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themoderndana · 1 year

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Washington Day 2

On Friday, we got a bit of a late start - I did some work in the morning and some reading. By the time we rolled our bikes downtown, it was after noon. We had a very ambitious agenda, but detoured to check out a chunk of the Berlin Wall, which is in a confusing complex named after Woodrow Wilson and a number of other presidents.

I have seen the Berlin Wall in person before, but never as it was on the day the wall came down. This piece is right next to the security checkpoint which appears at the entrance to all federal buildings in DC. Stan was born in Soviet Ukraine and spent the first few years of life there, so the fall of the Berlin Wall has a little more significance to him than just an interesting historical event.

From there, we went to the old postal service building, which has been converted into a sumptuous Waldorf Astoria. It used to be Trump International but no one wanted to stay at it, and ownership finally transferred just this summer.

(Photo from an article about the hotel, where you can see its lounge and one of the rooms.) Today the National Park Service controls only the bell tower, which was our destination. There are three park rangers on staff: one on the ground floor, and one at the top of each of the elevators you have to take to the top.

In between the two elevators, is the platform where ten red, white, and blue bell ropes hang. It was explained that a quarter peal takes a half hour, a half peal takes an hour and a full peal takes three to six hours (or something like that). Bell ringers must be able to stand and go without food or water for the duration of the event. If they get dragged up to the ceiling by the rope, the other bellringers have to drag them back down. I'm not saying I would want that to happen if I were a volunteer, but that would be some story!

Here is some more information about English change-ringing bells - which is the distinct style of bell ringing practiced in the old post office tower - from the society in charge of ringing these bells.

View of the Capitol building from the belltower. The disappointing thing about the view was that it was interrupted every 1.5" by these wires that prevent people from falling out of the tower. So I didn't get many good pictures and we didn't stay long.

On the ride up in the elevator, we were joined by a dorky professor with a backpack who seemed to be playing hooky from a conference. While chatting about how we would get back down from the top (same elevator down?) Stan joked that we would actually be required to climb down, and the professor laughed. He made a crack about rappelling down and maybe that was a highlight of his trip. More banter ensured, each of us imagining our small group performing parkour off the bell tower.

Later Stan explained that what he tries to do is not just amuse people, but to have them imagine themselves in another possible life.

After the Bell Tower, we took a trip to the Smithsonian Museum of Natural History! Science and curio!

Very large geode

Above, the wetlands display. This is what I was kind of expecting from a Natural History Museum. This is the way they used to make them. Catalogues of taxidermy with little to no explanation whatsoever.

The Smithsonian has progressed from a mere inventory of the natural world, pinned to a display case under glass, to containing loads of information about the world the animal lived in. More pictures will follow in a subsequent post from when I returned to the museum to snap more photos to remember more.

Here is a website about the Hope Diamond, which also appears at the museum. Apparently it is cursed. Even the mailman, who delivered the Hope to the museum, suffered an early and painful death!

Smithsonian Castle, below.

One thing I did not expect about DC is that is a very different climate with different flowers, trees and plants. I was expecting like the same variety as here, except "more fall colours". There are lots of gardens with everything they can grow on display. Bear in mind it was already the first week of October and there were still plenty of flowers out on display.

We walked through the Castle gardens on the way to the National Museum of the American Indian.

The States have a history of violent oppression, treaty breaking and wholesale land thievery just like Canada. They found all kinds of ways to be cruel and discriminatory and it's amazing that there are any Indians left today. The history of land dispossession took many forms; one was the Indian Removal Act passed fifty years after the American Revolution. Like in Canada, many Indian people in the states live in poverty while the lands they were forced off of provide wealth to the dispossessor.

The Eisenhower memorial was striking and it was one of my favourites. It is laid out in a long rectangular plaza and covers the man's life from boyhood to WWII; here is a small part of it:

To be a monument in Washington, there are 3 requirements:

Marble

Meaningful quotes in somber capitals

A place you can visit, observe, walk through

Just some very expensive public art that makes the city a better place to be.

The Museums all close at 530PM, and after that we rode home on Stan's bicycles. That evening Stan made us dinner (sausages and cauliflower roasted in the over and dosed with a healthy portion of salty spice mix. chef's kiss!) and afterwards we were supposed to go to a party for Ukrainians. I put my foot down and said I was going to stay in, too tired to have fun with the Ukrainians even if it was in Obama's neighbourhood and there could be passed canapes. Stan unexpectedly chose not to go out and we spent a really fun evening hanging out. I drank the best beer of my LIFE (a sour brown ale with an owl on the label) and listened to songs Stan would play if he were DJing in a dark bar in East Berlin where depressed people go to dance, if they must, whatever. We also heard some tunes from some local DC bands that were really great. It was an awesome night in and I ended up staying up much later than expected.

That was Friday!

