Saw the strangest thing the other night...

Hi everybody:

Kind of a funky story. I was camping by Mt. Rainier at about 6000 feet a few nights ago to hopefully get a look at the meteor shower and found myself watching satellites as well.

As I was laying there I saw three satellites in tight formation! I could cover all three with my thumb held at arms length. I'm always happy to see even one satellite, but seeing three like that pretty much blew me away.

The only thing I can figure is that they must've been military satellites and they put up a backup for redundancy and then one started getting close to the end of its design life and so they put up a third.

Either way, I was amazed to see such a display of man's technology, to be able to get three objects to fly so close together at over 17,000 miles per hour.

I didn't have the equipment to get shots of the satellites, but here's a few shots from my campsite. I was on the top of a spire and had a 360 degree view and could see for probably a hundred miles. The Pacific Northwest in the summer is amazing.

Here's a shot I took from a campsite a couple thousand feet lower than mine.

And here are two shots from the actual campsite.

My view of Rainier. (BTW, Rainier is 14,000 feet high)

Looking the opposite direction at dawn.

Yep, you saw three satellites in formation. Article HERE

and another one HERE

and finally FAS info can be found HERE

I ditched work on Thursday afternoon and friday to go camp out to watch the shower too. I'm about 30 minutes from the Lick Observatory and the camp site is high & dry... but the viewing was great.

http://www.billandiris.com/modules/G...3789.sized.jpg

Way cool. So I wasn't losing my mind after all... at least not in that instance. ;-)

We saw a bunch of satellites and a few meteors up atthe lake over the past week. Still waiting for a good Northern Lights show. We saw one up there about 12 years ago that was spectacular.

I love Mt. Rainier, and I get to see it every day, or at least every day without rain but lately there is very little rain in Seattle.

Nuts, just noticed the author of one of the articles...

[Kosmicheskaya Sistema Radiotekhnicheskoy Razvedki VMS SShA "Uayt Klaud"]
by Major A. Andronov

What I want to know is if Sonic carried all of that beer on his back?

Nope. Hiking is for quitters. Car camping only, baby... ;-)

One thing I have been thinking about is using trailbikes. There are a bunch of trailheads in the Cascades where motorcycles are legal. I found one north of Wenatchee where you can do a 16 mile ride up to a glacier. That would be way cool.

What a magnificent view Sonic wow! A beer and a great view doesnt get any better than that. Thanks for sharing man.

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Originally Posted by [AK]Sonic Boom

Hiking is for quitters.

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:confused:

Quote:

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Originally Posted by [AK]Bribo

:confused:

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Whoops.... I think we just hit a difference of opinion.... LOL

I would have to agree with Bribo not sure why hiking is for quitters, seems the other way around to me. Don't get me wrong I haven't been on a serious hike in probably 10 years but thats because I take the easy route and drive :)

I'm sure that line was delivered with the usual dose of Sonic Boom sarcasm. :)

It was. I'm truly not opposed to hiking in any way. The only problem is that I have to carry vodka instead of beer for efficiency... ;-)

It you saw the amount of hiking gear I've got, you'd be amazed. Living in the Pacific Northwest and not hiking and scuba diving would be like living in Aspen and not skiing.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by [AK]Sonic Boom

It you saw the amount of hiking gear I've got, you'd be amazed. Living in the Pacific Northwest and not hiking and scuba diving would be like living in Aspen and not skiing.

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That almost sounds like a travel ad. You might need a side job in advertising. :)

For a realy, realy good hike try the Enchantment Lakes. The trailheads are near Leavenworth and it is in the Stewart mountain range. I've taken that trail right up to the base of Mt. Stewart. At the base of Mt. Stewart is a beutiful lake. The lake is formed from galcier runoff from the mountain which sort of juts out of the ground like a giant thumb right there. And regardless of what your father tells you... the water in the lake is NOT warm (that bastard).

This is a truely breathtaking hike and as this site says "If you only get one backpacking trip per year, one year soon you should go to the Enchantment Lakes area of the north Cascade Mountains in Washington."

It's true, I've done the trip a couple times but only done the loop (from Eightmile to Snow Creek) once but have been on various parts of the trail several times (I grew up in Yakima and we spent a lot of time in the eastern part of the state). The side trip up to the base of Mt. Stewart is a great hike too.

Don't cary beer, there is a lot of elevation change on this trip, a lot. This would be purely a hard alcahol trip for you alcahol drinkers.

I'll definitely give it a try. I was camping at Icicle Creek about two months ago and it was some pretty spectacular scenery. On the way back I decided to cross the mountains on forest service logging roads instead of going down through Wenatchee.

Being by myself I was a bit nervous, but everything turned out okay.