Everything was frozen in the morning and breakfast in the dark was a cold affair.

Lots of rock switchbacks.

The burn area from two years ago.

Why do we find shoes on the trail?  What would a person wear on these rocks to leave their boots behind?

This was our only dangerous part.  We went off trail and cut across this granite.  The water was very shallow, but so, so slippery that we used any crack to wedge our feet.

 

Glacier Point Finish!

 

 

Quilt Display at Local Library

Westside Quilters Guild has a vibrant display of quilts at the Main Library in Hillsboro. Three of mine are hanging along with some I quilted. 

Labor Day Weekend

Saturday started with a minimal crew of applesauce makers who managed to squeek out 39 gallons of sauce for our annual St. Matthew Fall Festival mid October.

We filled 13 Tillamook buckets with sauce this year.  In years past, we’ve filled close to 24.

Sunday, we backpacked up the Kiwanas Trail to Paradise Park.  It was a cold and windy night.

Once at camp, Kevin and I divide and conquer.  I start dinner and he sets up the tent.  Being windy, he used his fast 1/2 mile running skills to retrieve the tent that unstaked and started flying right to the Zig Zag canyon. As it lifted from the ground, he started after it and it seemed to be going faster and faster as he went faster and faster. They both disappeared over the far hill and after a while, I saw him coming back with the tent still billowing out with air.

One of his night shots.

Notice the rocks holding down the tent in this morning shot.

“Jingle Dress”

Westside Modern Quilt Club hosts a yearly challenge and tonight’s the big reveal.  I’m working on a customer quilt, so I couldn’t go.  OK, I’ve never gone to the reveal.  Janet has always brought my quilt.

This year, the challenge is “Tribal Winds” and will debut at the Northwest Quilting Expo Sept 22 – 24.

My inspiration was the Jingle Dress Dance which is used for healing ceremonies and in competitions.  Jingles are typically made from the lids of snuff cans rolled into bell shapes and hundreds are sewn close with colorful ribbons in zig zags or straight lines.  The closeness of the jingles creates a tinkling sound as the dancer is in time with the drum.

 Jingle Dress Dancer Candace McCabe (Navajo)

Here is my quilt, pretty close to the 32″ x 44″ requirement.  In reality, it’s 31.5″ x 42″, but I’m not the only one off on the measurement.

For the back, my friend Elizabeth gave me fabric which matched perfect.

Close up of the quilting.

 

Mt. Hood Again

Kevin and I backpacked to Yocum Ridge on the west side of Mt. Hood.  We saw two bucks Sunday night.  Monday morning, a helicopter came up the canyon flying extremely low ~~ enough that it was blowing the trees with its rotor wash. We were thinking that it was doing a search and rescue when we saw a white movement on the ground. It was a mountain goat. We watched it for quite a while as it moved along the scree.  Turns out the ODFW had the copter tracking goats on Hood.  The goat is in top left corner and it’s pretty big deal that we got to see it.

Our view of Hood.

The Milky Way (photo creds to Kevin).

The Upper Sandy Guard Station.

This is what we have to cross on the Sandy.  Since I am pretty much terrified of heights, Kevin took my backpack across and I slowly crept along.

Oregon State Fair

What a surprise at the Oregon State Fair!  Barbara had posted a photo on Instagram of her division and first place win.  I was SO happy for her.  It turns out that several other guild members entered quilts and took awards.  My friend, Carole, and I worked the 6 – 10pm shift in the quilting area last night.

Here is my “7733” quilt that also took a ribbon.

Last weekend, Kevin and I backpacked in the Badger Creek Wilderness.  We could see ten volcanos from our little perch.

Alaska Roadtrip with Moody Weather

Charles and I headed to Alaska last Sunday with our Milepost in hand.  We had mostly cloudy/rainy days, but it was beautiful and he is a great traveling companion.  2700 miles with 2 moose, 5 bears, marmots, swans, life sized rabbits, goats and one dead squirrel (from the rear view mirror).

Traveling with a quilter and moving to Alaska means there are quilts to use under your sleeping pads.

Twin Falls hike in Canada.

One lane bridge on the highway.

Typical potty.

This is a better part of the road on the best weather day of our trip.

The Alaska Highway has tons of names made from stones along the side.

The Sternwheeler that was available to tour in Whitehorse.

A typical sourse of water at campgrounds.

Charles now lives 19 minutes (11 miles) from Exit Glacier in the Kenai Fjords National Park. We hiked 8 miles on an incredibly drizzly day with little visibility.

This waterwheel is on the Seward Highway.

We just about got blown off this rock with the wind.

Our morning coffee routine.  I pretty much have the hang of his little cat can alcohol stove.

We hung out in Anchorage on Saturday and this is the start line for the Iditarod.

His new digs…

Timberline Trail Around Mt. Hood

Charles and I again hiked the Timberline Trail counter clockwise around Mt. Hood ending with 46 miles and 11,000′ of elevation gain.  The night before we left, I was at a PMQG meeting and Violet shared her “Elevated Abstraction” quilt.  I asked if I could take it with me and she agreed.

Friday at noon leaving Timberline Lodge.

Charles fooling around like he’s looking for a Pokemon.

Hiking through Mt. Hood Meadows.

This is looking over past the Clark.  There is a very faint trail just above the bottom trees on the scree that we would follow.

And here is the trail.

Our last river crossing of the day was the Newton and it was the roughest I’ve ever seen it.

Gnarl Ridge, our spot for the night.

Saturday morning, we made our way across several snow fields.

Charles is fooling around again.

We swung over to Cloud Cap just because it’s a great place.

This is the area that causes the most angst.  There is loose scree to climb down, then the Eliott is a rough crossing, then there is a rope to get up the other side followed by some scrambling.

Here is Charles on the rope.

A burn area.

This is a fellow we crossed both the Eliott and The Mighty Coe with.  He is from Pittsburg Pa.

Bear Grass is my absoute favorite!

Dollar Lake fire area.

The Ladd was our last crossing for Saturday.

Party with Violet’s quilt.

Carin Basin shelter.  The stone work is just beautiful.

A nicer “party” shot.

 

There were fields of flowers in this area all sorted like, Bear Grass here, Indian Paintbrush over here, Lilies over there.

We swung by Ramona Falls.

Leaving the falls, I ran into Carie who is a fellow quilter.  Right there, we had a quilt show.  After, she told me about hiking the entire Oregon section of the PCT two years ago.  You can read about it here.

After a long slug out of the Sandy, we arrived at Paradise Park along with the bugs.  Kevin and Andrew met us for the night and then hiked out this morning with us.

Here is one of Kevin’s Milky Way shots.

His Lost Creek shot.

This is just before hitting the Lodge and end of our hike.

Timberline Lodge.

Thank you, Violet, for trusting me with your quilt.  It weighs 15 oz. and it was definately a great addition to the trail!

 

Lavender Quilt Heading to Germany

My sister and her children are heading to Germany and asked me to make a quilt for a relative.  Last PMQG Sew Day at Fabric Depot I spotted a quilt on their wall with a pattern nearby titled, Block Party, by Stacey Day that looked fast and would be perfect.

Frannie sent purples so I added more similar fabrics and chose a Cotton & Steel off white for the background.  Thank you, Teresa, for your help.

The quilt finishes at 50″ x 62″ and is quilted with a pantograph, “Wave on Wave” by Urban Elementz.