Dana

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themoderndana · 2 years

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Washington DC

This week I spent six wonderful days in the seat of the empire, Washington DC. I wish to share some highlights here before I go back to "real" life and they are forgotten.

I arrived last Thursday morning after a night spent in Toronto Pearson, curled up on a leather loveseat, trying to sleep. Actually this was the most awesome option as most people where slumped over in chairs, curled up on the floor or on air vents. The leather couches were hidden behind some partitions. I got about two and a half hours of shuteye before 4AM local time when I decided to face airport security and get to my gate for my 715AM flight. It took grim resolve, but I got through, got Starbucks and sat at the obnoxiously overstimulating gate for an hour before my flight (it's all restaurant seating with iPads at every station, and top 40 playing loudly.) After the small amount of sleep it was all I could do to show up on time without blowing up at the inanity of airport rules etc.

I took the above picture after de-planing to applause (a bunch of veterans or astronauts were behind me) and a children's choir to welcome the vets (or astronauts). Then I walked through the impossibly small airport to the fresh air and sunshine outdoors. I was feeling excited and overwhelmed on the verge of tears (this happens often of late): I was really in another country and really getting ready for the vacation I was really looking forward to. Shortly thereafter, Stan's banana yellow Acura pulled up, I got in and we drove away.

Last time I saw my friend Stan was probably in 2014 when he visited before I started my last year of law school. We met through campus radio - I think when I went to U of C the first time in 2008-2010 - and have been friends for around 12 or 14 years. In fact, I knew Stan when CJSW was still in the basement at Mac Hall, and that's a long time ago. There is no one like him, which may be why we have remained friends so long. This trip was my last chance to see him in DC before he moves to Michigan, MN, a city of 2500 people with a Pomme de Terre Park which is a fancy way of saying "Potato Park."

Stan at tacos on Sunday.

The first day in DC was a day on bikes. We rode through Howard University, got blackberries for lunch at a grocery store from a clerk named Ms. Wanda, visited Malcolm X Park (where that man delivered a speech after MLK was shot), got two flat tires, (which Stan rode home to fix while I wandered around and napped in the park) but made it downtown and managed to visit the White House and laugh about what would happen to a streaker on the WH lawn (immediate takedown, potentially by the president's own dog).

The picture isn't great but you get the idea.

After the White House lawn, we also stopped to see the Washington Monument, which has 50 flags around it for the 50 states, and changes colour halfway up due to a change in the source of the stone during the Civil War. Stan did a touristy yoga pose.

We also saw the Second World War monument which was very affecting and again almost elicited tears from me. Stan saw it as a monument to victory and I saw it as one to lives lost. I think both are right. It's very well designed with a giant column for each theatre of war (Pacific/Atlantic), and a giant fountain ringed by 50+ columns for all the states and colonies that participated for the USA.

Each column has a wreath on it and the name of the state in capital letters. That's what made me teary! There are quotes inscribed in marble all over the place and one funny one about how women's contributions to the war effort equally (making it sound like they did a lot better than expected from a bunch of... women.) We also saw the Lincoln Memorial. The memorials here are grandiose to say the least.

You would recognize the Lincoln Memorial probably from spy shows or movies (above and below).

Below half of the National Mall is visible, including the Reflecting Pool (full of ducks), all the way to the Washington Monument. On the other side it extends to the Capitol.

There is no shortage of marble and impressive buildings in this city. It's just not enough to put any organization in a boring old administrative building. Here is the Organization of American States, with a statue of Queen Isabella who sent Columbus to the Americas, out front. Controversial choice nowadays.

That evening, we grabbed Peruvian food on the way home and it was awesome. I managed to stay up until 11 then dropped into bed for a 10 hour sleep. Remarkably long day for a 4AM wakeup!

Thursday October 6th.

Dana

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themoderndana · 7 years

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Here is bigger reproduction of below pano of Ptarmigan, Jericho and Myosotis and Zigadana.

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themoderndana · 7 years

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Skoki: Not as Stinky as it Sounds

Hey you guys,

Matt had to work July Long Weekend so I did my first trip ever where it was all up to Yours Truly to carry the food AND the tent, figure out how to mix the chemicals that make water safe to drink, and above all keep myself company.

Being alone on the trail makes me feel quite untethered; joyful but with nowhere to express the joy; ruminative with no one to interrupt oneself to; concerned but with no one other than oneself to really deal with whatever is coming.

Above you see the view behind me; looking back down the trail at the ever present Mt. Temple.

Below you can see old-ass Skoki Rest Lodge, where tired travellers have broken bread for 85 years while skiing in to Skoki Lodge. The cabin smells old. It has been around since before plastic wrap, tech fabrics, selfies and the Trudeaus.

There are 4 ghosts of skiiers rumoured to roam these parts; they play poker all night and drink rum, which has been around at least since Blackbeard’s time, so there’s one thing that predates the cabin.

