Summer in the playground

Jeremy and I climbed Mount Pilchuck on Saturday.  Pilchuck is one of the closest peaks in the North Cascades, making it a great candidate for a good day hike. 

Atop Pilchuck is a beautiful lookout lowered onto the peak.  Despite being somewhat oddly placed, the lookout makes for a great lunch break and even better photos.  Here's a picture that perfectly captures the precarious position this lookout occupies.

I've been joking lately about how all of the North Cascades, the Olympics and back-country Washington are just huge playgrounds for all us Seattleites.  This hike was no exception.  In that beautiful lookout atop Pilchuck, nearly every group had some high-end digital SLR, GPS device, or other geek toy that screams, "I work for [Boeing, Amazon, Microsoft, Expedia, Starbucks, insert other company with a cornucopia of high-knowledge jobs]!".  Going down the mountain we even ran into former Avalon team members that we knew from years back.

The entire set of photos is available here, but for a few highlights... 

And a few shots from one particularly beautiful night when I went wandering around Pike Place Market.

If you're reading this at jeffmaurone.com and not through RSS, the right end of that beautiful red bug may be chopped.  Click on the image for the full photo.