August Blogging

I like to check my blog writing figures monthly. For August I wrote 60 blogs. That comes in at 1.94/day average, just below my stretch goal of 2/day. It's up from my "slow" July when I only averaged 1.65 but below my average of 2.1 last year and 2.14 the first half of this year. So, even though I picked up the pace in August from July, I'm down from my pace over the medium term.

What drives my writing? As I've noted before, a big part of it is travel. In August nearly half my blogs were about travel: either the experience of travel itself ("Planes, Trains, and Automobiles") or the things I did where I went. My amount of travel was modest, though. In August I had two quick weekend (or shorter) leisure trips and a few quick (1-2 day) business trips.

Another thing that drives my writing is free time. I felt like I had a lot less spare time in August as things are heating up at work. That's mostly a good thing. I hate feeling like I don't have enough to do at work.

What's the outlook for September? Well, I've got a lot more travel on tap— including an extended Labor Day weekend trip we've leaving for after work today— so that will help drive increased activity. And I'm beginning the month with a bit of a backlog. For example, I still have another blog or two pending from last weekend's quick outdoors trip. Will I have enough spare time to write, though? I'll try to find time— or make time if I have to.

Dinkey Creek Falls (2/2)

It's now six days since we hiked Rancheria Falls and Dinkey Creek Falls (part 1 of 2) and I'm still catching up on it. This trip is in danger of getting lapped; later today we leave on another trip, and I doubt I'll have this one wrapped by then. Anyway, here's the colorful part of what's left, part 2 of 2 on the Dinkey Lakes trail.

When we encountered the first falls on the Dinkey Lakes trail we weren't sure if it was "the" falls our hiking book guided us to. If it was, there were mistakes. We decided to press on as if the book was accurate and merely overlooked the existence of that other falls sitting right there just past the trailhead. We pressed on and were rewarded with another falls.



This Dinkey Creek falls is at least 3x the height of the previous one. It's at the back of a small canyon formed by the rock face it drops over. Curiously the trail skips around it. To find this falls we had to trek cross-country for a few hundred yards. That's where our guidebook proved its worth. This falls is not visible from the trail so there's no way we would have found it without the book... and a fair bit of wilderness route-finding, as the book was less than clear in describing things like "a big striated rock".



Getting to this little grotto below the falls also required some rock-hopping. We had to cross the stream twice— each way. In both areas we found places where rocks to step on were either above the water or just below it so we didn't get more than the outside of our boots wet.

After coming back to the main trail we considered ascending to the first of the lakes on the Dinkey Lakes loop. Hawk's back was already bothering her from the bouncy 4x4 drive to the trailhead, and the stretching on the slippery water crossings made it worse. Oh, and the mosquitos were pretty thick up here at nearly 9.000' elevation. We decided to pack it up for the day and head home— which would also be a smart decision as it would get us home at a reasonable hour of the evening instead of dragging home achy and sleepy late at night.

Off to Spokane. 4th Trip in 6 Days!

North Cascades Travelog #1
38,000' feet over California - Fri, 1 Sep 2023, 8:30pm.

Tonight Hawk and I are flying to Spokane, Washington. We've taken Tuesday off from work for a 4 day Labor Day weekend holiday. We'll spend Saturday visiting Palouse Falls then the rest of the trip at North Cascades National Park further west in Washington.

Tonight's flight make for a very busy week of travel for me. Considering we only got back from our waterfalls trip on Saturday night— and I haven't even finished blogging about that trip yet!— this is now my 4th trip in the space of 6 days. In between these Saturday and Friday leisure trips I flew to Phoenix for a day trip then drove to San Francisco for a two day trade show. Four trips in 6 days!