Mindblown: a blog about philosophy.
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Construction Mode
I’m in the middle of a major website overhaul, so you might see some glitches and messes. When I’m done, I hope the site will be more appealing and useful! But in the meantime, there are some things that are broken. You can go to the Archives page to read my blog posts, and the…
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Larch Love: Blue Lake (North Cascades) Trip Report
If you spend much time around serious Washington hikers, you are sure to hear stories of the mythical larch. You’ll see photos of glowing golden trees set against bluebird skies, brilliant red huckleberries, or the first fresh snow of the winter. For good measure, you’ll also see photos of otherworldly rock formations, and for the…
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Feels Like Home: Another Trip to Big Four Ice Caves
There are some places we go that just feel like home. We’ve been there many times over the years, sometimes multiple times a year. We’ve seen these places in all different seasons and weather. Big Four Ice Caves is one of these places for my family. Aaron took me there for the first time before…
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Guemes Channel and Ship Harbor Trail, Anacortes
A couple of weeks ago we took advantage of a warm afternoon to hike a new trail to us: Guemes Channel and Ship Harbor Trails up in Anacortes. We found these little gems in Craig Romano’s newest hiking guide for the San Juans and Gulf Islands. Leaving from a cul-de-sac, the trails go off in…
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Book Review: Day Hiking the San Juans and Gulf Islands by Craig Romano
I was fortunate to receive a review copy of Craig Romano’s new hiking guide, Day Hiking The San Juans and Gulf Islands. I’ve been browsing through it often, and found my mind was opened to new possibilities for kid hikes that I hadn’t known about. We tried out two short new trails (new to us,…
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Hunting Beauty
I am a hunter of beauty and I move slow and I keep the eyes wide, every fiber of every muscle sensing all wonder and this is the thrill of the hunt and I could be an expert on the life full, the beauty meat that lurks in every moment. …
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Mt. Rainier Fling Part 2, Backpacking to Snow Lake
In Part 1 of this series, I wrote about our first day at Mt. Rainier last week. This post covers our second and third days, backpacking to Bench and Snow Lakes. We took our time on Tuesday morning, packing up and leaving Cougar Rock Campground. The weather continued to be warm and clear. The Mountain…
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Mt. Rainier, End-of-Summer Fling, Part 1(Paradise and Cougar Rock)
We are gearing up to begin our school term in another week, and we wanted one last big trip to enjoy the gorgeous weather at the end of summer. I had been yearning to get to Paradise to see the flowers, and also had an overnight backpack in mind for us. We snagged a spot…
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The Hike That Wasn’t
I was so excited last Friday to take my new friend Susana on a hike in the mountains. She just moved here from Spain a few months ago, and I wanted to show her the beauty of our wilderness. We had planned to go to Dock Butte and Blue Lake up by Mt. Baker. We…
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Gear Review: Lowepro Passport Sling III and Toploader Zoom AW II
Earlier this year, Lowepro sent me some more camera bags to review. First is the Passport Sling III, a sling-style camera bag with room for much more. I use this bag all the time now. It’s become my go-to travel purse and tourist bag. There is a removable padded sleeve for my DSLR, and a…
Got any book recommendations?