Below is the view from the back window of the cabin. Mt. Ptarmigan!!!!

Fast forwarding a bit. By the time I hit the cabin I had hiked aroun 7 or 8km. I took a side trip to a place called Hidden Lake, which is tucked in below Mt. Ptarmigan, above. You hike up up up to the bowl before the mountain and there were still chuncks of ice floating on the lake. I love hiking up to mountain lakes because it’s fun to follow the stream to the source and see the hyrdological path from start to well, somewhere along the line (the finish must be the Bow River? which flows through Calgary. What a journey for little drops of water!)

Anyway I cam back down from Hidden Lake and started up Boulder Pass to the valley before Deception Pass (so named because it looks like you are not getting anywhere?)

I took a yoga- and snack-break and was feeling quite pleased with myself until 15 minutes into the trail when i realised I left my phone on the trail after snapping the first pictures of the trip. Three days in the woods with no way to document it?? No way Jose!!!

I ran back down the trail, learned a perfectly nice couple had picked it up and sent it down the trail with a big slow moving family, and kept running. I found them at rest in the cabin and then I resumed my journey. It took like 45 minutes out of the day and the trall was noticeably busier after my detours.

Ok so once you get over Boulder Pass (so named for some craggy boulders that landed there, by the looks of them, last week, but probably 10,000 years ago) you are treated to this totally savage and wild valley that appears to stretch on forever. Two big lakes are whumped right in the middle of it. You hike up Deception Pass, past a nice tourist family who is resting en route to Skoki Lodge (very fancy but you MUST get there on your own steam) and here is the panorameathat awaits you on the way down:

Left, Ptarmigan Peak, right, Wall of Jericho. As you will recall the lake called Hidden is on the other side of Ptarmigan.

The Lakes tucked in between Ptarmigan and Wall of Jericho are called Myosotis and Zygadenus, but for the purposes of this blog I shall call them Zygadana. I’m not sure if you can tell but it is so beautiful and impressive I almost cried.

Those are larches all over the place, I would definitely barf if I went in larch season.

Above is the view from the creek whence I drew water on the way down into Skoki Valley due to my parched condition.

Behold below Merlin Meadows, where I camped the first night!

I went to bed at 8:30 after a dehydrated meal (it turned orange in my Nalgene and looked radioactive but I’m positive it was just ramen.)

So the next day I got up bright and early and did a side trip to Merlin Lake, because i looooove a good lake in a cirque. Below is the clever sculpture denoting the fork in the road between the path to Packer’s Pass and Merlin Lake.

You hike up up up through the woods until the trail flattens out on the side of the Wall of Jericho. You then traverse the scree below the wall, sun shining on you always, water trickling past occasionally, the vast Merlin Valley below you. Marmots lick salt off rocks and do not give a crap you are there at all. At the back of the valley there is a headwall you must scramble up or the day’s over. Over the lip of the headwall (surprisingly not too bad getting up there) you are treated to this very lively and utterly human free place where the lake is slowly filling up with glacier melt and draining into the valley at the same time.

Here’s the rocky view form the top of the headwall:

Here’s the meadow where the lake is.

Ok so after a magical morning at Merlin Lake I descended, packed up my tent, and boogied on down the trail to my next campsite. However there was a ton of evidence of recent avalanche activity. This winter there were some bonkers weekends for avalanches. In particular on March 18 the entire Rockies were level 5, very unstable, don’t even fart out there avalanche danger. Not only were normal exposure places experiencing very unpredictable and unstable conditions, they were draining with bigger runout paths and slides in previously rare or unseen paths were triggered as well.

You can tell it has been a while when mature trees are torn down by the sliding snow, as below:

This is just one lil example. The entire creek between Fossil and Skoki mountains, which you cross in between to get to campsites on the other side, was rife with evidence of recent slides. I climbed over some precarious timber stacked on top of each other and got a bootful of water in like a new river bed created where the snow was melting.

I took a detour to Red Deer Lakes campsite and went looking for the lake. I got tired and gave up before I found it but the campsite was lovely. Here’s Oyster Mountain and a cool old sign for cowboys directing me back to Baker Lake:

Below is the valley en route to Baker Lake from Red Deer Lakes. To my right is Fossil Mountain, between me and my campsite from the first night at Merlin meadows. Before me is Heart Mountain and Crooked Mountain and some other neat stuff.

Ok so here’s Baker Lake, with a pool behind it, where it is, like all lakes, draining into a valley.

Rushing waterfall behind the lake.

Again I tried to go to bed as early as possible. For some reason I was feeling impatient and wanted to get the heck out of there though I had a nice soak up to my knees in the lake and met a couple from San Francisco who let me use their water filter and ask about their travels.

The next morning I departed good and early as is my wont, and here is the valley on the way out: