Gonna Go Round In Circles

For the first time since Omi died, I was in Freelard last night at Chris and Judy's for Noah and Kate's baby shower. Aging is always the most apparent seeing all the friends of Chris 

Worn to embarrass the younger child.
and Judy I have known for 35 years. My age, or a little older, it's hard to deny thearch of time. Abby drove, she insists on driving my car whenever we go anywhere, and hell, I don't care. (Right now she is driving us up to a hiking trail for what I expect will continue to be a weekly event until she returns to school.) I am shown in the shirt I wore without announcement or fanfare to Abby, because I am still trying to do a little dad torture here and there. She made no comment. Still, I must claim mission accomplished.


Columbine, Iron Goat Trail, 5/2026.
Last Sunday we were in the  Central Cascades at Iron Goat Trail--built along the old Great Northern Railroad. For a near-geezer with a defective knee, it was largely perfect for me--thanks to Abby carefully picking it. I could reduce this post to a photologue of the hike--who's gonna stop me? It was so beautiful in both its seemingly schizophrenic permanence and impermanence. Great abandoned tunnels, 30+ foot concrete walls, neither of which today serve any real purpose except to accentuate the beauty and fragility of life on earth. 

The hike also causes the hiker to confront our racist antecedents and environmental disregard in the making of the railroad on stolen land and the use of white straw bosses, black citizens, Italian, Filipino and Japanese migrants to build the robber Baron


James J Hill's empire. The Asian workers were, one might think, likely barred by anti-immigrant laws--laws written exclusively targeting non-white citizens. Nope. Because we had conquered the Phillipines, they could legally work in the country as US citizens which explains so much to me (like the birth and existence of the Filipino Cannery Workers Union that from the early 20th century peoples the Alaska Canneries). The Japanese were brought in by Hill to break strikes in Oregon and used to build the railroad after he deemed Greeks and Italian workers not up to snuff. The fine print explanation is he brought them in to break the unions and pay them terrible wages. After a particularly terrible railroad disaster in the Central Cascades, a coroner's inquest determined among other things that the disaster was caused by 3 things, among those were terrible working conditions and pay. Not surprised was I to learn they didn't bother to keep careful records of the workers killed. Historians agree am that the 34 deaths reported building the line through the Central Cascades is a very low estimate, understanding that record keeping was spotty at best and that the coroners tended to record deaths caused by ridiculously dangerous working conditions as natural if at all.

Anyway. My morning is about to become an afternoon and I hope we find parking for this late start hike. My love hate relationship with the GLP-1

Watch Geoff Disappear. 

continues.l, btw. I see 2 docs this week, a heart doc and my GP. Fingers crossed. I haven't dropped below 150 this week, which I view as a blessing, despite being told my ideal weight is 142--a low I haven't seen in nigh on 40 years.

3:11 p.m.
8 miles done. Hoypus Point at Deception Pass. We saw no other people on the trail after
Pleated Inkcap, they live a day or 2
after a rain, then are gone.
Deception Pass, 5.31.2026.
passing a guy about a mile deep  We managed to get lost--the state trail map not great--but Abby is simply the best at finding the way. 

The emptiness of the trail was  a great contrast to last week at Iron Goat Trail, where we had to pace ourselves to have anything like splendid isolation. 

The old growth interspersed through the woods are magnificent and made me think of the Grove of the Patriarchs at Mt Rainier, albeit
not even close to the jaw dropping beauty of that place, still plenty of majesty.

It was green in the forest today, but drying up quickly. Puddles that once held water had only mud the consistency and moisture level of playdoh was largely what remained. No streams, no puddles with water. It's going to be a dry summer.



5:13 p.m.


I love the woods here in the PNW. I wish my knees did too. 


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