Lake Ann trail is a great 8.4 miles (round-trip) hike in the Mt. Baker area (North Cascade Mountains, WA). Best time to visit it is August to October (there might be still snow on parts of the trail the rest of the year). The hike takes about 5-6 hour (round-trip) and is considered to be a moderate one. It suits nicely for a weekend overnight backpacking trip. That’s what we did last weekend. What summarizes this hike is: great views of Mt. Shuksan and Mt.Baker, open meadows, rock gardens and amazing abundance of blueberries (September). There is a primitive campground at the lake. If you are...

This was probably my last weekend in Nitinat this year (although never say never…). Saturday wind was as good as on any summer day. Sunday wind came late but blown for good three hours. Sauna, BBQ salmon (courtesy of Duane) and bonfire jamming, good times as usual. My friend Rick Lata was there on Saturday and shot a great kiting video. Enjoy (You will need Flash Player V10 or higher to view it) Get the Flash Player to see this...

My recent trip to south of Japan (Shikoku Island) was quite exciting. Great food (I really mean GREAT FOOD!), visiting Tomoko`s relatives, sightseeing, experiencing hot Japanese summer and guess what … car hunting. Well not in the literal sense really. I was not planing to buy anything. It was more like hunting them with the lens of my camera. I was quite astonished how many different and unknown in North America cars exist in Japan. Many of them very cool and funky. My rough estimate is that out of all the cars I have seen during my trip only about 10-15% were the ones that are also...