Mooney over My Home-Area

Saturday, 11 September 2011; All Over the Place --

With ideal VFR (visual flying reference) weather in the Rainier Northwest, Uncle Bob came to visit us. I'll tell you more about his visit in subsequent posts, but this time I want to share some pictures taken as we flew over the Olympics. I say "we flew", but Uncle Bob said that he was sleeping when we made a near-perfect landing back at Renton Municipal Airport at the end of our sightseeing trip.

Leaving Renton airport, we veered slightly to the East, staying under 2500 feet, and followed I-405 North until we spotted the Evergreen Point floating bridge. At this point we turned straight West, remaining under 5,000 feet until we cleared the SeaTac control zone. Then we climbed, continuing West around the South end of the Bangor Naval base restricted area.

Our first significant Olympic National Park sight was Mount Deception. Its top is somewhat over 7500 feet, which we cleared with a comfortable margin. When Uncle Jim & Ida, Grandma Nettie & Leonard, and with Grumpy & brothers Ward & Jim hiked the Olympics about 45 years ago, we saw this Mountain from the Elwah River valley. But we skirted its flanks as we hiked up the valley and never saw the full majesty of this rugged peak.

Continuing Westward Mount Olympus, at a little over 8,000 feet, could be spotted on the horizon. We continued to climb until about 10,000 feet above sea-level. I got this panorama of the mountain and some of its glaciers out the co-pilot's window. 

But Uncle Bob probably got the best pictures through the small port-hole in his side window. His photo is unobstructed by even the clear polycarbonate window material. Note the "toe" of one of the major glaciers near the right bottom in this photo.

In nearly all the places we looked, there appeared to be much more snow still on the ground than in previous years. Uncle Bob asked if this was fresh snow; my opinion was that it was left-over snow from when our late Spring ended -- at least in mid to late June.

After viewing and photographing Mount Olympus, we wandered over the Park looking for familiar ground objects, such as the Hurricane Ridge viewing building. The only thing I recognized on the ground, finally, was the distinguishing features of Low Divide Pass where we picked wild Huckleberries for our pancake breakfast on the next-to-last day of our trans-Olympic Park hike. 

Low Divide Pass is that barely-discernible slot in the ridge right of center. Toward the top center, the Elwha River can be seen, with the wider body of water being the headwaters of the Glines Canyon dam which is currently being dismantled in a grand experiment to see if the run of giant (100-plus pound!) Chinook salmon can be restored; there are just 500 known survivors of this original historic salmon fishery.

Back on the ground, we were able to conjure up this photo of the two Old, Old Pilots, posing beside their favorite airplane.

If men were born to fly, these two epitomize that rule. Two brothers who have fought with each other, defended each other, helped each other and lived to respect and love each other like only brothers -- and friends -- can.