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Decided on which one is my favorite kayak–Ikkuma by Seda. Tried it a couple of years ago at NWOC, it was love at first sight. Very sleek, pretty fast, good balance of stability and maneuverability. The hull is pretty narrow so it gives you a body-hugging feeling. Flipping the paddle was never more fun in this one.

Didn’t touch it for another year or two. Last week there was one sunny day with full fall foliage along the river/lake/lock banks. So I stopped by NWOC and they gave me (from a large pile) this one again! The itching sensation returned the moment I slided in.

A new one costs $3500. Yuk. Still it is rare for me to devote to just one thing without any reservation …  I guess I should write this done just to commend myself.

It was a clear autumn day. The hike was more difficult than I thought: almost out of breath near the top.

The day started pretty windy near North Bend. Trees were blown like stretched bows. Falling leaves flying all over the place.

The road to the trail head is as difficult as last time. The hike was uneventful. The colors were surprisingly vibrant consider we are almost in Nov. now. This is the next best foliage place (after Granite Mnt nearby) along I-90.

It took an hour fifteen minutes to get from North Bend to the trail head. 2:10 from trail head to the top and 1:45 to get down. Forgot to bring boots so did it in casual sneakers. Not a good idea …

Took many pictures but didn’t have the Nikon with me. Still, walking among the colors, looking over the cascades, bathing in the sun and listening to Chopin and Liszt … felt like dancing.

Today is my day.

Had a pretty good climb yesterday over the hill behind Chateau Ste Michelle winery. The best performance ever since I had the Specialized. Temperature was about 72F, little wind, 4pm.

1. Demographics, social stratification, mobility study
TItle: Was There a REvolution? Kinship and Ineqaulity of the Very Long Term in Laio Ning
By Cameron Campbell (UCLA), James Lee (Michigan)
Based on Liaoning dataset, studied social stratification patterns in late Qing and post Reform contemporary. On going study (from a flyer in 2008, a coloquium missed), tentative conclusion.

Highlights:
Father-son attainment correlation
Kinship/descendent group vs. village
Education as a factor
Unique dataset!
China appeared to be a less aristocratic society then contemporary Europe/America (same authors 2003)

Also mentioned studies: Deng/Treiman (1997), Zhou, Moen and Tuma (1998), Cheng and Dai (1995)

2. Hiking: Bare Mountain
a. Long, arduous drive to trail head: poor road signs, unpaved gravel road full of potholes: need a high clearance vehicle!
b. Eye opening views:
The road largely circle around the back of Mt. Si, which has a stunning silver back don’t see from the highway
Clear-cut forests along the way: the road is largely a mix of logging/utility road
See the clear-cut area after coming out of dark forests felt like stambling upon an African Elephant grave–an eery sight indeed! A unmistakeable sense of death, an immense scene of ruin, an empty feeling of powerlessness and, seeing the new trees planted, a sense of renewal.
A beatiful day with a setting sun in a setting summer.
c. Quiet and cozy trail:
Met very few people, two of them met before on the street or on a different trail! Saw David and Lisa–met just last week in between Tuck and Robin Lakes. Their dogs (Buster and Sunny) gave them away. Both parties were flabbergasted. OMGs echoed all over the valley.
Dense foliage, should be fun during autumn.
d. Conclusion: feels like an newly made friend or an unexpected culinary discovery!

3. NYT article on low ROBC capital
Main Bank of China Is in Need of Capital
A poorly organized article that is undeserving NYT credential. Took me a while to figure out what it says:
PBOC forces commercial banks to turn in their forex reserves and used them to buy treasury and mortgage backed bonds.
As the MBB tanked, the return on those bonds probably wasn’t enough to meet PBOC’s interest obligation to the commercial banks lending those reserves to begin with.
This inbalance drained PBOC’s capital reserve to very low level.
Instead of printing money, PBOC chose to ask for government transfer/handout to sustain liquidity

Things noteworthy:
Different monetary/exchange philosophies b/w PBOC and MoF. PBOC against weak RMB but MoF favors.
PBOC prefer bonds vs. MoF stocks

Standard & Poor’s estimates China’s (mortgage) holdings at $340 billion

By buying United States bonds, the Chinese government has been investing a large chunk of the country’s savings in assets earning just 3 percent annually in dollars. And those low returns turn into real declines of about 10 percent a year after factoring in inflation and the yuan’s appreciation against the dollar.

