This is Vinnie. He's an 11 pound Rat Terrier. He's my friend's Dave and Amy's little buddy. Dave and I decided in mid August to have a crack at getting Vinnie to the top of Snoqualmie Mountain. The trail descriptions make it sound more daunting than it really is. It's a steep trail yes- 3100 ft elevation gain in just under two miles, but if you don't mind an ambitious trail through lots of scree, then the view is your reward. It's takes in the entire Alpental Valley, Commonwealth Basin, the I-90 complex, Middlefork of the Snoqualmie, east to Mt Stuart, Glacier and Mt Baker and even my old friend and aforementioned Mt Hinman, The Snowcatcher! I figured that we'd be carrying Vinnie most of the way, or at least turning around halfway up, but this little guy outpaced the hell out of us. And he's fearless of heights to the point that I wondered if he perceived them at all. In short, Vinnie is a badass- and the moisture around his eyes collected dust all day, until he looked like a little raccoon bandido.
Geodetic Survey Marker on top of Snoqualmie Mountain. These always put me in mind of George Hayduke, the Ed Abbey character from the Monkey Wrench Gang, who measured distances driven in his old Jeep by six packs of beer, always had a trail of torn out geophones clanking behind him and absolutely could not abide leaving a survey marker in the ground when he found one. Personally the map geek in me kind of appreciates them, though they do serve as a reminder that the ground you trod is well trod indeed, generally wherever you are in the lower 48.
Descending back down Snoqualmie. That's the prominence of Guye Peak in the foreground and Alpental to the right. I-90 snakes east-west in the middle ground and Mt Rainier sits cloud topped in the background while the Norse Creek fire burns away to the east. I counted six notable wildfires burning across the horizon this day, with the Jolly Mountain fire appearing the largest. August and September used to be the months of summer glory here in the PNW, but they now seem tinged with the copper apocalyptic light and acrid eye burning smoke of forest fires that burn until the first heavy rains of Fall.