Personal Update

I wrote earlier this year I'm back, sorta' and kinda', and it's still true. I've been going through a series of medical test to determine what's wrong with my digestive system which, as of now, is an unindentifable bacteria infection or overgrowth.

This means all the tests to date for known (common) bacteria infections and overgrowths are negative, but the symptoms still clearly point (by the gastroenterologist own diagnosis) to likely an overgrowth.

But until they can establish the specific type of bacteria or its source, they won't prescribe any treatment, let alone any antibiotic, so I'm still undergoing tests for anything obviously physical or anything obvious in the digestive tract. And yes, it's those tests.

Anyway, it's fair to say it's frustrating and exasperating going through the tests and not beginning any treatment for something obvious, even a best guess would work for me, but that's the reality of specialists, and at least this one agrees there's a problem (the first one didn't and dismissed it and me).

I have a lot of drafts waiting to translate to computer files, and I'll get to those this month along with other updates.

Camp Muir

The Camp Muir Webcam is up for the season, see here or the NPS Web page. For your information, Mt. Adams is on the left and Mount St. Helens if (faintly) on the right of the image. The curvature is due to the lens with the camera in the ranger's hut at Camp Muir.

I'll put the two Web cams for Sunrise on-line when the NPS announces the cameras are operational for the season, which they announce on their Twitter account and the webcam Web page.

Maps and Guides

I've been somewhat busy with life, health and financial matters this spring, and really for the last 18 months (don't get me started on gastroenterologists cluelessness on diagnosing problems), but have been tinkering on some of the related work to the photo guide, and here's some reviews or ideas.

First, the USGS has put all their historical maps on-line in PDF files. This includes all scales and all maps from this year to the 1920's. You can get a description of the maps along with search for maps on the server.

So far I've downloaded all of the maps which encompasses Mt. Rainier NP, as as you know you can get the most recent published map from this Website or the USGS, you can download the on-going updates from the USGS server above.

It appears the USGS is updating the series for Mt. Rainier NP, and likely the surrounding area as the server has the 2000-2014 orthophoto quad and draft maps available. They're hard to decipher and read since their production copies, but shows newer published maps will be forthcoming.

On another note, if you have an iPad or iPhone (I don't have an Android or other phones so I don't know about apps for them), you can get an app hiking Mt. Rainier NP, which is pretty good for the information, albeit with some errors.

Mostly where it's good are the trail maps and descriptions, which are fairly inclusive of the immediate areas of the areas most visitors access and visit. It lacks in the backcountry areas, as seen from the display of the areas covered in the app.

One place I found fault was the weather data. Several of the sites don't link to the right or actual Website for the information but other sites on map. I'm not sure the reason, but you can get the right site and data for Mt Rainier NP on my Website.

I also found an app which can use USGS topographic maps to chart your hike. The app is iHike GPS which seems decent, albeit the iPhone screen is too small to be useful for me. They do make an iPad version and it would be better since iPad Mini or Air batteries last longer and don't add much weight to a backpack.

Anyway. that's the stuff for now. I'll continue to tinker while gettting better and add the real, long overdue, stuff soon.

April Snow

This is the view looking east from the Jackson Visitors Center at Paradise. On your left is the Mountain Guide Center and beyond it and the road in the far left of the parking lot is the Paradise Lodge which opens he last week of May before the Memorial Day Holiday for the season through September.

This is before and after the snowplow work is done after snowstorms, this one this week. The driver drove up from Longmire to the Administration area to get the snowplow to clear the road to the parking lot and the parking lot, and then the road down the hill to meet the snowplows working up from Longmire to about the Nisqually River Bridge.

So give thanks to the NPS folks when you visit those days they had to get up early in the cold winter and spring weather to clear the road for you to get there from Longmire and the gate which is used to control traffic to Paradise. All the work of great federal government employees.

Back

I'm back. Well, sorta' back. I've been gone from here for health issues and problems stemming from a pinched Sciatic nerve in July 2012 and digestive problems since March 2008, the latter taking 4 yeart to resolve only to have new problems since December 2013.

In short, I'm almost back to health, only my fitness has been the work in progress as I've gone from 185+ pounds to ~150 lbs since January 2013 with a little more weight to lose to get to my fitness goal, all the weight loss from walking nearly 3,300 miles to date (really).

Anyway, I plan resume work on the photo guide as I hope to resume hiking and photographing in Mt. Rainier NP later this spring after a few years of not getting there for a variety of reasons, not least of which was $50 in gas round trip for each trip.

That said, I've updated the webcams for the ones which are down and the broken link to the Camp Muir image (they went to a different server and image file name than the NPS one when it's up for the season).

I noticed OS-X 10.10.2 with the recent security update (March 10, 2015) and Javascript 8 update 40 can be slightly buggy for some reasons, where the pop up window and the image takes a few seconds to display.

Not sure which is the problem or the combination of the two, but then we know Apple and Oracle aren't exactly best friends. I don't test with Apple's javascript since I have Oracle's OS-X version installed as the default, which I recommend because they're a lot faster with updates to fix bugs or security problems.

Anyway, there will be more over the coming months as I get back to health and working again.