The gap between what banks are paying on deposits and the rates they are charging ordinary customers to borrow is several percentage points. This amounts to a transfer of wealth from ordinary Chinese savers to the central bank and on to Americans who are selling their debt to the Chinese.

4. Also remembered an earlier NYT article about how China used its foreign reserve to shore up domestic banks:
$200 Billion to Invest, but in China

Last Sat. we went cherry picking with family and friends in East Wenatchee. It was a long drive in a hot day with a large group (20 some people including babies and grannies). By the time it was over, everyone felt exhausted.

But it was a beautiful drive. We took highway-2, which largely followed river valleys through that part of the Cascades. First it was the Wenatchee River then it the Columbia River. The Wenatchee was at its peak in terms of water volume. As water roars, swirls and jumps down the valley, it feels like a beast in heat. The Columbia is a lot quieter, regally meandering through barren hills and plains like a dark blue ribbon laid around a silky, wheat-colored dress.

I did all the driving on our way back to town. It was about 6 or 7 pm, the sun was setting in the valley. Everyone fell into deep sleep as the car silently gliding along the winding mountain road. It was as if driving in the night but with daylight on. I was with many people yet felt alone. It was surreal.

As I drove in and out of shadows of mountains–the mighty Mt. Index was shrouded in a rich, golden cover of sun light, I suddenly recalled the melody of Debussy’s Danses Sacree et Profane. The soothing and pious theme played by the harp kept coming back as if accomping a procession of priests. The sense of sacredness and mystic was exactly how I felt at that moment.

Hiked to Granite Mountain this past Sat. 10/13. Best fall color ever seen in my 8 years here. Awesome!

1. 9/29: Rachel Lake, exit 63 off I-90. Nice 4-miler with a pretty steep last mile. But since I have done Mailbox Peak already, this one was not intimidating. Went with Jackson School friends. Two guys in excellent shape and I had a hard time keep up with them. But the view was spectacular. It was my first time to see snow and full fall foliage together. I thought I had seen enough so did not bring a camera. Felt like a fool looking at this view.

2. 10/5: Lake Ingalls, exit 85 off I-90. First time ever camping on foot-deep snow. Temperature around freezing in the night. Needed some upgrades for winter camping.

Originally planned to go to the Enchantments with Steve and XiaoJun. However, the weather forecast was inconclusive and the ranger answering our phone calls was pretty determined to talk us out of it. After hours of debate, we decided to cancel the trip.

Song was game to go to a lighter hike to see the larch trees. I knew about Ingalls and had been there a summer before. It was a very good hike. Not all larch trees are peaking at the moment but those did looked awesome in full snow.

Song and I went backpacking to Thorp Lake last weekend. It was a very pleasent trip.

Thorp Lake is about 30 miles pass Snoqualmie Pass, about 12 miles north of Roslyn, WA (direction: take Exit 80 off I-90; Drive pass first Roslyn then Ronald–there is only one road, you can’t get lost even if you want to. Right over the north end of Cle Elum Dam and a FS managed camp ground, turn left on to French Cabin Road and drive 3.3 miles. Then follow the signs to the right about one more mile to trail head).

The trail is pretty mellow and short–perfect for Song who exercised little in Beijing. At the end of three-mile hike is the Thorp Lake. It is a mid-sized lake, pretty shallow for the most part. Saturday was a warm day so we went in for a swim. It was a necessary relief as we faught the bugs all the way from the trail head. It was a losing battle anyway: you wave some away, before you retract your hand, others pour in on to your face like rain drops. However, once we got in the cold, crisp water, all is forgotten.

