When I first heard of The StickPic, I sent Avagdu a tweet about it, thinking that he might find it useful for the video that he shoots. Rodney Java, the inventor of the StickPic, saw this and offered to send me a free one for my trekking poles. I readily accepted, singing the praise of Web 2.0.
I do not understand why so many outdoor-gear manufacturers insist on making gear in bright, unnatural colors. To me, it is a form of visual pollution. To be enjoying oneself in the wild and suddenly come upon a hiker in a bright red shirt, or a noisy yellow tent, is a rude shock. It seems to me an attempt to visually isolate humans from the non-human environment — something that we are exceedingly fond of, based on some flawed Abrahamic notion of everything non-human having been created for the entertainment of humans.
Earth-tones should be the order of the day. Here is a photo of my camp, taken from only a couple hundred feet away. It is exposed, out in the open. No attempt was made to camouflage it. Can you spot it? (Large version)
With such a simple setup — a brown tarp and a green pack — I can blend with the environment, not disturbing the other occupants of the area, human or otherwise.
You and I are part of that world — the world — and should not seek to create barriers or erect boundaries between us and it. Do not noisily advertise your presence, disturbing those who may be around you. Embrace the world, sink into it and wrap it around you. It’s not such a bad place.
I first heard of the hike to Marmot Pass through a report at the Washington Trails Association, which claimed that it was possible to see Seattle’s Fourth of July fireworks from the pass. I had been back from a week in the Wenaha-Tucannon Wilderness of the Umatilla National Forest for only a few days, but having had a shower, a shave, and done some laundry, I was ready to head back out again. I planned to go there on Saturday, when the rest of the country would be eating hot dogs and preparing to blow stuff up in celebration of the violent overthrow of a government (being too fat, no doubt, for a more fitting remembrance, such as staring a local militia movement.)
Assuming that the traffic would be poor and the ferry to the peninsula jammed because of the holiday, I awoke early and hit the road as the sun came up. As it turned out, there was almost no traffic and I only had a 5 or 10 minute wait for the ferry.
The ferry ride from Edmonds to Kingston on the Puyallup is a short, 25 minute cruise. I entertained myself by taking pictures from the bow as the mountains appeared.