There was only one other tent that night. Yet we soon learned that was an exception. Apparently, the lake is a popular destination for anglers. In the 1950s, for whatever reason, the government flew airplanes over many of the alpine lakes in the region and dropped rainbow trouts into them. The fish lives on worms and salamanders and can survive the cold winters. Today, those trouts are a major attraction. A local told us that just two weeks ago, he counted 50 people fishing around the lake.

The lake is surrounded by pretty dense forest of firs. I fell in sleep admist the brushing sound as mountain wind blew through the top of the trees. The night was otherwise dead quiet.

Next morning I woke up to a cloudy day. Instead of taking pictures, I decided to finish a couple of books I brought along. I sat on a log on the water’s edge and counted on the warm morning breeze to keep the bugs away. As I looked up, mountain fog danced around rocky cliffs as if coiled by the hands of a performing mime. In front of me, whipped by the breeze, patches of wave jumped and sparkled in the morning light like a school of herring zooming in and away. At that moment, I didn’t know whatelse to ask for–except a cigar maybe?

It seemed that every year since I came to Seattle, I would spend a day or two outdoors around the 19th. Foucault says confined space is a necessary element of discipline. Now I know why I always like outdoors:) Yet the most memorable trip was on Jul 20th, 1989–it is one of those experiences that I know I will take to the grave with.

After Song got up, we hiked up to the fire lookup on a peak to the northwest. We took a short cut and ended up having to scramble half of the way up. But the view is spectacular at the top: surrounded by blue lakes, deep valleys and snow-capped peaks, I felt like standing at the edge of a grand amphitheater.

There was little drama on our way down and our day would have ended nicely already. On a whim, Song suddenly decided to have dinner in Roslyn. Roslyn is such a small town that the so called downtown is no more than a one-block street lined up with faux Western-looking shops selling everything from lumber to pizza. One of the pub/restaurant even has a For Sale sign put up next to its menu.

We walked into a small restuarant called Roslyn Cafe at the end of street–the primal forest seems only blocks away. Little did we know that the owner of the cafe runs a tour management business for rock bands. Among their clients are U2 and Barbra Streisand. It took me a while to register the fact that the plain-looking lady greeted me on her way out had a picture of her sitting on Bono’s lap. Then I looked down at my cell phone–it says “Emergency only”. The food was great too: the special of the day–Linguini in White Clam Sauce was an absolute treat

That is our weekend.

I didn’t summit: I turned around just 1400 feet below the summit because I didn’t think I was able to keep up with the rest of the group.

I have been training hard to go with a group of MBA students to summit Baker and Rainier. It is very disappointing now that I failed. It is even harder to write this entry down.

There can be many excuses. Afterall, Mt. Baker, at 10,800 feet, is not that higher than Camp Muir where I have been to at least four times now. At the point where I turned back, I wasn’t particularly tired. Although I was slow but I was able to recover fairly quickly after short stops. The wind was strong but it was not as much as what I encountered on Mt. Adams, nor was it very cold. I just didn’t feel comfortable and was not sure how my body would react in the wind.

I guess this trip ends my mountaineering attempt: my body just is not built for the cold and wind. It is fortunate that I still have plenty of places to go and I enjoy them just as much. But admitting defeat is never easy whatever mitigating factors there are.

Along I-405, there is only a short stretch of road where you can see both peaks (back and forth). And I happen to drive on that stretch every day.

I just wanted to try riding in the dark the other night. I came off class after 9:30 and rode home first along the Burke-Gilman trail, then on Juanita Drive.

The golden, warm street lights along the trail were spotty and far apart. In between the lights, there was moon light. The scene reminded me of Bejing where I grew up. Once I turned from the campus on to the trail, it was as if entering through a portal to a time and space in the past. It was a heart-pumping kind of wonder.

Yet I doubt I’d do it again any time soon … The foliage is pretty dense now, so there are stretches of road where it was pitch dark–my feeble head lamp wouldn’t do it. And the ass-splitting bumps and pot-holes on the trail … ouch!